37 Miles to Niue!

It is Saturday around 12:30 PM . The past few days have been pretty much the same; winds and seas up and down. Yesterday mid-morning I was in the cockpit alone reading a book while Frank was napping when all of a sudden I heard a loud "Pop!" and felt a jerk at the back of the boat. My heart went into my throat as I saw our dinghy half hanging on. A shackle (to me everything is a shackle) that is attached to the arms of the davit, holding the line that secures one end of the dinghy had snapped
right off. Thank goodness Frank had that thing secured with come-along lines as extra support, otherwise the pressure of the dinghy falling would likely have pulled it from the secured line at the other end and we would have lost our dinghy! I did the prudent thing by yelling, "Frank I think we are about to lose our dinghy!", and sat frozen in grief and fear in the cockpit. He came out and worked some kind of Frank-like miracle job of securing our dinghy, although it is still hanging at a precarious
angle and has partially deflated from the stress. I think I'll take a picture for the website.

Syren long ago blew past us - that is what J-160's are for! As of last night they were some 40+ miles ahead of us and have probably pulled into Niue by now. We are due to arrive between 6 & 7 PM tonight. Ahu just passed us about an hour ago. We are sailing downwind which is great for the catamaran but not so for us. The seas are much too rough to fool with the whisker pole for wing & wing sailing, and the winds are too heavy for the gennaker, so we are absolutely tossing every which way, watching
waves crash our beam and splash up over the freeboard (the sides of the boat), I hear crashing sounds and slamming in cabinets but can't do a thing about any of it just now. It is nothing new, although not our favorite way to fly. We heard that the approaching weather system that is to bring 35+ knot winds is somewhat behind schedule - Thank God - because if it were to hit as predicted we would be right in the thick of it. We are praying it holds off until we get to Niue and further praying there
is room in the Inn!