We left Bora Bora two days after our visas expired. There was a series of low pressure systems to our south that were creating confused winds between us and Suwarrow, our destination. We were not the only ones leaving. Eight boats in all left within that same 24 hour period. This is not unusual as we all arrived in French Polynesia at about the same time so our visas also expired at the same time. We know most of the boats and started an SSB net so we could all keep in touch. The first day the weather was pleasantly consistent. It was sunny and the winds were on the beam at about 15 knots. Besides the SSB net we were in constant contact with the other boats via VHF radio which has a range of about 30 miles.

As the sun went down the winds went with it. They died down to about 5 knots and start to shift around. This is closer to what the weather forecast showed so it wasn't unexpected. A few of the boats fired up the motor but Fearless is a good light wind boat and we were still making ground so we continued to sail. Some time before midnight boats south of us started to get hit by a squall. They told us over the VHF the winds were gusting into the 30's. We were not seeing it yet but I decided to triple reef the main and put out the tri sail instead of the jib. It took about an hour for the squall to get to us and when it did we were ready. We were very lucky to get the advanced notice as to put in a triple reef I have to leave the cockpit which is not fun when the winds are heavy.

As promised the winds jumped to the mid 20's with gusts into the 30's but it wasn't too bad as we had plenty of time to prepare and the seas were still small. The next morning we were still in it. The winds built up a bit and were now blowing consistently in the 30's. The seas had also come up and a southerly swell joined the southeast wave train we were already in. This can make things difficult as you now have to watch out for waves from two directions. The swells from the south were sporadic but big. We were heading southeast with the dominant swell and the winds. Every once in a while a southerly wave would smack the back of the boat and send her off way off course. The autopilot would work hard to correct and get back in line but while this was happening we would be beam on to the dominant waves.

This went on all day. We downloaded another set of weather files which promised lighter winds in the next 30 hours. That night things stayed the same and Naomi and I got into our passage making schedule. The next day I woke up and from bed it felt like the wind and waves may have subsided a bit. When I pulled open the companion way hatch I saw immediately that had not. Naomi was sitting in the captains chair and behind her an enormous wave was crawling up our stern. The winds had actually increased to mid 30's with gusts into the 40's and of course the swells were building as well. We took in the jib and were now sailing on a triple reefed main alone.

The boat was well balanced and performing well. Wave after huge wave would come at us from behind and pass under the boat. Every once in a while one would break right behind us and each time we thought it would be the one crash on us but again the back end would rise up and Fearless would excelerate down the face. By that afternoon winds had settled in the mid 30's.

We kept in constant contact with the other boats. Each boat has someone at the helm 24 hours so there is always someone to talk to. It was not unusual to be sitting in the cockpit at 3 am telling jokes to pass the time.

Day three and its getting worse. The weather forecast says it will die down in about 30 hours. Where have I heard that before? The waves are now 12 to 15 feet with a few that must be 20 feet. The winds are still in the 30's and 40's with a few gusts getting very close to 50. The waves are pushing wind with them and often we can feel the waves coming. The tops are getting blown off and they are occasionally breaking. Water blows across the ocean vertically and the sea is a mix of blue and white. We are starting to get tired and are doing 3 hours on and 3 hours off shifts. We are not tired because we are doing anything, just because it is hard to sleep with the boat pitching about.

While all this is happening the person on watch is sitting in the captains chair watching the waves attack from behind. Occasionally we need to make a course adjustment to the autopilot to keep the wind behind us. The triple reef main is still ok but only because we are running with the wind. We don't have anything smaller and when the gusts reach the high 40's we can feel the boat starting to get over powered. The only other option is bare poles which would work but if we get pushed too far off course and the autopilot could not adjust quick enough we would lose our momentum and stall bean on to the waves. The boat handles well under bare poles but if we end up on a beam reach we are not able to get back off the wind.

Despite this we don't really feel we are in any physical danger and I have no problem going to bed and leaving Naomi at the helm. I know she knows what to do and is paying attention. There are other boats close by and we are all in constant communication. Its about this time we find out that it may not be possible to enter the atoll at Suwarrow with the swells the way they are. This is not what we wanted to hear. We are still a day away and the idea of having to tack on another 500 miles to the trip is terrible. Our friends on 'Island Time' have ended up too far north and don't want to have to beat into the wind to get to Suwarrow and decide to skip it and continue on to Pago Pago. You know its bad when you decide to divert to a place that is 500 miles away because you don't want to have to beat into the wind 20 miles.

