Heading for Marquesas day 18 at sea 8:47.062S 128:53.458W

South Pacific Familyadventure 2008
Claes Brodin
Fri 2 May 2008 06:20
Since last time we have been heading quite fast.The winds have been around 18 knots from eastsoutheast giving a speed of 7-8 knots.We passed the American yacht Sunshine to port,and now our children have radiocontact with their daughter Mary after the Marquesas radionet every day.Portuguese yacht Navigo passed a 4 m big steelbuoy to starboard yesterday(drifting freely) and we sent out a general warning to the whole Marquesasradionet with position of the buoy.Other yachts have seen some ships,but the horizon around Tarita has been without.
Today on a surf,we broke the paddle to our Monitor windvane.It disappeared and is now very difficult to reach on 4.000m depth.After sat.telephone contact with Scanmar in California,a new one will arrive with Fedex to Nuku Hiva within 2 weeks(considered to be a warranty matter).We have to steer by hand the remaining 4-5 days(autopilot consumes to much electricity for permanent steering).Since the trade union onboard has launched a strike,there has been no "cockpit discussion".So long................