The sea has shrugged off its black night gown and slipped on a deep blue dress. The curves and sparkling frilly white accessories are a little excessive for my taste, I prefer an understated, smoother look. An early morning cloak of soft greys and purple with a pink background covered the sky. Now the sun is up, the choice for the day is a spring blue piece with white lace around its hem. The dark grey moods that were flung across the sky yesterday like a two year olds temper tantrum have disappeared over the horizon. We know though, just like little girls, weather can be a fickle friend.

Enjoy the moment, 35knot winds could be just around the next isobar corner. That's what Des (Russell radio) said last night. Well.. Des actually said, "You could get 35 knots up there tomorrow' a change from ." more of the same tomorrow". Looking at the grib files this morning he could be right there are 35 knots south of us so they may be nipping at our stern by late afternoon. We will keep the reef in and hope the winds give us a good lift towards Chesterfield reef, a stop over on the way to Cairns.

We have a weather book, by the weather guru himself, Bob McDavitt , on board, I know I shouldn't admit this but we mainly use it to get the weather fax transmission times from. But by turning a couple of pages, while waiting for faxes to materialize on the computer, I learn a little something everyday. Mariners Met Pack, South West Pacific by Bob McDavitt, an interesting and very useful book. We keep the cover folded back; it has a photo from the Queens Birthday weather bomb, 1994, on the front!

For instance, after many sail changes yesterday we arrived at the text book setting, according to the Beaufort scale. 6, strong breeze. Large waves begin to form, the white foam crests are more extensive everywhere. 22-27 knots. Double reefed mainsail. Today we have somewhere between 4 and 5 on the Beaufort scale.

We left New Caledonia through Passe de Dumbea on a flat calm Saturday morning. Boats big and small zipped around the reefs, fishing, diving and surfing enjoying the first day of a long weekend. We didn't find out what was the cause of the holiday, but certainly not for the English Queen. The week in Noumea had been spent cleaning, doing some repairs and a little sight seeing. We had planned to stay a little longer but as the weather looks good for the trip to Cairns( with our Chesterfield visit) it was time to go. So here we are a day and half from the reef stopover. Chesterfield reef is west of the northern tip of New Caledonia. It is part of a reef chain runs north south and includes Bellona reef in the south and Brampton reef in the north. Weather permitting we will have a couple of days enjoying the uninhabited reef and then next stop Cairns.