Near the end of the day Naomi and I were sitting in the cockpit when we saw a huge wave from the south about to break on us. I was not able to turn off the autopilot in time and it hit us on the port stern rail. This shoved the stern down as a wave rolled into the cockpit filling it with water. My pajamas got wet and I had to take a shower. It happened again a few hours later, the conditions were getting worse. We would later find that water from the cockpit had made its way into the aft stateroom and soaked our mattress and bedding.

Day four and no end in sight. The forecast says the winds will die down in 30 hours. What the F@#!. One of the other boats had a weather router. This is a service that some sailors pay for that tell you when to leave on passages. He called them on his satellite phone and they told him he should be in 20 knot winds. He fired them. At this point we all started to wonder how it is we all ended up in this. Why were the forecast so wrong?

As the day wore on and the weather was at its worst things started to happen. A few times I heard people announce that they had gusts hitting 50 plus. 'Argonaut' a Cal 40 that held a transpac record for 40 years got knocked down. They were hit by a wave and got pushed over until the mast hit the water. Fortunately the boat righted itself with only minor damage to their dodger. Just before sunset we heard a pan pan over the radio. This is one step under a mayday and were horrified to hear it was from our good friends on 'Little Wing'. We were just out of VHF range from them and it took us a bit to get the detail.

Naomi and I sat there feeling helpless. We were about 25 miles ahead of them and knew they were close to several other boats. Soon after that we heard that our friends on 'Elusive' had jibed and ripped their boom from the mast and tore the main sail.

As night set in we knew we would be arriving at Suwarrow three hours before sun up. To slow us down I turned on the engine and put the boat in reverse and were still doing 5 knots. We arrived at 7:00 am and were happy to see the pass didn't look too bad. We dropped the sails and motored toward the entrance. About a half mile before the pass the waves died down and we easily made our way to the anchorage and dropped the hook. Once the anchor was set Naomi and I were standing on the bow and hugged each other. Thankful for our safe arrival but still concerned for our friends who were still out there.

We put the boat away and tried to get some sleep. We were both exhausted but too amped to actually sleep. By this time we had the detail as to what happened to 'Little Wing'. They had the jib on a pole and were in the process of putting it away and putting on the tri sail when they got hit by a huge wave. The wave hit them on the beam pushing 'Little Wing' over 110 degrees. They were in the cockpit and found themselves fully submerged. Their dinghy broke lose from the deck and sheered off a dorado vent allowing several hundred gallons of water into the boat.

The boat righted itself but they soon realized the damage was worse then expected. While attempting to pull the dinghy back on deck they realized the shrouds where no longer tight. After assessing the situation it was soon obvious what had happened. When the mast was pushed under water the pole holding out the jib had been shoved into the mast bending it seven feet off the deck. The mast above the bend twisted into an 's' shape. They did what they could do to secure the dinghy and dropped the sails. They were forced to motor the last 90 miles to Suwarrow by hand as their autopilot was also damaged.

We were very happy to hear them hail us as they approached Suwarrow. Craig was exhausted from hand steering so we dignied out to help guide them in. I boarded 'Little Wing' while Naomi lead in the dinghy and they were soon anchored. We had a few drinks with them and then collapsed into sleep. While we were sleeping the rest of the fleet pulled in and anchored.

Suwarrow is a national park owned by the Cook Islands. It is famous because a guy named Ted Niel lived on this remote island for several years. Now it is populated by a family of five who act as caretaker of the property. The entire island is less then a square mile and the closest city is Pago Pago which is 500 miles away. There is nothing their except the caretakers house which also acts as the yacht club. The snorkeling is excellent and this is one of the most remote places of our entire trip. This is great unless you have a damaged boat.

I spent several days helping Craig rig support struts for his mast. The mast was still standing but in bad shape. They still had to go 500 mile to get to Pago and wanted to be able to at least fly a tri sail and staysail. Everyone in the anchorage helped in any way they could. We collected diesel from several other boats and one supplied us with a 20' whisker pole which would be the meat of our stabilizing rig.

We also has some things to take care of on Fearless. We had a mattress, mattress pad, duvet, duvet cover and bedding to clean. I also fixed the leak that allowed all this stuff to get soaked. This doesn't sound too bad unless you consider the fact that we do our laundry by hand.

We did manage to do a few fun things while in Suwarrow. We went to the caregivers wife's birthday party which was a big pot luck. We fed sharks almost by hand in ankle deep water and managed a few snorkels. Our last snorkel we saw a 10 foot manta ray and got some nice footage of him which I have loaded onto the site.

