Still stonking along - wind E about 15 - big jib rolled in a few turns and one reef. Grib says more of this, all day tomorrow - hope so and hope it doesn't increase too much. Iff we get lucky, we might just slip between two systems, but that's serious wishful thinking and I must wash my mouth out with soap - or at least my finger tips. We had six albatrosses wheeling and circling and gawping at us for most of today - all the same sort, black browed, as described earlier. I think at least two of them have been with us for about a week. Lovely to watch them formation flying - sometimes two, sometimes four, lazily soaring and dipping back to the surface, airy grace and symmetry.
Our local advisor says that up here, May through July, the Bering Sea and probably as far down as here tends to be permanently overcast, low cloudbase some mist and fog. That's what we've got. Getting through Amchitka will be a bit of a challenge - to be met when we see what we've got but not to be attempted against the tide and only in daylight. It'd 50 miles wide, but quite shallow in the middle, and the bottom rises from gerzillions to tens of metres in a very short distance, very strong tides, often against the wind, so very like the SE corner of OZ, of what we know!
McQ cooking, then I'm on deck for a couple of clank and dammy hours. The nights seem very long in two hour stints - three is almost better, but that last hour really drags, so we're sticking to the 2 hour routine.
Had in mind to write about some of Berri's systems for anyone else who is thinking about long distance sailing. Perhaps if tomorrow is reasonably benign, that'll be the go.
