Day 17 - 3/4 of the way there!

Clarabella
Gerard Coulson
Sat 9 Jun 2007 21:07
Date: 9 June 2007, 1200 local time (GMT -8)
Position: 08:24.3S 127:39.5W
Day's run: 128nm
Course: 266
Distance to run: 665nm

The last 24 hours have seen absolutely wonderful conditions; we have been
sailing consistently at 6 to 7 knots under poled-out genny and single-reefed
main. So our day's run should be spectacular BUT we've had upto a knot and
a half of counter-current against us :-(

Last night the sky was superb; the sky so clear that you could see every
star and this combined with perfect sailing made for excellent night
watches. We also saw 3 long-line Japanese trawlers, 2 of which were on a
constsnt bearing relative to us. The VHF proved fruitless, although the
first trawler did at least try to respond after 1/2 hour of calling. The
2nd one stood on (no reply on VHF) until I shone our 1,000,000 candle-power
searchlight on him for a while! After that he shone his on us so we played
searchlights for a while after he'd altered course!

1/4 of the journey left...