S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 19

Date: 18 May 2009 1715 UTC (0815 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 189 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2055 nm
Latitude: 13 55.386 N
Longitude: 119 57.418 W
COG: 268M
SOG: 9 kts under sail
Wind: 12 kts NNE
Seas: 3 ft N swell, 3 ft wind waves
Weather: 100% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1008.5, steady
Sea Temperature: 82F

First, please note that in anticipation of crossing longitude 120 W this morning, Samadhi Time is now -0800. This is the same as Pacific Standard Time or one hour earlier than Pacific Daylight Time.

Yesterday, the day dawned gray once more. The ocean which looks so charmingly blue when it's sunny, appears malevolent and uninviting when the skies are gray. It's surprisingly cool now, with temperatures in the high 70s at night. The overcast cleared up in the afternoon, and for the first part of the evening we had clear skies to watch the stars.

Steady winds continue, and the seas have been building on our beam. We continue to sail on a beam reach in 15 to 20 knots of wind. Most of the day was spent under a single reefed main, reefed genoa, and full staysail. We have found that it pays to use our high cut genoa along with the staysail in beam reaching conditions, even if we have to reef it. Our speeds have been consistently fast, with our W-H autopilot earning its keep in the close-spaced seas. As the day progressed, the seas grew larger and farther apart. We prefer the larger, farther apart waves over the short and steep, close-spaced variety. We wouldn't mind if the seas moved around behind Samadhi, instead of hitting her sideways. Waves from behind mean surfing for Samadhi, and faster speeds with less effort!

As Phillip's meatloaf was roasting in the oven for dinner, a large tanker appeared directly astern of Samadhi. We were surprised to see a ship out here, and it appeared almost as a hallucination at first. (The horizon was a bit hazy.) This was the perfect opportunity to test our AIS receiver! Since we still need to solder one more connector (in the lazarette no less), Phillip made a temporary antenna out of wire. The AIS receiver worked flawlessly, integrating with our Garmin chartplotter/radar and displaying the ship's information and location. We have access to all sorts of information via AIS, the name of the ship (very useful for calling them on the radio!), their course, speed, position, closest point of approach (CPA), destination, cargo. It goes on and on. This is one more safety tool for us to use.

Even better, the officer on watch was a native of Queens, New York, and we all got to chat with him on the radio. He confirmed for us that Samadhi gives a very clear radar return at over 12 miles, a very good thing to know. They are on the same email schedule that we are, checking over satellite connection about twice a day. It's funny to think that we have some of the same facilities as a huge tanker like the Stolt Effort!

In the later evening we reached a milestone for Samadhi: 100 miles in less than 12 hours (meaning an average speed of more than 8.4 kts). The wind eased quite a bit during the night, but it didn't dampen our enthusiasm. We are ecstatic that even in these square seas, we're able to keep such a pace. Here's hoping that we can continue at a good clip for the remainder of our passage.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 18

Date: 17 May 2009 1615 UTC (0915 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 168 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2240 nm
Latitude: 13 52.473 N
Longitude: 116 44.770 W
COG: 253 M
SOG: 8.0 kts under sail
Wind: 17 to 20 kts N
Seas: 3 ft swell, 3 ft wind waves
Weather: 100% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1008.5, rising
Sea Temperature: 81 F

We've had over 48 hours now with continuous wind. It's difficult to articulate just how happy this makes us. Perhaps the easiest way is to say that, if we can maintain an average of 150 nm/day (6.25 kts) for the remainder of the voyage, we're more than halfway done with our journey. Much as we're enjoying the passage (and we are! The boys were just saying how it only feels like four or five days since we left.), we are all looking forward to our arrival in the islands.

Yesterday was another quiet, dreary day aboard Samadhi. I'm not sure any of us saw the sun. It started to clear in the evening in time for us to see the pink of the sunset reflect off of the higher clouds, but the sun was already below the level of the solid band of cumulus on the horizon. Thankfully, there was very little rain. On the other hand, the low sea surface temperature combined with the wind and the overcast made for a day that was decidedly cool! We haven't had temperatures like this since we were in Panama (and that was only at night)!

