Current position as of 0000 UTC July 25th is 45° 19’ N 139° 15’ W Current Heading: 60°M Total distance made good (DMG) = 1909 nm DMG last 24hrs (0000UTC-0000UTC) = 147 nm Engine hours = 1 Avg true wind speed (TWS) = 23.6 kts Avg speed over the ground (SOG) = 6.2 kts Avg swells = 6.4 ft Recap of Day 20 For the last few days we have been expecting a weather system to come in, and right on schedule, in the morning, the wind picked up and the rain began. The weather is actually part of a low pressure system several hundred miles to the north of us, that will be moving NE over the next few days with us. The good news is that the wind came in directly behind us, pushing us right in the direction we want to go. We put the whisker pole up, along with double reefed main and hung on for the ride, as the swells and wind built. We did run the motor for a little while in the morning before the weather really picked up in order to top up our batteries, which have been getting drained by the autopilot at night. Dan, our windvane, needs a bit of servicing, and we’ve been sailing very downwind, which is a hard tack for any windvane to hold to begin with, so instead have been using the autopilot more than usual. Running the engine did give us the opportunity to also run the watermaker and splurge on some nice hot showers, which felt amazing! For dinner, more tuna was on the menu. I made up a fresh tuna casserole, which was the perfect thing for a cold, rainy night. Towards evening, the wind was close to 30 knots and we had furled in quite a bit of genoa, leaving just a small corner out along with the double reefed main, as we barreled along at close to 8 knots for most of the night. While it was great to making such good time, it was not a comfortable ride, with big swells, very steep and close together tossing Varuna to one side and then the other and even breaking. All we could do was hold on. If we keep this speed up, we’ll be there in no time! We are hoping to be at the entrance to the Straights of Juan de Fuca in no more than 6 days, hopefully less! Cheers, Hillary & Ty
