Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 170 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2893 nm
Latitude: 13 15.66 N
Longitude: 105 27.26 W
COG: 272 M
SOG: 8.3 kts under sail
Wind: 12 kts NNE
Seas: 2 - 3 ft swell, 2 ft wind waves
Weather: 60% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1008.6 falling
Sea Temperature: 85 F
First, sorry about the incorrect "Day #" at the top of yesterday's email. It should have read Day 12.
We're very excited to report our first day without a long period of calm winds in the evening. The slatting sails are Phillip's version of Chinese water torture, so he was especially pleased to stand watch with the sails full. There were still times where our speed dropped to something around 4 kts, but for the majority of the day we were up in the sixes and sevens.
After last night's squall, it was a bit of a bumpy ride this morning. The boys took it in stride, and Nicholas only had the slightest hint of mal de mer. He was more uncomfortable on our last afternoon driving through the metropolis of San Jose!
The boys are doing great on the studies, despite the movement of the boat in the choppy seas. Alexander has been reading The Diary of Anne Frank for his Calvert lessons, and as part of his studies, he's been assigned the task of keeping a journal. It couldn't come at a more auspicious time. Each day he writes a little something and then draws a picture on the facing page. We're sure that this will be something he'll treasure down the years.
After a late lunch, we all enjoyed a quiet afternoon. The boys are finding more time to respond to emails and have been reading voraciously. Our friends Megan and Brian from S/V Nomad (last known to be heading for the Galapogos, but that was back in March) gave us a book that Alexander is especially enjoying, and Nicholas has been reading some of the ones we traded for from the library at Land Sea in Golfito, Costa Rica. It's wonderful to see them lose themselves in a novel.
The evening saw a slight decrease in wind, and Phil rolled up the staysail on his watch as it was no longer flying. By 0700Z (1 a.m. Samadhi Time), the breeze had freshened and we were moving along at a steady 8+ kts. By 0815Z (2:15 a.m. ST), Kelly needed to take a reef in the genoa, and the wind has been steady on our beam ever since. It's a real pleasure to be looking at 150+ nm days.
It's time to write a small "Ode to a Trash Compactor". When we bought Samadhi, there were two appliances that struck us as, well, excessive: a special marine ice maker and a trash compactor. Kelly grew up with a trash compactor in her family's kitchen, and Phillip has had them at various homes as an adult, but we've both always viewed them as not much more than a novelty item. In Kelly's household, they stopped using the compactor feature altogether after it started acting up occasionally. Phillip had issues with plastic bags that just weren't stressed for the abuse they went through and so gave up on the endeavor. Both ended up using it as a glorified trash can.
As luck would have it, the ice maker died suddenly on our first cruise to Catalina Island, but the trash compactor has never given us a lick of trouble. In fact, we've come to view it as invaluable. Sure, you could cruise without one. Plenty of people also cruise without refrigeration. Our question is: why would you want to?
The trash compactor is our only trash receptacle on the boat. After almost two weeks at sea, we still have yet to fill one bag. Naturally, we throw food scraps into the ocean, but even so there's plenty of smelly plastic that gets put in the bin. Even so, it keeps the odors sealed inside away from the crew's sensitive noses. (You'd be amazed at how much a funny smell can affect your sense of well-being when you're being tossed about on the ocean.) Not only that, but because it locks so securely, we never have to worry about it coming open when we're knocked own, no matter the tack. It was very nice not to worry about trash flying everywhere when the squall hit yesterday in the early morning hours.
We're continuing to enjoy our special Costa Rican "Cafe Rey" coffee often out of the special demitasses from Alex and Adri. One of the delightful things about cruising in Central America is the outstanding local coffee. In Costa Rica, for instance, the most expensive premium coffee sells for about $3.50 (US) a pound. We're not looking forward to going back to paying US prices!
As Pat mentioned to the Followers list, he managed to get a connection to our sat phone today, but only after three or four attempts, and even then it was still sketchy. The phone always shows full signal when we're using it, but who knows what that actually means? We'd like to encourage those that try to call not to be discouraged if you get a few funny messages or tones. You're dialing the right number. Remember, your voice has to go through outer space to get to us!
This morning we crossed over 105 degrees W longitude. We're taking this opportunity to move our clocks back an hour to -0700. For those of you in the US, this means Samadhi is now in Mountain Standard Time or Pacific Daylight Time. The boys were very excited to get an extra hour today.
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