The recent advent of the winds has taken the seas quite by surprise. Yesterday, Samadhi was at the brunt of all their confusion, right on the beam. The crew fared quite well in spite of being unaccustomed to the motion, and no one took ill, not even Nicholas! The boys were able to complete their studies as usual, and Kelly and Phillip were able to do more boat maintenance in between alternately shortening sails and shaking out the reefs. Even though no one was sick, the added motion left all of us feeling especially tired. We're hoping that with more consistent wind the seas will even out and become less confused.

We have been able to sail as fast as we care to in these conditions. We can dial up 10 knots easily, but the beam seas tend to push us way over every few waves with much water on the decks (very dramatic!). Phillip is conflicted, as he wants to go as fast as possible, but he doesn't like to eat and sleep on the bulkhead either. Shortening sail a bit leaves us with a good turn of speed, while keeping Samadhi on her feet and with a much softer motion. Regardless of how we sail her, Samadhi never feels strained or pressed.

One of the last things that confused seas leave you eager to do is cook. Cooking in the short, square seas is a form of gymnastics that (we believe) is worthy of Olympic consideration.

Olympic commenter #1: "Will you look at that! Three boiling pots and she is still managing to serve the food while the boat falls off a wave!"
Olympic commenter #2: "I don't know Ed. The judges aren't going to like the fork that just slid onto the deck. She is going get some points off there..."

In spite of the danger of having the Kitchen Aid mixer thrown from the counter top, Phillip made more delicious, home-baked bread. Somehow, he even got it to rise evenly in the loaf pans while the boat was heeling. We were recently aboard another cruising sailboat with an ungimbaled stove. Getting bread to rise is one thing, but even doing something as simple as heating water would be a highly dangerous proposition in seas like this if it weren't for our gimbaled stoved keeping itself level.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 17

Date: 16 May 2009 1615 UTC (0915 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 143 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2407 nm
Latitude: 13 34.990 N
Longitude: 113 53.034 W
COG: 255 M
SOG: 7.5 kts under sail
Wind: 12 kts gusting to 15 kts
Seas: 3 ft N swell, 2 ft wind waves
Weather: 100% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1008.1, rising
Sea Temperature: 83 F

The first half of of our day was defined by rain. Rain, rain and more rain fell from the sky in true tropical downpour fashion. The rain fell from closely spaced groups of squalls that brought lighter winds with them, so we would sometimes see the sun, if only for 10 minutes. By mid afternoon, the rain had mostly abated and the wind returned. We were happy to be sailing once more at higher, i.e. normal, speeds. As a bonus, all of the freshwater from the sky has left Samadhi squeaky clean on the outside.

Aside from the rain, it was an uneventful day. In the dreary, early part of the day, we took the opportunity to get some extra sleep. Sleep is a wonderful, delightful thing that you can truly appreciate when you haven't had enough! The boys took watch duty while we slept. Phillip is somewhat less worried about collisions at sea right now as we haven't seen another vessel in over 5 days. This doesn't mean that we stop maintaining a 24 hour watch; it just allows Phillip to be less paranoid.

Kelly cooked two fantastic meals, Thai green curry eggplant for lunch and pasta in fresh tomato vodka sauce for dinner (with Phillip's famous garlic bread). Kelly is a master at putting together disparate ingredients we have on hand into something remarkable.

Communication technology continues to astound us. The boys called their mother in Florida on the satellite phone an the call was seamlessly transferred to a cell phone to reach her while she was traveling. We exchanged emails with our friend Steve Dashew who offered some tips on maintaining our sanity in the windless periods. Steve and his wife Linda are aboard their yacht "Wind Horse" in Norway, headed to the Arctic Circle. It is truly amazing that we can exchange emails and telephone calls with people all over the world basically as if we were all in the same town ashore.

We sailed along around 5 kts most of the day and night. Our weather router has advised us that we are approaching stronger and very consistent winds in the next day or so. We are anxious to get away from the evening calms, as they do great harm to our progress. There have been several days where we sailed consistently fast, only to find the wind vanishing at night. If we can sail quickly during the day AND the night we will dramatically increase the number of miles covered each day, probably by well over a third. Now we just need to hope for an end to our 1+ kt adverse current.

