Full Moon, Wind is Back

Conditions can change so fast here. We finally gave up on wind yesterday at our latitude, especially after talking to the main weather guru, Don on Summer Passage, who has told everyone that the only wind would be below 5 degrees south latitude and we were in the mid-threes with zero wind. So we motored all night and I woke up hearing Cindy (on watch just before dawn) turn off the motor and put up the sails. The wind has built from there and we are definitely back in the tradewinds with 20kt winds out of the east, and waves to match.

It is hard to describe the exhilaration of sailing in these conditions. It makes life on the boat a living hell as far as sitting down, lying down and certainly moving around, or worse, cooking. Cindy has been a saint. We had a great sausage and spaghetti meal tonight but she warned me that tomorrow would be out of a can if conditions are the same. I said fine. Working in the galley is almost downright dangerous with the boat bucking and heeled over so far.

I did manage to fix the oven burner on the stove this morning so that was good news.

We had some drama over the last two days. One boat declared an emergency with the skipper in intense pain from a pinched back nerve. He was incapacitated and his one crew was standing 24 hr watches. They asked for a medevac by helo which is not possible this far out. Today they called it all off after the skipper got some relief from Vicoden. Don't know why he did not take it before. The US Coast Guard and the French Navy got involved and they diverted a Russian freighter with a doctor on board. But they called them off and are now sailing in to Nuka Hiva to the hospital there which is what they probably should have done to start since, as painful as it is, a pinched nerve is not life threatening.

Glad all is better for them though. The crew is a very experienced sailor.

I have been very frustrated with the radio and sending and receiving emails. Reception is not great and the stations are often overloaded with all the other boats. It can take an hour just to get a connection. Any of you sending emails, please, please, keep them brief as we are timing out on our limits daily and it literally takes two hours to do the mail. We do like getting the mail though, so don't stop. We miss everybody but are doing fine.

We should be at Atuona on Hiva Oa by this weekend, which is Easter.