Position: 31 degrees, 05 minutes south; 173 degrees, 53 minutes west

Even after the main part of the storm it was still smokin'

After a long second night, the wind and waves finally eased this morning and we were able to take down the storm sails and put up our regular ones. We’re still double reefed on the main, but the wind is only 15-20 and the waves are down to maybe 6 feet. It still seems a bit boisterous because we hard on the wind-which means we’re going into the waves and Charisma is tilted on a 40 degree angle, but at least we’re sailing again instead of just hanging on.

First off, the crew of the boat I mentioned yesterday that got in trouble have been rescued. A large ship diverted and they were picked up after waiting 15 hours for the ship and then for the seas to subside enough for the ship to deploy a boat to pick them up. It appears that early reports of a crew washed over were incorrect, so it seems all are OK. I don’t know what the disposition of the boat is-whether they are going to scuttle it or if it will just float around and people will have to watch out. Hopefully the former. I hate to think about having that thing floating out here in the night seas with no lights.

Our night last night was long because in the after effects of the storm there was a combination of moderate wind in the high 20’s and gusty squalls into the low 30’s. The combination made the sea state incredibly confused and we were bouncing around like a cork. The combination of the storm day and last night where we couldn’t really control our course and just went with the wind and seas put us around 140 miles off course to the southwest. Fortunately there’s a wind shift coming in a day or so that should help us get back to where we need to go. It’s predicted to shift from the southeast, which is where it is now, around to the south (not good for us since we’re going south) and then around the other side to the southwest and then west. These last two shifts will allow us to tack and then run downwind into Opua. We’ll probably be a half day later than planned on the optimistic side and maybe 36 hours late if the wind doesn’t shift at favorable times. For now we’re sailing a course of 220 degrees True which puts us north of the north island of New Zealand. At any rate, we’ve got a day or so before we need to worry about what tactic to use to get southeast.

One thing about going south. Even though it’s Spring down here going to Summer, it’s getting colder. It’s like going from Mexico to San Francisco. The flip flops we’ve been wearing for a year now have been replaced by wool socks and sea boots and we’re both layering. Tonight I’m going with thermal underwear, a vest, a sweater and a jacket with wool cap. Ann’s following a similar route. Part of it is that we’ve been in the tropics so long now. For instance I was very cold last night sitting in the cabin and decided to look at the thermometer to see if it had hit freezing yet. It was 65 degrees F! So I guess we have some acclimatizing to do now that we’re away from the equatorial regions.

But, I miss my flip flops.