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Wanted: The Tropics

Yesterday my request for the wind to ease off wasn't specific enough. It died down pretty much immediately and it was supposed to be after midday, which was disappointing. As a result, our 24-hour run was only 186 nautical miles, which is still impressive but not quite the 200 nautical miles I was dreaming of. We ended up motoring for the night with less than 10 knots of breeze, except for a brief burst of excitement this morning when the wind picked up to over 30 knots for a while. It's back to less than 10 knots now.

We'll need to put the clocks back another hour as the sun didn't rise this morning until 7 AM. The day is pretty dreary so far, with a gray sky and drizzle. Hopefully, it will clear up soon. I'm also hoping the sea state will allow me to take the lid off the water barrels and pump fuel into the tanks this morning without spilling any.

We also had a very exciting encounter yesterday: we spotted a ship, not with our eyes but on the AIS! It's the first sign of life we've seen since leaving the Galapagos. And even more exciting news, we're now over the hump! We're more than halfway to Tahiti, so it's just a case of counting down the days until we can enjoy a baguette avec du fromage.  Ou quelque chose comme ça. 

It's been a challenging journey so far, but at least we are making solid progress.

This doesn't look like the South Pacific to me. 
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