Cook Bound

No the galley slave is not tied up – but we are headed to a new island group – The Cook Islands. We enjoyed our time in the French Polynesian chain (The Marquesas, The Tuamotus and the Society Islands). After dreaming about them for decades – especially when were living in Oregon, it was nice to have visited them and they lived up to our expectations. When the seas are less rolly and we're inclined to sit below and write a longer log entry, we'll share the highlights of the French Polynesian trip.

For now, we are making a steady 5 nautical miles an hour – or 120 mile days so far (it's a 685 mile trip). We are now flying just our head sail as it is just about a dead downwind sail. The seas are pretty high – around 2.5 to 3 meters and unfortunately (as is our lot in life) not that nice swell spaced at long intervals – but rather kind of a sloppy sea coming from varied directions with wind chop thrown in as well. But at least we're knocking off the miles and making progress. The sun is out and we've had very brief spitting rain every so often. Hope it stays that way for the next few days. We'll take the big seas as long as we have a steady breeze and no bad squalls. (Of course we'd still prefer flatter seas or at least better spaced swells).

We haven't caught any dinner yet – but in fairness to our fishing prowess – we didn't put a line in the first twp days because of the big seas and unsteady sea legs (and unsettled stomachs – cleaning a fish didn't sound so pleasant).

So we are now fishing, sailing and heading to a new destination.