31st August

17 49.491 S

157 48.243 W



Weather; sunny , wind 3-10 knots, waves up to 2 metres



Here we are at the end of August and still at sea! Nothing much has happened in the last 24 hours, the wind has still been playing hide and seek, we have been lucky to see anything above 7 knots in the last 24 hours, but on the plus side the sea has remained calm which we are quite glad about. Unfortunately we have had to run the engine for 20 hours to keep us moving along and even then it has been at the really slow pace of around 4.5 knots, thank goodness we have plenty of food on board and we are trying our hardest to be economical with the water as the last thing we need is to run out before we get to Fiji.

The worst thing about having what little wind there is coming from astern is that with the engine running the exhaust fumes are blown directly into the cockpit which makes for a very unpleasant, smelly and headache producing environment, along with the constant droning noise it is a relief when we can turn the engine off , we both look forward to the moment we can just sail along without the discomfort but it doesn't look like it will happen for at least another 24 hours, if predict wind is correct!

Nothing happened overnight, we took turns in catching up with sleep, watching the water for any unexpected appearances of ships or wild life Ð there was none of either, and staring endlessly at the stars which still fascinate the hell out of us both. Today has followed on in much the same vein, apart from a brief respite from the engine we have had to continue to motor sail, trying to keep a steady speed of around 5 knots but not always succeeding. Our mileage for the 24 hours was a disappointing 111 NM but at least it's in the right direction. Gerry has succeeded in removing the bigger piece of the broken chain plate from the locker today and has angle ground the rusted end off and fashioned a temporary fix to which he has attached a shackle to hold the shroud in place and then replaced the shortened version of the chain plate back into it's original place. Of course, he has also taken measurements and a technical drawing of the original, complete plate so that we can get
a new one made in that exotic place when we get there. We have had several messages from our Tahiti neighbour who set out at the same time as us but on a slightly different course, we are a little surprised to hear that he is having similar weather issues to us even though his course has taken him about 200 miles south of us, it's heartening to know that it's not just us that are wallowing around but we can only imagine how frustrating it must be for a single hander to be suffering the same way. I hope that for both boats that the wind picks up and we can get moving along better and quickly. Even the fishing rod is treating this like a holiday, we have thrown it in the water everyday but the fish are just ignoring the bait for now so once again we won't be having fish for dinner tonight!