The last 24 hours have been all about change: - Scorpio descending in the Southern sky; - Cloud layers replacing clear skies; - Sunsets moving from the port quarter to starboard aft; - The Moon losing its race with the Sun, and shrinking in defeat; - Sunrises from starboard to port; - Winds shifting 100 degrees left and building; - The rumbling of the engine traded for the splash of waves over the rail; - Flat galleys, heads and beds for the Wacky Shack lean to starboard, and always rock and rolling; - Light foulies for heavy (I'm sure Dad will pull out something I haven't seen yet); ...and the temperature is starting to fall.

We all had a rough night last night as the wind couldn't quite figure out its direction and pressure, which wreaks havoc on Otto (Otto Helm). We traded him for Ray (Ray Marine) and sails for the engine several times over three watches starting at midnight. Perhaps it's the change in attitude and now-constant latitude that have us a heeling a bit as well.

But, all of our efforts are now producing VMG toward sanFran (about 6 knots currently), so life is good. We're expecting 10 knots building to 15 throughout today, and 20 to greet us in the morning and hold for the better part of 24 hours. The #2 will come down this evening, and the #3 will go up with an itchy trigger finger on reefing the main at the first sign of 20 knots. After paying our dues, the wind should eventually die to the point that we'll be motoring again for about a day. Then we might get a shot at a spinnaker as a low gives us gentle southwesterlies until clocking around to the NW at 15 for our home stretch. I'm receiving weather faxes over HF at the moment, as I never quite trust those pesky GRIBs...despite the apparent certainty of my game plan.

We have 40 gallons of fuel in the main tanks, and 35 gallons that's still hiking on the port rail, so no worries there (that's more than half what we started with). I can tell we have plenty of water in the port main tank as it thumps me from below while it sloshes beneath my berth.

We had breakfast pizza this morning: Boboli crust & sauce with breakfast sausage, bacon and cheddar/colby cheese - hotsauce optional. I tested the conventional wisdom that you can never have too much bacon, but the assertion stands. Our coats will be shiny, and we'll want another meal maybe sometime next weekend.

Finally, the data is pointing to a mid-day Monday arrival, but don't hold me to that. On that topic, the discussions have shifted to favorite landing drinks, and the survey says: rum and Coke.