Mid-morning we hove to (essentially stopped the boat) and Dan and I climbed up on top of the dodger and house to tie up the dangling sail remaining from yesterday's clew ring failure. We were well tethered and it took us about 20 minutes to lace a line around the sail and through the reef grommets all along the foot of the sail. Then the next squall line appeared and we were off again.
After that squall line things went light (10kts from the NE) so we took the opportunity to motor sail for two hours and charge the batteries. By 2pm the batteries were in good shape and we were beating into a strong NE wind. All afternoon we were pretty close to hard on the wind (true wind angle of 50-60) with 15-20kts of true wind (20-25kts apparent), hammering into very confused seas created by the waves from the NE wind meeting the prevailing SE swell. While always having the first reef in the main probably cost us a little speed at times, it saved us a lot of putting in a reef and taking out a reef since the conditions were quite variable today. Our noon to noon run was still 181nm, not bad considering the variable winds and half an hour spent hove to.
The skies are now almost entirely clear and we're beating into a 15kt NE breeze which is supposed to shift a little south by morning. Dinner was flank steak with rice and black beans, pre-prepared by Fay and only needed to be heated up in the microwave. Today wasn't a good day for broiling.
It's getting warmer and warmer. At 6pm as I write this entry, it is 86 degrees in the salon and the water temp is up to 83. I'm looking forward to the cool of the evening; there should be a full sky of stars tonight.
