01:56.952S 094:15.892W

Position at 1800 UTC 01/05/10

noon run 142nm Hurrah!

 

The weather now seems to be settling into a sort of pattern. Around dawn the wind picks up a bit and we can maintain 4-5kts SOG under sail, about late morning it kicks in and we zoom along at up to 8kts SOG then it gradually dies out late evening, leaving the SOG to gradually drop off until around 3 kts we 'fire up the Quatro' and gently motor sail at low rpm on one engine. I reckon fuel consumption is around the 0.8-1.0 litre per hour. Some  boats appear to be going hell-for-leather when they motor whilst others are doing more or less what we're doing. All I can say is they must have more fuel than we do!!

I'm sticking to the plan of not going below 3S until we get past 108W, mainly because:

A) I'm stubborn, it's MY plan and I'm sticking to it, so there!

B) The weather is generally overcast and actually quite damp at night, so I think there may be unsettled weather further to the South of us

C)The sea is a bit 'lumpy' at times and generally from the south, which re-enforces B.

All well on board, the twice-daily radio net provides some light entertainment and, oh yes, todays the day we fish for smoked salmon!

The boats to the south of us are actually only about 25nm away and in fact only about 5nm further west. On the morning net they were all motoring whilst we were sailing at 5kts.....what can I say :)