7th of September, 2009 

New sights today. When I see clouds which seem strange to me, I always feel it is a bad omen... I did not know what to think about them...
The wind became very strong with time... I nearly lost my nerves when Tanasza started to roam through the waves so fast that the mast wavered. I thought it would pass, that it was a temporary squall, but then I realised that it was not and that I have to reef the sails while the waves are not small at all. I don’t have windmeter but it does blows a lot...
In the night, I noticed a bird a couple of times (was it always the same one?). It was strange, for whenever I went out to look around, it would come from behind the stern, fly towards the bow and then continue in front of Tanasza, just like a figurehead... weird... generally, my new reality is rather weird...
Night time. What will a day bring?
It brought sailing exercises focused on how to find a compromise between sailing towards the wind and avoiding to smash the bow against the waves, a compromise between speed and a wind angle... 218 miles left to Santa Cruz Island. The wind changes from time to time. I am progressing in the desired direction for an hour, then it changes again and I have to tack. And now it seems that it has died completely... So much for today...
Well, actually, there is one more thing, I wanted to struggle a bit with the genoa. I wanted to unfurl it a bit, but I couldn’t, since a bird (the same again? it might be a spy...) was sitting on the bow. It is quite large (grew up overnight?), and has a violet nib (is it cold?). I will not unfurl the genoa, then. My heart is too soft to scare a resting bird... I will drift a bit, waiting for wind to wake up...