6pm Wed
Overnight, the sea was glassy smooth so I finally furled in the genoa & motored directly for Cabo San Lucas - a refuelling stop on Saturday, hopefully.
Once the wind filled in later this morning, it was nice to be making a good speed (over 6kt) close-hauled with full genoa and mains'l and, later, the stays'l - but without the motor helping a little, our speed would have been nearly halved. I just had to bear away 10 degrees off our rhumb-line course to keep the sails filled as the wind veered. If I weren't so keen to get out of the hurricane area as soon as possible, we could be gently sailing but until we're much further north I can't relax, so I'm keeping our speed up as much as possible, knowing refuelling is an option in Cabo. We've plenty of fuel on board but we also have to go with the wind when it strengthens.
The wind slowly veered later yesterday by quite a bit... I'm waiting to see if it keeps doing so again today - maybe we'll need to tack away from land eventually before the wind dies down overnight again - if the pattern repeats.... I have to keep 'tweaking' the sails and our course.
Hot and sunny again today after a hazy start, with a lovely starry sky overnight, slightly cloudy.
I keep sneezing - this cold has made me need a lot more sleep than usual but it's not so bad that I can't function.... It's a nuisance, though.
Fortunately, there's very little shipping around and what there is shows up on my AIS screen when a good distance away. Last night, the tanker 'Xin Sha Tou', on her way to China, changed course slightly to avoid us and pass starboard-to-starboard. The wind was quite strong and veering, we were very close-hauled and it would have been very difficult to sail more upwind to avoid her, as I explained over the VHF to the Captain, so he took the necessary action to pass well clear. I thanked him and we exchanged the usual good wishes for a good voyage.
Well, the wind veered a bit more but had become lighter by nightfall, so rather than going even more off our course, I furled in the headsails and we're motoring - but on our rhumb-line course.. Our speed had dropped sufficiently later this afternoon for arrival at Cabo San Lucas on Saturday to be doubtful - drat!
Time for food and then into the sleep routine - cold is still doing well....