Beautiful day, huge rolling waves, what you might picture the middle of the ocean like.

Raised the main sail to 3rd reef position, we did have 25+kt of wind (oh and the mess with the flag and lazy jacks wouldn’t let us raise anymore sail either, but didn’t need any more sail either. Shut down one of the engines and motor sailed up and down the 15 foot swells. Tried without the engine but speed dropped too much to make it over the swells.

Tried some cereal for breakfast, special K was alright, but hardly filling. So around lunch (shortly after breakfast) made a couple of wraps that the crew split along with a cheese platter with some yummy white cheddar.

Sit back and let the boat go. Staring up every so often to see how the heck, I was gonna solve the mess above, in 25kn of wind and 15 foot seas. Nothing sounded safe or pleasant, about being tossed around on a string 35 feet above the water.

All day thinking of how to get up there safely, finally the winds were dropping into the 20s and high teens, so we were going to need more canvas. The courage had grown to a necessity. So we dropped the main, ran a safety line through the tack of the main (top of the sail) and hoisted the main back up to its reefed position. The safety line would be the guide to keep me close to the mast and not swinging wildly while being hoisted up on a spinnaker halyard. Probably took 30-45 mins to sort out the details while up there with one hand holding on for dear life as the boat rolled over the waves and the mast exaggerating every wave. I was able to untangle the flag and lazy jack, tie a new “D” ring in to the lazy jack and run a small line through the “D” ring to fix the lazy jacks from the deck – most likely tomorrow.

Christine said the winds went back to 22kt while I was up there, and the 15foot waves were a very good reason to hold on tightly. So if you are counting thats 3 times up the mast on this adventure so far, and of course more bruises were generated this time too!

So for dinner we were sailing sans engines, nice pasta with garlic chicken, and garlic bread. Fresh fruit is on its last few days, only a couple of oranges and apples left. Freezer is still stocked full with protein, lots of pasta and dried foods on board. Had to clean out some of the cilantro from the fridge as it was going bad, but fridge is still full of cheese and produce. The green tomatoes we bought ripened within 2 days, so they too are in the fridge.

Planned on sailing through the night, but when I woke for my shift 6hrs later we hadn’t made any miles toward the destination. I really should raise the rest of the main and keep on without an engine, but I’m lazy and its dark outside. We’ll raise it in the AM and see if we can get 7kt of boat speed from the 10kn of wind, but I doubt it.

Forecast matches the conditions still, so hopefully within 24hrs we’ll start to see the winds shift into a favorable direction and we can start knocking off some miles again.

Crew is good, all seem well rested tho lots of silence when book reading or just chilling out enjoying being but a small speck on a large ocean. Haven’t seen another vessel in 30+ hrs.

Course over ground: 237 Speed over ground: 4.9kn Total miles through water: 779 +650 = 1429 Miles to destination: 1628 kn if we were a bird.

We had yet another day of large seas, high winds and lousy boat speed.  We decided to change our course a bit to get better VMG but we it will get “beat up” so I decided to shower again to change my spirits and get refreshed – always works!  We changed course by about 40°, dropped to one engine and gained a bit more of VMG.  Around 4p my sweet husband decided that he needed to go back up the mast to grab the lazy jack that wrapped around the TX flag – of course we were in 8’ seas and 20 knots of wind.  Better than before, but still not optimal.  Maybe he decided he needed more bruises as the ones he got before are starting to turn yellow?  This time it only took him about 35 minutes to hike up the mast, unwrap the lazy jack, and return to the deck. I think he thinks he is part monkey as he has learned to use every limb, finger and toe to hold on while suspended from mast.  At least I don’t have to go up there in these conditions.  Don’t get me wrong, I would love to be hoisted up the mast, but only when it is anchored or in a slip!

The days and nights are totally running together!  I would not know what day/date it is today except for the fact that it is written on my journal – is that good or bad?  The routine is nice, the food has been great, the boat is holding up, the crew is getting along as well as can be – but where are the trade winds?

Waves, waves, waves everywhere, short, tall, steep chopy with lots of wind equals slow going.

Making 2kn is not ticking off the miles very fast. We have huge gulf steep waves and both engines running 1/2 throttle to make 2kt toward the destination into 27kt of wind.

Breakfast quesidillas, and slowly rolling toward St Lucia, the broken lazy jack has wrapped its self around the good port lazy jack so when the time comes it could be a challenge to raise the main.

Pretty much an uneventful day motoring into the wind @ 2kt, just trying to make head way. We could sail either straight south or straight north today, neither of which would put us closer to our destination, so we just motor on. We have one tank with 1/4 fuel, and the other with 3/4 fuel so we have burnned about 1/2 our supply to go 1/3 of the way. I know fractions are hard, but that means we have to do some sailing to at some point to make it the rest of the way. Not to worry, in 3-4 days time the forecasts (that haven’t been right yet) have the winds coming from a direction that is good for us.

Pizza and beer for dinner. Ron had brought some prepackaged “just add water” pizza dough mixes that came out perfect.

Lots of humidity in the air, so still wearing a jacket, but more to keep you dry than warm.

I may have become used to the rocking and rolling, the fact that its blowing 20kn and 10foot seas out there seems calm to me – wondering why we aren’t running under full sails, then just then a big wave smacks the boat sideways, and I am put back in to my place.

Tonight is super clear, lots and lots of stars out, lots of shooting stars, its very cool.

Crew is doing well, thinking of trade winds. Except for me, I’m dreading the next trip up the mast to untangle the lazy jack, thats not entangled with the Texas flag as well. We can raise the sail to 3rd reef position as is, but any more canvas is going to require some more acrobatics. And just as my bruises are healing from the last trip up there, and in these seas, I’m staying on deck till it flattens out some or we get a good breeze to hold un on a tack.

AIS spotted a couple of ships crossing our path earlier today, one of which was bound for Beaumont, he is going to be there on the 11th, we tried to call him on the radio and see if he could just lift us aboard for the ride, but he was long gone. AIS for those that don’t know is a technology where commercial ships and some recreational boats can transmit their data over radio frequencies along with their coordinates and speed. They can be plotted on screen that looks similar to radar, except that you know the blips are ships.

Course over ground: 252 Speed over ground: 3.0kn Total miles through water: 691 Miles to destination: 1699 kn if we were a bird.