24 06.04N 138 57.13E

Hello All, We have been sailing right along since the last time I wrote. The wind has been up and down so Stephen is getting good at helping me reef sails and making sail changes. The weather has been sunny but cooling off by the day. I am almost ready to put pants on but have been hesitating. We are now 587nm from Japan and at the moment a low pressure is going over the Island of Kyushu. They are reporting gale warnings so I expect tonight we will get a little bit of that. It should pass by tomorrow afternoon and then its anyone's guess what kind of wind we will have when we get closer. Last night we had a visitor land on the stern of my boat. An Albatross looking to get some rest landed right on top of my GPS receiver and RADAR mount. We lost the GPS signal and I figured the satellites just dropped out like they sometimes do. Then I looked up to see my navigation was blocked by this big feathered bird. I just turned off the GPS and let him take a break. When he wanted off a few hours later his wings were getting caught in my antennas. I don't know how he ever got there with out crashing and watching him hold on while we were rolling was funny to watch. I finally had to help him off with the boat hook. After restarting the GPS the antenna wouldn't connect to the unit, I thought this is really bad. I have back up systems but this is my main unit and works very well. I rebooted and unplugged and finally got it to go. We were both relieved. That silly bird came back again this morning and was trying to do the same thing. I kept him away with the boat hook and while he was leaving he got to close to the rigging and the boat rolled and hit him right in the ass. He sqauked and barely got away without crashing. In my experience with Albatross now, I would say they are not the brightest bulb in the lamp shade. That has been our last 36 hours and I will keep you posted. PEACE