Are we there yet?

Current Position at 0448 UTC
15 11.513S
149 51.792w

French Polynesia did not let us leave quietly. The first 24 hours have been let's say...brisk. We left Tahiti after fueling up at 3:30pm local time yesterday (Tuesday, May 18). We motored in gentle conditions after leaving the south pass while we remained in Tahiti's wind shadow. But I tell you, once we left that wind shadow, all gentleness ceased. We immediately had 20 to 25 knots of wind and upwards of 2 meter seas. It was not pretty and has continued to be unpleasant since then. It did not take long for Maple and her crew to be thoroughly encrusted in salt.

Darkness seemed to fall quickly and I had no inclination to cook in such horrendous conditions. So canned chili it was for our first dinner on what I anticipate will feel like the never-ending passage north. I will try to redeem myself for dinner tonight as I slowly get my sea legs.

Overnight, not much sleep was had by D and I. We did not stick to our typical watch schedule at all as the winds started to peak at 40 knots. With 3 reefs in the main and a heavily reefed head sail, the boat speed was reaching nearly 8 knots with waves crashing on our starboard beam. We basically spent the night picking up one fallen item after another from books to produce to ceiling fans to a computer with now a freshly broken screen. The fun just didn't want to end there. The highlight was when a bird crash landed into our cockpit. I am not kidding, D at the helm was startled by a loud thud behind him as a completely disoriented boobie wandered around in circles, squawking not understanding at all what just happened to it. I had to rush to close the sliding door as he started to stumble towards the open door. It took him a long time to get oriented. He eventually shook off the stars that had clearly been circling his head and eventually took flight again leaving behind his squid dinner which I assume he had caught behind Maple when he collided with us.

I try not to get too demoralized by these conditions when I think about the thousands of miles we have left to cover before we can gratefully set the anchor once again. The crew are all doing well and Maple is doing what she does best, dancing over the waves and keeping us all safe to our next, very distant destination.

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