POSITION REPORT ON TUESDAY 4 NOVEMBER 2014 AT 0800

26:51S  179:53E

So far, we've done 455 miles with 590 miles to go and we did 150 miles in the last 24 hours.  We’re on a beam reach with 15 knots of wind and 6 foot seas.  It’s a nice day with white fluffy clouds, but getting colder – fleece and long trousers this morning. Here's what we did yesterday and overnight.

3 November 2014   Tongatapu to New Zealand (Day 3)

The clouds rolled in just after dawn and we had a few heavy showers during the morning, but thankfully, the wind didn't pick up much above 20 knots.  By lunchtime, we were back to blue skies.

The weather forecast showed 10-20 knot ESE winds for today and tonight and then the wind should start to back to the north tomorrow.   A mild trough will follow and give us variable winds for 12 hours.  After it's passed, the forecast is for stronger south to south-east winds.  Our plan is to head more south as the wind backs tomorrow and then we can head south-west when the winds from the south hit us.

I chatted to Horst on "Flow" on the SSB radio at lunchtime and they are 30 miles south-east of us having a good sail as well. 

We've slotted back into our three hour watch system and, with the settled conditions, we're both getting a good amount of sleep.  Glenys made pizza with oven roasted vegetables for lunch and then produced roast chicken drum sticks with rice, pac choi and pumpkin for dinner, so we're not starving.

In the middle of the afternoon, the wind veered to the SSE and forced us to head 30 degrees further west.  It was very strange and only lasted for four hours before it backed to WSW again - must have been a local anomaly.  We had another wonderful night sail, with clear skies and settled seas.

We crossed over longitude 180 degrees last night, so we're now exactly on the other side of the world to the UK, which is quite scary - it's a long way home.