Position: 18 degrees, 52 minutes south; 153 degrees, 07 minutes west 97 nm day (and thanks to Carol on Arnementia for finding my little mistake on yesterday’s position report)

So, if sailing in light air is a delicate dance, sailing in light air on a squally day is like mud wrestling! It’s not very pretty.

In light air you spend a little time balancing all the inputs; jib, main, helm, and windvane and you can achieve a balance that will last for days. Until today, I hadn’t had to touch anything – Charisma was sailing just fine all by herself. But last night the squalls kicked in. Every squall has the same pattern. The wind increases – in this case, from a nice comfortable 10 knots to 20 knots. That part throws everything off balance. You have the big sails up, so you have to furl the jib and/or reef the main. Then the squall lasts 30-45 minutes and once it passes it takes all the wind with it and leaves almost a vacuum. Nothing. Charisma just wallows with no wind to guide her. That part usually last another half hour where you have to go to the helm and try to just keep the boat from spinning in aimless circles using the very small amount of boat speed you might have – maybe 0.5 knots or less – for rudder input. Then the wind fills back in. Now you unfurl the jib and/or unreef the main and go through all the little adjustments to rebalance everything hoping this time will be the last.

Once everything is set and you think you can go get some sleep you look up and see the next squall just upwind, and you know you’re going to do it all over again.

By the way, Ann now belongs to the “On the bowsprit when it goes underwater” club. She was out on the tippy end feeding the jib into the slot when we went up, up, up and big wave and came down, down down and the bowsprit and Ann were christened by the Southern Ocean.

Exhaustion. It was a long night last night and we wear it like a layer of thermal underwear. It’s too hot for thermals this close to Tahiti. Almost there. Just over 200 miles to our waypoint off the island as I write this. But the exhaustion is palpable. For Bob especially. Sailing in light air, fluky light air close hauled is not easy. Wilson, our fabulous windvane is trying but it is not easy as the squalls, not big ones, small ones just big enough to disrupt the fine balance Bob has achieved. Charisma is trying but she answers best to Bob. I try but know that I can only adjust so much. Bob gets awakened by the imbalance of the boat and arrives in the companion way to do his magic. He stands and listens to the input from Charisma and deftly applies the necessary adjustments. She listens and we are off again. Until the next squall sucks all of the air and changes the fine balance. I pray for wind adjustments. I know God doesn’t make deals but perhaps the angels can work with the winds. Perhaps the squalls can give Bob more than 45 minutes sleep each time. That’s how it was last night and through the morning. This afternoon we had to lower the “Whomper” jib and adjust the furling line. It is a big sail and was not furling properly. Working with a sail this large is no easy feat under sail. Bob is an expert from his younger years as an ocean racer; we got it done. Seems a small adjustment made a big difference because it is furling better now. Bob made more adjustments and the wind shifted behind a squall. We are now headed on a better course and the winds are building some. Maybe it will be an easier night. Because we are almost there…