[password] rachel25
[position]37 01.200s 093 51.900w
[status] On passage to Valdivia, Chile .

It's 0400 and I've just come in from the cockpit where I have been coaxing Ithaka into motion. The wind is light and variable. just 7 knots. The are 0.5 metre are on top of a 2 metre swell. The waves and swell contrive to knock the wind out of the sails just as you think you've got her going again and the flap, bang, crash of the rig goes through you, right to your core. It is a grey dawn, grey sea, grey sky, grey boat. A cup of cocoa and some of yesterdays bread with peanut butter help to get me through this untimely watch......
30 minutes later, just come in again, the wind has moved forward and all the sails needed trimming for the new direction. We are now nearly on course and managing 3.8 knots, but only for now, in another 10 minutes it will all change again. A fine line of red appears along the eastern horizon, our sunrise.
0600. Give in. Wind now only 3 knots Turn on the engine just to get some peace from the incessant slatting of the sails and rig. Bring on the next front!

[speed] 4.5 knots
[heading] 097 true
[weather] Wind S - SSE 6-8 knots. 0.5 waves. Sky 100% cloud. Baro 1019,
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