Greg wakes me up at midnight for my watch. With the spinnaker we are making about 4-5 knots. I check and see that we have 812 nautical miles (nm) to go.
I am much more vigilant and sit in the cockpit listening to my iPod in one ear and scanning the horizon. It is a nice night out with just a trace of cool wind.
The spinnaker is luffing (losing air) a bit as the wind is shifting slightly and dying to about 2-3 knots. I see some lights on the stern horizon. It is a ship. I follow it's course for maybe ten minutes. I don't really think it is a threat as it is a few miles to our starboard and seems to be moving parallel, but I wake Yves just to be safe. He confirms my thoughts and we then adjust the spinnaker and main sail. I am given instructions on the angles I can use to adjust our course to keep the best wind in the spinnaker. At 3 AM I go to bed.
I awake with the sound of the motor, Yves on the ham radio speaking French, and the smell of bacon in the air. I groggily get out of bed and realize it is 9 AM already. Greg puts a big coffee cup in my one hand and a plate of bacon, pancakes with cranberries, and orange slices in the other hand. Wow!
We eat and the Yves tells us the weather is the same. The winds should pick up to around 18-20 from the south west. Debbie is slowly heading our way but will likely stay behind us and we may feel her swells. We should have pretty good swells knocking us about anyway with SW winds and waves. There is another hurricane developing behind Debbie, but that is not really a concern for us now.
A Canadian 28 foot sailboat was abandoned closer to Flores a couple of days ago. Likely due to weather as the crew were picked up by coast guard helicopter. They were to sink the boat before leaving, but that did not happen and it is now a potential hazard for ships sailing in the area.
I decide I should enjoy the peace of the moment. The motor is off and we are doing about 6 knots in about 8-10 knots of wind. The fishing lines are in the water and we are relaxed.
The winds pick up. Yves is having a nap and Greg and I are reading and chatting topside. We are doing 7-8 knots and the auto pilot alarm keeps going off - it can't keep up with the pressure on the spinnaker. The constant chirping of the alarm wakes Yves and he takes the helm. After a bit, he shows me how to steer the boat. I try and keep within 100 and 110 degrees on the compass. It is difficult and keep overshooting each mark, but I get better.
A freighter passes us from stern in the port side. It is 3 miles away and still looks huge to us (that is 4 ships sighted - all in the last 2 days - the first during the day though).
Greg makes ravioli for lunch and they eat while I steer. When Yves is done, he relieves me so I can eat. I give it another go after lunch and am doing better for awhile, using a point on the horizon as my aim. Eventually I lose concentration and start a big s-turn and end at 60 degrees. Yves suggests that we take the spinnaker down and put the genoa up. This improves things. The starboard list of 20 degrees is lessened and we are doing almost 8 knots.
Yves is cooking tonight. This could be scary as I saw him BBQ back at Grotto Bay and it was like an industrial furnace being stoked.
Yves cooks an awesome dinner! We have mahi mahi grilled in a touch of olive oil, grilled onions, whipped potatoes with carrots and butter, and slices of radish. We have tea and a chocolate candy as desert.
Yves even offers to clean the dishes and let's us go to bed as he has the first watch and wants something to do.
Before bed we switch the rigging to the other genoa. This should give us a better ride at night.