At noon on 19 May, Leander is at 23 44 N, 73 54 W, sailing on a beam reach at 5.1 knots. We continue to sail due west, on a course of 273 magnetic, in diminished winds of 12 knots. The seas are relatively calm and the sky mostly clear.

We ran out of wind as the sun went down yesterday, and motored overnight with winds at only 5-8 knots. The winds came back again this morning, though without much force. They are strong enough, however, to keep us moving. So we are ghosting along at 5 knots, in calm seas. It is a pleasant sail.

Sundown is also the time we usually catch fish, and last night was such an example. We caught a smallish Mahi Mahi at about 6 p.m. The kids had good fun watching us pull her in (she was a fighter), and then clean her. It’ll be enough for a good-sized dinner of fresh fish for Sima and me tonight, and we are both fans of Mahi Mahi. We taught the kids a little bit about the diet of fish too, as in cleaning her out, her stomach contents spilled (stop reading here for those who have fragile stomachs themselves — what, too late?!). Her last meal had been a small spiny puffer-fish, and the little fish’s eyes gazed back at us mid-way through our Mahi Mahi’s digestive system. It sounds a bit gross, but it was pretty cool actually, and the kids were fascinated. The last fish we caught we killed quickly with a knife to the head, but when we opened it up, the heart was still beating, which also amazed Alexander. (Aylin was too afraid of that earlier fish to get close, but watched this one closely.)

All is well aboard. Alexander is “reading” to Aylin next to me, a giant picture dictionary that teaches Spanish, Portuguese, and English. For now, the kids just like the pictures. They are on the toy page, discussing what things they have back in Boston and Istanbul, and what Santa Claus might bring in the future. Sima is stretched out in the cockpit sawing through what is, by my count, her fifth book of the passage. Voracious.

We traveled 135 miles yesterday, for a total of 619 sailed, and 115 to go to George Town. And 1,120 to Boston.