Thankfully, last night helped us along with a fair breeze, and we're continuing well this morning as the breeze freshens. We'll keep our fingers crossed that we're finally out of the woods.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 16

Date: 15 May 2009 1615 UTC (0915 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 100 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2540 nm
Latitude: 13 23.31 N
Longitude: 111 28.50 W
COG: 260 M
SOG: 3.6 kts under sail
Wind: 5 kts N (unreliable because of nearby squalls)
Seas: 1 ft swell, 1 ft wind waves
Weather: 95% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1009.3, steady
Sea Temperature: 84 F

Yesterday was a quieter day aboard Samadhi. The seas were placid, gently rocking us as they helped push us towards Hawaii. The winds were on the light side, but we kept moving all day long. We were under fairly clear skies, with scattered, high altitude, cirrus clouds. There are the usual puffy cumulus clouds floating down by the water, which occasionally turn into squalls. The high altitude clouds were showing evidence of some serious wind up high!

Since conditions were so quiet, we decided to catch up on laundry. We managed to process three loads through the machine by mid-afternoon. We do our laundry aboard in a small, front-loading washer/dryer, much like one you would use at home. When we were preparing to go cruising, lots of people said that taking a washing machine along was a silly idea. Most cruising sailboats don't have washing machines, so laundry is done by hand or ashore when the boat reaches port. For us, we simply put the clothing into the machine, add detergent and fabric softener, and let it run! We don't typically use the dryer function unless it's raining continuously as it uses a fair bit of power. In any case, clothing hung outside dries faster here in tropical conditions than the dryer can dry it. Our washing machine is one of the better choices we made when we were setting up Samadhi to leave. It has made our lives much easier as we cruise!

We sailed through the day with the genoa and main, then added the staysail in the afternoon. Finally, we set the spinnaker and sailed with the chute up until evening squalls appeared. Once we were within a few miles of the squalls, we doused the spinnaker and stowed it below decks. With only one of us on watch, we don't generally sail with the spinnaker through the night.

Once again the wind calmed in the night, with the exception of the squalls going by overhead. The adverse current meant that at times we were completely stopped even though we were still moving through the water. The slatting, as previously described, is a big problem for the whole rig. This time the lowest batten managed to escape entirely.* Everything else seems to have survived until the wind came back about 1200Z (5 a.m. Samadhi Time).

We still aren't catching fish. We don't have a shortage of food, but fresh caught fish is always a welcome bonus in our diet. We see lots of flying fish, and certainly something is down there that chases and eats them!

* Losing our lowest batten has the least effect on sail shape, so this won't impact our performance noticeably. The reason that we are having issues with the battens is the horrible batten tensioning system on our main. Our main is made by UK Sails, and is a good quality sail with the notable exception of the batten ends. The system that UK chose for the batten tension is based on a velcro strip that is impossible to tension effectively and won't hold whatever small amount of tension you manage to apply! We were already planning on retrofitting it with a more effective batten tensioning system once we reached Hawaii, even before we started having issues with the lowest batten loosening. We attempted to have it looked at in Latin America, but south of Mexico, competent sail lofts are hard to come by.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 15

Date: 14 May 2009 1615 UTC (0915 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 25 hours: 138 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2653 nm
Latitude: 13 09.630 N
Longitude: 109 47.432 W
COG: 265 M
SOG: 5.0 kts under sail
Wind: 6 kts NNW
Seas: 2 ft swell, 1 ft wind waves
Weather: 70% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1010.0, rising
Sea Temperature: 84 F

You probably don't pay much attention to the last line item above, but we do. First, it speaks of the possibility of (and energy available to) a tropical storm. Though highly unlikely at this time of year, it is something we (and our weather router) keep an eye on. Second, it affects our energy usage, both for refrigeration and ventilation fans. Third and perhaps nearest to our hearts, it dramatically changes the ambient air temperature aboard, inside and out.

