New Plan -

For the past 3 days we've been drifting at sea.  At one point Courage started the motors because while there was NO wind and we had to take the sails down so they wouldn't flap and tear in their wrinkled, withered state were was a current and we were moving at -1.7 knots toward our destination.  While we were willing to suck up no forward movement, we were unable to accept a backward movement.

So, as predicted the trades have started again.  Not just the trades, but also the "reinforced trades".  So winds are 20-25 knots, with gusts up to 30-35.  Initially this morning the seas were relatively flat.  As the winds grew, so did the waves.  As we rode the waves, we'd dogged down all our hatches except those on the roof (for a little air flow).  The roof is about 10 feet off the water.  Well, we were taking water over the roof in large surges of waves across the windshields and flowing into the living room.  Vitality and Intrepid looked as though they'd been swimming and both wrapped up in towels afterward.

First move was to double reef.  We were moving nicely at a double reef when the top car jumped the track (again).  We went on to a third reef.  We were still bouncing all over the place.  The new fridge/freezer is bolted to the wall on one side, so subsequently the other side began to fall forward from the wall, so we braced it in place.  Many things removed themselves from the shelves and threw themselves onto the floor (we don't really stow for a passage usually and this time it didn't pay off).  While we were moving nicely along finally (10 knots at times), we were increasingly bouncing.  This was in the lee of Fiji, when we cut free of the protection of the island, we were anticipated to have some large waves coming from 2 different directions.  With the promise of big seas (and we had all we needed), the sail out of the track, and the fact that our buddy boats are now waiting until Saturday (weather delay) to leave, we decided there was no need to push it at this point.  We were close to land and could get a rest, repair the sail, and try to wait it out and wait for our buddy boats.  That being said, very little is expected to change in the next 96 hours out there.  If you pull into Fiji without checking in, they take it serious, on the order of thousands of dollars of fines.  We are armed with our excuses (reasons) of sail repair and safe harbor and hope to spend a couple/few days here.  Sooo, is this a good time to ask if we can go to shore and play?

Shannon