Sunday, June 26, 2016

Hello with 2032 miles to go

Hi all

As I begin writing this it's just before midnight on 6/25. Our position is 03 degrees 18 
minutes south and 105 degrees 35 minutes west and we have 2032 miles to go....only another 
532 miles to the midpoint and when we will also be 1500 miles from any land.....yikes ;) 
Conditions are decent with 10 to 16 knot winds currently and we are doing around 7.5 knots 
with a 0.9 knot current at about 45 degrees from behind us.

The moon has just come over the horizon. I sat outside on the back for about 30 minutes 
tonight watching the stars.....just awesome!!! Veronique you asked about taking a photo of 
them and the milky way.....unfortunately the boat moves so much so you can't use a slow 
shutter speed as it would just be a blur. I will try figure if I can but so far no luck....
maybe when anchored in a remote island :) last night we saw the International Space station.....
that was pretty cool!

Well today was a much better and m   ore  comfortable day. Everyone's feeling better as we 
settle into this long journey across the vast Pacific. Every night watch I think about the 
people that have sailed this route before me and especially those early explorers.....they 
had almost nothing compared to us....slow lumbering boats and navigating by the stars.....
UNBELIEVABLE!!!!! Here I am comfortable, showering every day, eating well, autopilot steering 
the boat 24/7, and updating my family and friends via a satellite phone.

Back to today....not to much to report....We changed out the existing spinnaker halyard with
 a brand new line....We can't afford to lose our one and only remaining spinnaker halyard 
that we also use to fly "puff"....So when we took down the spinnaker this afternoon to check
 for chafe we switched out lines. 

Guds baked another fresh loaf of banana bread....that was devoured by 6 crew members likedy
 split!!!! Sadly our huge stalk of about 60 bananas is ripening faster than we can eat them!!!! To top of the day she also made us a wonderful dinner of veggie stew with some sausage cut up in it.....again inhaled by 6 hungry Coolrunnings members:)

The chess board was pulled out (always a sign of improving conditions) but that's as far as 
it got...no game took place....but I suspect I will be summoned for a game tomorrow! Adrian 
had downloaded an app on his phone in Galapagos....Some chess app....So am sure he will have
 a few new sneaky moves to try on all of us!!!! He also played with Ben and Gaby today and 
endured a full Lego star wars download from Ben who was in heaven explaining everything to 
Adrian.

The kids are all well. Gaby set up a shop selling hair tie "butterfly's" she had made and 
ran a two for one special to try and drum up some business. Ben has been busy learning about
 electricity and helping me check all sorts of items on the boat. He has been reading and
 reading so fantastic to see that. 

That's about it for today's  update. 

Thanks for everyone's news, comments and updates!!

Picture attached of tonight's sunset :)

All the best Dave





Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

1 comment:

  1. Hello to the Hibberd crew!
    So glad things have calmed down a bit for you all! Little too much excitement some days.
    Tell Gabby I love her entrepreneurial spirit!!! Very creative. Let her know we have some space available at the mall if she would like to set up a shop:)
    Love reading all your posts!
    Stay safe...

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