When we left Costa Rica, the sea temperature was about 90 F. Shortly thereafter we would see daily fluctuations up to 93 F. While this was lovely for swimming, it really turned up the heat below decks. For the past couple of days, the temp has been steady at 85 F dipping last night below 83 F. Though this may be a symptom of the 1+ kt current affecting us at the moment, we're very happy for the cooler temps.

Lots of maintenance items got done yesterday. Our maintenance workload has increased tremendously now that we are sailing 24/7 for weeks at a time. However, the extra maintenance required comes with lots and lots of time to get it done in.

We disassembled the port primary winch (a Lewmar 65) to treat a sticky pawl. Turns out that a glob of a gluey substance formerly known as grease had migrated onto the pawl and was preventing it from moving freely. These pawls are very important as they prevent the winch from rotating backward under load! We were able to get it unstuck without dismantling the transmission, something we were dreading given that some of the parts have a penchant for swimming. We'll wait to give it a complete service until we reach port.

We repaired a loose batten car on the mainsail. The batten had worked its way out of the car (probably when the sail was slatting), so we dropped the mainsail to the second reef and loosened the batten tension then reinserted it into the car. 20 minutes later the sail was back at full hoist and everything was set right. This task would have taken less than 5 minutes if we were tied up in a marina, but working on a moving deck at sea tends to slow things down a bit!

Yesterday when we were replacing the foresail, we attempted to motor downwind to further reduce our apparent wind. Unfortunately, a few minutes after we started the main engine, it cut out and would not start up again, so our next task was to troubleshoot that. We checked and bled the fuel system, and removed some air from the fuel system. Then, we ran the main engine for 30 minutes to make sure everything was working correctly. We have an external electric pump that is used for bleeding the fuel system or in case of failure of the engine lift pump. This external pump is a fantastic piece of equipment! Every marine diesel engine should have a system like this.

We have been testing different methods of attaching the spinnaker tack. So far, we have tried using an adjustable pennant attached to our stem fitting, an ATN Tacker on an adjustable pennant and attaching the sail directly to the stem fitting. Our latest solution is to attach the spinnaker tack to the tack fitting on the genoa furler, this seems promising based on initial results of yesterday's sailing.

Speaking of spinnakers, ours was up and down constantly yesterday. As a plus, we are getting well practiced at hoisting and dousing the sail. As a negative, it is tiring work getting the sail up and down so many times. Tired sailors = bad!

Earlier yesterday Kelly was chatting with her mom on the sat phone when a squall passed by, and the wind suddenly veered and doubled in strength. Quick action with the autopilot remote brought the sail into the lee of the main and we were able to get the sock over the spinnaker without major issue. 20 minutes later, with the squall gone, the giant sail was hoisted once more to get our speed up a bit.

Everything was going great through the afternoon with lovely sailing conditions. We sat in the cockpit listening to music and chatting as Samadhi made easy progress. Suddenly we both felt the wind increase. Within literally 15 seconds it was obvious we were going to be hit with a big breeze very quickly. The time it took to get from one side of the cockpit to the other to dump the spinnaker sheet was too long. The wind hit us like a wall and Samadhi laid right over onto her side. Well, it felt like we were on our side. We probably heeled about 45 degrees which is a LOT! (Even so, we never had solid water over the rail.)

Just as the boat was trying to lay down and rest, we got the sheet free and the sail dumped the wind. Samadhi popped back upright, and both of us worked to get the spinnaker sock over the sail (not easy!). Within 4 minutes the whole episode was over, with the sail safely stowed and Samadhi happily sailing along at high speed under main alone. While all of us were shaken, no harm was done, and we continued sailing without further issue.

Yesterday was "bread baking day" again, and in the afternoon two loaves magically appeared from the oven. We are using a recipe with a combination of 2/5 whole wheat flour to 3/5 of conventional, all-purpose four. The resulting loaf is light tan in color and delicious! The only downside to using the whole wheat flour is the tendency for the dough to be quite sticky during handling. Luckily, we do almost all of our kneading with a Kitchen Aid (Thanks Kathy & Pat!) so the stickiness isn't a big problem.

We're over two weeks into our cruise now, and the unrefrigerated produce s doing well. We've certainly seen some spoilage, but all in all, we've done a fair job of using things in an appropriate order and as a last resort, finding room in the fridge as we can. Our freezer space is slowly opening up as well. We've even been able to make ice a couple of times. Such a luxury!

