[password] rachel25
[position] 40 01.100s 081 31.500w
[status] On passage to Valdivia, Chile
Colin here again. Perhaps there'll be a squall.

Woke up from a deep sleep to hear Ana chatting with Graham on the radio, time 0130. Lay in my bunk half listening to the conversation and the other half listening and feeling the motion of the boat. It feels "boisterous", the boat leaping off each wave and often rounding up with creaks and groans, then falling back onto course under persuasion from the windpilot. Bruce's forecast, I seem to remember, was for 18 to 23 knots with gusts to 25. I begin to think a 2nd reef in the main would be prudent. Ana finishes her radio sched and confirms that the wind has been building and at times hitting 27 knots, and she has already reduced the goosewinged yankee (headsail) to 40%. Boat plunging along at 8 knots. 2nd reef it is then, even if only to redress the balance between main and headsail.
I get geared up. Full Musto foul weather gear, Dubarry boots, and Peter Blake red socks, lifejacket and harness, headtorch, knife. At companionway clip on, out into cockpit, prepare all the control lines, Ana out too, clipped on. Transfer Yankee from pole on windward side to leeside. Go aft and adjust windpilot to sail at 45 degrees to the wind, Ithaka dutifully rounds up. Ana releases vang, and lowers main halyard while I clip onto jackstays which run the length of the boat and make my way to the mast. Boat rolling in cross seas now. Double clip myself onto shroud. 2nd reef cringle within reach, grab it and hook it on to bull horn at forward end of boom. Ana starts to winch in reefing pennant. It goes tight but dosn't look quite right. She leaves it and hauls the halyard tight again anyway. I transfer myself across the boat to the port side by way of a cross jackstay, using two carabinas so always clipped on. Ana pulls the mainsheet in and I investigate the problem. The reefing pennant has caught up on the back of the sail. Ana releases the tension and I stand up, rolling with the boat, to reach the muddle at the end of the boom and sort it out. All good, Ana re-tensions the reefing pennant. Back in the cockpit, mainsheet out and vang on. Return windpilot to its pre-reef setting, Ithaka bears away and settles on her downwind course. Transfer the yankee from the port side back onto the pole and release the full sail from the furler. Cockpit now resembles a pot of spaghetti. Tidy up, looking forward to a nice cup of tea. Go below to put kettle on. Time 0300.

Boat remarkably quiet. No rushing noises. No rounding up. Check the windspeed. 10 knots!!. Boatspeed, less than 5!...........
Need to take a reef out of the main then, maybe both................. Have a cup of tea first, perhaps there'll be a squall.

Just in case you think we are on some luxury pleasure cruise!

[speed] 7.0 knots
[heading] 100 true
[weather] Wind WSW 20 knots. 1.5m waves. Sky 20% cloud. Baro 1016.
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