Message relayed from Ice Dancer: Sunday. At 9 a.m., we are at 23 13N 155 06W. By 7:30 this morning, we had pulled our sea anchor and hopped back on the great-circle route that takes us just south of Catalina Island. The long arm of a North Pacific cold front made seas uninviting, yesterday morning, so we got to practice our first deployment of our sea anchor. It kept us pointed into the wind and larger swells, but waves from other directions kept us rolling around. It worked best when the weather was at its worst, 35 knots wind and 15-foot seas. Retrieval went fine, although pulling the 24-foot parachute, 400 feet of one-inch line, shackles, swivels and all gave a pretty good upper-body workout. Local marine weather reported that the cold front had stalled out. They were wrong. We are experiencing the same conditions as when we crossed to Hawaii, but from the opposite direction. Wind, waves and current are right on the nose, instead of following our craft. The result is slower progress toward Dana Point. Nonetheless, the ride is comfortable and all is well. It will be interesting to see how the additional heft and range of our new 57, to be named Ice Dancer II, compares to the 50. We were unable to made contact last night with the Pacific Seafarers Net (YOTREPS). Maybe ham-radio-band conditions will be better, tonight. Dick and Gail Barnes Ice Dancer Nordhavn 50 #22 Editor's note: In case it isn't clear, Dick and Gail Barnes are headed for Dana Point, California, to trade in their Nordhavn 50 for a Nordhavn 57.