There were lots of squalls and overcast skies during portions of the day. Happily, the seas have quieted since the day before. Even better we had a good strong breeze through the evening, and though it quieted around 0700Z (midnight Samadhi Time), it was back like someone had flipped a switch at 0830Z (1:30 a.m. ST). Since then, it's continued to be enough to sail comfortably by.

We didn't find any flying fish on deck yesterday, but we saw lots and lots in ocean and air around Samadhi! Phillip saw one almost clear the freeboard!

We haven't had any more of the swallows visit us onboard, but we continue to see them flying past. We are now more than 450 miles from land. What on earth are swallows doing out here? As far as we know, swallows cannot land in water. Do the swallows fly nonstop across the Pacific, maybe on their way from South America?

We fished yesterday, but we didn't catch. Maybe tomorrow will be better. Alex, we wish you and Miguel were here to spit on the lures for us!

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 14

Date: 13 May 2009 1615 UTC (0915 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 25 hours: 130 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 2778 nm
Latitude: 13 02.32 N
Longitude: 107 27.55 W
COG: 271 M
SOG: 7.0 kts under sail
Wind: 9 kts NNE
Seas: 3 ft swell, 3 ft wind waves
Weather: 60% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1009.9, rising
Sea Temperature: 85 F

We are trying to catch up on our sleep in the morning, so our updates may come out later than they used to. Please bear with us while we tweak our schedules.

Yesterday morning while making our rounds, Phillip found three flying fish on the deck. These are the first who've ever made the jump successfully. Sadly, they did not survive the trip, and Phillip committed their bodies to the deep.

While we were eating breakfast we heard a loud *pop*! The tack attachment point webbing on 155% Tape Drive genoa had failed due to chafe and UV damage. We rolled it up on the furler to the reef point to keep the tack from flogging and resolved to look out for a lull to swap the sail out for our high-cut 135% genoa.

The mast and boom fittings are having a hard time with the motion from the slatting at night. The vang and the gooseneck are bearing the brunt of the forces and their bushings are basically shot at this point. On the morning rounds we found laying on the deck two of the eight screws that secure the vang to the mast. The remainder were quite loose. We've got them all in and tight again, but they will bear constant watching.

Just as we were about to serve Krabby patties for lunch, the latch on the fridge door decided to come apart. The screw that holds the latch together was stripped. We held it shut with our favorite weapon, the bungee cord. After lunch, Phillip made new screw from one of those in our stores in Samadhi's workshop. That should hold for at least the remainder of the voyage and then some.

We're making progress on getting our AIS receiver wired. It's now mounted and connected to power. All that remains is to put a connector on the antenna cable in the lazarette (a rather uncomfortable job because of the confined space) and then to program the Garmin GPSMap 5212 chartplotter to read its data.

We put up the spinnaker in the afternoon and sailed under it for a time. Our lull finally came just as Kelly was starting to make dinner at 0000Z (5 p.m. Samadhi Time). She set things so that they would stay put on the galley counter while she and Phillip wrestled with the big sail.

Getting 155% down and stowed was a real challenge. For those of you who've never folded a sail, I'm not sure how best to describe it. First, you probably have to have an idea of just how big the sail is. The "155%" part of the sail name describes how long the foot, or bottom edge, of the sail is relative to the distance from the base of the forestay where the tack, or bottom front corner, of the sail is attached back to the base of the mast. 155% means that it's more than half again that distance. On Samadhi, that puts it at about 34 feet. Then you have the luff, or leading edge, of the sail. Our mast is 76 feet off of the deck. The luff runs along the jib stay, the wire that is the hypotenuse of the triangle described by the vertical line of the mast and the horizontal line of deck running forward from it to the base of the stay. This makes it over 100 feet. I hope you're starting to get an idea of the magnitude involved.

Now, let's say you manage to get the sail all on deck with no problems--not a big deal, especially when there are two of you. On land, we'd just pull it off the boat, lay it out flat somewhere, flake it (fold it like an accordion), roll it up, and stuff it in a sail bag. On Samadhi, the largest clear space on the foredeck is about two feet wide and less than twenty feet long, curving along the shape of the hull. To say that we were cramped doesn't even begin to describe it.

