Last night the wind picked up till it was 14-18k by midnight. Through the night we had excellent sailing conditions with winds in the 10-15k range taking over between 2-7am. It was one of the best sailing nights we can remember and the off-watch crew slept soundly as the boat sailed smoothly.

By 9am this morning the wind was down to 10k and by 10am it was only 8k. We started motor sailing in 7-9k from the NE making 7-7.5k over ground running at 1600rpms. By 2pm the wind had died to 6k. At 4pm we have about 3k from the NE and are motoring on heading of 274M making 6-6.5k over ground. The seas are from the East at 3-5ft, but the swells are large and smooth and don't bother us.

So far we have motored for about 7 hours today. Combined with motoring early yesterday and the day before we have about 20 hours motoring so far including running the motor to charge batteries. We topped off in Raiatea two days before leaving, and ran the motor about 6 hours before leaving. This accounts for about 40 gallons of fuel out of our total capacity of 190 US gallons.

It is now midnight and I am closing this day's log. We are still motoring and the wind is about 5k now, apparently from the SE. The mainsail is still up, too lazy to take it down, so its snapping from side to side in the swells. Not great for the sail I know. Sounds worse on deck then it does below, probably because the engine noise drowns out everything else.