Encanto- June 25, 2008
The Captain and Crew are doing well. Here’s a bit from an email sent today 6/25:
It's 6 AM, local, 2 hours into the Captain’s watch at the end of our 4th day.
“The sailing has been quite good, better than I expected. We are making more easting than I expected to, we might be able to cross 165W as we cross the equator. This should set us up quite nicely for the northing we need to make after we cross the ITCZ. We even have images of anchoring in Hanalei Bay on Kauai dancing in our minds. Not too likely though, but as Royce so often says…you gotta have a dream. Speaking of the equator, we crossed the half way point to it this morning; we are now at about 7?S, 168?W.
We have been averaging 5.3kts, the past 3 days making up for the very slow 1st. Most times we are moving along between 5.5-7.5kts. The only drawback so far is the occasional pounding as Encanto fall off a wave. The broad flat section forward hits the water and the whole boat shudders. Ugh. We are also using our room and Sami's bunk as a repository for all the stuff that falls out of shelves and slides out from under tables. All that stuff that has never moved is doing just that now. Not a problem, just moving stuff around.”
To my crew on the Galapagos to Marquises’ tour:
“You would have loved the past several nights, crystal clear with the Milky Way stretching from horizon to horizon. The recognizable constellations stand out amazingly well. While the movement hasn't been too bad, I don't think Judy would be enjoying it yet, wait for a few days and the seas will even out. Gene and I are trying our best to meet Judy’s standards of cooking, but I'm afraid we are falling far short. That's not to say we are not eating well, we just aren't in her league.
As far as crew goes, I couldn't have done better. We are all having a good time with each other, joking around and good conversation.
Blogs will be coming. Hope the position reports are coming along.”