Just crossed 29 degrees South en route to Whangarei. It has been some totally perfect sailing so far and we could go on like this for much longer without much hardship at all. A-TRAIN just loves these conditions and she still amazes us how she can maintain these speeds in light air. Last night was nearly a full moon nice seas and very steady 11-12 kts and we were making great speeds and some surfs over 11 kts for a minute or more at a time, totally stable and comfy as expected and WH auto pilot having all the fun. Dashew wrote about designing a boat that would do this as well as perform in other conditions and why etc... and we were sold on the concept before buying but after many thousands of miles we could not imagine sailing anything else. There is nothing like seeing the wake start pulling back from the stern, forming a sort of rooster tail in the center that looks like an outboard motor wash and then watch as she accelerates then the wake curls over at the edges becoming quite loud as you pass nine kts then after ten kts it pulls back further leaving the hull altogether and removing the parasitic suction as the hull reaches escape velocity and gets ahead of the wake and we really accelerate some more and it gets quiet once the roaring wake departs the transom watching this for hours staring out the back on a full moon with nice temps and sea conditions, moving really fast was just mesmerizing last night. Yup that was and is fun as it continues on now but in the sunshine as we close in on NZ. currently a little under 2 days to go, but that too can change out here..

Beginning to cool off a little and clothes required at night, shorts and T at least, still hot in the sun during the day but that will change for certain, 17 in Whangarei today. Currently sailing in 10-12 kts SE and making steady 8-9 kts over ground past two days in East swell and surfing at times into 10+ effortlessly. really enjoyable. The first two days were very rough and so boisterous we could not get after cooking and eating all the prohibited stuff before arrival so now we will be cooking and eating some of our "saved for good",, stuff and eating heavy until arrival. Burrrp! More sausages? Not sure I can do it!