I'm thrilled to start this blog post by advising that Sunday night brought the respite we were hoping for - the wind settled to around 25 knots and the sea state slowly eased down further allowing us to sail more comfortably with 3/4 main and just a sliver of headsail out. There was some welcome rain to wash away the accumulated salt on deck; the wind devils whipped up by the strong winds consistently bombarded us as we manoeuvred Elevation through the turbulence of the relentless swell and as we slew along with our starboard gunnel dipping into the briny. I've spent some time today reviewing the accumulated weather data made available to me at this time. Other than a strong wind warning issued by the Fiji Met Office for the Southern Cooks over the weekend (and let's face it, a 20-25 knot wind warning to anyone who's sailed the West Australian coast is not a red flag), there was nothing to pinpoint the weather event we encountered. I'll be analysing the situation further once we make landfall and are reconnected to the net in order to get a full understanding of what we just went through. Was it a mischievous Tangaroa, the Cooks Islands god of the sea? Was it the Universe giving us a reminder that we are just a little bobbing craft out on the big blue? Suffice to say, Team Carter prevailed once again!

Today's conditions have been ideal for wing on wing sailing - a consistent 15-20 knot easterly and a gentle southerly swell of less than 2 metres has delivered a SOG averaging 7 knots and we are currently 425 NM from the top end of Vava'u. Our excitement today was being buzzed by a US Coastguard plane who called to see if all was ok with Elevation. We lost our visual on Jeanmarie and Agatha a couple of days ago and as they only have their VHF working, we've been unable to raise them on the radio as we are now obviously too far apart. Paul asked if the Coastguard could keep a lookout for them and check that all was well with them. They had spoken of stopping off at Palmerston Atoll, a tiny little Cook Isle, which offers moorings on the west coast with protection against the SE trades. Palmerston's fame is as the 19th century home of William Marsters and his three Islander wives. According to Lonely Planet, Marsters was "a prolific breeder" and is credited as being an ancestor to thousands of Cook Islanders, both in their homeland and resident in NZ.

All well onboard.