This morning we found a dozen dead flying fish on deck. (There was even a small squid a few days ago.) This is a common phenomenon and these little guys can be quite a nuisance. Last night, with a beautiful full moon finally breaking thru the clouds, we heard one hit the pilothouse window…

Today we passed the halfway point to our planned stop at Penryn atoll. The GPS/chartplotter gives us a constant readout on miles and time to go. When surfing down a wave at 13kn we have five days to go and when the wind dies a bit it reads twelve. Interlude’s sailplan is back to…

Although our watch schedule has been quite loose this passage, we do keep a log with entries at least every hour. The log is a bound book with numbered pages that can be used in a court of law (ie collision with another vessel). It also records our last known position in the event…

As we approach the ITCZ and leave the Pacific High our wind is subsiding and becoming more unstable. This morning we cleared the deck of numerous dead flying fish and squid, furled the genoa, stowed the whisker pole and deployed the code zero. We are now beam reaching with 7 – 10 kn of…

With the variable conditions in the ITCZ we have been practicing sail changes and even reefing. Interlude has three headsails on furlers ready to deploy (code zero,  genoa and staysail) and three reefs rigged in the mainsail. To get some rest and top off the batteries, we motored all last night when it was…

At around midnight we had another encounter with our non-responsive fishing buddies. The same two Korean boats, the Okyong and the Dongwon (hilarious names) we encountered yesterday had somehow got ahead of us and set their gear right in our path. Although not good at answering the radio, they were very good at marking…

We crossed the equator at 0200 last night and paid tribute to King Neptune today. We are both shellbacks and there are no pollywogs aboard, so the ritual was limited to appeasement with a splash of rum over the rail. Kurt has crossed eight times and Katie five.  We also decided not to wait…

With the wind dying yesterday afternoon we redeployed the Code Zero and managed to keep it up during some nighttime squalls. This morning however the sail had had enough and ripped leech to luff. We furled the tattered sail and got it and the furling gear stowed in the forepeak. Interlude is back to…

We had good conditions reaching with main and genoa until this afternoon when the forecasted light wind area finally overtook us. Interlude is now motoring and most likely will continue under power until we anchor sometime around noon tomorrow at Penrhyn. Only one more Korean fishing vessel with AIS marked net just starting to…