We volunteered to be 'Little Wings' hospital ship. This means we would stay with them while they motor sailed to Pago Pago. The boat was ready and the weather looked good so we decided to leave while the leaving was good. We followed as 'Little Wing' exited the atoll and headed west. The conditions were perfect with small seas and 15-20 knots of wind on the stern. We had to double reef the main to slow down enough to keep 'Little Wing in sight.

The 500 miles to Pago Pago was some of the hardest sailing we have ever done. It is one thing to set the sails and head to a destination. It is something else entirely to keep another boat in sight. Especially a boat the is disabled and going very slow. We did more sail changes to stay with them in 500 miles then we have done in every mile of sailing we have done since we got the boat. It was frustrating for sure but they are good friends and I know with out a doubt that they would do the same for us if the roles were reversed. Fortunately the weather stayed consistent until the last day when the winds picked up a bit and the seas got choppy.

We arrived at Pago about five hours before sunrise. We decided to hove too offshore and wait for daylight to make our entry. We had a difficult time getting Fearless to hove too in the choppy seas and after six different sail combinations my stomach gave out and I puked for only the second time ever on Fearless. We finally got her stopped and I went to bed.

A few hours later 'Little Wing' hailed us and said the mast was making bad noises and they had decided to start making way. We pulled out of the hove too and sailed on bare poles for three hours to keep our speed down. We followed 'Little Wing' in to Pago Pago much to the relief of us, them and many of the other boats in the anchorage who know we were coming. Craig and I went to shore to go through customs and immigration.

We were guided through the process by Gorden on 'Vari' who had already helped Craig arrange shipping for their new mast. We stumbled around like idiots because we were so tired. Finally getting all the paperwork done we returned to the boats and went to sleep.

We have been in Pago Pago for three days nows and are starting to get the lay of the land. We have already been to a party at the Yacht club, went shopping at their version of Costco and been to see an island dance and music show. We arrived just in time to miss a huge international arts festival but in time to see a few of the stragglers before they left the country.

The people here are crazy friendly and you can't walk past anyone without saying hello and smiling. Much different from FRENCH Polynesia. Also, thing cost 1/10 what they do in Tahiti. Self serve laundry is $1 instead of $10, bottle of vodka is $20 instead of $80 and on and on. We have been in French Polynesia for so long we had gotten used to the ridiculous prices and unfriendly natives. We are happy to be hear and are doing laundry, provisioning the boat and getting ready for the next passage. We are not sure how long we will be here but with good internet and cheap food we are in no hurry.

August 14, 2008

We have been in American Samoa for about two weeks now and I am ready to leave. The place is great but we are anchored in an industrial harbor next to a Starkest Tuna plant so every once in a while we get a major whiff of what smells like rotten tuna blowing through the boat. The water in the bay is so dirty we can't make water or swim in it. I am used to swimming every day and have not been in the water in two weeks. This being said it is very easy to get things shipped here and we are still waiting for the last few things we ordered to arrive. This is an american territory so things can be sent US priority mail and they usually arrive in a few days. I have order all sorts of things and gotten myself into a few boat projects. These projects include adding a tri-sail to Fearless, replacing the generator wet muffler as the old one melted, rigging a preventer that we can manage from the cockpit and installing a permanent wifi antenna. The weather we just went through motivated me into a few changes.

We have managed to squeeze in a few play days . We rented a car and tour the islands with our friend from Myah. Outside of Pago Pago it is a beautiful islands but the shore is rough and not conducive to snorkeling or swimming. We took a tour of the local NOAA station where they do all sorts of atmospheric studies and went to the Barefoot Bar which is about the only tourist place I have seen. Other then that we have just been enjoying being able to eat out once in a while and the excellent internet service which we can actually pick up from the boat.

Who knew that we were headed into a four day gale? We checked the weather files before leaving, just like we always do. The weather was unstable, to be sure, and both Kay and I thought that we should let the weather firm up. It was the first time that I had ever seen the wind arrows crossing each other on the map. But, if anything, it looked like it was going to be really light wind and we were ready to get going so we pushed on to Suwarrow. After so many crossings the seven hundred mile span that stretched in front of us seemed like nothing and we went out with a good rig and all the safety checks that Brett normally does before a long passage but I did not prepare like I normally do. I did not make a ton of prepared meals since it looked like it was going to be a cake walk out there.

