25:02.972 S  16:44.920 E

1/11/09

16:00

Sunday morning we took on 457 litres of diesel, turned the clocks forward one hour, and headed out into SE5/6 on the nose.   As we left the harbour the  grey descended with a rain squall.  Two hours later we were able to sail through a pass on the South Western side.  The wind actually went East and for a hour and a half we were able to more or less make course.  Then a squall came through and stole the East Wind leaving only the Southeast wind pushing us Southwestward.

The generator situation is not ideal.  The AC generator relies on a box of capacitors to excite the alternator and charge the batteries. Three years ago they failed and the genny wouldn’t charge.  We think the same thing has happened again and were unable to locate the correct ones in Noumea, so it’s out of action.  The DC generator which is the main workhorse has managed to break two of its four flexible mountings. Steve has had to remove the soundproof housing and  make a temporary fixing.   The genset  was moving so much it was chewing through the housing.

20:00

The wind has now gone ESE which means we can make a course just East of South.  The wind will probably die away in the next 36 hours and we’ll then be motoring.

2/11/09

12:30

The wind went back to SE which is not great for us. In our first 24 ours we logged 178 miles but we also acquired a 98 mile cross track error which puts us substantially  West of our direct track.  We still have 758 miles to go but in effect we are only 142 miles closer to Opua from Noumea.   The wind is predicted to decrease soon and when it does we will motor to make up some of the Westing.  At the moment the cross track error gallops apace as I type.

For the moment the squalls have passed and the barometer is rising.  Its reassuring to see some Sun again as we thought it might be lost forever.