Suzi's Birthday Message

On this Celebration of Life Day I want to tell everyone special in my life how thankful I am. Thank you for all the love and kindness over the many years; I am so fortunate. We are limited to 90 minutes of sailmail a week, and propagation has been taking so long, we decided to wait a day. We've had great wind, 20 -25 knots pushing us rapidly cross blue water, but big waves continue to knock us around. The Sidewinder dance has been difficult to get into, but we are doing the best we can. Sunshine and blue skies embrace us as we make good progress, and we are getting better at putting the spinnaker pole up and down with the jib, given the rollie conditions on the foredeck. Night watches with starry skies and the exhilarating energy of the seas fill my consciousness, and on this birthday I celebrate an awareness of being alive, enhanced by the circumstances. Enthusiasm gets lost when the weary body tires of the side to side continuous dance, but we do seem to find it again, especially when the seas bless us with a little bit of calmness every once in a while.  Thank goodness I only wanted  to do this passage once in my life! Location: S 07 56  W 131 42.7  We have 447.2 NMi to Fatu Hiva; perhaps we will arrive Friday afternoon. Ah.......that puts a big smile on my face!