Fish for lunch

Kellie's Comments--We're on our way to a 160 mile day, Thurs noon thru Fri noon. It's still a bit rocky rolly and we are battling some tummy issues, but it makes it mentally tolerable to know we are speeding along. We passed the 1,000 mile mark at around midnight Thursday night. We're heading west southwest, making great time. When I remember that you can drive a car 160 miles in a couple of hours it depresses me a bit, but for a sailboat, we're doing OK. We haven't seen any planes, I guess that's good since then we'd seem really slow.

We caught a huge tuna on Thurs. We figure around 40 lbs, at least as big as Carter. Amazingly enough we fit about 9 dinners worth in the freezer. Luckily we've been eating up our food this last week and had just enough space. We had it for lunch with butter, garlic and limons. Yum Yum. We won't be doing any more fishing for a while. It was a beast to haul on board and we certainly don't have any more freezer space.

We had another spectacular visit by spotted dolphins as well. They seemed to just materialize out of the waves in groups of 4-5. Pretty soon we were surrounded. They fly right out the front of a cresting wave and are airborne for a second or two. It's great fun and we're so happy to have the video camera.

Today Ellie is not feeling great, but we're still trying to do some school. I've promised her a painting project if she does a good job. Carter is stamping with some sea life stamps and is quite content for the moment.

We've fallen into a fairly predictable routine. Pete has watch from 3 am until everyone gets up in the morning for the radio schedule at 7:45. Then we all eat breakfast (except Peter V. since he's still sick) and Pete goes back to bed. I do school with Ellie and keep Carter entertained until lunch. Then it's time for some fun and games. We're played Yahtzee, Go Fish, read stories, listened to CD's (stories & music), done art projects and watched wildlife. It's working pretty well. After dinner, one of the guys does the dishes and then they crash. I put the kids to bed and then enjoy a few hours of quiet. I've been listening to sermons on CD, reading and doing cross word puzzles. Peter V. takes the 11 to 3 shift and I get a full night sleep.

I'm realizing that for myself, the stress and depression that I had coming down to CA is gone and I'm much more adapted to boat life. The kids set me off sometimes with too much whining, but with 3 of us we can usually find some entertainment. The other thing that is hard is that I'm losing a lot of food to mold. Even my egg shells have gone moldy and I've cracked a few rotten ones. When Ellie spilled her chocolate milk yesterday as I was trying to deal with rotten eggs, I came unglued. This morning, after a good night's sleep, I'm feeling more chipper. I just better not find another container of moldy food!

It's still hot, but we have a breeze through the cockpit today and it doesn't seem as sticky. We all had a wash yesterday and that was a nice feeling before bed.