Day 16 Near Gale Surprise

Kahia
Paul and Catherine Davis
Tue 21 Jun 2016 23:10
48:23N 133:55W
 
From the idyllic sailing of the day before we went to near gale conditions for the night with 30 knots of wind and four meter waves chasing us.
In the very wet, early morning hours, well reefed down, we tried different sail plans to accommodate the fluctuating wind directions and strengths in some rain squalls. Paul also concluded we were pushing against a counter ocean current, as the waves were steep and breaking and slowing us down.
Now we are taking turns of catching up on sleep and the wind has settled to 15 knots from the West, WNW, as a nice High Pressure System is building up behind.