Position: 16 degrees, 59 minutes north; 152 degrees, 34 minutes west 132 nm day

No much to report today. Same as yesterday I suppose. Nice weather, very warm. Fewer morning squalls and we hope fewer tonight.

We’re closing on the Big Island which is the southern most of the group. We’re 200 miles off the east side of Hawaii. It’s about another 200 or so miles from there NNW up the island group past Maui and Molokai to Oahu. We’re thinking maybe Saturday if the weather holds, but there’s a reasonable chance of very light winds as we get off the islands so who knows at this point.

We’re still within 39 miles of the J-120 we’re been pacing since leaving Papeete almost three weeks ago. We have a radio sked with them every day at 1700 local, so we’re keeping tabs on each other. Also Orcinius just reported that they have left Christmas Island where they stopped for fuel, (coming from Samoa and Fiji). They have some interesting stories from Christmas Island we’re eager to hear. Turns out a Benetau-47 sailboat dragged anchor or broke loose – not sure of the story yet – and went up on the reef. It’s now a salvage project and John, Lisa and their crew went aboard and salvaged some stuff they needed for Orcinius. Can’t wait to hear, but at the same time these stories give us the willies because we all know it’s a fine line sometimes between riding out a blow and ending on the beach and it could happen to any of us.

So, that’s it for today.