04.45.662S / 135.38.442W 359 miles from Nuku HIva Yesterday’s excitement was visually spotting a cargo ship. Our radar is set on 24 miles range, but with thunderstorms it’s hard to tell boats from rain clouds without a lot of adjustment to the gain setting. Not to mention, when you go 14 days without seeing another vessel, you don’t fiddle much with the radar gain. AIS provides us longer range. At the time we were taking a break on the back deck of the pilothouse and I looked over the horizon – definitely a man-made object sticking up. We verified the Coral Opal on the AIS system – at 8 miles. Christine made the radio call and they acknowledged our position. They passed 6 miles behind us. AIS showed the destination Dailiang China – sure enough if you draw the great-circle route on Google Earth from Southern Chile to Northern China – it passes about 600 miles north of the Marquesas. As we near the end of our passage, we want share a glimpse of our non-boat activities. Except for our responsibilities to run the boat; this is truly a life without schedules, commitments, obligations and demands. The weather has been good and having adapted to the motion of the boat, and thanks to the Kindle we have plenty to read. A good part of our daily conversation revolves around our book d’jour, and with but one companion to discuss our literary enlightenment – imagine the conversations over the respective reading lists: Mark: Herman Melville “Typee”, John Grisham “The Racketeer”, David Hodge “Idiot’s Guide to Guitar”, Joshua Slocum’s “Sailing Alone Around the World”. Christine: Higgins and George “The Neuroscience of Clinical Psychiatry”, Blair, Mitchell and Blair “The Psychopath: Emotion and Brain”, Hal Blumenfeld “Neuroanatomy through Clinical Cases”, Davis Buss “The Evolution of Desire”, Clay Coleman “The Certified Diver’s Handbook”. We’re going to swap books for the remainder of the trip. Reference Material: Warwick Clay “South Pacific Anchorages”, Jimmy Cornell “World Cruising Routes”, Hinz and Howard “Landfalls of Paradise”, Lonely Planet “South Pacific and Micronesia”, Kurt Amsler “The French Polynesia Dive Guide” [google-map-v3 width=”350″ height=”350″ zoom=”7″ maptype=”satellite” mapalign=”center” directionhint=”false” language=”default” poweredby=”false” maptypecontrol=”true” pancontrol=”true” zoomcontrol=”true” scalecontrol=”true” streetviewcontrol=”true” scrollwheelcontrol=”false” draggable=”true” tiltfourtyfive=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkermashupbubble=”false” addmarkerlist=”-4.6585,-135.5357{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]