Last night I got to bed about 0130 after my watch. The sea conditions improved somewhat which made sleep actually possible. I was exhausted and expected to be woken up for my next watch at 0500. Instead, I got woken up for a bacon and egg breakfast (cooked by Peter) about 0700. Blessed sleep and a good breakfast...a good start to the day.

The wind kicked up again after breakfast and under full sail, the auto pilot couldn't cope so we had to hand steer. I got about 3 hours of good spirited helm time before lunch. The Mezza Luna is a joy to steer and perfectly balanced when close hauled.

Around 4pm we reefed down for the night which settled the deck down to a reasonable heel making it easier for Peter to cook dinner. We had meat loaf, carrots and peas and a red wine gravy. Erica had a few bites and excused herself to disappear topside in the aft cockpit. Poor Erica. So we all finished our Letters From Iwo Jima movie while Erica was "standing watch". Great movie.

We decided the formal watches would be from 1900 to 0700. I had the 2200 to 0100. The only excitment I had was watching a medium sized tanker pass within a mile on our port side. I informed the skipper and he checked it out on radar. No problems.