At 7:10 local time we crossed the 5th parallel. Meaning we are officially out of the typhoon zone and into the doldrums. Such man made definitions are meant only as guidelines however I have to admit that as I was having my coffee and the black dot representing Yarramundi crossed the 5 degree line on the GPS that things started to feel different. Now at 4 degrees and 49 mins the sea is flat flat flat. There was a light sprinkling of rain earlier. At sea, especially in the tropics one gets accustomed to seeing waves and wind with rain. But this was like watching a summer shower on a backyard swimming pool. There is no wind at all and now with the sun back out rays of blue light seem to go on forever. below the boat Indeed it is over 4 kms deep here.

Wefve now covered 11% of the journey to Honiara but have used 17% of the fuel. (Excluding the emergency supply I am supposed to forget about). Distance made good was considerably better than the previous day but that is mainly because I motored 21 hours out of 24. I keep turning the motor off to find us drifting to the west with the current. (We supposed to be travelling South East). The pilot chart shows a current moving 0.75 to 1.5 knots eastward between 3 and 4 degrees. I am now hoping to catch that current if it is there drift for a few days to make up the distance without using any more fuel other than what is required to charge the batteries for the radar and lights.

As a precaution and also so we can catch that east moving current sooner Ifve changed course for more southing toward Rabaul, my backup plan.

Earlier this morning a ship passed by 9 miles to our east on itfs way to Shanghai. Itfs name on AIS was Kiwi Trader. I decided to do a general radio check. gThis is sailboat Yarramundi performing a radio check. Does anyone copy, Overh No answer. Tried again twice. No answer. I then decided to use their MMSI (maritime mobile service identity) number and call them digitally which would force a call through to their radio. No reply. Wondering if my radio was malfunctioning I decided to call them using the shipfs name. gThis is sailboat Yarramundi calling Kiwi Trader, Do you copy?h Three times and still no answer. On the forth and final attempt I ended my call with gOr are you all asleeph. Suddenly I got a response!! I could not identify the accent but the MMSI number was 477794000 which I am guessing from the first 3 digits is an Asian registered ship and not New Zealand. Australian ships start with 503 and Japanese start with 431.

Meanwhile Ifve been keeping myself amused with some movies in the evening. I exchanged a few with David in Yap. Being of a different vintage to me his collection included predominantly World War II movies and Clint Eastwood Westerns. I thought seeing them again for the first time in probably 30 plus years that the Guns of Navarone and the Battle of Britain were brilliant. Or maybe it is because there is nothing else much happening out here. I even enjoyed my dinner of spam, canned mushrooms and powered potato.