October 10

This morning we left Wojte at about 9am. We motored down the lagoon to the pass in 12-15k from the ENE in fairly clear skies with about 50% cloud cover. After leaving the pass we set our course for Majuro at about 140M. The wind was close on the bow and we were sailing at about 55-60 degrees apparent. Seas were 5-7ft. By 11am the wind was blowing 18-22k and the seas were 6-8ft. We began to see squalls all around us and by 1pm we started getting hit every couple of hours. The squalls we hit had about 20-25k of wind in them and often made the wind direction move South till they passed, which sometimes forced us more to the West, though we were managing to stay high of the rhumb line (ie. East or to windward of the line between Wotje and Majuro).

We were crashing into it fairly well when we decided to reef the mainsail (we also took in the jib quite a bit). This slowed us down but more importantly reduced the angle of heel. We had been taking rushing water over the lee side dcck quite constantly before – now, with less sail out we stood up a bit straighter and got the rail out of the water. In general, this made things a bit easier on the crew.

By 10pm the wind had begun to moderate and by 11:30pm it was down to 12-15k and we the seas were starting to lay down.