Well I know yesterday evening blog was quite short. We had been side continuously sided shuffled for the better part of 36 hours. This has been one time when the GRIB was correct as long as you grabbed one about every six hours but donÂ't really trust itÂ's longer range forecasting.

So you remember when we were becalmed about 4 or 5 days ago, well the weather gods made up for it. There was a low that started building NW of Fiji just before the calm we got to sit through and the forecast back then was for it to go marching down through Fiji and then through Minerva Reef a day or two before we got there. At least that was the forecast so the purpose for us shutting down in the middle of the calm and waiting for some wind to drag us up to Minerva.

So drag us it did. Right into the edge of the nasty little low that decided to stall and curl back around to the south and partially swallow us up. During the late shift on Saturday night Lisa and I decided that we would take a chance that the low would slide down to the SE of us and we could get into Minerva for a couple of days and then on to Savusavu Fiji. Wrong guess and it became a poor choice. Hind sight being 20/20 we should have not trusted mother nature to do what a computer model said would happen. We were just too close to the action or as they say couldnÂ't see the forest for the trees.

We decided to make some easting to assure we would not have to tack back east to get to Minerva. We did that by starting up the motors, both, and drove ourselves deeper into the pit for about 8 hours early yesterday morning. Well that was when the low started to curl south and west (not as GRIB forecast) it just about swallowed us up. As it was it marched across the Minervas and was blowing the 30+ boats at anchor with itÂ's >40 knot winds.

When we downloaded the 1800Z GRIB yesterday morning at 0600 local, we saw we were stuck in a bit of a gale. By then the seas had grown to 3-4 meters from two directions, ENE and ESE. We kept the motors on and made a hard left hand turn heading to the West and tried to get out of itÂ's influence. Pulled the next GRIB at 0000Z or noon local and from there we knew we were had. We pulled out about ½ of the jib, shut down the engines and started what we referred to as the bronco ride in last blog. By late in the day yesterday the seas had built to well over 5 meters and the wind had become a steady 28G35 with some long periods of steady 40 knots that lasted 10-15 minutes or long enough to see the whisps of white being blown off the top of some very big and ominous waves.

We were up the same creek as two other boats. A single hander called Katydid and Salt Breaker with 3 POB. They are both monohulls so while they may be a little less comfortable to ride compared to a catamaran, I donÂ't think that is the case in most gales. I think we were riding with the waves at a pretty good clip and maybe at the brink when the winds surged to the 40Â's. If it had grown and larger, I think we would have been stuck inside with a drogue deployed. If you run into my brother Walt ask him to see the video of his Pacific roller coaster ride. As it was there were small spurts of 18 knots over water but mostly 10+.

It is now 0100 local and the wind and seas were calmed by Lisa on her shift. We have a full jib out and are doing 6+ knots direct towards Savusavu Fiji and are expecting land fall mid day on Wednesday. Have to get our paper worked emailed to the officials this morning so we donÂ't have to sit outside of their harbor waiting for a 48 hour advance notice. We are going to stay on a fast track for the next 24 to make sure we get into port before any additional strong seas try to grab us.

All for now.

John