"2300 GMT, 12/01/11 [6PM EST]
Weather: Winds at 8 - 12 from the northeast, gusting to 18, temps mild (but not shorts weather yet).

Today was another mostly motoring day. We had two reefs in the main from this morning and were motor sailing. We finally had enough wind to put up the genny and sail (while the lasagne was cooking and almost done, mind you) when Dave spotted the missing batten box at the luff of the second most upper batten. Actually just the outside casing of the box was missing, risking losing the batten. So, we took the batten out to keep it safe, but the leach of the sail was flogging in the current wind (forecast to get even stronger overnight). We tried to replace it with the case from the lowest batten (which, given the weather report, will never see the light of day before we get to Tortola), but ... not to be done ... the top two boxes were smaller than the others! So, we put a third reef in the main to get us through the night (which cut down on the flogging substantially), reefed the genny and had Donato's VERY delicious lasagne ... much enjoyed by all! We'll deal with the missing box in the daylight.

We made 148 miles noon to noon ... 6.17 kts VMG! Again, lots of motoring, but we'll take it. Looking at a slow night tonight, but the weather has will be building over the next several days to a steady 20 - 25 kts of northeasterlies, bringing larger seas and good boat speed. Ken, our weather forecaster, put it this way: "Be ready for some rigorous sailing for much of the passage, but with generally favorable wind direction and probably excellent boat speed."