Day 12 didn't improve and we had 30 plus knot winds most of the day and night. Very unpleasant and uncomfortable and so many things in the boat that have never moved flew around the boat today. The others in our group were all feeling it and you could hear it in their voices at radio check in time. I just laid down on the floor and every hour seemed to drag on for ever.

Today, things improved. The seas reduced during the day and are currently now only 1-1.5m and we have had a good afternoon sail making good progress and being able to head straight to Opua. However, as I am writing this blog and we have approximately 50 n miles to go, Neil has just informed me the autopilot is not working, as it keeps going to standby and losing the course, so we will have to hand steer the rest of the way. I suppose we can be grateful we are so close and will arrive at a destination where we can get it fixed or replace it. The disappointing thing, is if we do need to replace it, it is thousands of dollars and not a cost we really need at this time.

The best bit is that we only have actually 47 n miles to go and I can almost see the land and smell the lamb roast! We should arrive early hours of the morning, Monday 14th November.

Time to start getting excited.