Lots of ships around before midnight - I counted 16, one or two up to 150 mls away - not sure how the AIS is getting info from that far away - must be repeater stations somewhere..?? Spotted the Southern Cross above the S horizon around 1.45 a.m.
7 a.m. Woken up several times overnight with waves crashing into boat. Generally swell is down a touch in size, but still a
bumpy ride - & expect it to remain so over the day. Got up eventually before 5.30am ship's time with sunrise. Will wait to
change clock (2hrs!) until get into anchorage. Haven't yet decided where that will be since I'm waiting on a response from
British friends to let me know where they are. They're heading north so I don't want to go shooting past them on my way
south if it can be avoided!
10 a.m. Violent rocking & rolling has almost stopped now... just gentle bouncing most of the time. Let out the two reefs
I'd put in the main last night. Now 55ml WSW of Cabo Corrientes and wind has died to F4 so only making 5.5-6.0 kn, instead
of 6.5-7.5! Daily runs by log so far: 176(!!), 170, 170, 164, 155... not bad!! Have actually stripped off my long-sleeved top
and trousers - it's warming up nicely!
A lovely, relaxed afternoon, sitting out in the cockpit in the sunshine and breeze, enjoying a pleasant sail... wind got up nicely after midday so we were up to a good speed (around 7 kn) again. Daily run by log to midday (PST) today: 158 n.ml. - not bad considering I thought we'd slowed down for a bit! Keeping an eye out for land - but I think I'm much too far out still. Presently 26 mls off land, just over 30 mls SSW of Cabo Corrientes- probably had a diurnal wind effect this afternoon, so it
may die right down again overnight as I close the coast more. Looking at pilotage info on possible anchorages - it's nice to have been to them all before since I have exact lat/long coordinates from my logbook - the Mexican charts are way out of position and not to be relied on!