Saturday, April 21, 2012

New Zealand to Fiji - Day 6

Corie was on watch this morning at about 0230 when an incident occurred with our autopilot. She and I were able to get it straightened out without too much trouble but it was enough commotion to get Ruthie up too. Since it was only a half hour until Ruthie's watch, she relieved Corie. As Ruthie and I were in the cockpit, protected by our snug enclosure, a wall of water smashed the starboard side of the boat and in a split second I was completely soaked - not a dry stitch on me. The only thing that kept the situation from being completely awful was that the water was about 78 degrees. I dried off, changed clothes and went back to bed. When I got up for my watch at 0530, Ruthie said that we hadn't been 'pooped on' like that since. She went down to her bunk and I took my post in the cockpit. Less than 5 minutes later, I got pooped on again - twice in succession. I'm running out of dry clothes and besides, I'd just get them wet again.

The wind continues to blow between 28 and 32 knots; the seas still running between 4 and 5 meters. It's supposed to let up once we arrive in Fiji. We had done a sail change yesterday morning but it didn't give us enough speed. Instead of making yet another change, we just put the engine on - which is kind of ridiculous with all this wind but it did make the ride more comfortable. To be completely honest, I find the constant drone of the engine to be somewhat comforting.

What is amazing is how well Rutea is bearing up under all this. True, we've found some leaks that we didn't have previously but nothing has broken. We've had no injuries. And finally, I'm losing weight!

I'll try to post more tomorrow.
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At 4/21/2012 9:10 PM (utc) Rutea's position was 22°52.32'S 176°10.32'E

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