What a rude way to start the day! Just before day break the sails started to make racket, wouldn’t stay filled with air as we went over the waves.. I was asleep and had just dozed off when Christine woke me up and said there was a huge blob on the radar. Yup, sure enough, more than 3 miles deep and 10+ miles long and smack dab in our way and no clear way around it.

Rolled the jib and started to put the second reef in the in main. While putting the reef in the dreaded cold breeze arrived. Not gonna get this done in time. WhoooooooSH, the rain and the winds went from next to nothing to 30+ knots. Still groggy from waking up, dropped the main as quickly as possible and tied it down motored about in the driving rain for an hour. A morning shower to wake up is one thing, but cold and driving rain is just RUDE.

Oh well, all good! The boat got a fresh wash and Christine and I an impromptu bath. The wind took hours to regroup and organize.. We turned on engine and motored in our general path for 6 hours an least we told ourselves we were charging the batteries!

Around 3pm while we were watching the second feature film of the lazy day, the wind started coming form a consistent direction, at 5-7knots. Not quite enough but tried it any way and low and behold we are sailing again slowly but the batteries were well charged by now.

Forecast says tomorrow the winds should behave and push us along again. We are in touch with another boat behind us by 50 miles or so, they also had the wall of water to contend with today.

Picture: The calm after the Kaos.

Thought about going for a swim or a paddle board.

Distance to go 1250 miles.

The first 4 hours of today, our average was over 8.3 knots, now 20 hours later, its 5.9 knots and only going down as we are currently going 3.8 knots. Oh well, not in a hurry. The winds at the Fiji end of the journey look to be strong. Enjoying the peaceful sounds for a bit.

[tag Live,Passage,underway]