Position: 16 degrees, 25 minutes North; 110 degrees 04 minutes West

The highlight of our day today (simple pleasures when at sea) was the first salt water showers of the trip. It got warm enough that it was refreshing. Ann shrieked with what sounded like joy. I think. Maybe. Anyway, you put the canvas bucket (with rope attached) over the side, pull up a bucket full of water and dump it on your head. Then lather up and do the same thing a second and maybe third time. Then, we get to rinse off with warm, fresh water from our camp shower, which had been heating in the sun. Felt great!

Other than that, a pretty slow day. Only 98 miles in the last 24 hours. We’re still waiting for the wind to fill in. Tonight is not looking very promising either. Right now we have about 4 knots of wind, so we’re not going anywhere very fast. Same as last night. At least the view is good 😉

By the way, thanks everyone for your comments. It’s one of the highlights of our evening to read them out loud after dinner.

Position: 17 degrees, 33 minutes North; 108 degrees, 52 minutes West Hopefully, anyway. This morning the wind backed as did t he seas. Both are now coming from the WNW, so we’re now reaching instead of sailing close hauled. We’re much more comfortable as we’re not slamming into the waves. The wind has been lighter today (looks like we only made 109 miles), but we’re hoping as we get further out it will strengthen soon and back some more so we’ll be going “downhill”.

Ann found a flying fish on board this morning and I found a couple squid all of which were no doubt evading predators just to find themselves in a more precarious position on board Charisma.

Booby havoc ensued this afternoon when a Booby tried to land on the wind vane. We didn’t personally see the disaster, but they have been “eyeing” the masthead for some time now. The wind vane is now bent and useless and there is some bird poop on the deck. I’ll leave the rest to the imagination. Fortunately, said bird just broke the vane and not the wind instruments which are on a separate bar and still work fine. No news on how the Booby is doing.

A note to our friend Dave Nieuwstad on S/V Free Spirit who arrived back in La Cruz just in time for us to leave. Dave: Thanks again so much for the nice bottle of wine (which we are saving for when we catch a fish). Also, Ann made bread from your recipe last night and it came out terrific!

From Ann- I know that Sue (Bob’s sister) will be pleased to know that the Admiral on Charisma has specific rules about claiming “birth month”. According to the Admiral (yes, I know the Admiral very well), if you do not claim “birth month” on the 1st of the month you have missed the opportunity to do so. Sorry Bob, you will just have to settle for celebrating your special day only today out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! I am sure your family is singing the Swedish birthday song anyway. We celebrated with a yummy pasta dinner (not made by Bob) and those delicious Ginger Spice Cookies!

And in answer to Sue’s question on our last blog, I love the night watches! In fact, I let the birthday boy have a full 8 hours of sleep last night. The moon was glorious, not quite full but shedding lots of light. When the moon finally set at about 5am I was treated to a very special sight. Originally I was concerned and thought that Charisma was passing gas until I realized we were going through a large school of jelly fish. Phosphorescent bubbles were popping up from the stern of Charisma. They were actually all around us. Looked like popping bubbles!

Position: 18 degrees, 47 minutes North; 107 degrees, 29 minutes West

Watched the sunrise this morning and was happy to see we are in the deep blue. Definitely out of the “coastal green” zone, the blue out here is sight to behold. We spent most of the day just getting used to life at sea and adjusting our “sleep clocks” to the watch system. I had the 2200 to 0100 watch and was nodding off toward the end of my watch, so Ann gave me a five hour sleep (Yay Ann!) and didn’t wake me until 0600 when I took over in the morning light and she got her well deserved rest.

We caught a small albacore tuna, but decided it wasn’t quite big enough, so let it go. Other than that, an uneventful day just enjoying the wind, sun and sea.

Woo, Hoo, April Fools!

Position: 20 degrees, 17 minutes; North 106 degrees, 01 minutes West

Leaving La Cruz, Mexico for the Marquesas.

Storing food. Hey, wait a minute. "Ann, where's the BEER!

So, our first day out has been a great one. There’s a nice breeze and we are moving along on a close reach at about 5-6 knots. Wind is about 12 knots and the sea is 3-4 feet from our 2 o’clock (so we’re not yet riding “down” them, more like up and over-I closed the foredeck hatch just in case we catch one over the bow). Wilson (remember him? our wind vane) steered all day. We didn’t need to touch the wheel until a ship coming North, probably from the Panama Canal, crossed paths with us. I look on the radar and saw that we going to cross within a half mile of each other-way too close at sea-so for about 20 minutes hand steered to avoid him, then back to wind vane steering. I made tonight’s dinner this morning in the pressure cooker while we were still at anchor so we wouldn’t have the trauma of cooking a full dinner the first night out while we’re still trying to get our “sea legs” again. Smoked ham hock with beans simmered with onions, carrots, potatoes, etc. Yummy. All I had to do was heat it. We left anchor with style too. Didn’t turn on the engine, just hauled anchor, drifted out and once all the lines were cleared up we unfurled the jib and glided out. Very peaceful way to leave. Now we’re just sitting in the cockpit (in tee shirts and shorts at 2100). The moon is out, we have a reef in the main with the 130 jib and have the view I never tire of; the tip of the mast scribing a circle around the heavens and pointing out the stars as we go up and over waves. Charisma is very happy virtually dancing over the waves despite all the gear and food we’ve loaded her down with. As of this moment, we have 2630 miles to go! Had fun tonight listening to the evening “Puddle Jump Net”. Ann loves to hear where the other boats are. Several of our friends who left a day before us are only 60 miles away. Some we can hear from the other side of the equator. One friend who is going to the Galapagos first, called in about 400 miles North of the Galapagos. They will spend a couple weeks there and then head out to Polynesian where we will likely catch up with them at some point. It was noted on tonight’s net that there are now 23 boats spread out from here to within one day’s sail of the islands. Very exciting! Well, time for starting the watches. Someone gets to go to sleep now. May the negotiations begin! PS (From Ann) – we are still pinching ourselves – hard to believe we are really under way!