Position: 19 degrees, 40 minutes south; 168 degrees, 25 minutes west

Some squally weather

That’s what I just heard. The boat rolls really hard, you can hear the water above your head gurgle over the side and onto the deck, then the boat rolls the other way and all the water that is inside the scuppers now works its way through the drain on the cockpit coaming and across the cockpit seat. That’s when you hear Ann swear as the river “roars” across her cushion and, well…you get the idea. Tayana River! (And now Ann has a wet rear end!)

As you might surmise, we’re underway again and it’s rough. Seas are about 3 meters and the wind is in the low twenties. We’re flying the jib only and doing our usual 6 knots or so. It’s been squally most of the day. Mostly wind in the low teens but then a big squall sneaks up on you and before you know it it’s raining and the wind is up suddenly to 25 knots. Keeps us busy.

We left Beveredge Reef about 1230. What an amazing experience that was. We were anchored there for three days and other than our friends on Orcinius who came with us, we didn’t see another boat. We don’t know of anyone behind us planning to go either. It’s a little out of the way and not charted, therefore not often visited. But it’s one of the most beautiful places we’ve seen in terms of the stark beauty and the amazingly vivid shades of blue. You have to like blue because that’s all there is other than a tiny bit of coral occasionally visible where the waves break on the reef. Wow, we feel privileged to have been able to go there. It’s not “free” though. There is some anxiety getting in and out. Today there was a three knot current and some whitewater coming out the pass and the pass is not very obvious. At most other atolls there’s some indication of where the pass is since there’s land and you can see a break. Not so at Beveredge Reef. There’s no land, so you have to discern where there are fewer waves breaking and turn in there. A leap of faith at that point-you hope you were right.

Anyway, tomorrow, if the wind keeps up, we’ll be in Niue. We’re looking forward to going ashore after being on the boat for the last five plus days. Scooters! Internet! Maybe we’ll be able to post some pictures. We hope to stay at Niue for a week and just wind down before heading further west to Tonga.

Stay tuned.