GHOST

Hopefully this will take us less than 4 days, so we will get there on either the 25th or 26th depending on the winds which unfortunately have dropped recently. That will make a total of around 21 days - which somehow feels a lot longer than our Atlantic crossing of 17 days! Generally though the mood is buoyant and we are looking forward to finally getting there!

Not much exciting on GHOST recently, caught a couple of smallish Mahi Mahi which we put back. We think the towgen (a turbine that we tow behind the boat to generate power) is probably the reason why our fishing has been so unsuccessful on this trip, though on balance it has been a very reliable generator of power putting in an average of 5A per hour (importantly thought that is 24 hours a day) so we are pretty happy with it. In fact Jay saw a shark sizing up the towgen turbine for lunch today but must have thought better - it's certainly not unheard of for sharks to eat them though I wouldn't imagine they would make a very tasty meal and result in one well of a tooth ache!

Our thoughts have turned towards planning the future route to Oz. Having travelled around 3,900nm from Panama we have a similar amount to go until Australia, except of course there are some conveniently placed islands along the route so the longest passage will be around 750nm which forms the final leg to Oz. In outline our rough plan is as listed below, also shown on a google map linked to our main webpage under "where we intend to be":

- Marquesas (Nuku Hiva), note Marquesas, Tuamotus and Society Islands all form the area referred to as French Polynesia, then 450nm to - Tuamotus (Manihi, Ahe, Rangiroa) then 150nm to - Society Islands (Tahiti, Moorea, Maupiti, Bora Bora) then 530nm to - Cook Islands (Raratonga) then 600nm to - Niue, then 320nm to - Tonga, then across the international dateline and 450nm to - Fiji, then 600nm to - Vanuatu, then 300nm to - New Caledonia, then the final 750nm ocean leg to - Australia - arriving in Brisbane and then heading 400nm south to Sydney where we plan to have a big party sometime in November!

Well it's definitely time to get there - we only have 2 tomatoes and a bag of limes left on board. Surprisingly there are still some M&M's left from the 2kg bag we started with, despite Jay's midnight raids! Jay is mostly looking forward to some diving, a fresh croissant and some "kickarse" coffee, I am looking forward to cooking on a level surface, Brad is looking forward to sleeping on a bed that doesn't roll and we all are desperate to go for a LONG walk!