The first day out we had nice wind that pushed us along at a steady pace. The wind was coming out of the South-East, just far enough off of dead-down-wind to make it good sailing. We were making good time and it seemed to be shaping up into a really nice sail. If this was the light wind that the weather files had been forecasting then we were all for it. There were nine boats out with us on the run to Suwarrow and we were entertaining ourselves by talking on the radio, telling jokes and keeping each other company with silly banter. We all knew each other and were exchanging weather information, one of the boats was even paying for a weather router and he had forecasted light wind as well. At night the wind died down and we crawled along at two to three knots, many of the boats turned on their motors but us and Little Wing stayed in the back of the pack and sailed.

By the second day of the crossing we were getting some radically different weather than was predicted. The wind started to howl and the waves were slowly building. Brett heard the gale coming as the boats that had motored out in front of us the previous night were slapped with thirty knot gusts, when the gale finally reached us Brett had Fearless trimmed perfectly for the big wind and we scooted along with a triple reefed main and just the storm jib out. We were still going six to eight knots, even on our lightest sail combination. Every time we checked the weather it seemed it would be getting better within the next twelve hours. It never did. Island Time called their weather router and he thought we were in ten knots when we were getting blown along at thirty five to forty five. They fired him.

We considered our options and it seemed that we might not be able to make the pass into Suwarrow if the swell kept up. We considered our one and only other option: keep sailing to Pago Pago in American Samoa. Another five hundred miles did not seem like a short hop. It was impossible to cook below, I had my monthly visitor and the timing could not have been worse. I got sea sick and the misery seemed to spread throughout my body like a virus. I was unprepared for bad weather, I was feeling ill and I had to continue on. I had no choice.

On Brett's watch I came up to keep him company for a short spell and as I sat in the companion way and chatted him up I saw a big wave crash and break on our stern quarter. I had just enough time to say "Holy Crap!" Then the stern was pushed up by the breaking wave and our starboard rail was underwater. Water flowed over the back of the seat and filled the cockpit before Fearless righted herself. Brett had pulled the cockpit cushions and stowed them below and put the storm board into the companionway. He kept insisting that I close all the windows. It smelled like a shoe bellow deck. I had grumbled with his concerns but I did not fight it, safety first and all that. He was right. In the end his erring on the side of safety has saved us having some drenched and possibly ruined cushions and water flowing below through open hatches. The cockpit drained out almost instantly and the one casualty of our slap on the hind quarter was our log book which got drenched and was useless for the rest of the passage. On the radio we were heard that Argonaut had been knocked down and had sustained light damage to their cockpit enclosure and lost some pillows. We heard that Elusive had an accidental jibe and had broken their goose neck. We talked to Blue Planes Drifter and found out that they were worried about their dinghy. They had left her on the davits for the hop to Suwarrow and if they were hit by a wave and the dinghy filled with water it would probably break free. We were not the only ones who had gotten complacent. Towering wave after towering wave loomed up behind us and we continued to rise to the top and coast over them. Knowing that other boats were having such a hard time was putting a real spin on the situation. The waves and the sound of the howling wind began to take their toll. It was hard to move around the boat and you had to hang on with every step. Sitting on watch meant clutching the sides of the chair while the boat was rocked beneath us and tried to throw us out. We were both exhausted.

Little Wing had some problems with their SSB radio before leaving Bora Bora so we were keeping in touch with them and making sure that we always had their position. It is a twenty eight foot boat but she has a huge bow sprit and a large sail area. Craig and Kay are both excellent sailors so they were chugging along and keeping up with boats that had a huge waterline advantage. But despite the fact that we were trying to slow down so that we would not arrive in the middle of the night we still were going too fast for her and at some point we lost radio contact with them. I could hear them on the radio but they could not hear us. We had some conversations with Little Wing with Blue Planes Drifter acting as a relay since they were in the middle of the fleet but it was slow going and we just kept in touch with email twice a day to make sure they were okay. It was only a few short hours after we were out of radio contact with them that I heard Blue Planes give them a call on the radio and followed the conversation to another channel. Kay calmly informed Tiffany on Blue Planes that this was not a good time to talk as she had to go back to channel 16 and put out a Pan Pan, this is a short had way of saying I'm in deep shit and I need to let all the boats in my area know it so that they can offer assistance. It is one step below a mayday, which means I am sinking and my life is in jeopardy.

