May 6th, 2010, Passage from NZ

A common phrase line in the book, "The Alchemist" indicates that the entire universe conspires to help us fulfill our destiny. Frank and I have decided it is not our destiny to sail to Minerva Reef. We tried to go there unsuccessfully in 2008 and were prevented from doing so and now it appears as though this will again be the case for us.
After an erratic day of sailing, the winds came hard and firm, pushing us much too fast, therefore, last night in order to maintain our heading we fought to reduce our speed so that we would not arrive at Minerva in the dark. We could have averaged 9 knots during the night but reefed in both sails so that we could maintain a max speed of 4- 5. We had a very rough night. Today the discomfort continued to the point that I am absolutely sore all over from having been tossed all around. We are both very tired today.
So around 9:30 this morning Frank and I had a pow-wow. He gave me all of the information at he could gather so that we could make a sane decision for ourselves and for Destiny. If we continue on the present course we would be forced to "hove to" for several hours outside Minerva until a daylight approach could me made. Then we would need to motor into 30-knot winds and 3 meter seas to the entrance of the reef. This we are told would greatly stress our engine. Our engine is fine, but we cannot afford to run it that hard with the malfunctioning CV joint on the drive shaft. At least that is my understanding. Long story short - we can turn toward SavuSavu, Fiji and literally fly with these winds right now and forget trying to force ourselves into Minerva. This is a no-brainer.
As soon as we turned the boat we began surfing with the huge waves and Destiny settled into a comfortable rhythm at a speed of between 8-10 knots. Now this is more like it!

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