8/16/08

Woke up at 07:00 to the sound of the watch crew furling the jib and reefing the main. The frontal system Sandy has been tracking caught up to us and has had us all day. Whereas squalls are fast and furious with their wind and rain ending as suddenly as they began, frontal systems are large, deliberate and tedious. After an hour of rain, I saw how our weather life has changed. Then the rain abated but the skies remain darkened by the clouds all around. Greenhouse effect takes place in my foulies so I strip them off in favor of shorts and a t-shirt. Foul weather jacket comes on and off through the 6-hour watch as rains come and go.

Mini fire drill at 14:00. The wind has shifted so we needed to jybe the main to maintain our course. I went to the foredeck to move the preventer to the starboard side. Lorraine noticed that a batten was sticking out so I lowered the main from the mast as Matt worked the halyard in the pit, stopping at each batten and checking. All fixed, main hoisted, preventer attached and I go to sleep.

I am attaching an image to this posting which has been heavily compressed (12 MB to 3K) to meet the sailmail standard for size. I hope this works. It is a shot of the placid waters of the high.