32:49.081 S  168:00.690 W

25/5/09  00:00

It’s finally tomorrow.  Wind has gone East/ ESE  Force 4 which is pushing us North.We’re managing over 7 knots at the moment.   We dined well on extremely fresh Big Eye Tuna.

08:30

Not much of a sunrise again as lots of cloud on the horizon.  Wind has been  ESE all night and has now gone East which is pushing us further North.  We  are still below the original rhumb line, and either the wind will change again or we will tack in a few hours.  The wind pattern we’re getting doesn’t really  follow what both the weather router and the GRIB files suggest.  The lows clearly have minds of their own and don’t necessarily behave as predicted.  We are between two lows at the moment and one of them is heading our way, although we may be nearly clear of it when it arrives.

13:45

Quite a busy morning really.  Steve and Jon emptied the lasarette to check the rudder stock.

All looks well. There is no sign of water entry and the rudder stock movement is minimal which is what you would expect.

Yesterday I noticed traces of water in the passage cabin sole outside the engine room.

The bilge is very shallow there and Steve pumped it out, assuming is was residual water which only appeared as we were heeling.  Today the water was back.  Eventually he traced the problem.   The Moody 64 is a very wet boat especially when going to windward.  You get lots of water pouring down the side decks and the scupper system is woefully inadequate causing several centimeters depth of water to collect towards the aft end of the boat before eventually being cleared. This can take several minutes, although admittedly it’s a bit quicker if you’re draining it directly into the boat.

It would appear that the deck/gunnel seam has lifted around the point just outside the passage cabin which is also the deepest water collection  area. We tacked. Steve dried it out with a hot air blower and  resealed the seam.  Obviously this joint is now suspect everywhere and will require further investigation, but at least it’s not serious. We’ll do a proper repair when we get to Tahiti.  I enclose a snap to give an idea of where the problem lies. Sorry about the lighting.

On a lighter note, this morning I made a cappuccino  (the  frother still works) using some old Nescafe instant espresso which I didn’t even know was on the boat.  I can honestly say that I have had worse....but not very much so....

There was a moody dawn this morning.