We have crossed 8 degrees south and now at 8 degrees 12 minutes. This is significant as it means that Rabaul is no longer our port of refuge and we have finally escaped it! Worth a celebration. Gizo is due east of here. With the current and wind as it is now I can sail there without a motor should it fail again. Honiara is only another 50 miles south and will therefore becomes the next port of refuge by this evening. In another 40 hours Port Moresby will be.

Ifve written twice that the sun has come out. Well it comes out in this Solomon Sea and then goes back in. The wind is still around 20 knots and whilst the waves are not big they are nasty steep little 1 metre ones which along with the strong current slow progress and make a very bumpy ride. (ANd making it very hard to type this blog)! My alarm clock went flying across the cabin this morning and now has a souvenir crack in it. Fortunately the Windex fumes are gone from yesterdays incident. Or I have gotten used to them.

To try and improve progress and on account of the lack of sun I removed the bimney (sun shade) yesterday. It was a challenging job while at sea but I think has improved our windage (more streamlined) and that is most important now.

There were no squalls last night which meant I could keep the radar guard zone alarm on all night. (The radar picks up the squalls so i have to turn the alarm off when they are around). This meant that I took longer naps than normal and am feeling pretty good now.

I woke this morning to see a trail of fuel behind the boat and thought for an instant we might be leaking. It did not take long to find that one of the 2nd hand (cooking oil) jerry cans lashed to the deck had cracked. It is now gone. Of the 3 left I used one with good fuel to top up the fuel tank and have left the others. They contain fuel from when we emptied the fuel tank and also some cooking oil. I know it is ok to use but would rather not until I have no choice so have left them for now.

It was an incredibly messy job topping up. I use those red and white plastic siphons used to fill kerosene heaters. The ones I bought in Japan have worn out so picked up 3 ones in PNG. Bloody cheap useless chinese copies that costed twice the price of the ones sold in Max Value Shimoda. One was already punctured when I got it on the boat and the other two leak. When you had pump them more fuel goes squirting out than in. I was therefore left to pouring the fuel in with a funnel. In an open ocean with 20 knots of wind that means you get a lot of fuel everywhere but in the fuel tank. It is too rough meaning too dangerous to swim so I tied myself to the back of the boat and poured buckets of water over me and the cockpit to try and wash off all the diesel.

The main entrance to the coral sea is called the Jomard Entrance and it goes through the Louisiade Archipelago. It is 177 n.miles from present position and only 4 n.miles wide with an island/lighthouse in the middle. Almost all of traffic going between Australia and Asia goes through it I am told. Prior to that are the Bonvoulor Islands, Egum Atoll and the Marshal Bennett Islands all spread out over 140 n.miles. This all starts 37 miles from where I am now so today is all about getting lots of rest so I can remain vigilant for those 140 miles or reefs, passages, currents and ships.

Back to bed.

David