Day 3, Passage to Puerto Montt

2000Z 24SEP19, Day 3, Easter Island to Puerto Montt, Chile. We continue to be put to work by the variable winds. It has been a slow progress kind of day. We are making more southward progress than we might like but it seems to align with the weather routing so it should work out. We are back to a port tack and have sailed from a close reach to a broad reach back to a close reach with winds varying from 5 to 25 kts.

Current Position: 30 55S / 103 45W
24 hour progress: 121nm, 5.0kts avg SOG
Overall progress for the passage is 400nm with approximately 1580nm to the entrance canal to get to Puerto Montt. The gray, rainy weather continues though we are back to drizzle rather than showers, and have even seen a little sun. We are currently close hauled, with two reefs in the main and 3 in the genoa. Winds are currently 20kts +/- 5kts true and the seas are decently big and slightly confused due to all the shifting winds. We have a following swell and are bashing into the wind waves - not especially comfortable nor fast.

The crew are all fine. The confused seas have gotten to Jon and Ronan making them seasick late yesterday. Ronan, at least, seems to be better today. Daxton is a bit stir crazy since Ronan isn't as interested in playing. All the heeling and bouncing are also giving inconsistent readings on the water tank so it is unclear how much or how little water we captured yesterday, so no shower yet, though it would be sporty in the current conditions. No fishing today either as landing and cleaning the fish wouldn't be fun.

The weather forecasts suggest we will be near the center of the squashed high for a bit longer and then skirt the edges of some faster moving pressure systems. Looks like there will be more of the same with low winds, high winds and wind shifts. We are sleeping when we can but are starting to show signs of sleep deprived thinking. The boys have not been doing much unaccompanied watch due to the conditions so Jon and I are back on a 3 hour on / 3 hour off night shift with both of us up when a major sail configuration change is needed. Typically around day 3 everything starts to even out a bit, but since we've had a more eventful start this time out it may take a bit longer and some more naps.