Last week my sister Jan sent me a great photo of our dad and her two daughters Jasmin and Jessie in front of the Farris Wheel at the Armstrong Fall Fair. (I will insert it next time I have wifi) I use to love going to the fair to see the perfect specimens of the vegetable harvest, the prize cattle, the little kids in the 4H club trying not to get bitten while walking their pigs in a circle, the puffed up chickens with poofy hair that looked like Barbi Dolls, the rooster crowing contest, but most of all to go on the amusement rides.

Our recent passage from Qamea Island in Central Fiji to Vanua Balavu to the East brought back memories of my least favorite rides. We had passed by the Lau Group of Fiji on our way from Tonga but did not have permission to stop there before clearing into customs in Savusavu. We had to back track to get here and although the weather forecasts promised otherwise we found ourselves heading to windward in 20-25kt winds with gust to 30 kts. While many of our passages have been through rough seas they have at least been downwind or reaching. I now recall why Nigel Calder said that if you want your wife to sail with you don't go upwind.

Upwind is rough and crazy. With an already sore back I decided to try sitting on the captains chair in our pilot house with my feet braced against the wall in front. This location provides the same sensation as the fair ride where the seat swivels around side to side while at the same time the entire car lurches forward then back then tips over to one side and then the other and continues these movements at random. To add to the fun we departed at 4:00am in blackness so the direction of the next pitch could not be predicted. While the amusement park ride lasts approximately 5 minutes this was a 12 hour shaker.

We had a few issues along the way. I was not prepared for this journey and failed to tie my precious paddle board on well. Imagine my horror as I could see each crashing wave hitting the board which was tied outside the lifelines on the port bow. I crawled to the bow and wrapped a few more sail ties around it but it didn't help. Fortunately Peter saved the day and came up and secured it properly. My hero. NOT happy with me but still my hero. As we looked up from the bow we noticed another sail boat heading the opposite direction quite close to us. "those lucky sods are going downwind" Peter commented. That's when we realized that the other boat was our buddy boat, Four Seasons going upwind. It was Mazu who had unknowingly done a 180 while we were both on the bow. Peter had been adjusting our course on the auto helm when he paused to come to my rescue. Apparently he had failed to push the "on" button to set the course. Oops. Meanwhile Four Seasons was hailing us on the radio to see if we were OK. It's nice to have a buddy boat.

None of us were very amused by the ride but we are all happy to be here.