34.33.805N 129.53.232W

Weird night last night. Wind kept coming up to 12 or so, then dying
away to nothing. Seemed connected to the little mini-squalls, for lack
of a better term, that only produced some misty rain. So we'd charge
ahead, then stop, then repeat.

The morning was overcast with a light breeze on a fairly smooth sea,
same as all the others. Early in the afternoon, it backed to the point
that we could get the spinnaker up, which was a huge breakthrough.
We've spent a lot of time with the speedo on the happy side of 7 knots
since, so maybe tomorrow's position reports will bring good news.

The notable thing about today was the ship traffic. We are crossing a
major shipping lane to Japan, so we've had a steady stream of
conversations with Japanese ships, making sure that they saw us and
clarifying who was going to alter course which way. With them being
thousands of times our size, it's best to clear that sort of thing up
early. My favorite exchange was actually between David on Temerity and
a Japanese ship. David could see the ship, dead astern, on the same
heading, with no response on the radio. So we joined in attempting to
hail the ship on various channels. David got him on the horn in plenty
of time and all the usual negotiations took place with the ship offering
to alter course to pass to starboard (similar to a guy on a bike saying
"on your right" when passing a pedestrian for my non-sailing friends.
Except this 'bike' was 800' long and going 3 times as fast as Temerity.)
Anyway, after they got it all sorted out, the ship's captain called
David to ask where he was headed. When David explained about the race,
the captain said (in a really neat sounding Japanese accent) "You are an
excellent navigator sir. You are a hero. You have my deepest respect."

Sorta made us feel bad for giving David a hard time back at the bon
voyage party!

Chute's up, we're moving, gotta get some rest before 0300 & time to go
again.

Whiskey Delta Bravo 2898 VALIS out

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