Any sailcloth is very stiff. This particular sail is made from a proprietary kevlar-reinforced laminate called Tape Drive. Lucky for us, this means that it's not as heavy as if it were dacron, but it still tips the scales at over 100 pounds. I'm not sure I've encounted anything as thick and heavy as sailcloth elsewhere, but suffice to say, it would rather not be folded.

Now imagine two sailors trying to manipulate such a sail in the last hour of sunlight on a boat describing every variant of yaw, pitch, and roll available to it. Yeah, it was a bit of a mess. (As sailors, we have a different word for it, but this is a family show.) It took a long time, and it's not anywhere near the crisp neat burrito of sail that fits in its sail bag. That left us with figuring out where to store the thing.

Like many cruising boats, we carry a dinghy on our foredeck. Ours is a rigid Fatty Knees sailing dinghy. (The big RIB we keep secured to davits on Samadhi's transom.) Given that we'd been tripping over the dink and its tie-down strap during the adventure of flaking the genoa, it was the obvious choice for where to stow the thing. With some sail ties and a bit of brute force, we were able to make the sail fast under the dinghy and still have access to the all-important ventilation hatches in the forward cabins.

Then, all we had to do was rig and hoist our heavier, reaching genoa. As is occasionally the case, our initial attempt at reeving the lines wasn't exactly successful, but soon we were sailing with the new headsail, and dinner was on the table.

Just after we sat down to dinner of spaghetti and garlic bread, the satellite phone rang. Veronique and Chip were calling to chat with the boys. It had been a few days since they'd spoken, and the boys were very excited both to talk and that the mystery of being unable to call us was solved.

While we were happy that the wind had calmed long enough for us to swap headsails, we were less thrilled about the continued lull. Sails slatted through most of night. The noise of the rig destroying itself and our exhaustion from the work of the day and two weeks without an uninterrupted night's sleep combined to make what may have been the worst night underway ever. It's incredibly disturbing to sit helplessly while the sails slat above you. We leave them up because if we were to douse them, the boat would be completely at the mercy of the seas and without the stability gained from the sails.

The wind came up after one last squall passed in the morning. It's been blowing at 6 - 10 kts since and we're managing to sail comfortably. We're hoping that we'll have more consistent wind today.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 13

Date: 12 May 2009 1515 UTC (0815 Samadhi Time)
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.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 11

Date: 11 May 2009 1515 UTC (0915 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 25.25 hours: 146 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 3061 nm
Position: 12 48.01 N
Longitude: 102 37.55 W
COG: 272 M
SOG: 8 kts under sail
Wind: 16 kts NNE
Seas: 2 - 3 ft wind waves
Weather: 90% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1009.1 dropping
Sea Temperature: 88 F

It was a day of great relief as we spent the first 10 hours of it under full sails and a fresh breeze of 10 to 15 kts on our beam. Until the wind slacked around sunset, we had a average speed of better than 8 kts with bursts up to 10.9 kts. With those kinds of speeds, as Pat mentioned, we could conceivably reach Hilo before the month is out in spite of our poor start.

We hope you mothers following along with us had a lovely Mother's Day (US). We spent a fair bit of the morning drafting messages to our relations. The boys couldn't remember when they'd last written so many emails at a stretch! As a special treat, Nana the boys' great-grandmother called on the satellite phone in the afternoon. We all had a lovely chat and enjoyed the opportunity to wish her the best of Mother's Days over more than just email.

We all seem to be settling into the rhythm of the cruise. The boys both finished their lessons in record time and we had a long peaceful afternoon relaxing on a stable boat swishing her tail to the quartering seas. Phillip made "meat cake" (That's meatloaf to the uninitiated.) for dinner, and we all feasted until we couldn't manage another mouthful.

From about 0100Z until 0730Z (7 p.m. until 1:30 a.m. Samadhi Time), we had an insignificant amount of breeze and were subsequently tossed around quite a bit by the wind waves left over from the afternoon. By 0800Z (2 a.m. ST), there was enough wind (about 5 to 8 kts) to set the genoa, and it was better going since then, anywhere from 4 to 6 kts.

