Tuesday 16 September 2014

Eschewing wise counsel (see below), we were disagreeably surprised around 0230 by wind, thumbing its figurative nose at lastest GRIB (Guaranteed Retch from Intelligible Baboons), easing and backing. This circumstance required propulsion augmentation from noisy iron contraption and furling of now flapping and no longer useful, sheet-like devices which should indeed have been called sheets, but ropes used to control them had dibs. Faint glimmer of hope for Wednesday arrival has been cruelly crushed under the jackboot of reality.

As spiderwebs of sleep slowly dissipated this morning following sufficient caffeination accompanied by 2 of 4 remaining frozen pain au chocolat, we set about to untangle new and heretofore unutilized spinnaker. This entailed surprisingly less drama than one might suppose and a beautiful blue, white and yellow 3/4 oz. sail was soon dragging the operation along at 5 knots with barely more apparent wind. A foul current is slowing progress to 4.5, but our melancholy, as implied in previous paragraph, has been cast aside as we look forward to arrival into Niue, as originally expected, Thursday.

"The nice part about being a pessimist is that you are constantly being either proven right or pleasantly surprised." - George Will

Jack