Our second day on passage began with scrambled eggs, rye toast and tea before Paul headed off for a few hours of well deserved sleep. I spent my morning watch observing a lone masked booby, totally absorbed and fascinated by his skills as he picked off the flying fish scattered by our bow wave. Once replete with his bounty, he disappeared off into the distance, no doubt to find a suitable piece of driftwood to perch on whilst he digested his piscatorial plunder.

As Paul came out for his next watch, the wind began to drift north east, facilitating a complete change to our sail plan as we continued to head downwind. Combined with an unexpected counter current, we opted to motor sail for several hours as we waited for the forecast SE winds to kick in. At sunset, the trade winds began to murmur and we reconfigured our sails in anticipation. As we crossed a contour line at Longitude 162.19E, the current switched from negative to positive, immediately giving us a 0.5 knot boost. The SE wind was still whispering and teasing, finally making an appearance at 0115, although at less than 10 knots, it did little more than to keep shape in our sails. Luckily, we power yachties are not adverse to using that duty free fuel!

The waxing gibbous moon blazed brightly throughout the night, lighting the way for our nocturnal, individual shifts out on deck. We've seen no other shipping, and only the Pacific Jewel, a cruise ship inbound to Noumea, has registered an AIS target on our MFD. I don't think we will ever be as alone again on Earth as we have been in the South Pacific - the vastness of this huge ocean is astounding.

By 0800 on Wednesday 24/10, we've covered 281 NM, with a reduced SOG of 5.7 over the 24 hour period. It's a little slower than we'd like, but the benign conditions make it very comfy!

All well onboard.