Aloha from the Bequia

Aloha!
Checking in from Bequia. Current position: N31deg 55min W152deg 23min.  Inevitabily there are good and bad sailing days and boy have we had our share of both!  Last thursday and friday we were becalmed with nary a breeze to be found.  To keep things moving, we motored for most of those hours.  To give you some perspective, imagine taking your lawn mower and parking it in your living room.  Fire it up full blast and then lay down on the couch next to it.  Oh yea, make sure your AC is off so it gets about 95 degrees with 95 precent humidity.  Now, make sure you’re quite inebriated so the room  is moving in all kinds of crazy motion and then try to sleep!  I dare you you!
About this time everyone is hoping for even the slightest breeze.  Well, the evening of the second day we got it … and boy howdy!  Of course, it was my watch (0200 – 0500 hours) when a big ugly line of sqalls appeared on the horizon.  When we got into it, it didn’t seem too bad.  However the wind just kept building, and building and …  By the time we had everything under control, we were under double reefed main and just a scrap of jib.  I remember seeing just shy of 30 knots on the meter.  Seas were pretty manageable – in the 5 to 8 foot range.  The real issue was the direction of this wind – about 050 deg.  Our heading up to that point had been around 025, but now we had to make a choice, either head up to roughly 360 (north) or down to 090 (east).  These were, of course, not going to get us to our destination unless it was going to be Alaska or Ensenada!  In the end, we chose to head east (090) since it seemed to be the least uncomfortable.  The evening roll call of returning boats told the story – all of the nearby boats were having a rough ride too.
Well, thats it for excitement today.  More compelling action tomorrow!
Roger and Pam