Thursday 27^th March  Day 19  There are only 10 yachts left out in the Pacific now and four of us are due to anchor in  Taiopae Bay, Nuku Hiva today.  The allocated net controller for Thursdays on this leg ‘Jenny’ has already arrived and asked for a volunteer to take over for today and we have agreed.  This involves sourcing the weather forecast for the next 72 hours and reading it out once the two minute silence is up.  Then calling each boat name alphabetically and taking their position, wind speed and ETA – often with the help of a relay from a boat who can hear better than you – typing up the information in an established format and emailing back to Rally Control in the UK.

During the two minute silence yesterday Zipadedoda informed us all that just four hours from Taiopae Bay they had experienced extremely high acceleration winds between Nuku Hiva and Ua Huka (even though they were three miles out from land) which rose from 12 to 35 knots in seconds – this caused a crash gibe and they have consequently suffered damage to their boat, although we haven’t established how extensive that is yet.  How sad is that, to have come all this way, be in sight of land and be so excited I’m sure, to get toppled at the last post – very sobering and a warning to us all.

We, for our part, are still careering along covering around 160 miles in each 24 hour period – we have been so exceptionally lucky with the weather which has, in the main, remained sunny with wind from the east south east.  The hairdresser opens this morning followed by the manicurist in the afternoon!  The beers and wine need to be refrigerated ready for future consumption (and entertainment) and the boat and her crew need a good spring clean and freshen up!  Nearly three weeks at sea takes it toll and it’s not just the goose barnacles which need a trim!!

The good news is that the weekly fruit and vegetable market is on a Saturday morning which we should get there in time for – the bad news is that it starts at 4.00am!!  Wendy and Robert from Heidenskip got there at 8.00am last week to find every morsel gone!!  So that lovely uninterrupted sleep tomorrow night isn’t looking so rosy any more!  We also learnt today that diesel is being rationed to 300 litres per boat – good for us that there will be any left at all, given that we are so late and all the ARC boats will be requiring a top up as well.

With 36 hours to go I am now about to embark on my anti ‘no no’ ambush and soak all the mosquito nets and our trousers in deet solution……….