Yesterday was slow progress as we sailed mostly east in light air
(8-12 knots from aft the beam) to position ourselves for the winds we
expect on Sunday and Monday.
Our weather is currently dominated by a high pressure which is right
on top of us, so no wind. We motored all night and we'll motor today
and maybe tonight until the high moves a little further east and we
move south of the high. Then we should begin to pickup the southern
end of the high which will have some SE winds, after that we should
reach the trades which ought to be 15-20 knots from ESE. Since we're
pretty far east, we'll be able to turn towards the west and have a
nice ride into BVI for the last 36 hours. Or that's the theory anyway!
Just after I came on watch at 4am the autopilot quit working and the
boat started making left hand circles until I could get to the
throttle and slow things down. It was too dark to do much so I had
steered until 7am when it was light and Fay was up. To make a long
story short, the autopilot ram had backed out of the fitting that
attaches it to the rudder. With Fay's help, and about an hour and a
half of work we were able to get it reattached and working again.
It's really nice and warm, the water is up to 73 and we're looking
forward to a nice breeze tomorrow.
