Position: 47 degrees, 54 minutes north; 131 degrees, 28 minutes west 135 nm motor-sailing

It is 11 am on Thursday and I have just finished taking a shower. Not just a shower but a luxurious shower. You are probably scratching your heads or chuckling to yourselves thinking how can a shower on a moving boat be luxurious. How? You get to use a whole tea kettle of hot water and the sun is shining and warm! So warm that I did not have to shower as fast as possible and hide quickly under my towel. Nope, I even stood naked in the cockpit and let the sun and gentle breeze dry me off.

Luxury is also Charisma time!

Two days ago I was using cleaning wipes to try to clean some of the collected odors off of my body. I had even changed into clean clothes afterwards pretending that I had showered. That felt wonderful. I even washed my hair in the sink using two water bottles of warm water. I was feeling good. But today I luxuriated in the ability to enjoy getting clean. Not just performing a function. And now I smell really good.

Luxurious is always relative. I would normally classify the bathrooms in the Westin suites complete with a Jacuzzi tub (ok, who really uses those when you have the choice of the beach, a few swimming pools and a couple of hot tubs) as luxurious. When we were cruising the islands luxurious was being able to suds up on the side of Charisma and then jump in the water to rinse. Even more luxurious was getting to use the warm water nozzle off the back of Orcinius after floating lazily in tubes. I felt spoiled then. (No boat envy here, but I do have to say that Orcinius made landfall two days ago even though they left Hawaii at the same time…lucky dogs…those bigger boats move faster.)

The weather today is what we had hoped for on this passage. Clear blue skies. Just enough sun to stay warm, not melt. (Too bad we are motor sailing and have to hear the engine but hopefully the wind will fill in from the south tonight as promised.) Last night was full of stars twinkling their hellos and encouraging us ever onward. The layers of clothing have been slowly peeling off. No longer do we feel like kids going out to play in the snow when we go into the cockpit.

So today luxurious is a full tea pot of warm water in a relaxed shower. Soon it will be a hot shower in Victoria. Kind of like food porn only cleaner!

Evening update: Bob caught and landed our first fish of this passage! Albacore.

Albacore!

Yay! We have had several jump our lines on this passage and have been frustrated. No longer. Five minutes after I closed my eyes for my afternoon nap Bob wiggled my leg and proclaimed, “Fish on!” And we got it reeled in and finely filleted. Sashimi at sunset with Charismas graced by an almost full moon rising as the sun set to an electric green flash. As the clean shirt I am wearing proclaims….Life is good!

Green flash.