POSITION REPORT ON TUESDAY 5 MAY 2015 AT 0800

29:04S  173:48E

So far we've done 375 miles with 585 miles to go - we did 130 miles in the past 24 hours. We've got 50% cloud cover, 28 knot ENE winds gusting 33 knots and 3 metre waves.  We're still bashing along on a close reach with the wind 70 degrees off our starboard bow, so it's very tiring. Here's what we did yesterday and overnight.

4 May 2015   New Zealand to Vanuatu (Day 3)

We had a miserable morning.  The clouds built up and we had a few squalls that gave us 35 knot gusts and confused seas.

Every ten minutes or so, we get a huge wave thundering across the deck, smashing into the windscreen and exploding into spray.  We zipped a side flap onto our bimini that is supposed to keep water out of the cockpit, but it's not working with this amount of water, so everything in the cockpit is soaking wet through.  We now have to wear waterproofs all the time.

The skies cleared a little in the afternoon, but the wind increased to 30 knots and the seas built to a 3 metre swell plus wind waves making it a real roller coaster ride.

After a very grey dull sunset, the full moon came out and it would have been a beautiful night apart from the howling wind and crashing waves.