Suvai'i to Fiji

zulu 0530
lat 13 deg 40.36 S
long 173 deg 15.03 W
course 241 T
speed 5-6 knots
wind 14 SE (except when its not)
sea state - calm waves 1-2ft following (yeah!)
cloudy with the occasional rainbow

So yeah, I forgot to mention that we swam back in the rain - darn it we got wet!!! It rained hard most of the night. This morning it was hot and sunny very little breeze. Dennis helped me get the kayak down and I went in a settled our bill in Australian dollars and talas. Pretty funny actually. Loaded the kayak back on the boat, stowed everything and headed out. That entrance channel is crazily narrow, but we just followed our track back out, so no worries.

Hurray we are on our way to Fiji!! The winds today have been pretty squirrelly. We had to motor almost to the end of the island before we got any decent wind. Poled out the jib port, furled it, put it out starboard for wing and wing, jibed the main back and forth and now at 1830 local we have the second reef back in the main, the stay sail and partial jib with the wind back behind the beam. During my watch this afternoon it did about a 360 ended up close hauled thru dinner, and now it is behind the beam. Will see what the evening brings. Quiet day other than the multiple sail ins and outs etc. Hot. Should make Fiji by Friday if we can average between 5 & 6 knots. it could happen, if not, we will still be moving and when we do get there we will laze around the boat until Monday (if we get there before then - which we should even if we go realllyy slow).

Back to crossing mode. Hate to say it, but so far the motion has been great - probably jinxed myself, but trying to be thankful for the small things. I hardly knew how to cook in a galley that wasn't pitching around. Nice!

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com