PEACEFUL

There is a good reason it is called the Pacific Ocean. At midnight last night the weather quit fooling around with little spurts of wind here and there. It just went to a good solid, unchanging, cast in concrete, zero wind speed. Boat speed went to zero and the autopilot lost the ability to steer. So start the engine we did. When you want the force to be with you, sometimes you need to turn it on. The center of a high is a beautiful thing (When you are not on a sailboat and in a hurry.) It is sunny, crystal clear, blue sky and (oh yes) did I mention, no wind.

As I type it is 0400 HST and Donna reports a hint of green flash as the bright, hard, orange ball of the morning sun leaped from the sea. We are still motoring. It is an interesting navigation problem. Motor too much and run out of gas, too little and run out of food.

Sunday, 24 June 2007, 0600 HST position is 33N58, 136W06. Course is 071M and speed 4.7 knots. Motoring.

Beauty of crisp clear moonless night sky is hard to express. There are so many stars that is hard to pick out the familiar ones that you know. The milky way glows like a continuation into the sky of the phosphorescent trail that the boat leaves in the sea.