Lousy last 23 hours. Wind died to nearly nothing. Still motoring when fouled fuel returned causing engine shutdown, and four filter changes later, no relief. Decided to wait for light to try again. Funky, rolling night with 2-4 knot gasps of wind. Mostly on the nose, sails flapping, even trimmed tight, so we headed 60 degrees south of our rhumb line to SSW, just to smooth things out a bit and ease abuse on our gear.
3:15 AM Lying in the cockpit, cussing dirty fuel again, it occurs to me it could be worse, it could be raining sideways on me. Two minutes later it begins to rain. Murphy's Law laughs again. Steady drizzle becomes light showers. At least the rain brings 5-7 knots of intermittent baby gusts and we return halfway back on course.
6:30 AM Wind reduces to 3-5 knots, no rain on us now, but dawn brought total overcast with very low clouds and visible showers all around us. Turned SSW again just to stay underway.
7:30 AM and we finally feel 10 knots of actual breeze since leaving. Back on course with scattered wetness. Generator charging, because so far, solar has the day off. Good to be moving over mellow, if gray, seas.
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