Are We Having Fun Yet?!!

Our current position is:

06° 27.000' S
117° 47.430' W

Could someone please remind me why we are doing this? The last few days have been somewhat like sitting inside a washing machine, the front loading type which turns a few cycles one way, rests a moment then proceeds to turn the other way and so on. We've had fairly consistent winds giving us speeds of around seven to nine knots which is good, however, the seas are so darned lumpy, we are being thrown around mercilessly, which is not good.

Making bread this morning proved quite a challenge. Firstly I'm trying to lift a cup of flour out of the container to place into the bowl. As I tip it in, the bowl moves - flour all over the counter. Next, I'm attempting to measure the water into the bowl. Go to pour it and, you guessed it, the bowl moved, water all over the counter mixing with the previously spilled flour. I then reach down to pick something up off the floor (there's usually a host of items which have fallen to the floor) and the heavy glass bottle of oil flies across the room and lands on my head spilling oil throughout the galley. That brought a few tears. It looked as though a couple of naughty children had had a game of patty cake in mum's pantry. Needless to say, the bread looked, smelled and tasted divine. Think about me when you next pick up a loaf at your local supermarket won't you.

Despite all the bashing around, I will be the first to admit that all it takes is a few minutes standing at the bow watching dolphins play to make this all worthwhile. We had just four today but one was a tiny little fellow and we were fascinated at how he followed exactly every move 'Mum' made. I could watch them for hours (and probably have).

We have our own mascot. Liquid Courage, one of the boats in our little 'fleet', has been the resting place for a red-footed booby for almost four days now. After leaving too many presents on their canvas work, they managed to move him to the dinghy where his gifts are a little more acceptable. He flies off several times a day to fish but has kept returning. The two guys on the boat can even hand feed him. There are several groups of boats crossing the Pacific, each with their own radio net to keep in contact, and we have now named ours the Booby Net and each day brings an updated report on the booby activities. The guys were making noises about fried booby, sautéed pieds de booby, beak soup, etc but I think the day he flies off permanently will also be a rather sad one for them.

All along I've been saying how many more miles we have before we arrive in the Marquesas only to discover that Paul's idea of the Marquesas approach is actually over 200 miles out. My idea of an approach would have been, well hmmm, the approach e.g. a mile or two out but...... So now, despite the fact that the GPS tells me we have 923 miles to go, we now have to add another day and a half to that! Oh well, what's another day and a half in the overall scheme of things!