rain rain go away

Yep, our tropical heat wave and our beautiful trade wind sail are over for now. The ITCZ has swung north to envelope us in rain and no wind. We still have the lumpy seas, so are motoring along slowly, rolling back and forth. No one is feeling good, so we're just sitting around like bumps on a log. It really helps control the roll when we sail. The good thing is that the batteries are all charged back up.

Energy levels and moral are slowly slipping. It was such a great feeling to hit the half way mark, but also overwhelming to think that we have a week and a half to go. Today is day 14. I handled the first week pretty well, and then the stop at Clipperton was rejuvenating. Now we're done with the second week and figure there is still 9-11 days to go. We're thankful for all the really fast days that we have had. Today will be more like 130 miles, which is still respectable but noon to day 'til noon tomorrow will be more like 100 if we keep motoring. We're headed due south to try to get across this zone as quick as possible.

We're doing fine on water, but might try to catch some rain for laundry. When we get there, the only way to get water is to carry it in jugs in the dinghy. That is time consuming work, so we might as well take advantage of the rain. We aren't going through many clothes. We only get a good wash about every 5th day, so why bother changing into clean clothes more often. My how our standards have changed. -Kellie

update: We're sailing again! Hopefully we're out the S. side of the ITCZ, but won't know for sure 'til we get to about 1 or 2 degrees North. We started motoring after midnight and just turned if off 16 hours later. So far we've motored 44 hours total. It's so much more comfortable to be sailing again! -Pete