June 7, 2007 - Pacific Crossing, Day 5

Last night sucked. I'm sure there is a more eloquent way to put it, but the unvarnished truth is that it blew. After dinner we were far enough south that we had to turn downwind and start heading west. We had a nice stiff breeze, but the main was blanketing the staysail and jib, so we had to bag and furl them, respectively. All this took place after dark, so rather than messing with the pole in the dark, on a wet foredeck pitching up and down in the swell, we decided to wait until morning to pole out the jib to the windward side. We were moving along well enough with just the main, for all of ten minutes. Then the wind promptly died.

As the wind filled back in over the next few hours it kept backing, so we needed to head farther and farther south to keep from jibing. As we altered course, practically back to the heading we had been on when we were going upwind, the waves started hitting us broadside. In retrospect we should have jibed, or, better yet, made our sail change earlier in the day. But we didn't. Instead we got knocked around all night long. Neither of us slept well off watch, and this morning we both looked beat. We got the pole up right after breakfast, and have been moving along nicely all day with the main and jib wing-on-wing.

Continuing yesterday's banana theme, dinner tonight is going to be crepes with nutella and sliced bananas. Yum. It seems unnatural, but we may actually put on weight during this passage.