Day 15

Day 15 4/13/06 2:00 am
Coordinates............ 02 39.656S, 131 22.818W
Heading................ 215
Boat speed..............5 knots
24 hr total nm .........150 nautical miles (NM)
miles total since MX....approx. 2170 nm
Wind direct. & speed....NE 5-10 knots
Swell direct. & ht .....E 1-3 ft.
Cloud cover.............55%
Barometer...............994

Have to admit the the day after crossing the equator was very peaceful but rather anticlimactic. We are unfortunately still a bit plagued by wind that is a bit light and still slightly from the wrong direction and swells that are nearly perpendicular to us. That is continuing to make for some difficult sleep and restless days. Just after I signed off at 5am yesterday the winds picked up to 15 knots or so and we were able to sail for the majority of the day but continued to make only southern progression. We do need to start heading a bit more westerly, so when the winds die down and the motor starts up we resume our 210 to 215 course heading.

The great news is that our cruising pals out here, Lawur, Capaz and Long Tall Sally all made their crossing of the equator as well last night. We have so many things to celebrate when we reunite in the islands. We continue to change time zones and gained another hour today. That allowed school to be done a bit early and we found ourselves with some extra time. We took the opportunity to finally begin reading up on the places we will be visiting first in the Marquesas Islands. We are readying ourselves to maneuver customs in another new country. Time to learn some french I guess. It is going to be hard to drop the spanish. The reality of being only about 5 days away has hit us fast and hard. It seemed so far away when we began this crossing 15 days ago. That "to do" list we had created for the passage seems rather large and untouched at this point.

Quick reminder. These daily journal entries have all been sent directly to the blog/journal sight to be read on our web site at www.ohanakai.net. It has been brought to my attention that everyone may not have known that or may not have access to the web to see the journal entries. If that is the case, please let me know and I will resend them to you and add you to the growing list of people who need to be emailed directly. If you have access, don't forget to check out the goggle earth and yotreps cruising trackers. Both are great ways to see where we are. Occasionally, the data we send doesn't get through right away so if we look as though we haven't checked in each day, don't worry.

until next time,
love lisa and the boys