Day 178 "Beating to weather"

There is still a trace of rain in the air but the day looks a little better. Moonraker pulls up anchor and heads North to Savusavu. The wind is now blowing from the East-Southeast (120º) so heading South to Suva looks a bit more favorable. We decide to wait until after lunch to leave. If we can make Suva in one overnight sail, we will arrive at first light.
We watch the people on shore walking to church dressed in their best. The woman wear bright dresses and the young boys wear their formal lava lavas. Instead of hats, the women wear flowers in their hair. We are too far away to see much detail but the color is obvious from our anchorage.
To pass the time we watch one more movie, this time the sea story "Master and Commander" with Russell Crowe. The sea scenes of storms off Cape Horn are amazing and make one realize just how violent the ocean can be.
After lunch we pull up our two anchors and head out of the pass. The wind is still from 120º so we need to sail East-Northeast a bit so we have the proper angle for clearing the end of the island. When we finally turn South-Southwest we are still "beating to weather" meaning that the wind and the waves are coming at us from 45º off the port (left) bow. (As Captain Crowe would say - the larboard bow). I am reminded of the statement in the sailing book that says only fools and racers sail into the wind but if we don't get on with it we could be in Levuka for a long time and we must get to Suva and try to get the windless looked at. The wind is blowing at 20 to 25 knots with gusts to 30 and the waves are 10 to 12 feet high. As we sail, the bow frequently buries itself in the oncoming waves and spray covers the boat. The "dodger" (cover over the cockpit) keeps us pretty dry and Mark adequately describes the situation as "bleak".
I suspect I am not alone in thinking forward to our final passage to New Zealand. The distance is 1100 miles and the direction is the same one we are now heading. The weather will get colder as we get farther South and it is notoriously stormy. (Images of Master and Commander come to mind). If we can make our normal 120 miles a day this could mean 9 days of very bumpy sailing. Since I do a lot of the cooking, I am trying to think of how we can provision so that we can still eat well without having to be in the galley with hot liquids sloshing about.
On my watch - There is no moon and it is hard to tell where the sky meets the sea. A light rain is blowing through the cockpit driven by the 25 to 30 knot wind. When it was still light, we estimated the waves at 6 to 10 feet but there are occasional larger ones now. White spray punctuated by glowing phosphorescent dots surges to the side every time the bow plows into a wave. We are in a shipping lane so I continually watch for lights. There is one behind us and one off our starboard bow but neither is a collision danger. I can see the lights of Suva 40 miles away scattering off the mist. Finally it is 10 o'clock and I turn the watch over to Kurt and immediately go to bed.