July 17

July 17, 1900 hrs. Position N 46.22 / W 142.13 135 miles in the previous 24 hrs.
Uneventful day so far today. We have had good wind since about 1800 last night, about 10 - 15 knots. We have been sailing along nicely, right now at about 6.5 knots on a beam reach. It is very chilly out here, down right cold at night. We currently have a heavy fog, visibility is only about 200 ft. The AIS is doing it's job though. We had a ship coming up behind us, passed behind and to starboard of us about 1.5 miles away. Never saw it except on the the screen. Very handy device. I've been harassing Bob about having this nice diesel heater in here that we can't use. He has been freezing even more than me. He robbed the fuel line from the heater to go to his little diesel generator. He keeps telling me "We've been in the tropics for nine years, we didn't need a heater!" It's not too bad though, nothing an extra layer of clothes won't fix. It would be better if the fog would burn off and let the sun do it's part to help. It is getting darn cold as it gets later today. I just tried to convince Bob to turn the boat around and head back to Hawaii where it was warm. He didn't seem to like that idea.
We are scooting right along, our latitude in now a little north of the Columbia River and we are about 750 miles offshore. The miles are ticking off in a hurry now that we are pointed pretty much straight at our waypoint. We are crossing our fingers that the wind stays good for the week, if so we might make it in early next week.