Position: 31 degrees, 37 minutes south; 170 degrees, 57 minutes west

It’s 2000 local NZ time and we have been hove to since 0600. We basically used a combination of storm sail and locking the rudder hard over to one side to stop Charisma’s forward motion, keep her facing the waves and more or less go very slowly backwards at about 1.5 knots away from the direction of the waves (In reality it’s a little closer to going sideways, but the effect is the same). The idea here is to keep Charisma going very, very slow and under control in storm conditions and not tire ourselves out wrangling an out of control boat being thrown about by large waves and high wind.

We even put a seat belt on Ann's Pukkeko.

We’ll stay this way until daybreak as it’s still very windy and the sea state is large and confused. Trying to sail downwind (no way to go upwind in these conditions) would be a bad idea for a number of reasons. So we sit and wait. Patience.

The day has been blustery to say the least. We prepared for the onslaught yesterday, so everything was well secured and ready when the wind came. Early in the day the wind was in the 30’s, but in the afternoon the storm pulled out all the stops. The waves got steep, about 15 feet and short, the wind came up measured at the deck as sustained 35 knots gusting to 45 knots and then heavy rain. In those conditions another advantage of heaving to is that we just closed the hatch and sat in the warm, comfy cabin. We’re getting a little bit of cabin fever, but it’s better than the alternative.

I think we’re now in the “passing” stage of the beast. The seas have become quite confused since the wind is shifting as the low passes by to the south of us. The barometer is up 3 mb over the last two hours to 1012 which also signifies the low is passing. Ironically enough the “ride” is the most uncomfortable right now that it’s been because the seas are so confused. Instead of big rollers all coming down from essentially the same direction, little pyramid shape waves made up of several directions are slapping us around.

Hopefully when the sun comes up and shines some light on the situation we’ll be able to see our way to “cracking off” and getting back to our easterly voyage. We will have west wind thanks to this and another low that’s rampaging about down south and we want to take advantage of the west wind while we can. Just a more gentle one please.