Light winds from the NE and sunny. Both of us feeling the tension of THE BIG step. Not much sleep for either of us first night. Ian coughing and looking worse for wear. We bought 2 large pizzas from one of our fav restaurants in La Cruz the night before leaving, and they sustained us well into the 2nd day offshore.

Day 2: starting to get into the shipping lanes, and 2nd night requires constant monitor of the AIS and horizon. Lots of chatter on the inReach with our friends aboard sv Dazzler and sv Boos Blue 2. Mostly about weather and food ...(so soon into the journey). Jilly had pre-prepared gourmet dinners and frozen them individually, and Dan is happy to elucidate on them. Starting to see more swell. Winds around 7-12 kts from NE. Second night both exhausted, so left the reefed main up, rolled in the jib, turned off the autohelm and went to sleep for 5 hours. Day 3: Ian still weak but moving around the boat more. Not interested in food, but did swallow some chicken noodle soup that was practically forced on him. I need him back on his feet. Our autohelm is a big help, but does gobble power. We're happily surprised at how much solar power generation we are producing. With autohelm working 24/7 our batteries go down to 78% overnight, without the need to run the motor. Had a couple of good sails in the afternoons of the 3rd and 4th days, with winds up to 15-17 kts, providing a nice beam reach. Course generally at 250 degrees. Day 4: Ian gets the self-steering up and running and we decide to hearby name it 'Adolf'. Pipi starts venturing out more from her basket under the table. Even getting back to her vocal self at dinnertime.