Date & Time: October 27, 0800 Position: see the map on our blog Course: 250M

Days at sea completed: 0

Distance sailed in the last 24 hours (nm): 0 Distance sailed total (nm): 0 Distance to go (nm): 790

Wind Speed & Direction (knots): 18 @ 105M Waves (ft): 7'

Well, this is it! The last big passage of the cruising year. We've got 800 miles to cover from Noumea to Bundaberg, Australia and we hope to do it in about 5 days.

We left our anchorage at an island off of Noumea at 7am this morning. Within half an hour we were out of the pass, out of the calm water, and back in the open ocean. We've got about 18 knots of wind from our port stern quarter which is a very comfortable point of sail. There is also about a 7' beam swell but the period of the swell is pretty long so we are not being thrown around.

The weather prediction for this trip has shaped up pretty well. Most of the models are in agreement that we will have 10-20 knots of wind, mostly from behind the beam. There may be a bit of a low pressure system when we arrive in Australia which means that we don't really know what weather we will have at that point. But, since that is still five days away, the predictions are likely to change as well.

I can see two boats ahead of us, a 56' monohull names Koza and a 44' cat named Impi. I believe that both are heading to Bundaberg as well. We won't catch the mono, but I'll have to make sure that we keep an eye out for the cat at night. Surprisingly, though, it is amazing how much boats separate even when they are heading to the same destination.

That's about it. All systems and crew (Dee and I) on board Speakeasy are good!