Last night at about 2am the wind finally changed. We detected a 8k breeze from the NW developing and by 3am we were sailing in 10k from the NW making about 4.5 - 5k over ground on a heading of about 175M. By 8am we raised the mainsail and we had 10-12k from the NW and were making 5.5 - 6.5k. By by 11am the wind had dropped to 8k and so we are now motorsailing. It is now 12 noon and we have about 10-11k from the NW and are motorsailing at 6.5-7k on a heading of 165M.

We seem to have finally found the low we have been hearing so much about. Forecasts predict 10-20k from the NW veering to the SW by the end of the day. Overnight and tomorrow we should expect 10-20k from the South or SSW. Our barometer was at 1019 this morning which was down 5 from yesterday morning (1024). Right now we have 1017.5 and falling, and we have a dark gray mass on the horizon blotting out everything else, so I think it is safe to say we have found the low.

I have no idea why I was so thrilled to have found the wind, now I wish we had not. It is now 9pm and we have had a very exhausting day. The wind picked up soon after I wrote the last log entry. By noon it was blowing 25k and we reefed and tried to settle down but found it very difficult to find a good sail combination which would move the boat forward when the wind was settled at around 17k but which did not overcanvass the boat during the periods of 22-24k which occur every 15 or 20 minutes. A racing crew would be constantly reefing and unreefing, laying out more sail and bringing it back in as needed. We just can't sustain that kind of energy exenditure. So we settle for motorsailing at low rpms - which keeps the boat moving in the lighter periods and causes no harm when it blows 20-25k, we just accelerate a bit more then we would. So we are doing about 5k for the most part, when the big gusts come in we accelerate to 6.5 or so. We are also batteling a substantial northerly flowing counter-current which is slowing us down. Our boat speed through the water is a good 1.5 to 2k higher then our speed over ground.