Passage Pics #1

Here are some visuals to bring the narrative to life.
Alisa and I are both hoping we can get photos to share of the Marquesan facial tatoos.
More soon, Mike

Alisa caught this extremely tasty Dorado just before we rounded the southern tip of the Baja - a great omen at the start of the trip.

Alisa washed diapers every other day during the passage.

This one got away, despite Alisa's every effort. It was big. We had a lot of hits on the crossing, but landed less than half of our fish - our gear was too light. When this was taken we were just about to pass Isla Clarion, a Mexican possesion way out west in the Pacific.

Flying fish landed on the deck almost every night.

Elias is mad for all things having to do with fish and fishing.

I make this a juvenile masked booby, Sula dactylatra. The bird and mammal communities were very different in the northeast and southeast trades.

A group of these whales followed us for about twenty minutes - we're pretty sure they were Cuvier's beaked whales, Ziphius cavirostris. Beaked whales are generally pretty mysterious, and this sighting was a real highlight.

One reef in the main and the jib partly rolled up, so the trades must have been blowing fresh.

Elias loves sitting on my lap during the ham radio net.

Red-tailed tropicbird, Phaethon rubricauda.

The northeast trades.

Down below at night family life goes on.

Sweltering in the cockpit, and unsettled weather all around - the suspense of transiting the ITCZ.

Approaching a squall just north of the equator. A little intimidating...

...but it's all good - just rain, no wind.

Life with a one-year-old aboard, the good part.