21.43S 175.40E 4th October 2011
Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Tue 4 Oct 2011 01:26
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Our slow passage across the Pacific continues and
today may well be decision day for us as to whether we continue to Australia
direct. The issue is that the forecast is for some more disturbed weather to
come through tomorrow and after that the winds will be light for 5 days. Robert
is due back at work on the 17th of October and we are fast approaching this date
without enough progress west. The other consideration is that I am not convinced
we have enough fuel to be able to motor most of the way to Australia if we are
forced to do so. New Caledonia is 500NM to the west of us so it may be an option
for us to head there so that Robert can fly home, and I can fuel and
reprovision the boat. New Zealand is 770NM to the south of us and was the
original destination I had in mind on leaving France. The original plan was to
leave the boat in the Bay of Islands for a season but the threat of a south-west
gale put me off this option. Even having to use the motors this
destination would be reached in around 7-8 days. I am awaiting a
weather forecast from Gerard regarding the Tasman Sea to see if this option
can be ruled in or out.
Yesterday was another frustrating one for us with
very light winds from the east making progress painfully slow. At sunset the
wind died down to just 3 knots so we fired up the motors again. By midnight it
had picked up to 7 knots so we hoisted the genneker again for a slow sail until
daylight. This morning things were not much better, with just 6-7 knots from the
north-east. Over the day the wind has turned further to the north and is now
close to true north.
we only managed 90NM or so yesterday and are still
1282NM from Brisbane.
Landed a very nice tuna again today. If I caught
this fish in Albany I would be telling people about it for weeks but we are
becoming very fussy about the fish we eat so we just threw it back!! Went like
crazy though for a good 5 minutes before we had it landed. There had been heaps
of tuna all around the boat for around an hour so it was hardly a surprise that
we hooked one.
Wahoo for dinner again tonight. My turn to
cook.
Andrew.
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