We're well and sorry for not having communicated for a while.

We left Rarotonga 4 days ago and have been sailing in mixed
weather since then. It's just the two of us this time, and the
longest that we've sailed without more crew. I can tell you that it matters!
As I've mentioned, we're using a 5-4-3 watch schedule so neither
of us has more than 4-1/2 hours of undisturbed time for sleeping so we are
forced to take every chance that we can to catch some sleep. We
see each other a half-hour at most each watch.

At any rate, the wind has, in general, been behind us but
erratic in both speed and direction. Our first night out we had
a "fire drill" on Conni's watch when we entered a squall and winds built to 30+
knots in minutes. We had to scramble and I had to quickly get
out of bed to help. We've had only a few of them but they're unpleasant at
best. We've been in no real danger, but we both know the
consequences if either of us gets hurt: no backup!

The wind has not allowed a straight shot to Niue, and we're 180
nm out from there: 2 full days at our speeds. We'll have to
jibe around a lot to get to the island since we can't get a straight course toward it.

Our little trolling generator, the water generator as we call
it, is still doing yeoman's work and solar, when it's sunny
(oddly, a rarity this time) helps, too. Still, every third day we must run the generator to make water since we've started that process.

We were going to spend a night on the hook at Beverage Reef, but
winds simply did not allow it unless we came in at night. Nope,
not a good idea. There's more than one wreck on the island. Maybe
next time.

From Niue, we go to Tonga, but that's only 3 days, We'll spend a
few days of R and R at Vava'u, then on to Fiji, only two days
and then
we'll try to island-hop and spend nights on the hook. This
crossing was the worst, by far. Can't WAIT for it to be done.
Neither of us can.

Pass word to friends that of this writing we're fine. I took
the chance to use the HF radio for this transmission since we
are making water today.