The last 48 hours have brought us plenty of rain. The squalls continue to march across the sky coming up out of the SW and heading NE. It is interesting to watch those black lines bear down on you. Luckily they have brought nice winds which keep us moving toward our goal but once they pass we are back to wallowing on our own. With all the power washing we have been receiving, it is fair to say there isn't a speck of Sahara sand left on us.
The biggest change is the noise, or lack there of. We finally took the battens out of the main sail. They are flat long fiberglass stays that slide into the main sail giving it a bit more form and rigidity. That is a great help when we are sailing up wind but it has been murder on our nerves with this rolling around. With each swell the sail would fill and unfill with a noisy crack, sending the reverberations down the mast and throughout the whole boat. With each whip, our nerves would fray
a little more at the thought of the potential damage we were doing to the sail, not to mention disturbing the precious sleep of the mate of duty. Removing them has brought an end to that noise. The extra weight that they provided in the sail actually was helping them to flog around a bit so they are even a bit more stable now on this down wind run. Best of all, that equates to better sleep, at least for Lisa. Poor Bruce is still plagued with nothing but disruptions on his daytime naps. Hopefully
that changes a bit tonight.
Day 11 brought consistent squalls, Day 12 brought something new every hour. Winds from the North, the South, the West and finally back out of the East. The final squall came around 3pm on Friday with a whopping 35 knots of wind and a torrential down pour, then they seemed to have blown them selves out for a while. We have actually settled into a steady 25-20 knots out of the ESE and are clipping right along the rhumb line toward our destination.
Spending half your nights awake and half you days asleep sort of causes the days to run together. Luckily we have our stellar crew of Tristan and Matthew to keep things in order. After school work they have started taking on new projects. Matthew entered the galley today and cooked up some delicious coconut chocolate chip cookie bars for us all by himself, and Tristan is diligently sewing some very special Christmas presents. The Christmas chain is starting to grow nicely as we count our days
out at sea. I have to say that it is much more fun to count down the last half than it is to count up the first half.
We hear that some significant weather is heading your way for many of you, so if you get the opportunity, throw a snowball or two for us.
until next time,
Your Ohana Kai crew
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