The good news is that I finally got the wind I was waiting for, and lots of it. The bad news is that it is coming in small parcels accompanied by torrential, horizontal rain, some lightening and confused seas. I have been passing through these squalls for the past 18 hours and had little sleep last night but feeling well today. Sand Dollar, of course, is no worse for wear and keeps plunging on. After I pass through the present system, the radar shows no squalls for at least the next 24 miles. I could use the break.

The lightening is what concerns me the most. I put one of the GPS units in the oven for electrical protection in case the boat gets zapped. If that fails and I lose all electronics, I will be doing a crash course in sextant navigation so that I can shoot the sun and stars just like in the old days.

My noon-to-noon distance for today is an unimpressive 98 miles for an average speed of 4.1 kts. There is enough fuel for another 12 hours of motoring and that's all. The Marquesas lie about 500 miles to the southwest and I am looking at arriving in the next 5 days, around the 27th. All else onboard is well.