Ol’ Grandfather East wind came back at 08:00 this morning, so out went the main, up went the Hoyt, and off went the engine. We were back to sailing! Ah...blessed quiet! It was Captain’s birthday. Alas, the eating fish never did show up for the party, but we made up for their lack with blueberry bread, home made potato salad,( containing the last fresh veggies from Tahiti), and cherry cheese cake. It was all together a lovely day. Lars tried out his new kite from the stern of the boat. It flew beautifully and fortunately the line held. It would have been an interesting mob drill if it had come loose and crashed into the sea! We had so much fun that we decided it was the perfect day to set our watches back the two hours til Fiji time so as to prolong the good times. While I was napping Captain spotted what he at first thought was a whale, just below the surface of the water a little smaller than the boat. He called to me, and I rushed up. We never saw a spout, and concluded it was probably a basking shark. Way cool! In the late afternoon a little squall blew through, so we shortened all three sails by two reefs each. The smaller sail area causes us to roll and yawl more, but we are still progressing along at about 6 knots hoping to raise Fiji in five days on our Sweet Dream.
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