28 August - The End is Near

0600 position 24-09S 152-13W. Day's run 159 miles

The wind stayed out of the southwest all day. Wind speed was up and down
with a downward trend. We rolled the jib in and out all day long, and
shook the second reef just before noon. The wind started to get fluky at
about 11PM, and at 2AM it died completely for over an hour. Normally we
would have turned on the engine until the wind filled back in, but it
looks like even at top speed we will arrive at Raivavae just after sunset
on Friday evening. I'm not entering the lagoon at night, so we wouldn't
go in until Saturday morning anyway. Since we'll likely have about twelve
hours to kill, there's no point in powering, so we waited out the calm and
it slowly filled back in from the south at about 330AM.

We are all caught up on sleep, and there's not much that needs to be done.
The boat has held together nicely. Nothing to fix except the damn
masthead light (my nemesis) which went out again the other night. This
time I think it is the bulb. I have a spare and will replace it in
Raivavae. We had our first cribbage game of the voyage this afternoon.
It went well…

Our discussions center on planning the next meal. We have both (Matt
especially) been creative with what's aboard and have enjoyed some great
feasts. Yesterday morning it was eggs, spam, and rice. The day before
banana pancakes. Last night we enjoyed lentil soup and grilled cheese
sandwiches. Rumor has it tonight's dinner is corned beef and cabbage. We
are both really looking forward to that first beer after the anchor goes
down in the Raivavae lagoon.

In Tonga Lori and I developed a couple of SOPs (Standard Operating
Procedures) for the Mighty Moku pe'a. SOP1 concerns the actions to be
taken when anchoring for the evening. SOP1 is as follows:

1. Roll up jib, drop and furl mainsail
2. Drop anchor, set, and secure
3. Secure engine
4. Secure main halyard to toe rail
5. Put on mainsail cover
6. Put fish (zinc for keel protection) overboard
7. Have the first beer of the day

There was much discussion during the development of SOP1 on the sequence
of events. I was of the opinion that item 7 should occur first, hours
before the next item. We are, after all, on vacation. Lori, being more
conservative and having different priorities, insisted that item 7 occur
last. You can tell by the listed order who prevailed.

As you can imagine, Matt wasn't too pleased when he learned about the
existence of SOP1, but he is a team player and went along with it. And
since we are creatures of habit, we are continuing with the use of SOP1
for this leg of the voyage. No beer until the anchor goes down. I'm sure
Lori will be pleased to know this.