After my first two hour shift which lasted 90 minutes because I couldn't concentrate anymore, we adopted a watch schedule of 90 minutes on and 90 minutes off.  I learned that I could not even talk to Chris and keep a steady course off the port beam.  Great sailing until dawn when the wind settled and the swell dissipated.   When I woke up for my 9 am watch, the seas were flat and glassy;  no wind, no swell.  We motor-sailed to Sardinia so that Chris could repair the auto-pilot.  We anchored in poor holding (weeds) next to the Port of Alghero with light, cool winds. 

We hoisted the sails in the Mahon harbor with the first wind evident for days and sailed out to be greeted by 15-20 foot swells and 23-35 mph winds.  We were so excited that the wind was blowing in the right direction that we decided to keep going.  We feel OK until the wind exceeds 40.  Really rolling out there:  short swells off our port quarter (7-8 o'clock) that rocked SHIBUMI back and forth like a washing machine.  Resulting in books falling out of Chris's bunk bookcase, out of the saloon bookcase, tools out of the port engine room work area since we had forgotten to turn the locks, lots of items all over the place.  None of which happened on our 14 day Atlantic crossing so you can guess how rough it was.  But we were SAILING with a short rig and it felt great, so on we went.  Chris was re-stowing tools in the engine room when I spotted the large, grey log surfing down upon us from the top of one of those monster waves.  Then the wave spouted and I realized that I was watching a whale diving to avoid us.  At 2 pm the auto-pilot said "enough" and quit, four hours out of Mahon and 28 hours from Sardinia.  So now we look at each other and knowing that we will have to hand steer overnight in weather conditions that the auto-pilot cannot handle, we decide to continue on.  If we turned back, we still would have to hand steer.