Day 3 – Dolphins and thunderstorms

The past 24 hours have been generally good – we’re sailing fast (7.8 knots at the moment on a broad reach), and we’ve made 149 miles in the last day.  We had our first company in a day as well, as a large US Coast Guard cutter just went past us. Last night, our evening settled in with a visit from some dolphins surfing on our bow and a relatively quiet night, except when Justin woke me when a thunderstorm was bearing down on us.  Lots of sheet lightning up behind the clouds, but not too many bolts trying to set the ocean on fire.  We furled our gennaker and waited it out with just the main up – 20 knots from behind us and a bit of rain, no big deal.  We thought it was through and rolled out the genoa, until we realized that the wind wasn’t quite done, 30 knots this time and top speed so far of 9.45 kts, so we furled up the genoa and waited a few more minutes for everything to pass  – roller furling is so nice for those times (Earendil, our old boat, never had roller furling).

The swells seems surprisingly steep/large to us – there must have been some weather to the south, as we’ve been surfing on some big ones.  Unfortunately, they make our adjustment to life at sea take a little longer.  We both prefer to be on deck, but no major issues with seasickness.  It still really hot.  Not as hot as Annapolis, but it is 88F inside the boat right now.

Our position at the moment is 38 deg 33′ 16″N, 71 deg 06′ 29″W.  MIles to go: 1992 nm