I could not believe my eyes this morning – there was another boat way far off on the horizon!  It is always exciting to see another boat (as it is for everyone else) because it is proof that there is another form of life out on this big, blue water road.  It is very easy to let the “smallness” overwhelm you as there is so much water in every direction and no boats, no planes, no cell phones and very little communication.  It is really hard to describe this feeling other than “smallness” and seeing another boat can break that spell.

We got some wind today, through up the main with the first reef and were ticking off the miles toward St Lucia when BOOM – the reefing line broke (too much load on her).  Once the reefing line broke, the sail filled and popped the lazy jacks, dropping the boom on the cockpit cover (barely missing our solar panels) and blanketing the starboard side of the boat with the main. It was a frightening sound, experience, and sight.  It took us over 1 ½ hours to re-rig the sail, sail bag and lines and somewhere in the middle of all this process we managed to get the fishing lines wrapped around our props and a printer leaked toner all over the bottom of the closet and some of my clothes – tough day.

The dance of the windex, at the top of the mast are some pointy things that point to the direction the wind is coming from. Ths morning they are doing 360 rotations, clockwise, counter clockwise almost like a corragraphed dance move. The wind is trying to figure out which way to blow as we motor on, no sails in the air.

We planned on 18 days so this should be 1/2 way but looking at the map and distance left to go its more like 1/4 the way and the weather doesn’t seem to want to cooperate. I guess the trade winds took the season off, bad economy equals less trade?

The morning shift is pretty easy with no waves and no wind. Christine is just waking up to take over the watch, as I get to go get some more sleep.

500 miles from anywhere, and on our port a ship shows up and its going to come within .1 miles of us crossing our path. Christine is going to get to do some avoidance. No problems, just duck down behind the big boy and we were on our way.

Today was probably the quintessential day at sea. Blue sky, Blue water, light wind and when we woke up, a tuna had decided to jump on our hook overnight. That brings an end to the 1100 mile drag of hooks with but a mere nibble. Well actually its the second nibble, but the other one was so huge, and put up a fight for a minute or two before deciding the hook didn’t taste quite right.

A small Bonita (tuna family) caught in the morning, cleaned and served for dinner, Ahi style with rice and green beens – yummy. Oh and cold beer to wash it all down. We also cut into the cured ham leg we brought on board, its like a fresh place to grab procuito, its a salty bacon kind of beef jerky. So when you is hungry, just slice off a chunk.

Christine didn’t want to tempt fate but still tried a piece of the Ahi, and said it was good. But seeing the whole process from start to finish probably had something to do with the trepidation.

Weather reports, or grib files are how we get weather reports, and the emails from Donald that help tremendously when we can’t get sailmail to bring down the large grib files. We view the weather arrows, see that tomorrow brings good weather, but notice that its not correct for the weather we are having today. So is it eternal optimism that we believe the weather report for tomorrow will be correct? Or just wishful thinking? Either way we are just doing what we can with the winds we have to keep on course to St. Lucia.

All in all, another restful day for the crew as we motor sailed again. We are down to 1/2 a tank of diesel so we’ll be pulling over at the next .. oh wait, so still hoping for some favorable winds soon.

Course over ground: 262 Speed over ground: 4.9kn Total miles through water: 439 (dunno what happened here, a time warp?) Miles to destination: 1908 kn if we were a bird.

Today is a shower day!  Again it is the little things that make me happy and a shower is one of them.  Keeping my long hair in a pony tail and hat all day for 4 days just feels gross.  Not wearing make-up helps, but putting sun block on multiple times a day doesn’t help my skin.  The boys finally caught a fish – a good one at that.  Ron pulled in a beautiful tuna fish and showed Matt how to clean it.  Of course I had to turn away as I was not having any of that instruction.  They lost me at the first sentence – “start cutting from the anus to the mouth” ugh.  Ron and Matt tried really hard to prepare fish so that I would eat it, but I could not do it.  I am a light hearted, white fish connoisseur and not a fan of Tuna.  With the fear of an upset tummy, I just did not want to tempt fate. However, I did try a small piece that was cooked more than it should have been and blackened – and have to admit that it was pretty good.

During this first week of the crossing I felt really lonely and small out in the middle of this vast ocean.  The sky and the ocean are vast as you can imagine and with no cell service or email communication (since I personally am not online) and 3 men it has been isolating.  Don’t get me wrong, my husband is one of the three men, but I can only take so many conversations about cars, boats, planes and the weight of oil.  I did not take into account that I built my life around women – I am surrounded by women all day (my company is 90% women), most of my friends are female, and of course there is my sister and my mom.  Not having female contact has really impacted my moods and my attitude.  I did not take that into account – so I am trying to read more feminine stories (love stories and silly girlie things).  I felt that way during the day and at night – but mostly at night as everyone else is asleep and I am truly alone at the helm.

Tonight however was different and brought along a new change of heart.  Off the bow, sides of the boat and the stern are billions of little diamonds shining at me – well actually it is phosphorescence, but diamonds sound so much more romantic.  If you have the right condition, calm seas, bright moon and clear evening and the beauty is amazing. It is so pretty, delicate, and fleeting – I want to reach down and capture it before it disappears.  In addition to the beauty of the sea, there is beauty in the sky.  For the past 2 nights, I have been greeted with a shooting star and then I have the pleasure of being surrounded by millions of other stars glittering up the night sky – it is beautiful and easily makes you believe you are part of something greater – something magical and something much bigger than the world you live in