getting somewhere

The wind and the sea remained remarkably steady all last night and for most of today, so we made good progress towards Tahiti. There was nothing much for me to do, so I sat in the cockpit and felt miserable and wondered why. I had deliberately had a good - well filling - breakfast - that muesli which I really am sick of now - and strong coffee and then tidied up everything and brushed my teeth thinking that might make me feel better. I tried reading the Hobbit a bit more to take my mind off things - I was becoming paranoid about every splash on to the boat - and that didn't help. I tried going into the cabin and sleeping but couldn't. I thought maybe I should release the Hunter in me and kill something and that might help me feel better - so I threw the bright pink lure I had been given, over the stern and watched it whiz through the water after us but till now, nothing.. Lastly I tried to take my mind off the splashes and the leaks and the creaks and groans, and the crap food, the now inedible remnants of the baguette, my sore back - and try to think about The Big Picture. What seemed to make sense to me was firstly as my wonderful friends Hilton and Melva suggested in their email yesterday, I was missing the warmth and human contact so freely and lovingly given to me in Tubuai. That was true. But also it occurred to me that getting to Tubuai had been the Big Thing on my Agenda for about a year, and everything was focused on that -The Big Challenge had been to cross the South Pacific -- and now I had done it. So what was left to do? Everything after Tubuai was sort of anticlimactic, I didn't really have a plan or a vision of what I was really going to do, or why, after Tubuai, other than a list of names of Islands,. So that is my challenge once I get to Tahiti, to set some new goals and objectives for the next two months.

Later, midway through the afternoon while I was waiting for a kill, mother nature tried to help out by messing with the wind and the waves. Firstly, the wind dropped significantly, and I could see my anticipated arrival in daylight tomorrow becoming an annoying wait over the next night as I would not be entering any passage in any reef in the dark. My heart was set on getting there in daylight tomorrow, so good had the progress been - and so I took out the reef in the main to try and keep us moving - whereupon the wind picked up dramatically and eventually, after an hour or so of wild fluctuations in wind strength , it settled around 18 knots and Sapphire was making over 7 knots at times - and so I put the reef back in! Right now we are only 70nm from the nearest bit of Tahiti but where I am going is 83nm way. We are back on track for a daytime arrival I would say, especially if this wind continues as it is. But who knows?

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