At midnight we are sailing downwind with just a reefed main in 15+k wind and gusts to 25. Rain squalls are popping in and out and the seas are confused and sharp. We continued in this fashion without change through the night. The captain took the 9pm to 1am shift as usual, but the Commander failed to wake him at the start of his next watch (ie. 4am) and let him sleep until 5:30am. The Captain was grateful to say the least.

At 8am local time (15:00UT) the Queen Jane is sailing on a heading of 225M at a speed of 6.5-7k over ground (with occasinal burts to 8+). The wind is from the NNE at about 20k and the seas are relatively tame at 6-8ft and are also running from the NNE. The skies remain completely overcast and we have had rain fairly steady but light since about 2am local time.

Around 9:30am the wind backed around to the North and even NW for a while and we rolled up the jib (which had been poled out on the stbd side) and unrolled it on the port side (sans pole). We continued on tht way for couple of hours in the rain.

But before that happened we noticed an alarm running in the cockpit from the engine control panel. But the engine was not running and the key was in the off position. I removed the key, it still beeped. I started the motor and all alarms went off, all readings were normal. But it looks like the switch has shorted out and will have to be replaced. For now we shut down the master power switch to the engine controls to squelch the alarm.

At 5pm we have been sailing wing and wing now since this morning at around 10:30 when we moved it over to the stbd side. Again. In the pouring rain this time. We had several hours of rain accompanied by rolly seas and confused swells. By 1pm all had settled down and we've been enjoying a comfortable downwind ride at 7k+ in partly sunny skies.