Every crew has their breaking point and for us it was early this morning at 1AM. After two days beating upwind with the breeze building and seas piling up in all directions we called our upwind quest for Minerva to an end. We still had 85 miles to go, all dead upwind, and that would have taken another day. We would have arrived in the night and had to heave-to outside the reef until the sun came up. With a few button presses of the autopilot we headed to port and adjusted our course for landfall in Fiji. It’s a shame to miss Minerva. We were really excited about diving there but sometimes it’s not meant to be and you must go where the wind blows you.
Both crew morale and motion of the boat immediately improved and we were no longer bashing along our way. Just a small 25 degree shift made all the difference in the world. No more bang and crash as Delos leapt from one wave top to another. Due to our hard earned miles upwind over the last few days we’re actually in a really good sailing position for Fiji. Boats that didn’t head as far East as us have been motoring for the last 2 days straight into it with no end in sight. Assuming no more tricks from King Neptune we should have a good tack for the next 300 miles to Fiji! If anyone asks we’ll tell them it was superior weather routing and insight that put our course so far East.
With a more friendly boat motion Paul cooked up the Mahi we caught yesterday. Panko-encrusted Mahi on a bed of pasta with a sun dried tomato pesto sauce. Yummy! We finished off the day with a showing of “Office Space.”