We had wind yesterday from nowhere and everywhere but as soon as there actually was some wind over 5 knots it was from where we were going. This was as forecast but when you're crossing the Coral Sea in November you can't be too picky or shy about running the motor. At the end of the day we were motor sailing under main alone and making about 6 plus knots with the engine in 1,750 RPM max fuel for knots mode.

Hideko made a yummy pistacio crusted mahi mahi last night. It was delicious, I felt like I was at a restaurant. We still have a lot of fish in the freezer but we're making progress with Margaret's help.

We found a lot of different nuts and dried fruit at the market in Denero. They were expensive for Fiji but fair for the rest of the world. Nuts and dried fruit make great boat snacks. They stow easy, don't go bad and are healthy.

At around 11PM we hit a little squall with 25 knots of veering wind in it. We had the full main up (the forecast said no squalls until tonight) so we reefed just to be safe. As expected as soon as we stepped out from under the Bimini it poured. Squall rain is cold. The seas went from placid rollers to a little choppy after the squall but not too bad.

It was a lovely night all in all and cleared into a bright morning. I spotted what I think was a fishing boat at 3AM. I heard two guys on the VHF but I couldn't tell what language they were speaking. Maybe Korean or something in that neighborhood. If you can hear them on VHF they are typically within 20 nm of you. I only saw the one boat and he headed off to the south pretty quickly.

We pulled the jib out before dawn and shut the motor down in the afternoon. We had a nice sail at 7 plus knots with 10-15 knots of wind from 150 to port true (apparent was a nice 120). We are missing the genset (which is down until we get the new fresh water pump and heat exchanger). We have to run a motor to keep up with the power consumption of the fridge, freezer, auto pilot, running lights, cabin lights and radar. The Yanmar alternators are only 60-80 amps so if the inverter is on (which it is as I type) you're barely charging.

As forecast the wind has come astern at 5 knots so we are motoring almost dead down wind. We put the jib up and reefed the main at sunset to tuck in for a quiet evening of motor sailing. The wind is supposed to go back to the southeast tomorrow so hopefully we'll be able to sail in the rest of the way when not charging bats.

The boat is on Fiji time (UTC +12 hours) until we anchor in Efate. We're looking good for a Saturday arrival in Port Vila.

Hideko Says: Yeah less than 300 miles to go!

Margaret Says: I love fast boats.

283 nm to Port Vila, Efate, Vanuatu