Pacific Odyssey - Leg 7

The days are starting to roll into each other, each one feeling in
general quite similar to the previous day. This is a good thing; shipboard
life has entrenched itself and I find myself forgetting that we are trying
to get anywhere; perhaps it is just a ´leftover´ of our passage to Midway.
The days pass quickly and all are full and satisfying.  We continue to motor
into headwinds; we are looking forward to sailing again, to handling sail.
Sail handling as a group and individually is invigorating and we were
discussing on deck this morning how much we miss it.  The wind and the seas
have ever so slightly, hardly noticeably, started to become less.  The waves
break less violently, the crests are not as white and foamy.  The waves are
still very large and the bow of the ship continues to be lifted up, up, up .
. . pause on the crest . . .  then down, down, down into the trough, all the
while rocking from side-to-side because of the side hit of the water on the
hull.  Big waves seem to come in a series of 3 or 4, followed by smaller
waves confusing the pattern, creating deeper dips to port and starboard.
The deck stayed somewhat drier with water coming only as far as the break
(the big beam that runs port to starboard amidships).  I still enjoy
watching the water, it´s always different.  No dolphin show today but
Leighsa noticed a large fin sticking out of the water.  Those of us on deck
thought at first it was a shark fin; it didn´t move, it just floated high
out of the sea.  We saw a big form under the water but are still not sure
whether it was a shark or a sunfish.  Sunfish get very big and have a fin
too; we´ll never know.  When something like this fin, the seal, etc. comes
along we so badly want to ´see´ more, we can never get close enough or watch
it long enough to satisfy our curiosity and desire to have a thorough look
and figure out what it is.  We continue to bundle up on deck while below
deck the hold is busy.  Tonight there are 2 card games being played and a
group of 3 or 4 trainees have packed themselves into one bunk laughing and
talking.  In the galley Katie is doing some prep work for Gillian´s birthday
tomorrow; breakfast is huge, almost a brunch.  Christina taught an
intermediate chart work lesson this afternoon.  Caley enjoyed a cup of
coffee and the ´New Yorker´ this morning at the hold table; there was a
quiet 20 minutes after breakfast when many trainees returned to their bunks
to catch up on sleep, and the dishes were done, and Katie had not started
lunch yet.  Yogurt was made for tomorrow´s breakfast.  Jordan T, James,
Blake and Chris E. have been supplementing our ´Quotes of the Day´ with some
great ones of their own finding.  Jordan and Tristan led work watch with
starboard watch this afternoon.  Tristan did a ´rig walk;´ the bosuns
regularly take turns walking up and down both masts checking all the running
and standing rigging.  Tristan checked and cleaned filters and started
preparing another area of the engine room for painting.  The bosuns are
always busy; there is a lot of upkeep on a ship like this.  Skipper beat Bo
at a game of SCRABBLE this morning (Karen, I´m making more use of  my
unlimited Scrabble gift certificate from Skipper at Christmas and Skipper is
improving because of it!).  The sun is going down close to 2000hrs now; this
is so much later than what we´ve had all offshore, it´s too bad it´s so cold
and no one really wants to be on deck.  Tomorrow we celebrate Gillian´s 26th
birthday.  Until then, good-night, Bonice.