Day 4 of the Journey North

 Good practices and night sailing. 
  
 Hi Guys.  Wednesday day and night: 
  
 We made 4.1 knots through the night. 
 We were reefed with 15 knots of wind and by 4am 
 we were just passing Jupiter inlet.  It felt like 
 the popup storms were chasing us.  They came 
 one after another from the east moving toward 
 shore.  The winds would shift and drop on the sides 
 of the storms and then pick up on the back side. 
  
 Sam and I took shifts through the night and talked 
 about the stars.  I napped in his bunk in the aft 
 cabin.  It's the best bed on the boat.  We had chili 
 for dinner and home made cookies. 
  
 By morning we were around Ft. Pierce and we sailed 
 through out the day close hauled.  Seas were 
 3-4 feet with an 8 second period and winds were 10-15 
 out of the north east. We had Yogurt and Granola for 
 breakfast and Turkey and cheese rollups for dinner. 
  
 We are running the Generator for about 2 hours a day 
 to keep up with power requirements and we have found that 
 our water in the tanks now all jostled up and bounced around 
 is sour smelling.  So we are filtering the water before 
 using it. 
  
 In the afternoon our turning block on the port side 
 had the pin coming out and we almost lost the bronze 
 sheeve!  Sam and I spent about an hour fixing it 
 We were mostly looking for small set screws that would 
 fit.  The set screws had been removed and not replaced 
 and the pin/blot had backed out. 
  
 By about 1930 approaching Cape Canaveral the winds suddenly 
 changed to directly off the nose.  We tried to tack several 
 times but our velocity made good was only two knots so we opted 
 to try and catch a coastal breeze by tacking in toward the land. 
 we were about 15 miles off shore.  In the end with storms coming 
 we opted to start the engine. Hannah and I took in the sails 
 and put in both reefs in the main so that when we raised it 
 during the night it would already be reefed.  We motored till about 2am 
 and as we were ready to round the cape the winds shifted favorable again. 
  
 So we put up Jib and mizzen with the Jib reefed about 50% and we 
 were making 6 knots with 15 knots of wind. popup storms came 
 back to back and we got hit by 3 of them. 
  
 I like to reef at night as a general rule.  But if you can 
 make 6 knots reefed why put up more canvas? Just to stress 
 the boat for no good reason? Winds were 10G18 out of the east 
 which is where the popups came from.  one time I had to 
 put on the auto pilot and come below to get out of the 
 driving rain and 20 knot winds but it was only for about 20 minutes. 
  
 Reef early and Reef often.  Don't over power your rig! 
  
 Oh, and at about 4am I found out the motor is blowing 
 exhaust in the bilges so I'll have to look at it after sun up. 
  
 I'm going to eat breakfast and go to sleep after Sam wakes up