THe Long Way Round

Well I cant sail direct to the island as I am too far north to get the angle I need. Instead I am going to have to sail the two sides of ther triangle between here, Tubuai and some point northwest of Tubuai, so I have a greater distance to go and will need a couple of extra days, What a bloody pain. These strong winds are continuing and wont go away for a few days yet so we just slog it out trying to go as east as possible, as close to the wind as possible and keep a reasonable speed on but not hammer the boat and myself too much. Because there's so much water over the boat the drips are continually needing attention and I cant sit outside as even there its wet. Meanwhile we sit in the cabin and well yes I guess it must be cabin fever, staring at the second hand on the clock that seems to have forgotten how to move.

I went to the bow of the boat this morning - to relieve the boredom of course - in 22 knots and rough seas - to tie down the storm jib which had somehow escaped from its bag and was flapping about like a demented emu. I decided to leave the "Foulies" in the cabin as I knew I was going to be utterly soaked by wave after wave leaping down at me off the bow - and sure enough I seemed to be underwater lots of the time, grimly hanging on with bare feet hands and teeth and the tethers, it was like being at one end of a huge and violent see-saw that for whatever reason someone built under a waterfall.. The water was surprisingly warm but the strong wind made me cold, so, job done I retreated to the cockpit and took everything off and left it out there. It was lovely to hold the warm kettle against my stomach and chest like a "hottie", rub myself down and get in to warm dry clothes, my first clean up since leaving NZ.

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