Day 4 - 230 miles to go

Now cruising along at 5 knots, making good time. Still hoping to arrive on
Sunday, but winds will have to be favorable to get in the pass before dark.
Otherwise, we'll slow down and wait to enter in the morning.
All is well aboard Renova. We lost a huge fish yesterday...it almost had all
the line off our reel again, but finally the line (80-lb test) broke free.
Poor thing is now swimming around with a big hoochie and a stainless leader
hanging out of its mouth. There has to be a better way. If only he had come
to the boat, we could have unhooked him, and let him go on his way.
Feeling good enough to read now. At least that helps the time tick away.
At 1335 local time on May 13, our position is:
14 20.4s
159 17.4w

Day 3 - Passage from Mopelia to Suwarrow

Well, if day 1 was too much wind, and day 2 was not enough, today is the day
for perfect winds!! And so far, it has been fabulous. We've got about 13
knots of wind on our beam, and we're sailing at 6.5 knots under genoa alone.
The boat is steering herself, and we're hanging in the cockpit, trying to
eek out a bit of shade.

The going is good... We both have our sea legs back, so we're fishing again.
Hoping that Greg's rod and Murray's reel will have some more success!!

Our position at 11am local time on May 12:
15 15.4S
157 20.7W

Day 2 Passage to Suwarrow

We left Mopelia finally yesterday, and are now on our way to Suwarrow, in
the northern Cook Islands. As of 1030 local time, our position is:
15 52.8S
155 28.3W

Yesterday we had strong winds, forcing us to sail with storm jib and reefed
mail. Last night, wind was all over the map, but only one small squall.
Today, the day started with glorious blue skies, and lovely south-east
winds, but has since turned around to south-west winds. All of this was not
in our forecasts.

All is well on board, we both felt a little green yesterday, but much better
this morning. Neither of us were too keen to eat dinner yesterday, so the
canneloni sits on the stove, and will be an easy lunch today. Crackers and
pretzels seemed to be the best for easing a rough stomach. The swell is
about 2+ meters, and seems to be coming from three directions at once, a
result of all the unusual weather of the last week, I suppose.

Our ETA is Sunday, May 15.

Day 7 - Hoping

Today is day 7. Day 7 of hoping to leave. Day 7 of rain. Yuck.
But...the sun shone for a brief moment this morning, so we are optimistic
that this weather system is moving on, and the typical tropical weather and
typical trade winds will be returning soon.
Of course, when there is no sun, there is no power from the solar panels. So
we have been thrifty. No excess computing/emails. No lights at night. No tv.
We've been reading a LOT. And napping. Exploring isn't too appealing in a
downpour, and we haven't been off the boat in four days.
On the other hand, we've read lots of good books. John played checkers with
me!! But...sadly I won (I didn't mean to), so I'm pretty sure we won't have
another game night for at least 6 months. We've also re-discovered James
Barber's One Pot Meals. Did you know that in addition to being a tv chef, he
also spent a fair bit of time playing on boats? Well...there you have it.
And his cook book that we have onboard has some good inspiration for us to
spice up our usual dinner fare.
When the rain stops...and we shove off...we'll let you all know. In the
meantime, don't worry about the lack of blog posts. No sun = no power = no
long drawn out blog diatribes. But...we still check emails, and love to hear
your news.

We lie in waiting....

Wearily waiting
Relentlessly raining
Continually collecting
Stealthily swatting
Languidly lying
Randomly reading
Hopelessly hoping
Creatively cooking
Ever eating
Patiently putting
Wishfully watching
Wearily waiting

These remora hung out below the boat constantly. An odd looking fish, apparently their dorsal fin has evolved to be a large sucking device...enabling them to latch onto large fish/sharks/etc and perform cleaning services!