Yesterday we motored for 5-6 hours until I thought I’d like to keep the remaining fuel, which would be to motor into the marina, and maybe motor through another light air patch in a few days, as well as charging batteries, should it come to that again. That said, the port hydrogenerator swap appears to have been successful as it’s charging now. After that I tried to harness as much of the puffs we were getting to move forward, in the hope to get into some sort of steady wind. By midnight I abandoned, dropped all sails, and went to bed. I woke up a few times but nothing yet. Then this morning the wind was back, had been for 4 hours or so. The sails went back up. Since then it’s been very variable with 50 degrees wind shifts and speed ranging from 6 to 15 kts. I went from full mainsail to reef 1, then reef 2, then 1, and it feels like soon reef 2 will be needed. I handsteered for most of the morning. It looks like things have stabilized now. It’s now time for a well deserved lunch! 5 days to go, maybe? Landfall Nov. 4th late afternoon? It’ll be in Pillar Point Harbor. We’ll see.
Safe travels Philippe – see you soon!!