The tropical low passed just south of us bringing 35-40 knot
\nsustained winds and 20+ foot seas. Sabbatical III handled it
\nall very well. Unfortunately, dodging this weather system took
\nus a couple of hundred miles west and north of our intended
\ncourse and now we are contending with strong headwinds trying to
\nget back. The angle we can sail with current wind gets us no
\ncloser to Opua. At least it gets us no further. There is a lot
\nof complaining on the SSB. Our French friends on Galdus just
\nabandoned their passage to New Zealand altogether and decided to
\nmake for Fiji. Indeed, Fiji and New Caledonia are really not
\nfurther and there is wind to take one there. We will continue
\nto slug it out for Opua. There are 17 other boats in the same
\npredicament.<\/p>\n
M.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The tropical low passed just south of us bringing 35-40 knot sustained winds and 20+ foot seas. Sabbatical III handled it all very well. Unfortunately, dodging this weather system took us a couple of hundred miles west and north of our intended course and now we are contending with strong headwinds trying to get back. … <\/p>\n