13:35S 158:40W

 

Every now and then we have a passage that will be memorable only for how uncomfortable it was.   This is one of those.  For the past 24 hours we’ve had strong winds, big seas and lots of squalls bringing rain and even more wind.  Just before dark a huge squall loomed on the horizon so we opted to furl the headsail and just ran with the reefed main all night.   At times – in between squalls - it was not quite enough and Bandit wallowed  in the swell but was still doing about five knots.  Both of us were so tired and conditions up on deck were so miserable that we shut ourselves below with the timer set for 10 mins for a scan of the horizon napping in between.  The only other time we’ve ever shut ourselves below is on Christmas Day on the Atlantic crossing so guess we’ve been pretty lucky with weather.

 

This morning dawned with more squalls on the horizon but by 9am they’d cleared, the wind had eased along with the swell and we’re now sailing along nicely in bright sunshine.   As a fellow said on the morning net – “what a difference 24 hours makes”. Nights like last night makes us wonder how single handers cope – our admiration for them is huge.

 

We’ve got the genoa out again and right now we’re doing nearly eight knots...but averaging about six.  We will have to slow down to time our arrival into Suvarrow in daylight hours as we’re due to arrive late at night and it’s not an entrance that can be made at night.

 

Right time to delve into the freeze for tonight’s meal.   Last night I took out what I thought was chilli con carne only to later discover it was mahimahi.  The mahimahi was delicious but it was a pain to pan fry it in the conditions.  Tonight will be chilli.