To summarize the passage thus far. At noon today we had traveled 416 miles in just over 74 hours which works out to an average speed of 5.58 knots. This is below the 6.3 knot average speed that we have enjoyed on previous offshore passages. This is primarily due to the point of sail, beating, coupled with an average wind speed of 9 knots. Long story short, like a good NFL quarterback we have taken what the defense has given us and made the best of it. Enough on the stats, on to the subjects of this entry.

On the night of February 3rd, while we were setting the sails after shutting down the engine, we heard something drop on the cockpit sole. When I looked down I saw a small bushing lying there with no clue where it came from and searching in the dark turned up nothing. Sailors don't like to find unexplained loose parts laying around on deck it instills fear. What is going to go wrong? That is why certain unsavory racing sailors have been known to sprinkle rigging parts around the deck of their competition before a race. Finding the loose parts on deck instills doubt into the opposition possibly throwing them off their game. In our case it cost me a decent nights sleep as my mind continually went over the area where it could have fallen from and tried to figure out where a bushing of that size could have come from. By the following morning when the sun came up I had a theory, that it was in the area of the mechanism that engages that control lines from the windvane steering system to the steering wheel. But it was steering the boat so how could there be something wrong/ Upon investigating the locking mechanism the locking pin rocks back and forth as the vane makes steering adjustments. My theory is that with the bushing installed there would be less slop in the pin. However, I can't check it out without disengaging the the vane steering and I don't want to do that as long as it continues to work. Disengaging it would mean that we would have to hand steer or have the autopilot steer. To try to repair it would involve working on it while the wheel was moving. So we watch and wait, while the mild fear dissipates with each passing day that it continues to work.

If anyone had told me that I would wake out of a sound sleep in the middle of the night at 28 degrees N latitude shivering, I would have thought them to be crazy. But that is what happened to me last night. I know where not in the tropics yet but, geeze Louise, shivering cold at 28 degrees north - really! When I tell you the temperature was in the mid 60s my friends in the frozen north will laugh. In any case we are both very happy that we still have the cold weather clothes that these night watches have required.

As for what is ahead, the wind prediction is still a bit light 10 maybe as high as 15 knots. But the good news is that it is supposed to continue to veer more southerly over the next couple of days. Hopefully, this will allow us to steer a more south easterly course rather than the easterly one that we have been on. Gotta get to that warmer latitude.