We got our westerly in the middle of the night, and it's a beaut. Like being in the trades again, only we're going the other way. The last time we had the jib out on the whisker pole was back in May, on the run in to Rarotonga. In honor of that experience, David is planning to do some hand-steering, to "see if I can beat Jake." No one has yet, but he might be the man. Jake sure could use a rest; he deserves it. The forecasts suggested a chance of rain, but so far it's been beautiful. Even the slow, light-air sailing we were doing yesterday was extremely pleasant, like a day on the Catalina Channel. Only with big swells running. But not enough to keep Sandra from baking a batch of oatmeal cookies. The cookie monster awakes!

There's a pleasing symmetry about this run on the westerlies, compared against the first leg out from Auckland. There, at about latitude 36 south, we were riding the effects of a low sweeping across to the south of us. Now we're doing the same thing in a different hemisphere, on the other end of the same leg. Using a low to the north this time, because of the Coriolis effects being opposite up here. I dunno, I find this sort of thing amusing anyway. Maybe I've been at sea too long.