Pacific Odyssey - Leg 5

We are falling into a wonderful routine of life at sea; it¹s almost a shame we arrive in port tonight. We sighted land at 1700 hrs and by 2230 hrs tonight we hope to go through the pass into the lagoon where the 4 Federated States of Micronesia lie. The State of Chuuk has 192 small islands spread over nearly 1000 square miles of ocean, many of them uninhabited. In Chuuk Lagoon an entire Japanese fleet was trapped and sunk by a surprise US air attack in 1944 and this is now Chuuk¹s main visitor attraction. We hope to experience some great snorkeling before we continue on to Guam. The water temperature during yesterday¹s swim stop was 34 degrees Celsius as recorded on Zach¹s watch. Air temperature today got as high as 42 degrees. We raised foresail, jumbo and jib early this morning, and moved the trysail over on to the port side as the wind switched to northwest. Winds are still light and we are motor sailing. We had many near catches on the fishing lines. Juniors and Arwen wrote their exam today and everyone passed. The day was spent reading, writing, listening to music, standing watch, eating meals together and asking questions of Joel, Graham and Susan about various aspects of their life. Caley had her hair cut today and Port watch¹s 2000hrs ŒParty in the Stern¹ had to be cancelled due to rain. We all got to enjoy the mint hot chocolate that Sarah B. made for the occasion though. Port watch members Joel, Brailey, Rachael, Sarah B., Elske, James, and Zach held an impromptu paper airplane contest. Elske¹s model flew the longest. It¹s been a great day; we look forward to tomorrow. Good night, Bonice