July 17th, 21:00 pst – lat 27 N, lon 124 W

The wind vanished. Gone. For several hours we were becalmed, making sail changes, climbing the mast, seeking the puffs. And now the wind is back. Light, but it is back. This is going to be a short 24 hour run on miles but a critical one in terms of positioning. Richard is a fantastic light air sailor and his superior skills are infinitely precious. We really work well as a team.

So what do you do when you are becalmed? I get Richard to practice single handed sailing: I dove off the boat and went for a magical swim with more than 5000 ft of pure open ocean water to support me. What a treat. If you try it, make sure that you time it right with the puffs, else it is a long swim to Honolulu, about 1855 miles at a bearing of 254 degrees magnetic.

As the sun sets we are settling in for the night. There are no opportunities to take sextant sites at dusk as we are under full cloud cover. From a sailboat racing perspective, it’s going to be tricky getting out of this light spot and within the next 48 hours into the trades. That’s a busy night ahead with a lot of concentration and focus.