It’s a keeper!

So action this morning right after dawn…

The call came from the cockpit that a glass fishing ball float (the ones that were historically used by Japanese fishermen to keep their nets afloat) was spotted. The timing could have been better (we has a squall bearing down on us), but we soon had the trophy aboard… and it was a big one… beach-ball sized, made of hand-blown lightly tinted glass, and home to a couple mussels and crabs (sorry guys!). Who knows how many years and decades these things have been floating out here?

Anyway, our charge north continues. We are about 600 miles from Hawaii as I write this at about 2am on the last Friday of July. The going has been pretty mild… some boats have been complaining about too little wind (we have seen lots in the 10 knot range), but the Hula Girl loves this stuff, trucking along at 8 knots in 10 knots of breeze.

We had a problem with the Single Sideband Radio yesterday. In fact, it hasn’t seemed to be as clear as it should be, and has acted erratically a couple of times. Two days ago, we couldn’t check in with the net of boats sailing from Hawaii to CA. Then the unit just clicked off, and stayed off. Well, after digging around a lot, it seems the the culprit was a loose wire in the new distribution panel yours truly installed in CA. Whoops. A quick fix, and we were loud and clear, “5 by 5” at this evening’s position report!

ANyway, that’s about all the exciting news (and boring details) from out here in the middle of the night, in the middle of the Pacific. The Moon is up. It’s quiet and aboard, with most sleeping. Barry is on watch with Madeline driving. 10 knots of wind from 080 and we are scooting across a glittery surface at 8.2 knots, heading 030… northward bound. I love this stuff.

Talk to you all soon… right now, I’m going to grab my iPod and park it in the cockpit for a while…

Wayne Zittel and the Hula Girl crew…

Our Spot tracker page is: http://tinyurl.com/hulagirl