I sat there at the nav station numb and tired. They were probably a little more than thirty miles behind us and the wind was following and bringing twenty foot seas with it. It was not really an option to turn around. But we were very concerned and I hung on the radio chatter like a lifeline as I waiting for news. The fleet re-arranged itself. Macy hung back and stayed behind them. Argonaut stayed close. We were going as slowly as we could and we were still putting miles between ourselves and Little Wing but they had boats nearby so we kept going and just kept an ear to the radio. Don't want to make a stupid move and put Fearless in jeopardy as well. One boat in the fleet with troubles in enough. I could sometimes get little bits and pieces of them talking, scraps of conversations that were not meant for me. I didn't relay any more since their hands were full and all I could provide was useless chatter. No need to talk to someone who could not help, someone who was too far ahead. Helpless and sad I waited to hear the full story. They were alive and they were not hurt but the mast was bent, they were motoring in a wounded sailboat and they had to be spent. I was spent and I had not been in a knockdown, I imagined the worst and the waves that slammed relentlessly behind us took on an ominous color and shape. Two knockdowns and one forced jibe that caused damage in our little fleet of nine boats. My body was tensed for action but all I could do was hold on as we were tossed around and stare down the following sea.

Brett discovered that our aft starboard bed had gotten wet in our little slap. Apparently there had been a hole in the locker that had been submerged and the water had leaked into the headliner. When we arrived to our way point we were still a few hours from daylight and Brett fired up the engine in reverse to stop our forward momentum. Its not good sailing and its not sexy but it worked and we stayed put for the night until we had enough daylight to enter the pass. The South-East swell was now taking us on the side, thank goodness it had laid down a little bit in the night.

When we put down the anchor we got to putting the boat away and cleaning her up. I waited for Little Wing to get into radio range, we made it through the pass at seven in the morning and we watched as the other boats limped into the anchorage. Finally we got hailed by Little Wing and they were on their way in. Craig had been hand steering the boat for the last twenty hours without sleep. Their wind vane had been damaged in the knockdown and the autopilot had been sheered off. He was tired and told us he was making bad decisions. He needed help coming through the pass, more damage was not an acceptable risk and there were coral heads in the pass that may not be where they were marked on the chart. With no questions we told them we would meet them in the pass and bring them in, all they had to do was follow us. Everyone was following the conversations on the radio, everyone wanted to help. We got offers from other boats that had been there longer to go out and meet Little Wing but all I could think was that I wanted to see them with my own eyes as soon as possible. We had been unable to assist during their struggle through the storm and I wanted to be there for them.

We were running on adrenaline and had not rested when they were approaching the pass but we both hopped in the dinghy and went out to the pass. We knew that there was a submerged coral head that they needed to give a wide berth but as we led them into the pass we realized that things looked a lot different from the lower perspective of the dinghy and we really had no idea where we were. Change of plans: we zoomed over to Little Wing and Brett boarded the boat and steered them in while I stayed in the dinghy and motored ahead. As soon as we got their anchor down we had a drink on Little Wing and I offered to make them dinner. I was sure they had not had a good meal and it was the least I could do.

So there we were in the most remote anchorage that we were going to come upon during our trip and our friends had a bent mast and where essentially crippled. There was no way to sail with a bent mast and it was making dangerous creaking sounds. The plan was to build a tripod support structure at the bent section of the mast. Brett helped on Little Wing while I washed all our laundry by hand. The mattress needed to be brought on deck to dry, the comforter and cover needed to be washed out to remove the salt water. It was three days of continuous laundry as Brett assisted Little Wing and all the boats in the harbor lent whatever support that they could to the effort. There is no way to get parts out here in Suwarrow. There are minimal inhabitants on the island: John and his wife Veronica and their children are the caretakers and the supply boat comes by once every six months. We were going to have to make due with what we had on hand. Everyone was very generous with their spares but in the end the boat that made the biggest difference was Trace n' Jay: they gave their whisker pole to the cause and not only did they not ask for compensation they refused it when it was offered. It is times like these that you get to see the true generosity of spirit that is alive in the cruising community. I have never seen so many people be so helpful and band together to help one another.

It was not long before we had the tripod set up and had a good weather window to leave. It was a real shame since Suwarrow is the most remote anchorage we will see in our entire trip and we had no time to really enjoy it but the weather window was good and who knows when we would get another one. We arranged with Little Wing that we would stay with them for the passage from Suwarrow to Pago Pago, essentially we were their safety net in case anything in the rig failed and things went wrong. We jokingly referred to ourselves as the "hospital ship."

