We have passed the halfway point in terms of distance. Our planned track was about 2700 miles and as of noon or so today, we only have about 1260 miles left to go. In a perfect world it would take about 10 days but we have just entered the ITCZ (doldrums) and the wind has dropped from 20+ kts to about 10-15 in the last couple of hours. Today’s PredictWind download indicates that wind speed will continue to decline over the next several days to pretty much nothing. So our speed will decrease and the total time taken to reach Nuku Hiva in the Marquesas will probably be a bit more than 10 days. If we wanted to get there quickly, we would have flown. So then we will turn on the engine. We have enough fuel on board to motor for just under 5 days and we hope that this will get us through the worst of the ITCZ with enough fuel left over to get us into the anchorage in Nuku Hiva. The sea is flattening from 3m and it is already easier to move around on the boat. We are heading due south in order to get through the ITCZ as quickly as possible and this has moved the wind and seas to our port quarter which also makes moving around in the boat easier, and sleeping more likely. However, the ITCZ is also populated with all kinds of nasty weather (lightening, rain and squalls). We will be implementing a new watch schedule which will ensure that there are two people on deck at all times in case we have to shorten sail in advance of an approaching squall. Apparently these mostly occur at night and we are hoping that we will be able to see them coming on radar. So less sleep for everybody will be accompanied by greater confidence that we aren’t going to be surprised by a potentially risky squall. In case you missed it, there are daily updates including position, posted under “Where is Marathon” in the column of links on the right hand side of this page. These show our position, speed, etc at about noon Vancouver time along with anecdotal comments regarding what went well or not, during the preceding 24h. ————————————————- Do not push the “reply” button to respond to this message if that includes the text of this original message in your response. Messages are sent over a very low-speed radio link. The most concise way to reply is to send a NEW message to: “Marathon” <CFK9287@sailmail.com> If you DO use your reply button, be sure to delete the original message text and these instructions from your reply. Replies should not contain attachments and should be less than 5 kBytes (2 text pages) in length. This email was delivered by an HF private coast station in the Maritime Mobile Radio Service, operated by the SailMail Association, a non-profit association of yacht owners. For more information on this service or on the SailMail Association, please see the web site at: www.sailmail.com