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June 22, 1999
Hawaii to Tarawa Voyage, Update #50
Day 50. Tuesday 22 June 1999 0321 GMT
Wind E 3. Heading 180M.
Latitude: 04deg 03.822N
Longitude: 178deg 48.088W
Sea state - same as yesterday: polite ocean with few surprises. Not overly inspiring though. A light wind occasionally funnels through the hatch, but its not enough. I'm watching tiny sweat beads magically grow from nothing on my forearm as I write this. With no wind to evaporate them, they just grow large and unstable and finally merge with others to form a rivulet that snakes around and under my arm, dripping every 2-3 seconds from my elbow onto the floor under the seat.
We have a new visitor - a 3ft Dorado fish, beautifully marked in turquoise, yellows and light blues - patrolling back and forth underneath Moksha. The sharks are nowhere to be seen which I find surprising. This guy seems to have just waded in and claimed the local vicinity as his/her own territory. Its the largest Dorado I've ever seen - with a great drooping lower jaw that hangs open bloodhound-like as it glides effortlessly around a foot beneath the surface, and a flat, caved in boxer's face that gives it a rather menacing appearance even from the security of the cockpit. Maybe that's why there aren't any other fish around.
The electric water maker is starting to pump out water with high salinity; OK for cooking by too salty for straight drinking. So, I've actually taken to pumping some fresh from the hand pump, just to give me something different and extra curricular to do. Like I said yesterday, I've having a really hard time right now keeping enthused about my day's routine. The main highlight for today is the last half onion that I will ceremoniously form the basis of a curry with tonight to mark the 50th day. So after today there will be no more 'psychological onions', just 'psycho-M+M's'.
Jason Lewis,
The Moksha motor
Posted on June 22, 1999 2:08 AM