11-4-2011 Day 3 or is it 4?

Things are still going smoothly out here off the coast of Baja California Sur. Pretty sure that we're either halfway done or very close to it. The autopilot continues to work great until it suddenly decides it doesn't want to anymore (parents of young kids will recognize the syndrome). So, we just give it a time-out for 10-15 minutes and so far it has always decided to behave properly when we release it from time-out.

The engine has heated up a bit occasionally. So far we've been able to restore it to it's proper operating temperature by slowing down a bit. Since we don't have a tachometer right now, we have to guess at engine speed. We think the bungee that's supposed to hold the throttle lever in place is causing it to increase our speed at such a slow rate that we don't register the change in pitch.

Last night and so far today have been quite rolly-swelly. Makes us feel like a couple of lumbering idiots as we try to gracefully move around, only to be sent one way or the other by the force of the swells on the boat. Last night was the first night that we've had winds that might have been strong enough for sailing. But, it was too dark to start rigging sails then and, besides, it died off after awhile.

Not really much to report. Very little wildlife spotted since my last report. Can't see land as we're too far away and, besides, it's very hazy over there. We stand our watch rotation, eat lots of food, get some reading in, record our position, speed, course, etc. every hour, send out a SPOT signal every 4 hours, check and send e-mail and position reports and that's about it.

At about noon today we will have completed 3 days.

Hasta later.

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