Then at about 1000Z (4 a.m. ST) Kelly noticed that she couldn't see any stars or moonlight behind her. There was a 10 mile wide squall fast overtaking us, and it looked ugly. With plenty of time to prepare everything, there were no real surprises. When it finally hit, Phil got up to help, and we worked together to keep Samadhi out of the worst of it. The rain came down in torrents and the wind whipped at the sails as it clocked around. Thunder and lightning became a constant accompaniment. After about an hour, things had stabilized, and Kelly went to rest. Exhausted, Phil joined her once the boys were up and able to take watch, about 1330Z (7:30 a.m. ST).

The boys did a great job on watch. By 1500Z (9 a.m. ST), the wind was gusting to 20 kts which combined with the steep wind waves on our beam to occasionally push us past 25 degrees of heel. Samadhi likes to sail upright, so this got us out of bed to investigate.

Alexander had kept things well in hand. He gave us a brief report, and said that conditions had been pretty stable. We could still hear the thunder, though it was too light out to see its counterpart. We let out the main a bit and put up the staysail for balance. We're well away from the squalls now, and the wind shows no sign of abating.

After the spate of emails yesterday, we'll keep this one short. Here's hoping for another day of steady breezes and a less squally night.

S/V Samadhi V - Passage from Costa Rica to Hawaii, Day 11

Date: 10 May 2009 1400 UTC (0800 Samadhi Time)
Distance sailed in last 24 hours: 111 nm
Distance to Hilo, Hawaii: 3202 nm
Position: 12 19.32 N
Longitude: 100 16.926 W
COG: 250 M
SOG: 8.4 kts under sail
Wind: 12 kts NNE
Seas: 2 ft swell, 2 ft wind waves
Weather: 35% Cloud Cover
Barometric Pressure: 1009.4 steady
Sea Temperature: 88 F

The wind, although still light, was steadier yesterday. We decided to set the spinnaker to try to get our boat speed up a bit. Samadhi came with three different asymmetrical chutes in her sail locker, but because of space concerns, we only brought the largest, lightest one (a 1/2 oz. radial by UK) on our cruise. It has the sail area of our other two biggest sails, the main and the 155% genoa, combined--a truly massive quantity of wispy nylon sailcloth. This has proved to be exactly what the doctor ordered for the light winds of this passage. To ease handling by a short-handed crew of two, the a-sail is in a "sock" so that setting it can be done very methodically, attaching lines while it's still in the forepeak, hoisting it in the sock, double-checking everything, and only then opening it up to fly. The only thing better would be to have it on a continuous line furler, but that wasn't in the cards this time around.

We set the sail right after sending out the morning's update. There were no problems, and soon we nearly doubled our speed in the light wind. Unfortunately, no sooner had we started to enjoy life under spinnaker than a new batch of squalls popped up. At one point, we were surrounded by four simultaneous squalls. Oddly enough though, the rain from the squalls never came close, and we were able to leave the boat open the entire day. This was especially important because it was one of the hottest days yet.

Sailing with the spinnaker near squalls proved tiring for Phillip & Kelly. There were constant course changes and sail adjustments as the wind came from different directions. Brief bursts of higher wind pushed Samadhi over 9.5 knots which, discretion being the better part of valor, caused us to sock the chute. No sooner would we take down the sail, it seemed, than the wind would drop, and it was time to put the sail back up again.

We had the chute down at lunch, and after, we took the opportunity to repair two small tears in the fabric with tedlar patches. They're the first on the sail since we left on this cruise almost two years ago and seem to be holding up very well. There were already some from the previous owner, but we had them repaired properly by the sail loft in Point Richmond just before we left there in July of 2007.

In the late evening on Phillip's first watch, he dropped the mainsail as it was constantly slatting in the waves and light wind, and continued under spinnaker alone. We were doing pretty well averaging around 4 kts until about midway through Kelly's watch when the wind started to freshen. By 0230 we were moving along at a steady 6 or 7 kts with occasional runs up over 10 knots surfing. It's fun going faster, and we have been using every trick we know to keep the boat moving at a fair clip toward Hawaii.

