October 13

Last night went smoothly with no problems. The conditions were steady with the wind in the 15-18k range and seas 3-4ft from the ENE. Most of the time we were doing better then 7k with an occasional period of 8k over the ground. The full moon stayed up till after sunrise making the watch person's job more pleasant.

Day two finds us moving along easily in relatively calm seas with a 3-4ft swell from the ENE and bright sunny weather. The winds are a bit lighter averaging about 15k sill from the SE but occasionally tending ESE. Our course during the last 24 hours has been roughly 20M (31True) which puts us about 38 miles East of the rhumb line which is good. The 6 day wind forecasts predict good conditions for the entire passage with winds easing to 10k tomorrow and then down to 8k on Friday and Saturday, though that far out predictions are less reliable. The forecasts also show a slightly more Easterly bent to the wind over the next few days, hence the importance of gaining ground to the East early on. On Saturday winds are predicted to be ENE so by then we hope to be at least as far East as longitude 172 30 (Tarawa being at 172 55).

It is now 10am local time (UTC -11) and we have 785 miles to go to reach the entrance to Tarawa atoll (the anchorage being only 8 miles from the entrance). Skies are sunny and clear with about 20% cloud cover. Seas remain the same with about 4ft swell from the ENE and the wind from the SE or ESE at 13-15k. We are making between 6.5 and 7k over ground though our boat speed is still showing in the high 8k range indicating we still have a strong opposing current (or a malfunctioning speed log).

It is now 6:30pm and everything is basically the same. The wind is about 14-16k from the SE, even a bit more from the SE then earlier which is allowing us to bear off a bit and ease the sheets while still maintaining a good amount of East in our course. We are making about 7k over ground on a course of about 23M. The seas have become even more calm which I suppose indicates calmer winds to come as forecast. Weather forecasts still show nothing bad and favorable conditions seem likely to continue.

Interestingly, we are approaching a part of the ocean under which the charts show the Vitaz Trench. This appears to be an extremely deep undersea canyon descending to almost 20,000ft deep or about 3.5 miles. The surrounding ocean is also deep, about 10,000ft deep but this trench is twice that deep. As a reference, the deepest known ocean trench, the Mariana Trench, is about 29,700ft deep, deeper then Mt. Everest is high.