Yesterday the wind continued on the nose at 20 knots and last night it rose to 30 knots with a small sea that was quite confused there was a bit of banging going on! Ed is certain we are half way and keeps on asking me for coniirmation – he is not happy with the answer which is no.Ed admits to being a dinghy sailor at heart. I tell him if he thinks this is banging thank he lucky stars he isn’t going around conception!

Yesterday afternoon we heard a catcall and looked off to starboard to see the SV Jam reaching down to see us. A conversation insued on VHF as their 5 or 6 waved at us than hardened up and went on their way under full main and number 3 or 4. We continued to plod along at 5.5 knots under number 4 and a reefed main.

Hula Girl managed to transfer a battery to Deception yesterday morning doing so by hanging it off the end of their boom so now Deception has power and can join back in on the roll calls we have at 5pm everyday. We were comparing fuel useage yesterday and we have used only 6 gallons this whole trip in comparison to some peoples 30+.

We are just north of 36N which is where the winds were to calm down and they have indeed moderated this morning as has the sea state. We will continue north for another day and half before turning at 38N towards SF if the winds allow. Some of the big boats up ahead are motoring at 38 in glassy calm so we are hoping to stay just on the edge of the high in some wind instead of having to motor for days.

This mornings excitement and the reason for the title of the blog was MSC tanker hailing us and passing 1/2 mile off our stern. They wanted to know what such a small boat was doing in the middle of the ocean apparently they had never seen such a small one out here before! They re transitting from Mexico to Taiwan and we had a chat before they headed off at 20 knots telling us if we needed anything they were on 16.

So we continue our plod north at 36 03N 147 05W