Land Ho!

I just received exciting news via text from Kevin, after three very long, hard weeks of sailing he finally had a land sighting off his port beam! Now comes the frustrating part (at least for me it was) he can see land; however, he is still about 200 miles from his destination of Honolulu. Hopefully the wind will continue to blow and he won't be drifting or resort to motoring.  If he has to start motoring then he has to hand steer the entire time and that is not conducive to fishing, or sleeping, or eating for that matter.  The past few days he has been having a lot more fun than the rest of the trip combined.  The wind finally shifted and he was able to put a fishing pole in the water.  it wasn't a few hours later I received a text letting me know he caught his first mahi mahi of the trip!  He was really excited for a fresh fish dinner!  He said he had to stop fishing because his arms were getting tired.  I think that really lifted his spirits to be able to do some fishing and actually catch fish!

As of yesterday at one in the afternoon (Alaska time) his position was 19.02 North 153.09 west.  He made good 132 miles, his biggest day for the passage. He is expecting to get into Honolulu on Sunday.  His dad is meeting him in Honolulu on Wednesday and they hope to leave for Seattle (weather permitting) at the end of the week or possibly the beginning of the following week at the latest!

Happy (late...oops) Birthday to Kevin!

Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday dear Kevin, Happy Birthday to you!  Kevin turned the big 2-6 yesterday, whoot!  I did get to call him and sing him happy birthday (which I know he totally appreciated, because he LOVES my singing!) He wasn't having all that great of a day sailing wise. his big birthday breakfast, a granola bar. Which i'm sure was 5 months old, from when we bought them in New Zealand and mostly melted because they had chocolate in them!  He did have big plans for his birthday dinner, a can of Salmon! Which i'm sure he ate directly from the can, bones and all (makes this pregnant lady want to be sick!) The good news is he is easy to please and I don't have to eat the canned salmon!

The past few days he has been battling 15-20 knot east northeast winds during the calm times and 35+ knot winds during a squall. And then on top of everything else it has been raining off and on all day.  Needless to say he is not having the best time ever.  When I spoke to him this morning he was heave to waiting out one of the squalls that hit over the night.  even with the bad weather he has still been averaging 80 to 100 mile days, Still not as good as we would have liked, but it is getting him there!

His current position is 5.28 North and 145.41 West making good 95miles.  he now has less than 1000 miles to go.  We are hoping he is able to make Honolulu in about 12 days.