The winds have shifted in our favor and we are now heading due East. The water has turned the light blue color I remember from the last trip.

Woke up at 09:30 to the sound of us crashing over waves thinking it was much later.

It's very warm.

Dodge'n squalls ...

Dana is feeling better so relieved me at 3. I reported what had happened and stumbled off to my cabin. It's quite warm.

Winds are very light and the seas much calmer.

I pulled out the full headsail just as the wind pretty much died. The seas
are suddenly eerily calm where before the squall for hours we were pounding in the waves.

Of course we have the main reefed so that's affecting our speed in these very light winds.

The scene in the salon while I rest. Wayne is on watch. Dana is down sea sick. I'm chilling in the salon

Too tired. Making mistakes.

Paused.

The squall passed by and now the wind is largely back to where it was before but we are moving very slowly.

I meant starboard tack ... we had been on a port tack.

Ugh. The wind shifted quicker than I could react to and the next thing I knew I was doing and unintentional tack and got all confused.
Fatigue is fogging my mind.

After trying a port tack with the wind still changing I decided to motorsail until this big squall to port passes. Maybe the wimds will stabilize.

We don't know what this contact means on the radar. I've never seen the green numbered circles before.

A friendly game of "Dodge Squall".

As I'm sitting here dodging squalls on my watch I was asking the question what is it about a crossing the draws me? It is certainly not fun. It's work. It's exhausting. Fatigue is ever present. It smells. It's damp.

But what it also is is a mental fast. There is so little to do that the mind sits idle.

Another night, another watch.

I have been strangely tired the last two or so days. It may be mildew allergy. I'm not sure.

We are likely to have another five days of this. I hope I start feeling a bit more energetic aoon. Being rhis run down is starting to feel like a slog.

If Dana is not feeling better by 3 I may have to do a 6 hour watch.

Abaolutely everything is damp. You can see the water mist being highlighted
by the stern light pretty clearly.

it is 23:30 and another watch is nearly over. our goal starting today was to get as far east as fast as we could. this was quite difficult as the wind was out of the east. We could sail one way more or less towards Bermuda or sale on the other tack down towards Cuba but neither would really get us east fastener. consulting the weather service Dana ass which way should we choose to go? east or south. The reply came back Southeast. and you think he plays for such sage advice. We set off following the waypoints. the weather suggested only to find the wind continued to frustrate us. finally, your mom and I had a meeting in the cockpit and decided it was time to make our own course and compromise even more. so now the goal is to continue to crab east as much as we can but don't shy away from moving south as well. it may take us longer to reach the trade winds, but by the time we reach them anyway, they won't be of prolonged help. our plan is to simply do the best we can with the wind we have and work it out as we go.

Weird very localized contacts on the radar. Unlike the squalls I'm used to seeing the radar popped up a "new contact acquired" modal and then proceeded to track whatever it was. Wayne feared it might be water spouts. After some time they disappeared but while we were tacking them they were moving at a good
clip, at times over 22kts.

Dana is still not feeling well so he's going to try to sleep.

Winds are not cooperating. They shifted to under 30deg and the boat came to a stop.

As has been the case so often on this passage, despite very good wind speed it's coming from an unfortunate direction. We'd sail off course to get better VMG but the wind is so variable we'd probably have a repeat of the other day which cost us so much time, so we motorsail. Once the wind angle gets solidly around 50 I'll try to pull out the headsail.

Dana and I pulled in the headsail to the second reef point. If winds build any more we'll put a second reef into the mainsail.

Wayne was just playing guitar while Dana was reading. He's got such a feel for the instrument even though he hasn't played in years.

Wayne's gone to lie down. I'm at the helm eating a very late breakfast.

It's a good thing that we have a fuel transfer pump.

I forgot to mention, Wayne noticed mildew all over the boat which may wxplain why I haven't been feeling all that great. He's going to make a cleaning pass through the boat tomorrow.

There's a contact on the horizon.

The wind angle continues to be uncooperative. Because we do not have sufficient fuel reserves, we need to sail as much as possible but that means not going in the direction we want to. This it may be Saturday before we reach Sint Maarten.

My iPhone charge cable just failed. Note to self: being more spare cables.

The winds appear to finally be shifting in our favor. Seas are building. It's noticeably bouncier now.