Last night's squalls continued until about noon, then things cleared up and the afternoon sail was very pleasant. The early evening was also nice with the almost full moon illuminating cotton ball clouds. But by midnight the squalls were back, the moon and stars were gone and the wind was more unpredictable than ever. So this will again be short.
For the last three hours the wind has cycled from 12-30 and shifted 40 degrees in as little as 30 seconds, accompanied by some impressive blasts of rain. The aft half of the cockpit cushions are again drenched as the wind went aft for five minutes and blew rain in under the dodger. I've given up trying to adjust the sails. The main is double reefed and so is the jib. We wallow when the wind is 15, but we're ok when it's 25. It's pretty much impossible to react quickly enough to have the correct sail area for each wind. I'm looking forward to reaching the lee side of the big island.
Yesterday's noon to noon run was 186nm. We are now only about 40 miles from the big island and less than 200 from Honolulu. As you can see, the continuously unsettled weather dominates life onboard and I'm unable to write of much else.
