…warm wind, (fairly) gentle seas. Position: 12 degrees, 50 minutes south; 149 degrees, 12 minutes west 136 NM day

The conditions are pretty good considering the direction we’re heading. We always need SOMETHING to complain about, but it’s warm, the wind is around 15-20 and the seas we’re kind of heading into aren’t huge so we’re really pretty happy all things considered. We do have a double reef in and we did have to close all the hatches since we’re taking the occasionally wave over the bow and down the decks and sometimes the cabin top, but it could be waaay worse. This is a nice window and we’re basically enjoying it.

Nice and gentle...

...and pretty!

It’s evening right now and the Southern Cross is following us – ducking in and out of the clouds – right on our stern. We’re able to make a little east of north right now which is right on plan. In fact we’re within about 10 miles laterally of our planned route (so far). The moon is so bright we don’t need lights to see what we’re doing. It’s also lighting the low “puffies” (cumulous clouds) in a most dramatic fashion. There won’t be much reading tonight given all the beauty there is to watch all around us.

My only issue is I’m still on “zombie patrol”. There have been enough sail adjustments the last two days as we have settled into the trades that I still haven’t had a solid sleep. An hour here and there, but no deep sleep, so I’m hoping (cross fingers) that when I finish this, that I can get a solid deep sleep. Fortunately Ann has managed to get some decent blocks of sleep that has helped her kick the cold she picked up in Papeete.