Pacific Odyssey - Leg 6

Tonight we cross the date line, 180 degrees longitude; we will fall back
24 hours and relive April 14th.   For those who embarked before the New
Year, the year 2008 will possibly be their longest year, one extra day at the date line and another for February 29, leap year.  We will celebrate tomorrow with ´backwards day,´ and in the evening will have a dance party on deck where everyone will dance to the tunes of their own ipod.  It will be hilarious and very, very fun.  We are motoring with the trysail, foresail and jumbo up; they provide a bit of stability and speed, though our speed has decreased today.  The seas have picked up in lumpiness and the wave tops are white and sharper than yesterday.  The wind is forward of the starboard beam.  Yesterday morning during the 0400-0800 watch, Sarah B., Gabriel, and Susan found a flying fish on deck.  It was about 20 cm. long and still alive.  Susan and Sarah tried unsuccessfully to get it overboard and back into the ocean; Gabriel was finally able to grab the slippery fish and deliver it to its home.  They are a beautiful fish to look at, and to watch
soar over the ocean.  This leg has been a great one for games.   All day a
variety of games are being played; there are always trainees, crew and little Anderson boys seated around the hold table playing cards or board games.  Last night the Trivia Pursuit game was pulled out and 10 people enjoyed a full game.  Dutch Blitz is still in full strength with Maddie taking over Steve´s longtime lead.  The game ´Settlers of Catan´ is now one of the more popular games being played and we have 2 sets going regularly.
Kaitlin was teaching Simon and Noah how to play this afternoon and they enjoy it.  It´s great when trainees treat children like anyone else, expecting the best, and believing that children are incredibly teachable and can understand and do pretty well anything they set their mind to; it is very encouraging for me to watch.  This is just one way my kids truly
benefit from their relationships with the trainees.   Tonight a new card
game was introduced called ´Spoons.´  Eight trainees took awhile trying to figure out and agree on the rules, and then played some wild rounds of the
game, grabbing for spoons to gain points for their team.   Sean was up to
some tricks last night.  He found the alarm from the game ´Scategories´ and taped the alarm so it continued to make an awful sound. He lowered it on a string into the foc´sle via the forward hatch.  Emma swung at the noise and Leanne grabbed it, and then tried to take off all the layers of tape Sean had wrapped it in.  In her frustration she threw it across the foc´sle and
hit Elske, who got the tape off and thus the silence was restored.   The
night is clear and the moon is half full and shining a bright path of light onto the water behind us.  We can see stars.  It´s nice to be able to come on deck and see each other; up to now it´s been difficult to see anything initially, you just know others are there and you wait for your eyes to get
used to the dark.   The wind is light; we have slowed down and are hoping
that a more northerly wind will come up as predicted.  Tomorrow I will relate what happened on the second April 14th; I know you missed this first one yesterday, but the computer will not accept the same date twice, so I had to pick which day we´d send a log.  Until tomorrow, good-night, Bonice

"10,9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1 . . . we´ve crossed the dateline, welcome to yesterday!"  This was Becca and Sophie calling down the hold and foc´sle hatches last night.  We are now on the western side of the dateline with you.  An interesting fact we discovered crossing the date line is that the GPS will not read 180 degrees longitude, east or west.  It went from
179E59.9 to 179W59.9.  This morning at 0930 the engine was turned off until we arrive in Honolulu.  We raised the mainsail and the jibsail to join the foresail and jumbo which were already up.  We are now dependent on the winds to get us to our destination.  We have altered course to 175T, heading south, but waiting for the wind to go around to the north.  The sailing is lovely, though very slow, about 3knots.  We are on a port tack and leaning comfortable to starboard.  The motion is gentle.  Today is ´backwards day.´
Jose, James, Elske, Susan are some of the trainees wearing their pants backwards.  Katie and Sarah B. are wearing 2 braids over their ears with a bandana tied backwards on their forehead.  Many trainees are wearing their t-shirts and sunglasses back to front and Kaitlin has her underwear over top of her clothes.  Emma and Gillian are wearing their bikini tops and tank tops back to front as well.  Gillian cooked supper for breakfast (quiche), lunch for lunch (pea soup and scones), and breakfast for supper (pancakes).
Jose taught a lesson on the bouyage system to the Intermediates this morning.  Everyone is enjoying the sun; most of us are on deck.  Some trainees are in shorts but the breeze is still cool and the majority of us are in pants and jackets still.  I will send this early, on this second
April 14th, so you will not have to wait 2 days for news from us.   We are
all well and enjoying the sailing and praying for stronger winds in the right direction.  Please pray with us.  Take care, Bonice.