Malua is at 20:40.67N  23:22.8W at 0600 on 25/11/2012

We have travelled 677 and have 2159 to go

Daily run at 0600 an improved 159 nm

Lovely day with little swell but the wind is light and not from the right direction, still north but not down wind.  We had the reacher up for 12 hours and brought it down at the change of watch at 23:00.  A good decision because the wind rose and went more westerly so we are almost beating south.  The boats on the westward net are getting good trades down on the 15 degree latitude so I cant wait to get down  there.

The spare fan is in fact an old noisy fan I removed some years ago.  It lasted a few minutes before it also stopped.  How to make one good fan from two broken fans.  A few hours later I had a working fan unfortunately the bearings are worn so it only works facing down which is well and good if the boat does not rock.  After a few minutes it trips out.  I still have one option using a computer fan and mounting that in some form next to the extractor pipe in the engine room.

George the wind vane has saved itself and is working as expected.  I have spent many hour working on adjusting it and aligning it as per the instruction manual which must have been written by some person who knows the product well.  “the line goes to the block opposite and to the top...”  Opposite to what??  The alignment can be adjusted by turning the connecting rod.....  Longer or shorter?  Give me strength.  I thought computer manuals where difficult but this manual is so short it leaves huge gaps.  Well after I had made a detailed drawing of the workings and the principles I finally figured it out and adjusted it to work.  I knew it worked because it had taken us all the way to New Zealand from Sydney.  It came very close to going to the bottom of the Atlantic.

Tomorrow I start seriously studying celestial navigation.  I got the sextant out, cleaned and adjusted it, so tomorrow I will know where I really am.

A magical moment on Malua