We are still struggling with our oil leak, but the situation is improving. A bit of luck and "Happy Spirit" was just passing by us (literally less than a mile away) and had just changed their oil and gave us 14L of used oil which we hope will allow us to make it to Opua. They tied up the oil jugs in big plastic bags with a line between them and put them in the water and we sailed right up behind them and picked them up with the boat hook.

Catmousses and Alexander IV have been really wonderful. They altered their course to within a few miles of us and have been in constant radio contact to make sure we're okay. Jacques on A4 is a diesel mechanic, it seems, and offered some really good suggestions for making the best of a bad situation and getting us to Opua in one piece. So as usual, cruisers take good care of each other! We didn't get the oil till late this morning and had been drifting with 00 knots of wind for hours, it seemed. Luckily a small current was pushing us at 1 kt in the right direction, so not a total loss of time. The weather has been so beautiful, if it wasn't incumbent upon us weather-wise to get there, we could have easily drifted for days without complaint.

We saw a pair of Royal albatross today and a sooty shearwater.

Under 450 nm to Opua...ETA is now 11 or 12 November.