Captain’s Log, Stardate 24-32 point 4

We left Cartagena yesterday at noon.  Great sailing wx until teatime, whennthe wind suddenly rose to 35k, with us totally unprepared.  Once we got the boat back under control and regained our composures, we were going along quite nicely with both sails reefed right down.  We then had a long uncomfortable night with nasty seas coming at us from at least three directions.  The waves were short, fast and steep, up to about 10ft at times.  Things settled down during the morning, with the chop replaced by a long ocean swell, which is still rolling us a lot, but is much less miserable.  We had about a hundred dolphins with us from just before dawn until mid morning.  I saw a large turtle resting on the surface a while ago.  Other than that, we have been alone except for two tankers which passed off on the horizon.

We made 114 miles to noon today, and I expect we’ll do the same by tomorrow noon.  As planned.  Right now, we are 85NM north west of Algiers.