9th September

17 38.382 S

177 08.950 W



Weather; dull and overcast with rain showers, wind 5 to 18 knots, waves 3 meters



Yay, for once the weather forecaster got it right. During the late part of yesterday evening and overnight the wind gradually picked up, just as predicted. It started out coming at us from just on the port beam and our sluggish speed picked up to around 5.5 knots, within a couple of hours though the wind had moved slightly to aft of the beam and had increased up to 12 knots which saw us sailing, yes, not motor sailing along at 6.5 knots. Of course the sea began to pick up as well so we were rocking about a bit but it could have been so much worse. The staysail got deployed on the starboard side alongside the main to begin with as the wind on the beam would just not have allowed the jib to fly in a wing and wing formation which is how the spinnaker pole is set up for running. Once the wind moved far enough aft that the jib would fly we deployed it enough to make goose winging possible. It's a bit of a science balancing act to get the sails just right as the wind keeps moving w
ithin a range but always just within the possibility of goose winging so it has kept Gerry busy trimming and then adjusting the sails to get the best possible results from them. We had thought that with night approaching the wind would abate somewhat and we would be back to motor sailing but to our surprise we have had pretty constant wind at around 17 knots for most of the night and all of today which has seen us pick up and race along at nose bleeding speeds of up to 8 knots, but mostly around 7 knots. The sky has been a dull and overcast grey all day and we have only seen the sun peep through the clouds a couple of times Ð just enough to give the solar panels a work out long enough to top off the batteries. The rain finally arrived for a short spell after lunch and managed to soak part of our cockpit cushions but hey we aren't sugar lumps and didn't dissolve! It's really quite funny to have to suddenly be so careful about moving around the boat again after such a long
spell of flat calm seas, I can see the bruises multiplying by the minute! Yet again things that have never moved, rattled or squeaked have suddenly become dangerous missiles flying across the boat or are now irritating noises that we just can't seem to make stop. Preparing food is once more a dangerous occupation with plates, tins, jars sliding across bench tops as the boat rolls, knives seem to take on the personality of a murderous felon as they fly at you the minute you put them down or turn away from them, hot things on the cook top is just not a happening thing unless you feel in a suicidal mood and that is with the gimble and fiddles in place! Thank goodness we already have a few prepared "ping meals" that just need a quick burst in the microwave. Our fresh vegetable supply is running low and we are almost at the point of having no option but to use frozen or canned stuff, the same applies to our fresh fruit supply, I think we have just 5 pieces of fruit left. Please d
on't even ask about the chocolate, I haven't checked but Gerry tells me it's not going to last until we reach Fiji Ð he will be unbearable! We have eked out our fizzy drinks and will run out by the time we arrive but we drink mostly water so that's not a big deal. Talking of water we ran out of water in our aft tank yesterday so are now on our forward tank which holds about 80 gallons so we will at least arrive with some water in hand which is just as well as we have been very conservative with its use, but it will be really nice to be able to hook up to the dock water and have a Hollywood shower! Gerry ran out of books that he had downloaded on his kindle for the trip so he is beside himself at present, it is so bad that I have offered to let him read any of the books that I have on my kindle in between me reading my stuff. As we take turns in sleeping it should work OK as long as we don't both want to be up and reading at the same time.

So our total running for 25hours (remember we turned the clock back one hour hence the extra hour) is a grand 150 NM Ð a whole lot better than yesterday! We ran the engine for 5 hours in that period.

We have no news today, as yet, from Sherard so hopefully he is still doing OK and we hope he is going to call in at Fiji to get his auto pilot situation sorted out before finishing the trip to Australia. The wind prediction is somewhat higher strength winds around the area that he is sailing through, we just hope they aren't too different to what we are seeing Ð at least these winds aren't too horrendous and we think he would be able to cope OK with them, fingers crossed!