Sailing The Dangerous Middle
We left the Cook Islands after 7 enjoyable days. There was a little wind of opportunity to continue west, if we did not take it then we would have been stuck for another 7 days, something we wanted to avoid for multiple reasons!
We knew there was another system brewing on the horizon, not as nasty looking as the previous system and a few days out, so time for a lot to change.
The first 24 hours were spent beating into 20 knots, something Nanuka enjoys more than us! After 30 hours we checked the updated forecast at it appeared the system was going to track further north than originally forecast. We made the decision to run south and head straight to a sunken atoll in the Pacific called Beveridge. Our friends had previously been there so we knew the pass was manageable at night and the holding was good.
After another 24 hours the forecast changed once more with the system passing straight over the top of us. At this point we were convinced we were a magnet for them! If the forecast was correct, when the system intensified we would only have to survive 4-5 hours of it before arriving at Beveridge.
As much as we were praying the forecast to be wrong, sure enough, as soon as the sun set the winds intensified, seas grew and the rain poured. It was hard to judge the true wind speed as our gauge tops out at 30 knots …. But it was easily gusting over mid 40s accompanied by some extremely lively seas.
Fives hours later we furled the small about of head sail we had out and rounded the north end of the reef. This gave a greatly appreciated rest from the heavy seas, but the wind and rain were still brutal. We were debating whether it was safe to attempt to enter the pass of the reef in these conditions, but the thought of continuing on taking full force of the storm for another 10 hours didn’t fill us with joy. We were both soaked through to the skin despite our expensive waterproofs and for the first time in a long time, cold!