Southbound -Third Day - underway Newport to Tortola

Captain's Log: Tom

0130 position

37 03N 69 11W

course: 158

Speed: 9.2kts

Welcome to ocean sailing.

The Gulf Stream set us back a bit but we seem to be breaking free.

The sea temp is down a bit and the sat photo shows that we should be on the back side by now.

All is well on Zen. Pretty uneventful day today. Mostly motoring and motor sailing until about an hour ago (12:00 midnight). Scott was woke me for my watch with news of increased winds. We reefed the main and rolled out the jib (one reef) and off we went.

We're currently sailing close hauled at 10kts in 20kts from the SE. The seas are very confused as we leave the Stream.

Gotta love the pilot house. I'm sitting at the nav table with all the controls at my finger tips typing an email while waves and rain spray the boat. Funny, it seems pretty fast and furious after the lolly gagging we have become accustomed to over the past couple days.

Weather is supposed to stay like this through tomorrow. We're making good time on a direct course for Bermuda. NICE!! We need to get East to prepare for the Easterly trades. We listened to Herb earlier today and he mentioned strong Easterlies at 28 degrees. We going to shoot for 64W and turn South for Tortola.

Life on board is settling into a groove. This is hump day, day three. My internal clock always seems to calibrate to the sailing schedule on day three. We're all sharing the cleaning but it seems like John is the cook. We'll see how long that lasts :) I may have to burn something to maintain my "cleaner" status :) Shhh don't tell him. Keep the emails coming for the boys

Cheers,

-Tom

0130 position

37 03N

69 11W

course: 158

Speed: 9.2kts