Yesterday I wrote that this Bismarck Sea is eerie. Perhaps it is a result of a personality crisis from the mismatch of names places here have been given by various peoples. New Ireland, New Britain, The Duke of York Group, Cape Gazelle (do they have Gazellefs in PNG?), New Hanover, Schlieinitz, Bagabag, Bunbun, Sing Singe, Sag Sag, Lak Lak, Ting Won and Ting Tong. To name a few. The feel here is no less eerie at night. I took my first nap around 10. Before doing so, set two radar guard zones up to the alarm. One 2- 4 miles out for small boats and one 10 to 12 miles out for larger ones. As we are now near land I canft set more than 12 miles. There was nothing on the radar. Every night so far there has always been some rain activity somewhere so I was a little concerned the radar might be acting up. It also was not picking up the land 15 miles away. Perhaps it was just very flat land. I watched for a while and after convincing myself there was no rain activity and that the r adar was fine I went to bed for an hour. Before the hour was up the radar guard zone alarm went off. A boat I thought. No, lots and lots of rain all around showing up on the radar. Where did it come from so quickly? I readjusted the guard zones to keep them on but out of the way of the rain and went back to bed. That was useless ? went off after 5 mins with even more rain in the area. Off came the guard zones off I went to slept in the cockpit. Around 1 I noticed another ship about 3 miles away. As I watched the radar I surmised it was not moving. Another fishing boat perhaps? The one I had seen during the day made me think I am a little vulnerable out here so I decided to give this one a wide berth, turned all the lights off and kept a careful eye on things. Sure enough as I watched on the radar screen I could see it was not moving. When it was out of site and well off the radar screen I turned the lights back on and went to sleep again.

By this time the rain activity was producing lightening. Lots of it. It looked like a far off bombing scene in a war movie. I could not hear it at all. Nor could I see the lightening bolts. Just the clouds which kept getting lit up. I got out the car jumper leads again, attached them to the mast and put the ends in the water. The idea being if we get struck by lightening the current will travel around and over the hull through the leads and not through the hull itself. Cannot say I have tested it yet.

I kept napping on and off. The lightening stopped but then the sound started. Again it was like a bombing scene out of a war movie. Lots of explosive thunderous sounds but this time no lightening. Very weird.

All this time we never got a drop of rain on the boat nor any wind! By 6 am the thunder had stopped and daylight was filling up the sky.

At 10am local time each day I have been writing the ships log, checking distance covered, fuel usage, distance to go and the weather. Ifve become extremely concerned about being able to make it to Rabual before running out of fuel. This mornings calculations have raised that concern. We have been motoring nearly 20 hours a day on average day for nearly a week. Yesterday it was 22 hours. My fuel calculations conclude that we have 80 litres left for the 141 mile journey. Should be enough providing we donft have to motor too hard. After lots of recording and calculations we have worked out that Yarramundifs yanamar 24HP motor uses only 1.1 litres an hour at 2,000 RPM but nearly 3 times that at 3,000 RPM. With just 80 litres clearly we wont get there motoring all the way at full speed. Keeping revs at 2,000 or below should not be a problem. However as we approach Rabaul we have to go through the St. Georgefs Channel and if there is a current and a headwind Ifll have no choic e but to open up the throttle. To make maters worse, 80 litres on the fuel gauge should show a little more than half full. The gauge is reading a little less than half full so I have to assume we have only 60 litres making a slow passage there on motor alone now difficult.

There was a little wind this morning which I thought great ? now we can get some miles under the hull without the engine! Unfortunately it was short-lived and left an unwelcome choppy sea slowing us way down. And I donft like the idea of the chop disturbing the bottom of the fuel tank as we drain down to the bottom of it. Ifve been cleaning the fuel filter/water separator daily now as the fuel in Yap was dirty.

Break

While writing the above passage I heard the wind generator kick in. Meaning wind! I hoped up top to set that sails and am very pleased to report that with a steady 12 knots from the south we are doing a respectable 4.8knots (SOG) against the current. If we can get a good 20 or 30 miles covered with this wind getting through St Georgefs channel should not be a problem. Herefs hoping it stays longer than the last wind.

Finally, learnt over the weekend that my mother has bought some tickets to travel to New York and Broadway in September. That sounds exciting and not a bad trip for someone who is ....y/o. I wonft say. Good for her.

David