6th September

17 46.129 S

170 58.522 W



Weather; sunny, wind 2-10 knots, waves 1.5 metres



Another long and tedious day under our belts. Nothing much different has happened in 24 hours. We have swapped the main across and back so many times now that I have lost count and all because the wind is being so fickle and going from just to port aft of the stern to just to starboard aft of the stern. I swear that as soon as we have gone through the process of swapping everything to the opposite side the wind (what little there is of it) laughs out loud and changes direction again. I think we have tried every combination of sails to try and get the boat moving along under sail power alone but it has been to no avail and we have had the engine running to keep us at the absolute minimum of 4 knots of the best part of the last 24 hours, to say it's frustrating is an understatement of mega proportions Ð it's almost as if we are in the doldrums but not quite. The worst thing is that the projected forecast is for more of the same for the next few days which is blowing our arrival
date into Fiji totally out of whack. So I'm not going to keep repeating myself about nothing happening, just take it as gospel! We ran the engine for 22 hours to manage covering just a mere 106 NM. So that's my lot for today. We are currently managing to sail with the main and the jib flying in 10 knots apparent, and are doing 6 knots Ð a good 2 knots more than we have been doing in the last 24 hours Ð we'll take it! The good thing is that sleeping is easier when it's flat calm and we aren't rushing along at break neck speed but there is only so much sleeping that you can do in one day. Hopefully we will be still moving along under sail power by this time tomorrow.