Log Date: April 14, 2005

Location: Middle of the Pacific Ocean. Marquesas Bound.

March 31. After a very pleasant stay in the Galapogos, we weighed anchor and set off for our next adventure--The Marquesas Islands. This will be the longest leg of our voyage by far.

April 1. We had a beautiful day with sun most of the day and good winds as well.  We're making good progress towards the islands.  Still have an ETA of 4/17- 19. Susan managed to hack enough off a couple of filets from the mahi we caught yesterday, good enough for a couple of meals.  Very good.  Tomorrow we try our luck fishing again. 

April 3. Wind 20-25 out of the E ESE but more easterly, seas 3-5ft with 6-8ft swells and a bit confused.  We are sailing 145 degrees off the wind right now with a poled out genny.  Not too rolly, certainly tolerable. I believe we may have gone just a bit too far south.  We have tons of wind but a slight counter current.  Those who stayed north of 5 degrees south before 95 west, do not have as much wind but do have a favorable current that is between 1-2 knots.  Unfortunately, I don't know enough about all the other boats out here so I don't know how my progress compares. Of course we do have 2200 miles to go so perhaps it is just a tad too early to tell.  We are the only boat this far south while this far east. We will be sailing this course directly to the Marquesas.  My arrival waypoint is 9.45South/138.45West.  We are making about 140 miles/day. A good clip. We are both doing well.  Eating regular meals and getting good rest.  Long way to go and things have been great. 

April 5. About 2100 miles to go! We have has some great weather and some not so great weather.  The other day we had rain almost all day.  Both of us just wanted to read, have popcorn and watch bad Lifetime movies.  Today is very sunny and plenty of wind.  Laura cooked our freshly caught fish for dinner the other night and it was great. We're trying again today to see what we catch.  I wish we could take home movies of us getting the fish on deck, drowning it in vodka and Susan hacking the thing into fillets. It is quite funny. 

April 7. Early morning. 17 days to go! We are finally in the tradewinds and have some very consistent winds with some clouds.  We had a lot of rain yesterday and it was quite cloudy today.  The skies appear to be clearing as the sun sets.  It would be nice if we got some clear skies tonight.  We caught a small mahi mahi and will have that for dinner tomorrow. We were visited by a huge pod of dolphins.  Very cool. All continues to go well. 

April 14. As I write today's log, we are currently about 714 nautical miles from the Hiva Oa' Marquesas. Planning landfall on April 20th. So far, the weather has been favorable and life is good on board.  Our lat/long is S 09d 05' W 126d 41'. Looking forward to land - calmer seas so we can make water - and SHOWERS. Other than that we are doing great!

Enjoying Life Onboard.

Laura and Susan

SV Mystic Traveler