We're glad we left Fiji when we did! Multiple convergent zones are dropping down from the equator, setting up to blanket the entire island group soon. Our mates Steve & Nona on 'Corvidae' look to be stuck in New Caledonia. They left Fiji about a month ago to see that country but also to have a shorter and somewhat easier trip to New Zealand. But now conditions have changed in a big way and they may have to wait for a few weeks to leave. I imagine them throwing up their hands and going west to Australia instead. Yesterday (our day 4) was another nice sailing day. The easterly winds are obviously getting lighter as the 'High' we've been using travels further east. But with flat seas like this we can still do 5-6 knots. 'Charisma' is just 5 miles away - we can just see there stick from time to time over the horizon. We've started eating all the great foods we still have aboard. New Zealand customs will take whatever is left so we might as well eat it now. Last night was coconut curry stir-fry vegetables on thai noodles. Yum. As the sun went down we began to notice very ominous looking clouds - dark with very flat bottoms that stacked up super high at the top. Those kind scare me - it seems that they sometimes collapse under their own weight sending heaps of unwanted squally winds down on you. There was lightning off in the distance too so I put our computers in the oven just in cas. Then about 9pm the wind simply shut down. We dropped all sails and started the iron genny. We disengaged the wind vane steering and started up the auto pilot to steer for us. We pushed start and the wheel spun completely around...not what it's supposed to do. We worked on it for an hour or so, no good. Don finally went to lay down for awhile and I attempted to hand steer. Dang. This is not going to be good, hand steering for hundreds of miles. After a few hours I was absolutely 'over it' when Don took over. I layed down and wondered how in the world we were going to hand steer for so many miles. Then, I heard the auto pilot click on. I don't know how he did it but Don got it working again. Yippee. It's now Weds. morning and we have motored all night. The clouds and lightning we saw during the night were part of a trough that we managed to slip through without any trauma. Light winds ahead then we'll face southerly winds approaching New Zealand. That should be interesting...hey...Don's just hooked a fish, I gotta go! Day four was 132 nautical miles and around 530 miles to go.