Day 2 Noon Position 31 06.63S 177 12.40E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Thu 3 May 2012 04:41
Other thing to note: an albatross has visited us every day so far. (Don't know if it's the same one - they all look alike to me!) It circles the boat a few times, just gliding over the water, before disappearing again. It's lovely to see.
Something they don't teach in the sailing classes - trying to keep the boat upright in these seas so we can cook baking potatoes in the microwave! Unlike the cooker, it's not gimballed. They roll around a bit but seem to cook just as well. The moon is out for half the night and with clear skies it's been lighting the sea up like a search light. It's so much nicer when you have a good moon. We're actually taking part in the annual Fiji Rally; there's about 15 boats this year. The rally entrance fee includes most of the Customs and Immigration fees for Fiji, so the rally is almost free. On that basis it seemed a good idea, particularly as they have a lot of experience of Fijian waters, which are full of reefs, and the charts are not the most accurate. It's a one passage rally - parties before you leave, everyone sails their own route and meets up for more parties on arrival, but after that every one goes their own way. On the first night out we could see the lights of 3 other boats on the horizon. Last night we didn't see any until the early hours when we came up right behind and passed another rally boat. It only takes a day or two for the boats to be scattered far and wide across the ocean.
Our noon-to-noon run of 146.2 miles was not bad considering we had to slow the boat down due to the seas. At noon today, we had covered 305.8 miles since leaving Opua,NZ so about 900 miles to go.
----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com