Second Star to the Right

It was a wet and squally night. We had lots of rain and gusts in the 30's, but it was all manageable. The worst part about squalls is that when they pass they suck the energy out of the air, and we have practically no wind for a time. In addition, the seas were extremely rolly last night and they have continued to be today as well. All in all, it made for a very bad night's sleep. Charles sleeps sideways in our bed in the aft cabin wedged in between the wood cabinets at the head of the bed. I sleep in the man saloon on the settee wedged between it and the dining table. Tracy and Keith sleep wedged up against each other in the forward cabin. I'll be glad to leave this Atlantic swell behind us.

The good news is that we have now less than 800NM to go! We hope to arrive Friday if the winds are good or Saturday if they drop off. When we do sleep, I think we are all dreaming of rum punch and steel drum bands.

I hear that other boats are still catching fish, but we don't want to risk trying to clean one as long as the seas are pitching and rolling. If this swell dies down, we'll try our luck again later.

We're monitoring the drifting of two abandoned mini transat race boats. It looks like one of them will be drifting near our course in the next 36 hours, so we'll be keeping a very close watch for them as we approach their last known position.

We used some cabbage to do a Chinese Chicken Salad for dinner tonight so we wouldn't have to turn on the oven. It is extremely stuffy down below as we can't open hatches due to the errant waves splashing inside when the swells are rolling us so much.

Charles and I both finished the books we were reading. Unfortunately, he didn't plan well and download another book or two on his Kindle. Tracy is watching our well-loved DVD "White Christmas". We've all been listening to Christmas music on the stereo and trying to get into the holiday spirit here. "Baby, It's Cold Outside" just doesn't work for me right now. "I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas" is more like it!