47/01S 32/52E, staysail and 3 reefs in main, course NE. Distance covered in past 24 hours: 275.4 nautical miles. Planned to gybe mid-late afternoon as the wind shifted before the front, but on starboard gybe had a big lift, which may have precursored an early arrival of low. So gybed on it, and then the wind shifted again, so I’m heading off to the NE, not where I wanted to go, thought ENE, but here we are, not going to gybe twice again to save the miles, too much risk in gybing boat in 35 kntos of wind, which is what we have. Also, can’t hurt to get set up early as the weather files have consistently underforecast the wind velocity, maybe by 10+ knots, so have to think that the low will be considerably windier than predicted so far at 45 knots.

Had several small ice rain clouds this am, it is pretty cold out. Many albatross around, grand, majestic, trying to push my mind to be calm in this weather like an albatross. Got a really good 60 minute nap this morning, went back for another after checking everything, and 30 seconds into it the pilot alarm goes off. Fortunately, the pilot defaults to compass, with this being a wind instrumentation problem I think. But it is back on and functioning now, just hard to know whether I can take off the old foul weather gear and grab a little sleep.

Thanks to Jonny Malbon for sending his iceberg sighting so promptly, I’m behind him, but somewhat in his track, and it certainly helps to have info far in advance.