The last couple of days have been rather rough. The wind is on our nose, 2 nights ago we had thunder showers with lightening in the area. Barry's fancy new wind instruments measured 38 knots in a gust and then gave up the ghost so once again we are not sure exactly how bad it is out there. At the moment 0225 local time we have up a triple reefed main and the staysail and we are making 7 1/2 knots, just screaming along. Every once in awhile we hit a wave wrong and wham the boat slams down. This afternoon the slams jumped the anchor out of it's slot and Barry went up front to lash it down. What a treat that he feels he is able to get around when the boat is unstable. As I was watching him a huge wall of water reared it's head, it was at least 3 meters high, I yelled at him to hang on, the boat just plunged up and over the wave, he didn't even get wet. I wish I had a video camera handy, it was pretty impressive.
I report in every afternoon on a ham radio net, they record our position, course and speed as well as the weather. I told him that the barometer dropped 6 points in the last 3 hours. The front just went tearing through giving us these huge waves and wind, then the wind drops and you are left with the huge seas and the boat wallows and slams around. The seas did drop and the wind picked up again, thus the steady 7 1/2 knots.
We are managing to eat pretty well, although it is a challenge to cook at times. Today I made scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, lunch was non existent because that front was coming through, we had some orange juice, nuts and raisins. For supper I made chicken and garlic in a white pasta sauce over spaghetti. It was pretty good but I forgot the rule about what to put it on and as I was putting some Parmesan cheese on Barry's plate, the spaghetti sauce and all slid off the plate onto the counter. @#$@#$@!! Gotta use big bowls, no matter what you eat.
Hopefully the wind will move around tomorrow and we will find those nice SE trade winds. Not likely yet though, we are into the 20's now so the sea has warmed up a few degrees as have the air temp. We are close to the halfway point. Have you made your guess as to our arrival, all you sailors out there who say you read the blog are you guessing???
To see their position:
http://www.pangolin.co.nz/yotreps/tracker.php?ident=VE8BL
Send your guesses to bob.shanks@gmail.com Ann has requested we close the contest about 3 days before their projected arrival. That will be May 23 in North America May 24 in Fiji. Get your guesses in....
