Day 6: Sun 10th April - 07*49'S, 103*13'W (Midnight) Our First Wind Hole

A night of strong wind found us down to 2 reefs in both the main and the head sail, and still romping along at 7 knots.  We now had more west in the course, bobbing between 255-265*, still with Aunty Marg steering.  We decided to put James back in control as Aunty Marg hadn't fully settled into her rightly place yet - more tweeking required.  Not his fault, but soon the dark rain clouds we have been trying to avoid for the last few days rolled down on us from the north.  Torrential rain, and a complete reversal of winds: now from the N to NW and variable in strength, sometimes down to 5 knots.  By late afternoon, it was distinctly miserable to look outside our enclosed environment. By sun-downers, and Deb's first sniff of the strong stuff in her ginger this evening - things looking up, the wind had died. So, in search of better wind, we engaged the main engine (hasn't a name), and headed slightly further south, using precious diesel to get away from the rain clouds.  At midnight ...........

Culinary delights are beginning to emanate from the galley. Some benefits of little wind!  From a stable cooker came a magnificent creamy Parmesan chicken ...... dish, with butterfly pasta.  Fantastic.  Nothing left for tomorrow's lunch. And then into night routine, waiting for the wind!

We changed the card in our Navionics today, from Central America to Aus/NZ/Pacific.  Seemed like the thing to do. Almost seems as if we are there, already.  One pitfall: we lost our trip from Galapagos having to switch of the chart plotters.  Never mind, we have the record of where we were, just a matter of resetting the trip at the 1000 nm point, and adding 1000 to the display.  We ought to reach it sometime around midday tomorrow - one of THE milestones.  And breaking 2000 nm to go can't be far behind that.