#124 NOW October 9, 2006 0315 (UTC -10 hours Hawaii Standard Time) N02045 W159042, Temperature 81, Pressure 1006 mb, Course 0080 magnetic Wind 1500 @ 10 kts, Seas: 4 to 5 ft swells from SE, Para-vanes down, Miles Completed 1253, Miles to Go 69, SOG 6 kts average. 1500 RPM Good Morning from just north of the Equator, At precisely 2205 last Saturday night, we heard rumblings and strange noises from the deep. As we crossed the equator, King Neptune came forth to see if there were any pollywogs onboard. Sure enough, this was Mikes first crossing of the equator by sea, and proper initiations were performed. Considering the lateness of the hour, he let him get by with just a certificate attesting to the event and a toast to his continued health. He is now a full-fledged Shellback (an old experienced seaman who has crossed the equator and been around long enough to grow barnacles on his back). As King Neptune was returning to the sea, I asked him if he could do anything about the unbearable heat. He looked at me and said, Not my department. I guess there is bureaucracy even amongst the gods. As you can see from the above data, we are making good time and will arrive at Fanning Island around 1600 today (Monday). Fortunately, as anticipated after crossing the equator, the winds started to die down and swing around towards the South. In addition, we picked up a nice following current. After careful calculation of fuel burn and our estimated arrival, I picked up our RPM to 1500. We even ran with the para-vanes up for awhile last night. However, the swell gave us a good roll and we put them back down. We are still going to arrive at Fanning Island with 500 gallons of fuel. Our conservation and easterly routing during this passage is now paying off. We will have burned 445 gallons to go 1322 miles. This will leave us with 500 gallons to go the 968 miles to Hawaii. I do anticipate weather that is more active and the Northeast trade winds as we approach Hawaii. However, we should have sufficient for these contingencies and will not need any additional fuel. I want to thank those of you that responded to my request about fuel at Fanning Island. I had considered going to Christmas Island, but it was a little out of the way and as one reader pointed out loading the fuel onboard there can be a challenging event. Thanks again for the input. Mike, the shellback has really been a tremendous help on this passage. As director of Thousand Pines, near Lake Arrowhead in Southern California he has a congenial personality. We have enjoyed many hours discussing boats, current events, and a myriad of other topics. Also, he plays one mean game of Yahtzee. I didnt know that you could be so ruthless in a came of chance. As you can tell, we are having a great time. Check out his web site at <http://www.thousandpines.com/><http://www.thousandpines.com>. We are having some coverage problems with our satellite phone. It seems that we cannot keep a signal more than a couple of minutes if that. Thus, it has been hard downloading and uploading messages. If you can keep your messages short for the next few days, that would be helpful. I hope that I will luck out and this will upload with out a problem. I think reception will improve as we approach Hawaii. Life is a cruise, Larry and Mike -- Larry Rick Done Dreamin' Nordhavn 40 #33 Site: http://gricknet.homedns.org/Dads%20Web/doneDreamnHome.htm