The sea is calming down even more in the last 12 hours. Almost no wind, with a gentle motion of swell. Our speed is up, sometimes exceeding 8 knots, with 3-4GPH fuel burn. We couldn’t ask for a better condition. Haven’t seen another man-made object since 2 days ago, not even a dot on the radar screen which is scanning 24 nm radial. We were kept busy by birds yesterday. N62 is like a magnet attracting birds even 500 nm offshore. They love to sit on the upwind flopper-stopper pole and make a mess on our brand-new solar panel and canvas bimini. And they have no fear – no loud noise, hand-waving could scare them away. We had to physically climb up the pilothouse roof and poke them with a paddle – not the safest thing to do in the middle of pacific. And they would come back soon if we were not up there guarding. We eventually came up with a sophisticated device – a coat hanger bend to a U shape with some aluminum foil attached. We rigged it up so it sticks out on top of the pole. It seems to be effective last night. We will see how it does today. [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=”15.580,-116.385{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]