The weather continues to be windy with strong waves and overcast skies all day today. Two ships have been dismasted due to heavy winds and have dropped out of the race to return to shore for repairs. But here in the cruising division on Cetacea we're taking it a little easier. Still making good time to Hawaii but exercising a little more caution about how much sail we're carrying. Not to mention Cetacea is a good boat, built heavy and made for cruising. So far she's holding up well.

And so is the crew! While James was at the helm he was kept company by Steve, Kelvin, and Bryan, despite the cold weather. Gavin cooked up a hearty breakfast of oatmeal and a warm lunch of eggs and sausage. John even shared his chocolate, so we're all in good spirits.

So at last we have dry decks. The last two days and nights have been running on a reach, so the boat has been healed over with waves coming across the decks. But today we were able to start to turn downwind at last. We're not running straight downwind and still have a lot of swell on the starboard stern quarter. But if you've ever been below decks on a sailboat that's heeling over on a beam reach know how nice it is when the boat levels out a bit as you start to turn downwind. Hence, the opportunity to Gavin to cook us some good grub today!

Over the next day or two we're hoping to get down to the traces and some warmer water. Hopefully we'll soon be enjoying dry decks every day, along with tshirt weather. But we're looking forward to at least one more cold night of hopefully star filled skies!