The Friendly Brit

We are so close, we can smell the pineapple in the air! Not really, the wind is blowing us toward the island, but you get the idea. We are getting very impatient and looking forward to being safely anchored in Radio Bay to regroup and fix minor issues with the boat. Most of all, can't wait to GET A FULL NIGHT OF SLEEP! We have about 200 miles left, so we are hoping to arrive Wednesday morning, if all goes well.
The other night I was sailing along at the helm and the AIS system went off again. Jon woke up and looked at it with me. We saw a tiny blip only moving 5.3 knots or so toward our stern. There was no real danger upon us, so we kind of ignored it and continued on with our night.
A few minutes later, an English chap hailed us on the radio. It ends up the other vessel, S/V Nomad, had just one guy aboard coming from Panama on his way to Honolulu. He was 36 days out on his trip, and we were the first people he had talked to that entire time! After Honolulu, he said he planned to sail on to Alaska to visit some friends.
This man shared with us that he had already circumnavigated the globe solo once before, and said he "just doesn't want to go back to Europe right now." He has been cruising like this for 11 years, all by himself on his 34 foot boat. He was eager to talk and did so for almost the entire 3:00-4:00 am shift! I can't say that I blame him though, everybody needs somebody to chat with now and then, and we were probably the first chance he had to ramble.
He asked why were we going back to California so soon, and we replied that we still had to work/go to school for a living. He chuckled and said he had forgotten the meaning of the word "work." What a life!
We have been running the kite during the day, and dutifully taking it down at night (See? We really did learn our lesson from last time!) We have a slight tear in the spinnaker that needs to be fixed, and the after-guy (one of the connection points between spinnaker and boat) has almost totally chafed through. Quite the steep learning curve when it comes to figuring out the exact wear and tear on using gear long term.
We picked our spirits up by starting to plan all of the hiking trails we will visit on the big island. Of course we will check out some waterfalls, rain forests, and hopefully flowing lava. One of the hikes will be through a lava tube that is so pristine, only a park ranger can escort you there. They want to keep its exact location hush-hush, I guess.
And, of course, I am excited to pick out the restaurants that we may stop by.
We miss everybody and we miss land.