Day 205, Year 1: Less Than 500 Miles to Go–Day 19
Date: Wednesday, May 10, 2006
Weather: Blue Skies Dotted with Puffy White Clouds
Air Temperature: 84 degrees F
Water Surface Temperature: 81 degrees F
Latitude: 08 degrees 50 minutes S
Longitude: 131 degrees 08 minutes W
Location: Passage from Galapagos to the Marquesas, Day 19
Miles to Go: 463 (~112 miles last 24 hours)
Miles to Date: 2535

3,000 – 2,500 – 2,000 – 1,500 – 1,000, 500 . . .Yeah! We have under 500 miles to go. My day started at 0500 in the dark with a threat of rain, and by the time the sun came up, the skies had cleared and we were sailing under a beautiful rainbow. Today was a bit of a slow day, but as I write this the winds are starting to pick up. Hopefully we will have another good night of sailing. Other boats in front of us are having a period of almost no wind, so it is hard to tell what we will have tonight and tomorrow. At least two other boats will make landfall tomorrow or Friday morning, and a couple of others will be in by Saturday. We are hoping for a Monday landfall, possibly Sunday depending on the winds. Mark is now the net controller for the morning Fatu Hiva radio net as we are the boat in the middle of the pack. It will be exciting to arrive and pass that duty off to someone further back.

Mark is down on the radio right now conferring with Quantum Leap and Aqua Magic about the medical situation on Procyon. Things with Randy are not worse, but they are not better, so we are trying to look into options in the case that things do deteriorate. Between e-mail, the satellite phone, and the radio, we do have good communication and for that I am very thankful. Just hope with us that things start to turn around for Randy or at least not worsen. I will keep you posted.

There is a flock of birds hanging out near us this afternoon. They are very noisy as they go about their fishing. I can actually see the fish jumping and just a bit ago we had a bite on our line, but when we reeled it in the fish had gotten away. We are not giving up. I’m still looking forward to fresh fish for dinner.