"Thanks to the family for your messages - when the sea's crashing, the wind's screaming and the boats rolling, it's surprisingly reassuring to hear from the normality of home. It's difficult to explain how awful it gets when the weather is bad: the motion is one thing - the boat cork-screwing and rolling onto her beam ends with the windows under water, but it's the noise which is so dreadful. When a big sea slams against the hull it's like a massive sledge-hammer hitting it, and everything inside the boat moves and makes a noise, whatever you do to try and stop it. Bottles, cutlery, books, glass jars, sauce-pans, dividers, rulers, books, drawers, and worst of all, sauce-pan lids. If you filled the boat with concrete, sauce-pan lids would still rattle. And above it all, the wind and the hissing sea.
"After lunch (a sardine sandwich and an apple) we gave up on it, battened down the hatches, and watched the French Lieutenant's Woman with the sound turned up to maximum. This thumbing of the nose at the elements did the trick, and soon after, the front went through, the sun came out, and the wind dropped. The only downside is that the wind backed, and we now have the wind on our nose for the first time since we left Hamble in August 98. But we're happy with that, although as you know, gentlemen don't sail to windward.
"The two women ( Mie and Hygeia) coped really well with the bad conditions, and we look forward to a good day tomorrow. We'll probably miss out Niue and go straight to Tonga, where we'll head for the Vavau group."
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