Lat: 21 59.933′ S
Lon: 177 24.196′ W

Well, the weather predictions have been pretty accurate so far. It rained pretty heavily the first day, with southeasterly winds gusting to 30 knots or so. This made for some pretty wet watches, especially since our bimini broke just before we set sail. I think mine was the worst, since the winds picked up early on, so Dallas and I took the mainsail down. By the time we were done, I was soaking wet — too wet to come in and out of the interior of the boat, so I chose to sit outside for the rest of my watch and sing in the rain to pass the time. I have lots of appreciation for high quality foul weather gear after spending over 2 comfortable hours in the downpour.

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, and we were able to put the main back up for several hours and glide along close-hauled at 5 knots. However, by evening, the wind was gusting to at least 35, and the lumpy, white-capped waves began to form into larger swells. Were they coming from astern, it wouldn’t be too bad (they seem to have maxed out around 6-8′), but as they’re coming from just forward of the port beam, they tend to pick us up by the port corner of our bow and then drop us on our port side. It has been fairly uncomfortable ever since, although Tiff and Dallas have both benefited from taking the anti-nausea medicine (phenergan) that Tiff packed into our medical supplies.

We look forward to arriving at Minerva Reef sometime tomorrow. Minerva Reef is much like Beveridge, just a circular reef in the middle of the ocean, in the center of which is a lagoon suitable for anchoring. In addition to giving us a break from the motion, we should be able to retrieve GRIB data, and with any luck, we will still have a promising weather window to NZ. Our barometer reading is 1020, so it seems like we are entering the high pressure area that we anticipated.