Friday, June 15: Day 2

27.16 N
157.14W

146 nautical miles covered, 271 in total - 2069 to go

Conditions remained fairly steady over Day 2, with winds and seas moderating slightly. We are being helped along by a current that seems to be up to one knot at times - lovely! It is quite warm and humid, and the skies are overcast. There are squalls around and we are kind of hoping we may see one pass overhead to cool things down, and wash the salt off Ka'sala, as the decks and cockpit are greasy with it. Doug predicts these conditions to persist for the next 24 hours or so.

To the Northwest is a cold front associated with a frontal low moving away from us, and the Pacific High is generating winds from the southeast. We are hoping to keep these winds on our starboard quarter and sail more or less north.

Our ideal course is the great circle route which currently is 020 degrees true to Sitka (57 05N 135 23W)- meaning it is the most direct route - the way the gull flies. At the moment, we are just to the east of it and tracking about 030 T to keep a good angle on the wind. We are sailing along averaging about 5.5 knots. I am beginning to think of 020 N as HWY20 to Alaska and, all going well, we will be able to stay on it with few diversions.

Last evening a very large seabird decided to roost on our bow and spent the whole night. What a magnificent creature! It was the size of a small turkey with pristine white feathers trimmed in black. Below its bright black eyes was a long powder blue beak and its webbed feet were a brilliant orange. No. I am not making this up. I took pictures. Steve will know what kind of bird this is!

The bananas aren't doing very well and some of them fell victim to muffins this morning. We will appreciate them on our night watches! Overall the fresh produce does not seem to be doing as well as the stuff I had bought in Mexico. I think this is because most of it was refrigerated and if you can't keep it that way, it quickly rots. Not to worry, though, when the fresh is finished, we have plenty of dried and canned stores.

Not quite back into the routine yet, but close.

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