5th November  2009 – Passage to Opua.

31.10S 173.46E - 270 nm to the 9 pin.

Still listening to, and heartily sick of, the dulcet tones of the Perkins droning away at 1450rpm. Would have been nice to finish with a good sail but doesn't look like that's the way it is to be. We're currently in a light SE breeze (5-10kts) at having been the same strength out of the west the last 24hrs. we've had a lot of conflicting weather info the last 24 hrs ranging from 35kts out of the SW tonight to 10kts out of the SE. >From our deductions and assimilations (and you can imagine there has been no shortage of those) we're running with the light SE so we're now trying to get back to the east of a possible lay line out of the Bay in the event we might finish under canvas.

Perkins country!

At the moment our ETA is about 2000hrs (8pm) Friday night but I doubt we will make that with the pending sou' easterlies so say Saturday morning at this stage.

CAN YOU BELIEVE IT !! As I write I have been doing my morning radio sked on the "Rag". Haven't been up for a couple of days and neither have the Italians. They just came up and they're 15 miles ahead of us and about 30 miles further east (better position). The sneaky blighters have out motored us! And just when I was thinking how cunning I had been sending them a curve ball by saying that the way point at 30S 171E was the place to be to pick up the sou' westerlies and that they would be beating back into the sou' easterlies. Well we shall just have to revise our strategy. We'll get in a huddle on the fore deck and come up with a weasel. All is not lost. I will sit cross legged at the mast and get in a Francis Drake mind set. Watch this space! This will be a glorious victory!

Chris would like it noted in the log that Don seems to have perfected his scrambled eggs with bacon and onion this morning. just the right consistency and moisture with a hint of fresh coriander in lieu of Italian (there's that word again) parsley. It will be noted against his name in the crew ledger under "specialist fields". Pity there are no more eggs left so he could prove it wasn't a fluke tomorrow.

Other than that - little to report. Quiet night aboard. Still no fish. Even last nights grey meal of spaghetti and meat balls was not worthy of mention. So I'll give you an update later in the day.