Thursday - Start of day 3

It's now around 9 am Thursday, April 28 and we have begun our 3'rd day at sea. We've had a pretty good ride so far, with winds when we started out of the Northeast at about 10-15, steadily clocking around so that that are now out of the Southwest, still at 10-15knots. We had a good push from the Gulf Stream and we were moving about 9-10knots till we passed Jacksonville when we slowed to about 7-8knots. We've been motor sailing with only a few hours under sail alone. Our goal is to be at the Beaufort inlet tomorrow (Friday) morning when, depending on the time and how we feel we'll either pull into a marina or push further on and either find another marina or anchor out

Earlier this morning we hove to (more or less stopped) and added the 15 gallons of fuel to our tank we had brought along in the jerry cans. The exercise involved manhandling 3 40lb Jerry cans to the side deck, trying not to lose them or fall overboard in the rolling seas and pouring most of the fuel into the fill port. Luckily I have a "jiggler" which is sort of an automatic siphon, and so we didn't spill a drop. We probably don't need the extra fuel but it couldn't hurt. Also checked the oil and it's fine. 

We've now settled into our usual daytime routine of sitting back, relaxing, and napping. 

Robert has already assumed the position and is hard at work relaxing. I'm about to take the other chair and have the coffee waiting for me

We tend to have sandwiches or salads for lunch and dinner (don't feel much like cooking with the boat rolling about). At night we take 3 hour shifts with one person on watch and the other person sleeping. I've been taking the 8-11 and 2-5 watches and Robert the 11-2 and 5-8 watches. I find I get a bit sleep deprived and I'm told you get used to the rhythm and sleep better after about 3 days, but we'll be ashore by then so I won't find out

Shortly before noon a line of squalls came through. You first see a line of clouds off in the distance, then, when you look at the radar you see balls of color - green to yellow to red - with the intensity and color indicating the severity - red being the worst. It's easy to see on the radar how big each squall is, how far away they are, what direction they are moving in, and if or when they'll hit you. They bring gusts of wind and variable amounts of rain. These lasted about an hour or so and the sky turned back to being nice and blue. We had reefed the sails before they hit and once they were gone they were unreefed and we went back to our relaxing