Days 65 & 66 17:06.6S 174:57.4W

Five Islands
John & Sue
Mon 23 Jul 2012 22:54
The wind has died down again and we are doing around 4.5kts on the full headsail. The wind turned last night to 60 deg so had to run on auto for 8 hours before being able to come back on track (CTS 260 DegM). We are just over 48 hours from the first reefs leading into the Fiji Islands. A bit of excitement over the past 48 hrs. Nigel was out cooking on the BBQ the night before last when he heard and saw the blow of a whale very close to the boat. We heard it again but then it disappeared. Just as well really as it was night time. During the day it would have been very special to see. Yesterday we lost a Mahi Mahi at the boat, which was extremely disappointing as we have not caught a fish since Manihi, mind you we have only had the lines out for the past 3 days & nights. We then had a fishing vessel pass within 0.75nm on our port and then there was a ship on AIS yesterday evening, but passed 17nm to our stern. We are now getting closer to islands so expect to see more activity. We were contacted by Bruce (owner of Liseron) via sat phone yesterday (after many emails and no response to them), asking for details for the Fiji entry notification form, so things are moving ahead, although no mention of Nigel's Australian Visa, which we need to pick up in Suva. It's a pleasant sunny day & we are bobbing along. Have just done a wash (the washing machine was worth every dollar of the $100 it cost) and John is filling the water tanks via the water maker (what a wonderful piece of equipment that is). One thing we have noticed is the lack of sea barnacle growth since we cleaned the hulls in Manihi, perhaps the water is cooler. Not sure why but it will certainly reduce the time required to clean them when we get to Fiji.