October27

[position] 08 38S 157 11E

[weather] SE wind 18 knts, sea 2m from SE, 70% cloud, SOG 7.5 knots, COG
336T, bar 1009

[status]  We had no wind all day yesterday and it did not fill in until
midnight.  Unfortunately, it was dead down-wind.  So we kept our
flippers out and stayed on the rumb line in order to arrive Noro as
planned in daylight.  We had lots of rain clouds all afternoon and all
night, but only got sprinkled on once.  Hope that trend keeps up for our
arrival today!  Today is "The Day".  We saw "land ho" about sunrise
today.  After 6 days at sea, it is always a really exciting to see lush,
green mountainous islands.

More Tidbits:    The Solomon Islands population is more than 500,000,
with the largest city being the capital of Honiara (pop 60,000).  The
official language is English, but the most commonly used language is
Pijin.  There are actually more than 200 languages in the Solomons, some
of which are only spoken by one village or one family.  Sometimes,
villages next to each other can not communicate with each other.  Most
people live off the land and the sea in communal villages. There are
very few trained professionals with paying jobs. Their economic
resources include logging, fishing, copra (coconut), and a small amount
of tourism.  Most of the tourism is related to the excellent diving with
visibility of  100 feet and more.

Count Down:  967 nmiles down, 20 nmiles to go.   Arrival will be Monday,
today, mid-day. More Later - G&T

[END]