It's 4:30am on July 24th and we're 23 miles from Rarotonga. As promised, we encountered the front associated with a deep low pressure system to the south of us. Naturally, it was in the dark of night. Intense rainstorms and squall winds hit us for nearly 12 hours, with the highest gust we saw being 45 knots. The front was followed by a high pressure system with clear skies and steady 30 knot winds with periods of nearly 40 knots --- we're still in this as we approach Rarotonga and it's been going on for over 30 hours. When the first front gusts hit we were laid over and Tane said he woke up standing up! Our autopilot went AWOL the night before last---it appears to be a new problem, as the linear drive is still functioning. Needless to say, we've been hand steering ever since, in full foul weather gear. The seas have built substantially. I was steering earlier last night when without warning a wave, invisible in the dark, broke in the cockpit---it felt like being under Niagra falls---the boat heeled way over, the cockpit filled with water, and a few things were washed overboard. All the cups in the steering pedestal cup holder were thrown out, the cockpit cushions nearly went overboard, and I had to hold down the wooden floor grate with my feet for some time as the water finally drained out.

We had left the fishing lines out from calmer times. This morning, as we raced along with Sal at the helm and Tane and me asleep below, two large mahi mahi hit the lures, one on the rod. By the time we got to the rod, several hundred yards were already out, and eventually that one got off. We had a very difficult time boating the other fish in heaving seas, which added to the usual mahi mahi bloodfest, but finally we had the fish subdued. We usually bleed the fish by tying a rope around the tail, making gill cuts, and towing it for a few minutes, and we did so in this case. After hosing down the blood from the cockpit, ourselves, and just about every possible surface, Tane went to haul in the fish to filet it... and no fish, just a tattered rope end. Ouch!

Later in the day, we caught another mahi mahi. By this time, the seas were worse, so we filleted it straight away.

We're all very tired from the constant boat motion and looking forward to landfall.

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