[password] STUART32
[position] 17 28.000s 151 59.000w

[date] 2018-07-13
[status] We have 50nms to go. Wow what a night. We didn't expect to have such a rough night this close to Raiatae. We started off close hauled with a fairly steady easterly breeze in the high teens and 1m seas. In the early hours of the morning the wind snapped up to 30 knots in a couple of seconds and the swell tripled in size and shrunk in interval; it was game on! So not a pleasant night by any stretch of the imagination. After sailing close hauled for seven days we are also discovering all of our leaks. We thought we did a sensational job ensuring no leaks from any of our hatches and portholes, what we didn't factor in was leaks from the hand holds on deck and one of the non-opening windows; so we have quite a clean up to do when we arrive. Then this morning just before dawn we had a wave break over the top of our bimini. This was similar to the time Iolea decided to turn submarine on one passage down to NZ when it sailed straight through a huge wave resulting in blue water over the top of our boom. The only good news is that the worst of the weather is west of us, we appear to be sailing along its eastern edge. If the day was clear we might be able to see land by now, as our ETA is today around dusk. All is well aboard.
[weather] 15-20kts E, course is 30T, 90% cloud cover, 2m short interval NE swells and 1016 Baro
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