10.28.149N 121.04.711W Due south of San Francisco, due west of Costa Rica, 650 miles N of Equator, 1621 miles from Nuka Hiva, on course heading 215 degrees magnetic (great circle route adjusts 1 degree every 2 days). Our seventh day since we left Cabo San Lucas and we’ve been underway except the 24 hours we spent in Socorro Islands. We’re making great time in calm seas, over 180 miles last 24 hours. We are running slower than normal for fuel conservation, but have had favorable currents for the last 3 days adding almost a half knot. Nine days remaining at this speed, should put us into Nuka Hiva April 1 (no fooling). Air temperature is the same day and night – 80F, water temperature is up to 86F and humidity has been 75% – reminds me of weather in Maui. There’s just enough breeze from the boat and a little sea breeze to keep the pilothouse comfortable with the doors open. Fuel used as of this morning was 500 gallons of our 2200 capacity, so we are getting over 2miles / gallon which is phenomenal moving 100 tons. At this rate we will arrive in Nuka Hiva with almost 1000 gallons, which will give us options to fuel or not based on quality and price of fuel. Mechanically we changed a Racor fuel filter, I’m finding we get about 1000 miles on a filter with the current batch of fuel (we have dual filters – so I can switch to the other filter and change without shutting the engine down). The first three days we made 200 gallons of water for the trip – topped the tank up to 300 gallons, so I changed the watermaker filters. Between the solar and the main engine alternator we do not need the generator to keep the batteries up. We’ve been using our hydraulic cruise generator to run the stove when cooking lunch and dinner. This is super fuel efficient – as the hydraulic generator only draws .5 gph, does not need warmed up, or loaded up and we can run it for 20 minutes and shut it down. Our engine room checks every 4-6 hours look for temperatures (hydraulic tank cooling, turbo, prop shaft), hydraulic levels (on the stabilizers) and any other unusual site or sound. Speaking of temperatures – engine room is a toasty 115F – so I’ve discovered using a long sleeved spray guard wetted down is the secret when I have to spend anytime in there changing filters. One other engine room novelty – Christine has discovered 115F is perfect for “baking” yogurt. Speaking of making yogurt – we’ve found making our own drinks (ice tea that we make either with tea bags or instant mix) and coffee means we don’t need to carry bottled drinks significantly reducing our trash management. We have the ice coffee recipe down – so maybe we’ll open a coffee house in Brisbane. We have nearly a terabyte of music indexed by artist, genre, and/or track name, so we’re both enjoying exploring songs / artists we haven’t heard in a long time. Reading lots of books thanks to the Kindle – truly life without internet and cell phones.