Suwarrow Island, what a relief! Getting here was our most uncomfortable passage to date (Seattle to SF excepted. That was a different category). The final days had us in a steady 20 - 30 knots of wind with 8 - 12' confused seas from multiple directions. The fishing lure skipped crazily down wave faces, well above the top of our self steering vane. We saw 8.8 knots while surfing down a wave and immediately reefed the jib down to dish towel size.

Through this, the kids discovered new uses for a supersized box of army men. First there was "army men air hockey" played on the cockpit floor. Army men are flicked at high speed at the opponent who attempts to flick them back. As the game progresses, more army men are introduced until the shrieking and laughing drives the tired parents insane (the apparent objective of the game). After a couple of days, "Flick" gave way to "Flip" and it went three dimensional. The boys started bending cockpit cushions into catapults and using them as personal shields from the flying figures. Unfortunately, cockpit cushions can not launch an offensive and act as a shield at the same time thus introducing elements of timing, strategy, and deception. Flipping one army man at a time quickly escalated through an agreed upon limit of three, then to shear mayhem and the children disappeared behind clouds of little green plastic action figures. This continued every time until the shrieking and laughing drove the tired parents nuts. Let's make daddy crazy again today, he sure looks funny. Isn't sleep deprivation great!

We are happy to be finally anchored.