Pacific Odyssey - Leg 2

I´m not sure what happens to our days; we were discussing this tonight, anticipating your question of "What do you do all day
out at sea?" when we return home. We´re not quite sure, but the days fly by. We agreed that we talk a lot, that we spend a good part of the day either on deck or around the table eating together, talking,
discussing and laughing. Our watch is on evening dishes and it has turned out to be a very fun part of the day; all 11 of us and Simon first spend about an hour around the table ´hanging out;´ then Claire, our amazing watch leader, divides up the jobs and in a very comfortable manner we proceed to return the hold and the galley to some kind of order and cleanliness, all the while completely enjoying each others company. It´s been a beautiful night, the moon looks full and the sky is clear. We have a reefed main, the fore and the jumbo still up. Skipper and I were just sitting in the stern along with a group of trainees, listening to music, laughing, talking, having tea,
etc. taking in as much of the moment as we could. The moon is shining
quite white on the sails, and looking up from a lying position on the deck is an awesome sight and an almost overwhelming feeling at how fortunate we are to experience it all. Last night just before midnight, making 9 knots with water over the rail, Sara decided to lower the jib. Jeremy and Tristan harnessed up and were out on the bowsprit up to their armpits in water pulling down and lashing the jibsail. I was lowering the halyard with several others and we had wonderfully warm, frothy ocean up to our thighs and elbows as water came up through the scuppers and over the caprails. Under the full moon, it was quite the experience. We sighted land at 1000 hrs this morning, about 45 nm away. We have decided to continue on to Hiva Oa 75nm southeast of Nuka Hiva, then back to Nuka Hiva with a following wind. This morning we spent 3 hrs in a game led by Jose where we all had a chance to share how we saw ourselves; others in the group were
also encouraged to contribute positive aspects of that person that
they had discovered in the past 2 weeks. I was impressed at how honest
everyone was, how vulnerable they were willing to be, and how much they supported each other. Many of the girls, led by Jen, dressed up for our session in the stern. Genna G. decided to forego the skirt but
dressed in her wonderfully colourful clothes that are such a positive part of her. We had a late lunch, great bread and fixings, made by Gillian. For the remainder of the afternoon there were showers, books, some sail handling, and a great game of Silent Football, led by Jeremy. Lots of fun. Supper was roast beef, homemade
french fries, green beans and gravy, also very good. It is late and I
just heard that the main is about to come down as the wind is strengthening and the trysail will be safer for the night. It means we will be waking up some trainees to help lower the main, then raise the trysail. It´s nice there´s a moon. This is it, good night, Bonice.