What a Difference a Day Makes

Wow! Now this is more like it! Just one day removed from a full-fledged gale and we have twenty knots of southwest wind wind six foot seas from the same direction and are screaming along at over 6.5 knots at the moment with gorgeous sunny skies scattered with cumulus puffs reminiscent of our days in the trades. Must say my spirits have been lifted just watching the miles tick away. We are now under 1000 miles from home after having somehow salvaged a 104 NM day out of the past 24 hours. That means everyday but one thus far has been over the 100 mile benchmark I set as a daily goal, and that day (#15) was 97. Not bad.
So what do I have to complain about today? Well our primary autopilot has pulled up lame and despite two days worth of attempts to fix it (including one that looked very promising today) it looks like the motor is at fault and we are limping along with the back-up at the helm. Problem is the back-up has a very sensitive off-course alarm and seems to have trouble holding a steady course, so the person on watch has to help it by babying the wheel and every ten minutes or so we hear the beep, beep, beep, beep of the alarm. Must say it is annoying come nightfall; but so long as she holds up it is still a hundred-fold better than hand-steering full time.
Not much else to report. Surfing down swells with conditions quite similar to those we faced off Baja on the sail to Cabo. The boat is drying out quite nicely from the storm and while everything still feels damp and dirty it is a vast improvement over yesterday's pig stye. Now we just need for the winds to stay from a favorable direction for another ten days or so and we'll be home free.
Enjoying the speed, and preparing to take a much-needed bucket shower in the all-too-cold 66 degree water. Better cold than stinky though. Aloha.

July 1. 1500.
35.25N by 136.34W

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