Howzit Noo
Day 9
00:00 Local, 07:00 UTC
pos 14deg21.3S, 169deg34.9W
Distance to Apia Harbour, Upolu Island, Western Samoa: 131 Nautical miles
Day 9 has commenced! We are still being flogged, no change, wind a bit more east which makes it tricky as we are now almost dead downwind with not much angle to play with. Sea even bigger and meaner. Just took a side wave right over the top of the coach roof. Also rain squalls the whole day so we were all camped out in the saloon, cabin fever of note. But shimmi is still in her groove, eating up the miles. But we are rolling like a mono, stuff flying off the table, pots have to be clamped etc. Not lekker, but hopefully this is our last night. Still triple reefed main, no jib, doing 7-9 knots. Plenty of crazy surfs and waves breaking everywhere, luckily not too often on shimmi.
Between 8 and 12am I lie with Josh, he passed out, but I can't sleep, way too much rocking and rolling, huge waves crashing into the bridge deck, long surfs which mostly end in semi broaches which fling you sideways out of your bunk. At least with the combination of the angle of the wind, the angle of the waves and our course we always broach to windward, so no chance of an accidental gybe. But its not fun.
Kahlil has been a solid watchkeeper and he has also kept the evening meals flowing, despite the bad weather. Otherwise it was a miserable day for the 2 little pirates as you can well imagine. Chantal just sits on the floor with them for like 8 hrs straight.
Glad to hear Liz got a ticket!!!!
Cheers
Gol
