Monday November 13, 2000 en route Opua

The winds got lighter overnight and we were doing only around three knots, sometimes down to zero as the winds came and went. At 0730 we turned the motor on, but then by 1100 the wind had come up from the SW enough to let us sail, and eventually turned to the SSE at about 12 knots which let us sail quite nicely though close-hauled.

In the morning we had a bunch of dolphins round the boat, which Vlad thought were spinners. They were small, beaked specimens. Later on we put the fishing line out and in fairly quick succession caught a barracuda (which we fed to the sharks), a mahi mahi which managed to shake itself free of the hook at the very end, and a rainbow runner, which were able to land successfully. Four meals of fish in the freezer meant we didn’t need to fish any more for the time being.

Conversations between the boats were frequent on both VHF and SSB radio, mostly regarding  weather , and we all swapped information on courses steered and boat location. The lumpy seas have made Vlad feel queezy, but a bottle of ginger beer quickly eased the symptoms. Vlad was quite hungry then and made a type of onion soup/borsch combination for dinner.

97 miles from start to noon.

Tuesday November 14, 2000 en route Opua

The winds lightened again overnight but stayed in the SE, varying from less than five knots to fifteen knots as the day wore on. We are headed on a course to take us to 30S 174E which we hope will put us in a good position to head the last 300 miles to Opua even if the winds (as seems likely) go to the SW. Meat pies and consommé for supper.

114 miles noon to noon. Click here for Day three