It's 5 o clock on a Saturday and the regular crowd shuffles in...or rather we shuffle on trapped as we are by the Pacific high which seems to have conspired to place itself right over our intended route several hundreds of miles south of where it usually hangs out. We were prepared to motor our way through the high as going around it would mean travelling hundreds of miles to the NW before heading east. However over the last 48 hours it seems to have moved to the south east and we are firmly ensconced in it's territory days before we expected to be and it looks as though it will be playing host to us longer than we'd like. We have enough fuel to motor for over 1000 miles and at present are about 2000 to 2400 miles from home depending how far north we have to go before turning east. Yesterday we motored for 7 hours and today turned on the engine early this morning. Around noon the wind picked up to a promising 8-10 knots and we sailed for about an hour before deciding to try the gennaker, even though we were fairly close hauled for it at about 60 degrees off the wind. Alas, the fickle wind continued to die until we were making 2 knots over the ground in 6 knots of wind and we reluctantly took down the multicoloured sail and fired up the iron lung. It looks as though that is going to be the order of the day for the next while until we get through the high and back into the wind. One doesn't want to comment on how boring it is to motor along for fear of getting poked in the eye with a sharp gale but suffice it to say it is way more pleasant to be using wind power rather than diesel.

On the positive side I have just been joined by a buoyant crew bearing cold beer and tropical punch along with a big bag of Garden Salsa Sun Chips. Neen wrote a Science test today, Nay has worked through a unit in Math, Cam has written a short story and Fi has completed covers for our big cushions. As the sun sets we'll fire up the BBQ (whose burner I have patched up and hope lasts to Sidney). It's warm, the seas are flat and the sun is shining...now for just a wee breath of air and perhaps a piano player.