10:32:45S 141:18:47W 17 June 2010

The Adventures of Sunboy the Sailboat
Al Sparkes and Deb Swain
Thu 17 Jun 2010 17:44
Current Conditions:
Wind ENE 15 knots
Swell 2m and building running at about 230 deg mag
C.O.G 220 deg mag
S.O.G 6 knots
Cloud cover intensifying
Sail Set: main in 2nd reef and eased, full headsail on whisker pole, gullwinging.

Hi guys, just finished our first 24 hours out of Nuka Hiva. We left the anchorage about 8.00am yesterday morning after a nice early trip to the bakery and markets to get some beautiful fresh bread and some fruit. Another aussie boat called Moreah headed off about half an our before us with a similar course in mind. We started with our main into a second reef due to the damage in the rigging and a full headsail and we basically broad to beam reached for most of the morning and not long after lunch we poled out the headsail to allow us to keep on course and keep the boat moving. Due to the lightish winds and reduced sail area we didnt break any speed records and as the sun set the winds died off even more. Nikki and I worked very hard from 6.00pm to midnight, battling to make 4 knots so by the time Debs and Lukey came up, we decided to furl the headsail and motor sail as to try and work with 5 knots winds in the middle of the night is no fun at all.

We stayed with Moreah for most of the time up until we put the motor on and then we creeped away from them but they have now come back into visual. We are doing a basic sked with them each 12 hours and it is always nice to see another boat in your company and to see their navigation lights at night.

We are still not sure if we will stop at the Tuomotos or keep pushing through to Papeete, see how everyone feels when we get a bit closer. At this stage, with the current speed we are making, we have at least another 2.5 days till we could get to the first anchorage. All well on board, people have settled back into the watch and hand steering routine very quickly which is great. Hope you are all well at home, take care and hope to get back to you tomorrow.