Over the halfway mark

During the course of yesterday afternoon and this morning we quietly
slipped over the halfway mark, being gently urged on from behind by
surf, wind and tide and the currents they create. At about 10am
yesterday morning conditions became perfect for flying our twin
headsails, we stood up to the challenge, and took our good time to set
both headsails just perfect. I will let you in on a secret here, tuning
your guitar, tuning your sails, same thing. The aim is the same, to make
music. I think to make music is to become music, and once you vibrate in
harmony with your surroundings, your instrument, whether it be your
guitar, your boat, your paintbrush, your pen, your life takes on a life
of it's own. Before I go too deep too quick, let me rather drift to
shallower waters.

Steven and Eduard's bread baking efforts turned into a monster bread. A
magnificent beast of a thing, filling our oven-sized baking tray and
rising to twice it's size. We sat down and proceeded to feast on this
beast, and tried it in small sections with just about everything we
could lay our hands on. Butro, apricot jam, Bovril, peanut butter,
honey and maple syrup, one at a time and sometimes combined. When we
came back to our senses there was not much left,a few skins and bones.

For supper Nick prepared some lamb flavoured curry with rice, and we all
agreed that soya beans with the right ingredients, can cook up quite a
storm. Nick also made some extra rice afterwards as there was quite a
bit of the curry left and mixed the two together. We just warmed up some
and a nice little breakfast snack. Tonight is my turn to burn some gas
and perhaps tuna pasta will do the trick, freshly caught or in a tin.
Coming to think of it, freshly caught fish would first be enjoyed as
sushimi, and then later fried with chips. Our lures are out, our boat is
running free with the seahorses around us, dancing, surfing, curving,
styling; if we catch a fish.....

The weather out here is truly any sailors dream. Sunny skies with some
clouds floating around, a few cirrus clouds preceding stronger winds,
really a perfect example of fair weather and following seas. The
distance between Panama and us is rapidly shrinking and we are staying
above 8kts average. Nick was on the graveyard shift just after me and an
hour or so into his watch a dark cloud came over us. The wind got up to
25kts apparent and we were sailing at about 10kts, which would bring the
true wind speed up to 35kts. It was time to up the rudder response as
the swell from behind worked up fairly quickly and we were sailing at
speed down the swells, highest speed about 16kts. The swells are not
very long out here, but long enough for us to accelarate from 6kts to
16kts in probably 5 or 6 seconds. The beauty of sailing with the twin
headsails is that one can furl in the big one when the wind requires
smaller sails and yield higher speed. Too much headsail up front pushes
your bow into the water ploughing in a way, to use smaller sails keeps
your bows up. This in turns give you a longer line of vessel in the
water which determines the natural speed of a vessel in a big way. Too
deep, too technical.

'Now She's Talking'. Pleasant and welcome sounds nowadays connected with
speech but once attributed to that distinctive sound of waves dancing
and rattling against the wooden hull of a sailing vessel as she moves
quickly through the water. It is especially noticable in a sailing ship
where no machinery noises would mask or interfere with the sound. Our
position at 11am, UTC - 4, SA 5pm , 13*27'N/067*06'W. We are about 800nm
from Panama and about 5500nm from Tahiti. It is a very pleasant 28*C here
by us, the wind is consistent with the weather reports and all is well.

Take good care, can't believe tomorrow is Friday again.

Captain Paul