This Pacific High really sucks. It's huge and all-encompassing, but fortunately Champ has a big diesel and quite a lot of fuel. Hoping that we've done the math right and we have plenty of fuel, but we've been motoring for about 3 days now. Hoping to be in westerlies in about 24 hours as the high looks to be developing. fingers crossed! caught 2 mahi in 2 days and had a stocked fridge, so decided to stop fishing for a while. will probably begin fishing again tomorrow. thinking that we could hit a tuna, perhaps? the biography about steve jobs is a good read. have almost finished it now, but thoroughly enjoyed it. heather just made some delicious breaded mahi mahi with pasta and canned veggies. it severely beat my attempt at bread last night, paired with tin foil mahi and rice. (again.) sv champ out

36* 34 N, 162* 07 W Well, the Pacific High is still a complete mess. Actually, scratch that, the entire Pacific Ocean is. Oh well. Champ has a big diesel and a lot of fuel, so we've been motoring for about two days now. Generally we're motor sailing with main and staysail sheeted in hard unless we can get some decent breeze/ decent angle, then we roll out the genoa and shut off the motor. Two nights ago, another mahi mahi got away, as he was about 4 feet from the transom. Mahi 3, Champ 1 Yesterday afternoon though, we got a hook up and then successfully brought him on-board. We have fish for days now. Mahi 3, Champ 2 sv champ out

This is our first full day of motoring in the high. It's actually picked up to about 5 knots of breeze now, but it's right on the nose. Planning on unfurling the jib again and trying to motorsail at different angles to figure out what's the most efficient. Basically, the pacific high is super disorganized like it has been since before we left Hanalei, and it's a complete smorgasbord of activity with a 600 mile tall by 1000 mile wide band of windlessness. Only real strategy is to get north by any means possible and hook into the westerlies. One of the books i downloaded onto my ipad for this trip is called "born to run" by christopher mcdougall. heather and i have both been reading it on watches and we both agree that it's an extremely good read. mcdougall is a very talented writer and the subject is interesting. Had a double hook up on mahi's last night. One broke a lure and the other came unhooked. my finger got cut pretty deeply by fishing line trying to reel in the one mahi. so, technically i think the score is now Mahi-Mahi 2 points, sv Champ 1 point. an electrical connection failed today on the LPG gas safety solenoid in the fuel locker. other than delaying lunch by about an hour, no problems to report. sv champ out