Pacific Odyssey - Leg 5

we had another great day and are settling in to life at sea again. the weather and noting its changes has played a big part of our day and night. many trainees commented on how comfortable it was to sleep in the hold and the foc´sle and also how the daytime temperature reminded them of a late spring or an early fall day, absolutely perfect. today was warmer than yesterday, more sun, light clouds and less wind: 31 degrees celsius. seas were quite small and there is a gentle rolling motion, nice for sleeping. many of us took bucket showers as the water is refreshing, yet not too cool. we lowered all the sails except for the trysail as the wind has died, thus the motor is now all that is propelling us forward. the night is soft and cool, with a beautifully clear sky. chase has started a ´stargazing´ club, pointing out different constellations with his laser and using an amazing computer program that shows the position of the stars, descriptions of the constellations, their stories etc. jordan taught joel and sarah l. celestial navigation today. they each took 2 sites and will plot their information tomorrow. several of the female crew i.e. elske, sara r., began their stretching, yoga, exercises etc., now that the seas are smaller and the motion less. gillian welcomed anyone to join her in organizing a trip to beijing. gillian has been to china before and has some good thoughts on what to spend our valuable time on. we held mug-up tonight with drew and sarah b. playing guitar and susan playing ukulele, which she has taught herself this offshore. Our first stop in japan will be the city of naha, the capital of okinawa, which was flattened in wwii. we hope to get there early thursday morning. Until tomorrow, good night, bonice.