06.26.905N 125.00.816W (E of Columbia, South of British Columbia) – 400 miles north of the Equator. We crossed the halfway point this morning and are now “only” 1284 miles from Nuka Hiva. With the current conditions (slower) it may be last Monday or Tuesday of next week for our arrival. Conditions are a bit more “exciting”. The trade winds run east to west which normally would be helping us. Last night our speed slowed down to 6.0k, so I pulled out the bible of sailing the world – Jimmy Cornell’s book – sure enough the Equatorial current runs west to east between 08N and 04N – so not only is that slowing us down it’s building some pretty big swell from behind – 9 – 12 feet. From our sailing days – having the boat healed over 20 – 25 degrees was not unusual. Gray Matter likes to be upright – so when we roll 15 degrees and then the stabilizers correct us back upright it’s a bit of a “ride”. The autopilot is usually making a steering correction about the same time. After 10 days at sea, we can read, type email (obviously) without affect, and we have everything stowed so even though it’s a little dramatic – no big deal. Weather report – mid-80s, and we’re getting our fist drizzle of rain. First day I haven’t needed my sunglasses. Looks like more rain ahead. If the sea conditions were better I’d get out there in my bathing suit and scrub brush – I’ll wait for smoother seas. Speaking of heat, I mentioned we monitor temperatures in the engine room. Certainly on some key equipment, but also the overall temperature. Two days ago I noticed the overall temperature has been rising, and was close to 140F. Adds some new challenges to my 4 hour checks; don’t touch anything. We traded emails with one of cruising friends as well as our buddy Melt at Raven Marine – and 135F is not so unusual. Since we didn’t have a lot else going on – we opened the hatch in the salon and the engine room door and at the end of yesterday it was a pleasant 120F. Interestingly our cruise generator ran just fine after getting some fresh air. So we have the hatch and door open this morning after closing it for noise last night. We’re up in the pilothouse all day – so not too bad on noise and heat. [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=”6.5451,-124.9710{}cruiseship.png” bubbleautopan=”true” showbike=”false” showtraffic=”false” showpanoramio=”false”]