Course 227° T, Speed 14.7 Knots, Lat 29° 42′ N, Lon 123° 23′ W

Sail changes and more sail changes

After we licked our wounds, we made sail changes all day. With just the two of us and a lot of sail area, each change is a major project. Therefore, we think before we act, and we triple check everything. The one who’s steering watches for the one who’s on the fore-deck. I took that picture with MotionX-GPS, while steering, as Mark was hoisting the Code 3 sail.

We spent hours talking about the weather charts as well as our own observations from the boat. Mark and I agree that we should dive deep south to find some compressions with more wind. The weather forecast doesn’t agree with us. It rarely does, but we don’t agree with the weather forecast and we have good reasons for that. Consider the following: we carry a highly accurate Vaisala Barometer. This barometer employs 3 different high-end pressure sensors, has the algorithmics built-in to always pick the two best sensors and average them. This is a high precision instrument and we named her Kulani. Well, Kulani is telling us that we are on the 1018 isobar and all the forecasts and weather charts are telling us that we are on the 1015 isobar. It’s kind of like the weatherman telling you that it is raining, but the sun is shining out of your window. So, we’ll follow our own science and sense our way down that 1018 isobar.

We now have a lot of sail area up: full main, staysail and large, strong Cuben-Fiber code 3 tight luff headsail. We’re going fast into the night. We’re three hours from Sunset and getting ready to sail through one more wet and dark night. Turning the corner of this ridging high pressure system fast is what we want to do.

Fly Pegasus Fly through the night!

Where no iPhone has gone before!