Day 3
1 am, 07:00 UTC
pos 16degS, 155deg29.1w
1 am. Rocking boat. Middle of the Pacific. What. Was. I. Thinking?
Our course now is around 230-240deg, we are still under full sail, the wind direction has shifted from North to North West, forcing us to sail a more south westerly course. As a result Suvarov Atoll is no longer our destination. We checked the weather files (grib files) and there is a fairly potent cold front/ low pressure arriving on Sunday, hitting the southern Cook Isles in full force. If we keep on our current course we will sail straight into it, it has 25 to 40 knot winds predicted, straight on the nose. This we do not want to do. From what I can gather, if we stay above 16degS, we should be OK. Tomorrow looks like it may be a no wind day, if so we will motor north. Either way, this current Northerly wind, which is pushing us south, is not predicted to last. So hopefully between now and Sunday we will be able to claw our way north again, out of the path of this bloody low pressure. So Suvarov may well become our short term destination again later on... But what on earth happened to South East trade wind sailing and the so-called Coconut Milk Run??!? Helloooo! The wind is North west with a menacing cold front imminent!! Bloody hell, we may as well try sail from PE to Cape Town in the middle of winter. Not.
But the sea is still flatish, the wind is 12-16 knots, our speed is around 6 knots, we are as close hauled as can be, and we are still heading in a westerly direction, so its all good. We'll take it, thank you very much. Caught a Mahi-Mahi and a Boobi, we set the Mahi free and ate the Boobi. (Kahlil humour). Otherwise we are all trying to adjust to the long haul ahead of us. It looks like we may sail all the way to Fiji without stopping which is another 10 days at sea ahead of us. Kind of hard getting your head around that. 10 more days. Chantal had a long day with the kids, Josh has a temperature , he is pretty miserable. Must be flu from one of the kiddies in Bora-Bora. But the good news is that we have all kinds of visitors joining us in Fiji, we are so excited, in fact we are shaking with anticipation. The visitors are going to be (first batch): Jark Artaheron with maybe Laura and Amelia, Chantal's mom Liz; second batch are Gideon's dad Deon and FIANCE Rosa. Yes can you believe that they are going to fly two thirds of the way around the globe to come visit us?! So as you can imagine, we have quite a incentive to make it to Fiji on time. Jacques and co arrive on 13 July, that gives us 23 days to get there. It should not be a problem. But lets hope that this little Sunday storm can be avoided.
I have started a stomach stretching regime to make space for all the biltong that I am going to be eating.
Cheers
G