There was a question to Pat this morning about two of the acronyms in the summary at the top of our updates: "SOG" and "COG". We figure that if one person is bold enough to ask, there are probably a dozen more with the same question on their lips, so please allow us to discuss them briefly. You old salts following along can skip the next two paragraphs.

"SOG" is short for "speed over ground", which is distinct from "speed through the water". SOG is the speed that we move over the surface of the earth. For us, this is computed by any of the several GPSs aboard. We measure our speed through the water with a small paddlewheel which protrudes through the hull just forward of the mast. The difference between them shows us the apparent current, or the speed of the ocean current affecting us relative to our course. At times, due to tides or current like Kathy experienced when she went around Punta Mala, Panama with us, we've had our SOG vary from our speed through the water by as much as three or four knots. We've clocked Samadhi at 17 knots (nautical miles per hour) SOG when surfing on waves approaching Barillas Marina Club in El Salvador. The closest we've ever come with speed through the water is 13.5 kts.

"COG" is our "course over ground". This is the direction of our course, again, as measured by a GPS. A magnetic compass may read something slightly different due to the effect of ocean currents, tides (when closer to land), or waves. The one we care about, of course, is our COG. We feel incredibly privileged to live in an age where the technology to have all of these figures computed for us can be fit in a tiny handheld device. Hurrah again for not living in the former "age of sail".

One side affect of sailing under the spinnaker is that we're no longer hosting our fleet of hitchhikers aboard "Motel Samadhi". The six boobies, yes that's right, six of them, who slept on the bow pulpit last night, left just as we put the tacker around the furled jib, and they haven't managed a return yet. Each time they come in on approach now, they veer suddenly when the chute wiggles a little at them. Though they always seemed fearless around us, there's something about the big sail that makes them nervous and keeps them at bay.

We had a small tragedy aboard in the early afternoon. Phillip was working on the aft deck when he came across the body of one of the small swallows that had been with us off and on for two days running. It showed no signs of trauma but had very clearly shuffled off its mortal coil. Phillip brought it forward to the cockpit to show Kelly and the boys and then said a few words before giving it a burial at sea.

Later in the day, we saw another swallow flitting through the peaks of the small waves that have been our constant companions since the wind picked up. It did not approach the boat. We wonder what these land birds are doing so far out to sea. Acapulco, the closest point of land, is over 250 nautical miles off our starboard beam. Are there any ornithologists in the crowd (or Internet-savvy googlers) who can shed some light on this for us?

The dolphins only made one appearance late on Kelly's watch in the night, but we have seen an abundance of sea turtles, including several "birdles" (sea turtle with a bird sitting on it). One of them even put its head up and started swimming toward the boat as we sped, yes sped!, by. So adorable! There are still plenty of flying fish of ever increasing size to watch soaring over the swells.

This was the third day running that we've trolled without luck. Early in the day, Kelly rerigged the lure that landed us our last yellowfin, a jet head with a blue and pink skirt. Even running it and another subsurface lure, we didn't have a single nibble. Nicholas is hoping things will be different today.

Food continues to be one of our chief sources of entertainment aboard. In between times spent babysitting the big sail, we cooked up a lunch of fettuccine bolognese, tomato salad, and garlic bread and ate tacos for dinner. We've been having fresh chilled pineapple for snacks, but the last of it will be served today. After that, we'll move on to some of the other tropical fruits we've brought. With the water temperatures remaining in the upper 80's and low 90's, keeping chocolate solid is an issue even hidden away low in the bilge. The boys don't seem to mind coming away from dessert with sticky fingers.

We've been enjoying quiet afternoons as a family. Alexander has been creating his lego vehicles, complete with customized rotating stands. Nicholas and Kelly put the finishing touches on the little "dragster" model that they've been working on for the last week. Without all the usual, modern, shoreside distractions, we find there's lots more time to spend together, and what could be better than that?

We are looking forward to a continuous, steady breeze that is measured in double digits. For now, we'll just be happy with a day where our average speed was well over 4 kts.