Date: 8 August 2009 2000 UTC (1200 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 155 nm
Distance to Half Moon Bay: 1047 nm
Latitude: 39 12.056 N
Longitude: 144 38.991 W
COG: 073M
SOG: 8.2 kts motorsailing
Wind: 5 kts SSE
Seas: 3 ft W swell
Weather: 10% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1028.5, steady
Sea Temperature: 76 F
The wind remained calm until around dawn when it moved forward of the beam and freshened a bit. We're happy to have an extra couple of knots. The swells are bigger too, but they are from astern and giving us a little push. There's still not enough wind to shut down the engine (We tried!), but it's getting there.
Life aboard Samadhi has been very mellow. Much of our entertainment involves books and cooking and movies on our laptops. We've just about exhausted all seven of the Carl Hiaasen novels we have aboard. (We're not sure where the other three went but are very disappointed not to be able to find them.) Normally, our taste in reading material favors non-fiction, but when we're trying to stay awake and alert in the wee hours of the morning, a real page-turner can make a big difference! Kelly also finds she has less patience than normal for sloppy prose. Phil did manage to read the recent biography of Mao Tse-tung (which was excellent) at the beginning of the passage, but most nights Kelly's eyes just won't stay open for something so information-dense.
In mild conditions like this we can cook just about anything we like, anything that we would on land. Yesterday, we made fried rice for lunch and an Indian curry (with the mahi mahi!) for dinner. In the mornings, we usually make something traditional like eggs and bacon or one of Phillip's famous scrambles. Phillip's even been known to make fresh hollandaise. The only real difference is that we try to use as few dishes as possible. Samadhi has a lot of things, but a dishwasher isn't among them, and washing dishes is a water-intensive task.
We aren't seeing marine life like we did when sailing from Costa Rica. Not a single flying fish has landed onboard the boat since we left Hawaii. We see very few birds or fish (aside from the fish we catch). However, we are seeing things on this passage that we didn't see on our trip over from Central America. We have seen well over ten ships so far! We have also been seeing a lot more signs of people, such as trash. Virtually 100% of the trash we see is plastic in one form or another. Since the sea has been so smooth, the floating debris tends to stand out clearly. Of course Samadhi is made of plastic, and we are floating out here too...
We've been delighted to receive so many emails from friends and family. It's always a pleasure to correspond with people out here where we have few distractions to break the consistency of our routine. Kelly's reminded of exchanging letters with her Granny or writing to family when she was at camp. Thanks to everyone who's gone to the trouble to write to us while we're underway. We love hearing from you!
Originally, we had anticipated returning home much sooner than we are. As usual though, our departure was dictated by work on the boat and then weather conditions, so we left when we thought the passage would be safest. Our first couple of days out of Kauai were pretty tough, and it gave us peace of mind that we had taken the time to prepare Samadhi the right way.
When back on the hard, we'll be living in La Quinta in the Southern California desert just southeast of Palm Springs. Moving and getting the boys settled and ready for school will be our top priorities once we reach land. We've been trying to make up for our mid-August arrival by doing as much of the legwork as possible through email or by proxy. (Big thanks again to Kathy and Pat!) So far, we've already leased a home and gotten the kids approved for enrollment in a local public school (John Glenn Middle School of International Studies). Still, that leaves plenty to think about. We couldn't have done any of it without the wonderful support of our family. It'll be great to live (relatively) nearby again!
At this point we're estimating that our arrival will be sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning of next week. That depends on us averaging a minimum of 150 miles a day (6.25 knots) from now on. We'll be refining that estimate as we get closer to land. It would be great to see smiling faces at the dock when we get there!
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