Tradewinds Found

Yesterday we began to see a change in the sea state with the swells becoming smaller and not so much cross chop. That definitely made the ride much more comfortable. Also, it has become much warmer, which is nice as the evening watches were a bit chilly. Last night the winds went pretty light and the Monitor was having a bit of trouble; however, we are very pleased with the way it steers the boat. The winds have been become pretty steady now, which makes life good.

We finally got a good night's sleep, and today we got some boat chores done. We found a leak that got everything in the closet very wet, so we spent the day rinsing all of it with fresh water and hanging it up to dry. We had a line full of clothes hanging all around the cockpit.

When we left Cabo San Lucas, we had met a very nice single-hander named Ernst, who is Swiss, and has been sailing for 14 years. He left 5 hours after we did, but because of our time loss due to the steering problem, he was within a few miles of us the next day and called us on the VHF radio. He and Steve have been chatting on the SSB radio every morning discussing the weather forecasts. We are both very pleased with our decision to head west and not south because the winds are very favorable for a fast crossing.

Steve caught a lovely Dorado today. It wasn't large, but we enjoyed a lunch of fish and steamed mixed vegetables. Dinner will be crab salad with fruit. We have eaten pretty well; however, some days it was just too rough to cook. Now that things have settled down, it has become much easier. We found that eating a good breakfast and eating a large meal at lunch works best. We then have a lighter meal, maybe sandwiches, in the evening.

We are fine and are now getting into a sleep routine that helps a lot. Life is good and the ocean is just spectacular.

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