Position: 26 degrees, 06 minutes south; 179 degrees, 07 minutes west (did 131 NM yesterday)

The wind has finally steadied and calmed down. Last night was still 25-30+, 9-12 foot waves, breaking and rain (at least there was no lightning). Not fun and it lasted until noon today, but at about that point it settled down to the current 15-18 with still impressive but long period waves and the sky is clear for now. Much nicer. We were able to set the jib on the pole opposite the 3rd reefed main and have been doing sixes and sevens and the knotmeter. Not bad.

We’re about 100 miles from Minerva Reef, but are not planning to stop as the weather doesn’t look that promising, so we’ll pass it close by – probably to the south and look to then head up a bit towards Savusavu as the waves moderate. Right now, our course is somewhat dictated by the size of the waves. If we angle too much across them the ride gets uncomfortable as the wind vane doesn’t “know” that it needs to compensate for angling across a 12 foot wave. So the waves are coming from the southeast, thus we’re going more or less northwest. By tomorrow they should diminish and let us head up 20 or so degrees and still have a comfortable ride.

So that’s it for now. Ann and I are tired and need a good night sleep. Last night the boat was throwing us around so much in the bunk we had to wedge ourselves between two seat back bolsters to try and keep our bodies from going airborne. Tonight the motion is much gentler.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who has been commenting on the blog. Your comments are getting to us and are fun to read. I know that I have to “approve” a few of them for you to see them on the blog, but I can’t do that until we’re in Savusavu and have an internet connection. So know that they are all making it to us and look for your comment to show up sometime early next week.