7pm Sat PST/0300 Sun GMT
What a lovely downwind sail just now - seas a little down but still quite big, sunset colours just faded, wind ~20kt, SOG 6 kt, clearish sky with bright Venus hanging high in W.... Beautiful and completely therapeutic! No rainclouds in sight...
Pity the forecast is for stronger, even gale force, winds to arrive later Sunday into Monday, as we near the coast...
Getting my position and weather report ready for Pacific Seafarers Net on 14300 at 0330 GMT. (Later: Nothing heard at all on the Net - propagation poor to present position.)
9pm Wind backed into W and down to 15kt - dead downwind - not a good point of sail without poling out the genoa - and that won't happen until daylight - especially in the rather rolly seas at present. Later: veered into WNW at 20kt again - better. Pleasant sailing, most of this evening.
1130pm Sat PST/0730 Sun GMT still sailing gently along: 20kt WNW wind, 5kt SOG - too good to be true! Waiting for the stronger stuff to arrive! Sleep in the meantime...
6.30am Sun PST/1430 GMT A good, peaceful night - gentle sailing in 20-22 kt WNW wind - so had a good night's sleep, with few gaps. Sunrise around now.
Made up log, checked emails and weather and then made contact with friends on the ham radio morning Nets - mostly West coast and inland US and northern Mexico - Baja California. All very relaxed and finished around 9am, ready for late coffee and breakfast.
Midday Wind and seas are up rather - seas to 4.5m or so, quite steep and not that far apart, so feeling quite rough, and wind is WNW-NW at ~25kt. Could reach 30-35kt later today. Cleared up in galley and I'm eating fresh fruit a lot, ready for clearing in to California - they won't let you bring in any citrus fruit from elsewhere so I'm finishing up some delicious, juicy mandarins!
12.20pm Wind is slowly increasing - up to 28-30kt now and just gusted to 33+kt with grey cloud nearby, SOG 6.2kt and over. Blue sky with plenty of cloud around and sunny in between - quite pleasant although seas are well up.
I hear some parts of S. California are having a lot of rain now - good for the reservoirs, ready for summer? Hope it has stopped by time I pull in to SD!
3pm Frequent lulls of 24 kt in between the stronger winds. Blue sky, scattered clouds, lots of sunny spells. Replying to emails.
5.30pm Sun PST(1.30 a.m. Mon GMT) Sun set short while ago... Seas still 4m or so and often steep. WNW wind either ~23 kt or ~ 30 kt... keeps varying....