Position           13:18.77 S 151:56.73 E

Date                1200 (UTC+11) Wednesday 07 October 2015

Distance run    in 24hrs 161nm over the ground, 157.6nm through the water

Trip total         990nm over the ground, 956nm through the water

To go to           Kupang Indonesia 1814nm

“Just like buses, ships, you waits 4 days for one, nuffing, then seven come along all at the same time - typical”.  Well it certainly appeared that way.  We saw some 12 ships overnight, at one stage we had seven showing on the AIS with three within the 2nm guard zone as we passed what must be the recognised commercial route from New South Wales to Japan and China via the Urumba Passage in Eastern Papua New Guinea.

We continue to make good progress dead downwind, although the wind and sea have moderated slightly there are occasional waves, statisticians will tell me that they occur every 60^th or something.  These you can feel and hear as the boat is pitched then rolled as the foaming wave hisses along the hull.  Two days ago these were occurring every six waves so that must be a result.

Tuesday saw the solar panels give their best output for months with 107Ah.  This will have been boosted by the absence of the Watt & Sea that tends to make the solar controller reduce the panels output, it is a very beneficial trade-off however.  Overnight the absence of the W&S really made itself felt and we had 3 hours of generation to keep the batteries up.  Something had to be done so at the 0900 watch change we hove to, slowing the boat down to just over 1 knot at which speed I was able to hang over the stern and get the repaired W&S back in place.  At speed the platform on the stern is regularly submerged.

The Watt & Sea hydrogenerator back in place at 7 knots