This morning the weather chart showed the low had moved South of us and was around 9 or 10 degrees South. At 12pm we received the 24 hour forecast and it showed the system was well south of our destination so we raised the anchor and left the harbor following a brief rain shower.

At 1:30pm we exited the same pass we entered last night and headed South on a course of 184M. The distance to Laughlan Atoll (Budibudi) is 250 miles. The wind is light at about 8-10k from the East or ESE, though it has been fluctuating all morning and is expected to remain variable throughout the day and tomorrow. We raised the mainsail and set out the genoa and are motor sailing at 6k in calm seas. Skies are about 50% overcast with many large thunderheads visible in several directions. There is a large squall to our SW at about 16 miles as determined by radar but we expect it will move off to the West before and will not cause us any trouble. We expect to arrive at Laughlan by Saturday morning just after sunrise (i.e. June 4th).

We motor sailed all afternoon except for a brief period between 4:30pm and 5:30pm when the wind came up from the East at 10-12k. It was wonderful but didn’t last. The wind went down to 8k and our speed reduced to about 3.8k so we put the engine back on. Between 5 and 8pm huge gray clouds began to close in on us from the North and West and lightning was visible in both of those directions. By 10pm we were tracking several squalls and at 11pm we narrowly missed a big on by about a quarter mile – it passed just in front of us moving to the East.