1830 Local / 2330 GMT Dennis says: Another amazing 24 hours. The sailing overnight was fantastic! We were blessed with 8 - 12 knot winds out of the SSW. Not at all what we expected. We were gearing up for 24 - 36 hours or motoring to get to enough wind to sail, but only slowly. Well, after less than 18 hours, we were very surprised with some really nice SSW winds. We killed the iron genny, put up sails yesterday morning and have been sailing ever since ... sometimes at over 7 knots. We should be at the equator in about 36 hours, our first real celebration point on this journey, aside from actually starting it. As Heidi has said several times, we REALLY appreciate your support and encouragement. It means a lot out here, believe me. (Dennis Jud - a test to see if facebook "tags" me.) If the photo comes through, it is the one that was supposed to be with yesterday's post.

Heidi says: In the middle of my night watch, with Dennis asleep, ominous dark clouds formed around Centime. They deepened and built in all directions except directly above. I put on foul weather gear, closed ports and reefed the genny. For the next hour my heart beat a bit faster. I stood alert waiting as they moved rapidly in front, behind and to the port side, leaving this magical pocket of clarity overhead as we sailed forward. We never got even a drop of rain. When it was over I celebrated with our last piece of dark chocolate - delicious. It was hard leaving a taste for Dennis.