1.4892, -131.47.17

Hello All,
Here I am again, bored on a night shift so I figured I would fill you in on the latest events. The last few days in the Inter tropical Convergence Zone has consisted of rain, squalls, sunny weather and actually some pretty good wind. We had a nice sunny day 2 days ago so I got out my still wet laundry and put it up on deck to dry. It took forever with all the humidity but I got the job done. We have had 4 squalls hit us since we have been in the zone. You can see them coming so you get lots of warning before they hit you. The first one we didn't really heed the warnings and had all the canvas flying. Boy was that a mistake. We rapidly reduced sail only to have it pass 20 minutes later. We then put all the sails back up and carried on. It was a major pain for only 20 minutes of hard wind so I thought the next time it happens I would just put the boat hard on the wind, basically spilling the wind from the sails, stalling it out until it passed. My plan worked great and with the help of my steering vane to keep it hard on the wind we survived 3 more of them that way. This morning the wind started turning SSW which was our coarse and it was starting to calm so I figured I would fire up the engine and motor for a bit. As soon as I got the sails down and fired up the wind came up a little, always happens after you pull the sails down, I started motoring and 10 minutes into my my decision to burn diesel the wind came up more, like 15 knots so now I am going into swell and 15 knots of wind, hell of a way to start the morning. I waited for Tobias to get up and we put the sails up again and I just put it hard on the wind to try to stay on coarse the best I could. I haven't added up how many hours I have put on the engine so far but I will bet it is around 10 hours so far, not bad for coming so far. Later today the wind shifted to our favor so we are well on our way.
We should be at the Equator tomorrow sometime and then hopefully start picking up the southern trades. We had 86 degrees today and the sun packs some heat. I am glad we have had a nice breeze to cool us somewhat. The sea has been pretty quiet for wild life. I have only seen a few birds and flying fish. I usually pick a dozen off the deck in the morning. They are not big enough to eat ,most are about 4 inches long.
Well that's all I know for now. I will write you again here in a few days.
Take care,

PEACE