February 12th 2004:

Email from the Ship: We are on our way to Tahiti and expect to be there 2-21-04. Last night 2-10-04 we had a game of scrabble in the lounge. We had 4 teams of 3 people and it was quite lively with all the joshing back and forth.

It has been raining for the past 2 days and the rain pours down in the Pacific just like it does in Florida.It is hot and humid. Our position is N2 W 93 on 2-12-04. We are nearing the equator. We hear stories about what they do to people who have never crossed the equator before but since all of us have crossed before we are not concerned. By the time we get to Tahiti we will have been on the water for 29 days so we are eager to know what land feels like again.

Again for the past 2 days we are going slower 11.2 knots because of engine problems. I forget whether I said anything about this before but we have 2 giant sized engines and when one of them has to be shut down for repair it slows our speed. Ron and David can tell when this happens by the sounds but the rest of us can't tell. I'm off to the monkey deck now.