Those strong winds did arrive today, 17-25 knots' worth. We turned off Yanmar the Magnificent and thanked him for his impeccable service to our cause.

As nice as it was to be sailing, those strong winds were coming at us from the NW, and since we were heading NNE, that meant that they met SCOOTS forward of her beam. This would have been fine, if it weren't for all the sloppy, slappy 1 meter waves it created, which made for an uncomfortable ride. Neither of us slept very well during our off-watches.

The Gribs had been predicting - and I had been promising Eric - that the wind would back to the W, and then to the SW sometime today. This afternoon, as suddenly as if someone had flipped a switch, the wind began to come at us from the west. Abaft the beam! (Translation: the wind is encountering SCOOTS behind her beam (middle)).

What's so exciting about this? Well, having the wind behind us changed everything! Now, instead of sailing into the wind, we were sailing along with it. And with the wind waves, which were also now coming from the west. So in a matter of minutes, our ride when from a bash to a beauty, from sloppy to smooth. It was such a pleasant change that I almost expected it to be accompanied by heavenly trumpets and an angel chorus.

We put our main out on the starboard side and poled out our jib on port, and let them do their wing-on-wing magic to move us along. Life just seems better when you're sailing downwind. During the night (when we both slept very well), the wind continued to move around toward the south and the wind eased a bit. We began to experience a swell from the south, which is predicted to get bigger. More on this tomorrow.

The Numbers at 72 hours: Position: 27* 49.85's, 175*35.22'E Speed: 6.5 knots Course: 012T (NNE) Wind: 13 knots from the SSW Seas: 2.5m from the S Barometer: 1022 mbar Weather: sunny, 20% cloud cover Temp air/water: 68F/72F Critters: none on deck, a few shearwaters and smaller seabirds in the neighborhood