N 5 deg 23', E 146 deg 51' -- Race 7, Day 11

Apologies again for the infrequent blogging. Conditions below remain pretty
unpleasant. And the spot I type from is right next to the galley, above the
stove on this tack, and so gets a nice steady supply of steam. But for you,
loyal readers, I shall endure... if a bit less frequently than otherwise.

We are now in the South Pacific. My mom (Hi Mom!) would probably be able to
get some song references out of that, but I've never seen it myself. I
think it's set during WWII, and we have passed near or through a lot of war
sites: the Coral Sea, Bouganville, Guadalcanal.... I'm going to have to go
back and read up on the Pacific war now that I have a bit more appreciation
of where these things are.

You'll also notice our position starts with an 'N' now. We're in the
Northern Hemisphere! We crossed the equator two days ago in the morning. I
heard the cheers on deck, but I decided to enjoy the moment from the
'comfort' of my bunk rather than scramble to get a life jacket on to go out
in the rain to be ten minutes late anyway. There's meant to be a ceremony
for all first-time-by-sail crossers, but conditions have been a bit busy,
and we've had to delay it.

We are making very good time, with wind from a good direction and generally
maintaining about 20 knots, though it climbs into the 30s and 40s during
squalls. We're getting a lot of rain at night as well. It's still
refreshing, but it's also starting to get a bit chilly at night when
combined with the wind. Just a bit. The sea water, on the other hand, is
stll very warm, so when you get splashed by a wave breaking over the side,
it's like bathwater. Salty bathwater. I imagine that's also why it stays so
hot below, we're not losing any heat to the water. We've had full cloud
cover for days, and it's forecast to last for a while longer, so no
entertainment from the night sky, just darkness.

We've been very light on wildlife. Lots of flying fish, which I'm more and
more impressed with. I'm going to have to visit their Wikipedia page when I
have a connection. A few birds. In the Solomon Sea, we had coconuts
floating past. And we've had a few sizeable fish, suspected tuna, jumping
around within sight of the boat. But that's pretty much it.

And so it goes. We're under 2500 nm to Da Nang, which is great, and we're
hoping to cover it in 10-11 days, which would be a very early arrival.
We're also securely in the top half of the fleet and within touch of a
podium spot. Wish us luck!