1^st November 2009 – Passage to Opua.

We're now 12 hours out of the pass and 103 nm under the keel so we're had a great kick start to the passage and are looking like 200nm for our first 24hrs. Currently just over 20 kts SE with one reef and doing around 8.5 in the lulls and 9.5 in the gusts. We started at the same time as the Swan 53 Jakima with the Italians Marco and Dino on board and they're still about 1/2 a mile off our port quarter. We've left 2 cats in our wakes and have Rod & Viv on their Sandy Jones 46 Innovation some distance ahead having started 4 hours before us - not that it's a race or anything of course. There is an Oyster 53 Moon Shadow in our group as well. They started a couple of hours behind us (but I don't have a position for them as yet) and the Farr 60 Northern Winds, so we have quite a good group to keep track of. In fact there were 18 of us cleared out together. Anything could happen of course and if it goes light, which it will, our baggy old #4 headsail won’t cut the mustard.

Chris on the helm with Jakima the Swan 53 on our tail.

6.30 am Sunday - Grey sky, grey sea, rain, cold 25kts SE and very lumpy sea, which it always seems to be just here for some reason. Sea mounts perhaps. Have just come off watch and my fingers look like prunes, I'm wet and stiff and feel like I've done 5 rounds with David Tua, Dons on and Chris is trying to get some kip on the saloon floor. We anticipated the wind but a bit of sun and warmth would have been more like the brochure! We played cat and mouse with the other Swan all night. Reefed, double reefed and un-reefed 6 times. They're still in sight but a ways to windward so we'll probably loose them in the squalls. They don't seem to want to come up on the VHF so we may not get there future positions. Shame, yesterday was a blast and I'm sure if visibility was better, today would have been the same - 2 Swans flying south together for the summer.