Birdies in the calm weather

Miss Molly 4
Bob & Peggy Wilkerson/Geoff & Merel Pettifer
Fri 9 Oct 2009 05:22
32:11.34 S
175:36.94 E

Today was a lovely springy, sunny day. We saw 2 albatrosses, several boobies, some molliehawks (nice name), even the little sails of the Portuguese Men of War jellyfish in the water. That's how calm the waters were today, still not enough wind to sail, so just motorsailing at best. Our patience is really getting tested. With all that motoring and hardly any good sailing we did not even bother to note our daily mileages, there won't be anything worth mentioning. However, we did notice that the light winds have since shifted and are now coming from the Northwest. Kind of from the right direction, now a bit more, please!!

Anyhow, the sight of more birdlife means that land must be near, in fact it is just under 200 Nm miles away, still a long swim. So if we keep up our current pace of 8 kts we should be at our waypoint around midnight and tying up to the customs dock in Opua in the early hours of Saturday morning.

With the customs, immigration & agricultural paperwork filled out, we are ready to hit the civilised world again!

Cheers from us,
Geoff, Merel & James