8:35 am
Sailing on a close reach at 6kts toward the SSE

I was just about to write my end of watch email when a rain squall came with lots of rain and behind a wind shift which forced us to tack to the South so I had to take care of business. The predicted calm winds didn't materialize yesterday night and instead we got increasing wind from the SSE so I had to do some sail changes between 2 and 3am but we were going fast. Then the dawn was typical of the North Atlantic: really humid, low gray clouds, and a dark sea. Again we crossed path with a couple freighters eastbound.
Nathaniel managed to "sleep" in the forward cabin.
Did I tell you that he started reading his honors calc book yesterday; he announced that he'll go thru 1 section a day which according to the preface corresponds to one lecture.
...
After the squall the sky cleared somewhat, still gray but "high ceiling" gray so that the sun can hint at its existence thru the clouds. Not yet palm trees and pina colada sailing but it's getting closer.
....
Alan

7:25 pm
We had a good pasta salad with a lot of fresh vegies for lunch so dinner is 2 cans of boeuf bourguignon finely cooked by Nathaniel who by the way say he'll write you during his watch.
We had quite the busy day. The morning was fast wet gray and quite the roller coaster. Then rain squalls hit us a couple times and then the last one came and hit us with a huge wind gust (for sure more than forty kts) which made the boat heel a lot so a few things went a flying inside including newer and bigger box for the biodegradable garbage which was happily sitting on the counter. By the time we were done managing the emergency outside and came back below we noticed the box updumped on the floor having spilled its content all over the galley(and of course I had just gone thru the fresh food and placed in the box all the rotten vegies and fruits we had). The box must have done a triple axle following by a quadruple pirouette because there was decaying food every where from floor to counters. Of course the bowl of pasta salad seeing its companion taking a hike got inspired and followed the same trajectory to a good approximation adding stuck oily pasta everywhere. After the clean up we absolutely had to watch another episode of Firefly to reward ourselves for our labor.
Now the wind has eased (13kts whereas it was in the mid twenties all day) and should be veering (during the night . We can now be on a straight course for the Turks and Caicos which are the Bahamas island in front of the Windward passage. I can't wait for sunny days and warm nights. ....

Alan