Bound for the Tuamotus - Day 1 10 38.23S 141 23.06W

Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Wed 16 Jun 2010 02:19
Our position at 12.00 today. The noon to noon run for the first day was 124 miles - a lot less than the previous passage. The light winds yesterday afternoon meant a slow start, but it was very enjoyable in the sunshine and flattish sea. The night was not so good with squalls lining up one after another. Some had rain and all had wind - mostly around 20-25kts, but we had a few bigger ones over 30kts. One of them appeared so big on radar on radar that we decided the main ought to come down. So at 04.00 we took it down with a following wind of 25kts - not so easy! It came down okay, but the winds didn't go beyond 25kts and 30 minutes later were back down to 11kts. It was up and down like that all night. Still today has been great - sunny, a consistent wind of 15 to 20kts, no squalls, no rain and we've been making 6 to 7.5kts all day. Those that came before us have said that they experienced squalls every night, so we know what to expect! More on the Tuamotu Islands tomorrow.

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com