17.54s 161.45E Saturday 1^st August (pinch and a punch) We have covered 380 nm with seven hours to go until our third day or rather 72 hour period is up – fantastic sailing, we are so fortunate so far and I for one am extremely grateful!  We have set our waypoint now for Hydrographers Passage (the tricky bit) which we hope to traverse during daylight.  The tide runs in and out of there at over 4 knots and it takes around five hours to get through so we need to be alert. 

My sickly self is recuperating and just as well as we only have around seven days left to munch our way through an enormous pile of provisions which will otherwise be confiscated in Australia.  It would have been good to give it away in Vanuatu but quarantine there forbade it.  There is still come confusion as to exactly what will be seized but as a lot of our tins are without labels (to avoid cockroach infestation) and have gone rusty in any case – I think we should anticipate the worst!  Incidentally, we haven’t seen a live cockroach for around nine months now – ‘cockroach hotels’ were the answer to the problem – little black plastic [houses] which contain poison; the insects eat it, take it back to their nests, regurgitate it to their young and hey presto………

I know problems on the boat can make good reading but apart from a seriously leaky stern gland (which annoyingly sets off the bilge pump every so often) we are in pretty good ship-shape order.  Altering the prop made a huge difference not only to the performance/speed of the boat but also to our fuel economy – and now the faulty thermostat has been removed we have had no problems with overheating.

The Hydrovane cover disintegrated after a year but the cost of a new one and the DHL charges from Canada was prohibitive so the sail makers in Vanuatu improvised and she is now attired in a new white ensemble and is nodding in her usual composed way, keeping us perfectly on course.

The 12 volt fans dotted all around the boat have been a fantastic buy, far better than a/c, but after running the one in our cabin non stop 24 hours a day for 365 days the bearings wore out (well they are only guaranteed for 1,500 hours) so we have replaced them and it is running sweetly again.  Actually, the weather has changed – it is sunny but with a nip in the air and a chill at night now we are in the southern hemisphere’s ‘winter’.

It’s 6.00am, there is a stunning sunrise, Paul is asleep and all is well……..