For the last 3 days since the wind started up again, we have had following 6-10 foot seas with winds between 10 and 20 kn making it a very lumpy ride. Everything must be doubly checked to be secure below and even sleeping is a challenge as you are constantly being awoken as you are tossed and thrown around in your bunk.

So we have been looking forward to the wind becoming more Easterly from its Northeast position so that we can be more on a broad to beam reach, a far more comfortable ride.

The good news - the wind changed!

The bad news - it happened in the middle of the night and necessitated all hands on deck to jibe the boat to change course. The procedure necessarily involves one at the helm to control the jibe, another to center the main to avoid ripping the gooseneck off the mast with the strong winds blowing the main over to the opposite point of sail and a third person to hook onto the lifelines to make their way into the foredeck to detach the preventer, work themselves around to the other side of the foredeck and fix it on to the opposite side following jibing the boat. The last person serves as a communicator and general lookout to ensure that all crewmembers are safe and aware of what the others are doing.

All in all - it went off without a hitch and we are now on a direct rhumb line to our destination.

We also have all our communication systems up and running including both sat phone and SSB. We continue our nightly check ins with the Pacific Maritime Network (13,300 kHz) and have managed to touch base with one of the ham operators from White Rock who was aware of our passage. With the magic of the SSB we were even able to patch through to a Ham phone operator to call home to ensure that everyone knew that in spite of our communication breakdowns, the voyage was progressing as planned.

We have also broken out the books and have been taking sites with our sextant daily at noon to confirm our position (more or less ) as taking the position from a rolling boat can be somewhat of a challenge. All in all a great exercise.

We are now just under 800 miles from our destination and it is just as the brochure promised!