The turn off - April 25

Solis log: 33 15'42N 179 59'15W

We just crossed the international date line! Yippie! Now we get to have today all over again...it was the 26th just a little while ago, now it's the 25th again. Too bad it wasn't my birthday, everyone would owe me a second round of cake and ice cream as I enjoy my birthday one more time. This is also significant for us as we now start counting longitude down getting closer and closer to our Hawaiian destination. I think we have our arrival all planned out. It will be out to eat sandwiches, then burgers, then a salad bar then desert, then start the whole cycle again until we have at least gained back all the weight we lost. On that note I was again dreaming last night about food, this time I was at an all you can eat salad bar. It was great!
Dad report: still not in good shape. Really calm seas today, but still very sick. Luke spends almost 90% of his waking hours reading books. He has already read through and entire stack. Amazing. I'm usually up 5 or 6 times a night. I have to admit that I have been a bit grumpy at times on this trip, because waking up to sails flogging or the boat tipping over because of too much sail, or whatever the case may be, I have to jump to it. Last night the wind picked up pretty strong and it was just pouring down rain. I was awoken from my soggy sleeping-bag slumber to the boat with the toe rail dipping too deep into the ocean so I had to go out and drop sail. But it was interesting last night being out there in the rain at who knows what hour that was. Last night was the darkest night of the trip. You could not see half way down the boat it was so dark out. When I went out into the storm last night I heard something. To my absolute surprise and amazement I heard birds. They must have seen my flashlight. I could just hear them making, well, bird sounds. Not a chirp, not a screech, but something in between. They followed with me for some time but then soon diminished. I never did get a look at what they were. For the most part all we see are albatross. They have been flying around the boat everyday for the entire trip. But I have never heard them make any sounds at all. It really makes me wonder what kind of birds those were last night.
It reminded me of my first night sailing trip to an island south of Shimoda. My buddy and I were sailing at night. It was a beautiful night and quiet, but good wind. Suddenly I heard what sounded like breathing around me. It startled me and scared me but when I turned on my flashlight and looked around I found that we were surrounded my dolphins. It was wonderful.
So getting to the title of my blog today. The turn off. When to make the turn off. Hawaii is around 22 degrees, we are currently at 33, so when to make that turn. We're getting close so I'm really starting to watch the weather to try and time it right so we can have good winds to get us the rest of the way. I've been watching for some time and it seems that the timing may be difficult. We could be nailed by a head wind for the last couple of days which may make things a bit rough. Anyway, for now I'm going to throw a shake of south into our eastern course as it seems the winds may be at our backs for the next 3 or 4 days if we do so.