Little Wing was able to motor and use the storm jib and the tri sail to give her a little extra push. She was capable of motoring at 4.8 knots and the sails gave her a knot and a half of push. So as the wind shifted, died down, built back up, gusted, etc. we tried to maintain a pace with a motoring vessel. It seemed near impossible. We changed sail constantly, bringing in sail and then reefing and then putting it all out in light wind. It seemed that every time we changed sail the wind changed with us and we were changing again. And through it all the waves stayed down and the wind stayed under twenty knots. We entertained each other on the radio and we made it through the longest week of my life. By the end of the passage we were spent, this had been more exhausting than the gale. Little Wing had been hearing the drone of the motor for the entire time and had to yell to be heard over its roar. We stayed within sight of them for the entire passage and for that I am very proud, it was the most technical sailing I have done.

We arrived a Pago Pago at one in the morning. With our nerves frayed and the wind building we spoke to some of the people who were in the anchorage. They let us know that it was crowded with bad holding. It would not be a wise move to try to enter at night and so we held off shore and waited until daybreak to make our landfall. Brett and I attempted to heave-to and it was a disaster. The reefing lines had fallen off of the halyard and as we attempted to get her into her second reef in the pitch black something kept going wrong. Our nerves were so frayed that we were fighting like cats and dogs and the boat was rolling unpredictably underneath us. With nothing going right Brett got sick and threw up over the side of the boat. I felt so bad for him that we stopped fighting and I let him go below. As Fearless refused to heave to I sat in the cockpit and felt just about as dejected as I have ever felt when at the helm. Fearless kept tacking through the heave to and then we were sailing. Why did it have to be so difficult to stop this boat? I sat holding the wheel and anticipating the tack, it seemed there was nothing I could do and I was tired, but Brett was sea sick and I needed to let him rest it off. I kept reminding myself that Little Wing's situation was worse than mine and I should get over it. As the tears of frustration crept down my cheeks I let the boat have her way and tack back and forth through the heave to. Finally I got a hold of myself and I decided to be proactive. I changed the sail plan and although we were still making 2.5 knots we were at least not tacking back and forth and the boat was under control. The wind was building and we were all really bummed to have arrived so close to the middle of the night. Could it get much worse?

I had the boat situated and had given Brett an extra two hours of sleep. I went below and Brett took over. Just then Craig hailed us, the tripod rig on Little Wing was making strange noises and it was not going to work for her to be hove to. We were going to have to make forward progress. We stripped all the sail down and ran with the wind on bare poles. With not a stitch of sail flying Fearless was making 4.5 knots. We were going slow enough that we would make landfall in daylight.

We have been in Pago Pago for almost three weeks now. The harbor is disgusting and we are downwind from the tuna packing plant. The smell is noxious. We have taken the opportunity to get some mail sent to us and have upgraded and cared for Fearless, we have done tons of laundry and it is great to be in an American territory. The shopping here is very reasonable and are a far cry from the crazy prices of French Polynesia. The people here are very friendly and very patriotic. It makes me proud to be an American when these people have such a positive view of our country. Once you get out of the harbor the coast line is stunning and the island has that remote island feeling that is so deeply contrasted with the industrial harbor that we are anchored in. It is almost time to move on. Little Wing has been having trouble getting their mast shipped and if they do not get their mast here soon they will have to end their journey here. It is a real shame and I am sad to think that we may continue without them, we have gotten really close and it will not be the same without them sharing our journey.

I have learned that I need to be more prepared for the crossings and that it is very important for me to take everything very seriously. It is the difference of five minutes that can put you in harms way, the wayward gust or odd wave coming out of the wrong direction. All it takes is one accident, one slip and things can go terribly wrong. Only one moment of bravado stands between a conservative sail trim and disaster. I keep reflecting on my gut feeling that I wanted to stay in Bora Bora until the weather firmed up. Was that because I was having such a fun time? Or was it because I sensed that it was going to get bad out there? I will never know but I am determined to listen to my feelings more carefully and make my voice heard if I have doubts about leaving in uncertain weather. I know that I will never leave an anchorage again without prepared meals so that we can be well fed. So, as has been the case so far, Fearless has come through unscathed and her crew have learned valuable lessons that will keep her safer in the future. That was the biggest weather that we have seen so far and although I was never afraid for us I was certainly put on notice. I hope to remember these lessons and heed them as we continue South to the beautiful anchorages of Tonga. I am ready to get back in the water and swim.