14:42:85S 147:23:89W June 20 2010
The Adventures of Sunboy the Sailboat
Al Sparkes and Deb Swain
Sun 20 Jun 2010 17:00
Wind 20-23 knots NE
Swell 2 metres from the NE
Cloudy, odd thnundery squall to our west
C.O.G 220
S.O.G 6.5 knots
Motor Sailing
Hi everyone, we are now about 19 miles from the main entrance to Rangiora. It is 7.25am local time and we have about 3.5 hours to go all being well. Had a very relaxed day yesterday, the kids had buckets of salt water showers on the foredeck yesterday afternoon, not only to clean off but also to cool off as it was really hot during the day. Continued to motor sail all day as we were only getting 2 to 3 knots of apparent wind and we still needed to keep the boat moving at a constant speed to make the entrance at the right tide time and with plenty of sunlight.
The watch that Nikki and I did from 6.00pm to midnight was in simply stunning conditions, the sky was clear as a bell, millions of stars and a half moon just lit the place up like no tomorrow. The winds picked up during Debs and Luke's night watch and as such the speed increased and cut down our passage time. So hopefully we will be in and anchored up for lunch and we are all busting to be able to jump over the side and have a swim. Let you know what it's like after we get there and settle in, everyone who has been here before us raves about it, so fingers crossed. Catch ya....