This is about the end of our planned trip, we should be there by now according to best laid plans. Course you can see that we are still 650 miles away, and not heading exactly south toward St Lucia as the crow flies. The waves and wind are not cooperating.

Oh what a night and day a few minutes make.

Mother Nature sneezed last night then got so upset she cried all night and day.

I signed off, after calling yesterday boring, to go to sleep. Christine wakes me and says the winds are too high, I ask about apparent wind on the spinnaker and its well below the 15kn guideline we set. So we wait that one out, the next time she wakes me up, its now blowing 28kn and with a 18kn on the sail. Okay now its time for action of some sorts. Take a look at the radar and a whole big storm is behind this one we are in now, really time to do something. Spinnaker is still holding strong, the tape is doing its job and its flying well, but in some stronger winds than we would like. I start the engines, also a sign to the crew that they are needed, to let them warm up for some action. Within 30 seconds the spinnaker collapses and refills and continues to fly. Now really time to get crew up to take it down. Ask Christine to make sure that Marvin and Ron are on the move, and no sooner finish that sentence. Mother Nature pealed the center right out of the kite, like it was a perforated cutout in a childs book. All that was left was an empty triangle windo with about 2 inch strips along all the boarders, and all the material hanging down below. The tape repair had held but the seams on the sides gave out, and now its under the boat. I yelled to make sure the engines were in neutral, as I ran forward to pull the sail out of the water, or what I could of it. Then Ron made it forward to help followed by Marvin. The sail only came so far,it was stuck on the bow, and under the boat. Since everyone was pulling at the sail, I went and released the halyard and sheets to bring the sock and swivel back down to the boat. After lots of trial and error we were able to pull the right part of the sail and get it on board, took like 20mins but we have all the pieces. And just like that we are back under sail under jib alone and doing 8kts.

Awake, Marvin took the last mins of Christine’s shift in the rain, and the weather hasn’t let up since.

Ron cooked an italian breakfast, of eggs and bacon – we have lots of eggs left.

We have been rocking to all songs that contain “rain” in the title, so much so that when “It raining men” came on, I couldn’t help from showing my white boy moves. 15 foot seas, are higher than the reefing points on the jib, and overhead when standing at the highest point on the stern. They make Christine a little nervous, but her vulcan death grip is keeping her on board, after about 20mins she was able to relax however and have dinner out at the helm position in the rain. Chicken noodle soup does warm the soul.

There is starging to be some room in the fridge and freezer for more goodies, but there is no store in sight. Not time to get creative with meals yet as we still have lots of planned meals and staples onboard.

Crew is anxious, and wondering where todays weather came from, 39kt of wind, sideways rain, and huge seas came from – but we all rolled with it (literally) and are still rolling along. Also worried about setting foot on solid ground for the first time in 3 weeks. There are going to be lots of funny walking folks in St Lucia, not sure but I bet that island is a floater.

Course over ground: 275 Speed over ground: 6.1kn Total miles through water: 150 (got reset) Miles to destination: 663 kn (as a crow).