The storm has passed to our south, as we sailed fast and hard towards Minerva Reef. As we plugged the coordinates for Minerva into our GPS, we learned that Sea Child has been there before, in 2001. The weather has cleared this morning, sunrise around 7:00am, blue skies, winds 15 knots out of the south west. We are on a port tack, broad reach towards Minerva Reef, sailing a course of 15 degrees. Our top speed during the heavy wind and rains was over 19 knots, with a triple reef main and storm jib alone. With this type of boat speed, we expect to make Minerva in about 30 hours from now.

The heavy rains and rough seas that we sailed through yesterday are long gone, and today we expect to enjoy the sailing from outside in the cockpit. The air temperature is quite warmer now, too, so heaters are being stowed away and the down quilts will likely follow very soon.

The bouts of sea sickness have left everyone, and each watch change has us smiling and happy that the weather is now fine! The only glitch in the past 12 hours was that our instruments froze up, so we had to reset them around 4am this morning. Otherwise, we are getting excited about the upcoming visit to Minerva, and to a beautiful day on the open ocean.