Day 3- Fantastic sailing and snap peas too

Time: 2200 Zulu (noon Hawaii time)
Position: 16-deg 47-min N 156-deg 42-min W
Wind: ENE 12-14 Seas: E 3-6-ft SE component
Avg. Course: 191 T
Avg. Speed: 4.8-knots
Rig: storm jib and single-reefed mains'l
24-hr distance traveled: 116-nm
Distance to Fanning Island: 671-nm

We are happy to report that Chris is feeling much improved and both of our appetites are ravenous. This is good because we have a ton of vegetables that are ready to be eaten. We are very impressed with our new refrigerator's performance, having pulled crisp and near fresh snap peas out for use in last nights ginger and red pepper pasta. Tao, with her new rigging, is doing excellent and our MVP crew-member, Moni is steering true without complaint.

It has been beautiful sailing for the past 24-hours. A fast beam reach with semi-organized seas. Light winds, but enough to keep us moving and at the noon point, it is just picking up a couple of knots for more regular speeds in the 6-knot range. We keep talking about putting up more sail area, but we're moving plenty quick and are comfortable with the manageable configuration, and then it picks up just enough that we need to pull another reef anyway. As long as we're making 100-nm per day, seems like plenty of sail area. With the moon near gone, the night watches are filled with spectacular star-gazing, a stunning planet that is setting a few hours after the sun (anyone know which one?), and of course phosphorescence lining our wake.

After a relatively uneventful night, Shawn got up early to photograph the sunrise, and at 0800 we had another cargo ship encounter. This time 30-min after being warned of its presence, it passed 3.4-nm behind us (just as the AIS had estimated) en route to Panama. Again, upon radio contact, the ship could not find us on their radar at 10-nm out. We love our AIS. Otherwise, our watches are each accompanied by several birds as they circle Tao hunting for fish below our keel, and we are eating perfectly ripe tomatoes like apples. It is difficult to keep track of the day of the week, but we're pretty sure it's Sunday, and so we want to send a special Happy Mother's Day out to all you mothers following our adventures.