17:46.349 S  177:11.197 E

15/10/08 Musket Cove

So we escasped Lautoka and are anchored just off Musket Cove. Steve  and Hamish are trying to clean the bottom of the hull as we acquired a lot of growth while staying in Denerau and are probably losing over a knot of boatspeed.  The water maker salinity sensor is playing up so Steve has  bi-passed it for the moment.

We will leave later this morning.  The intended New Zealand Port of Entry is Opau in the  north and is just under  1400 miles away.  Depending on weather conditions we may stop at Norfolk Island which is about  2/3^rds of the way. 

17:00

We cleared the pass around noon.  The wind and current were against us.  We motored for about an hour to get clear of the island and the wind began to come around to the predicted SE Force 5 so we began sailing and have been doing over  8 knots on track since. The wind is just forward of the beam.  It been a beautiful day and a good start.  The wind wants to  take us direct to Norfolk.

19:00

 I haven’t been able to get a decent sat signal fot the Fleert 33 today.  I’ll send this via Iridium, no pictures I’m afraid.  Then sunset was a cloudy non event but the moon rise was  pretty dramatic.  The wind has stayed constant and we’re still doing  8 knots.