25/5/08 18:00

The promised Southerlies have yet to materialize and I am fed up  motoring into the WNW 25 knots (everyone is suffering) so we attempt to heave to which has us drifting rapidly to the East. Steve  wants to go South and I want to go North so we compromise by setting a small amount of  Yankee and Main and procede Northward at barely 3 knots in relative comfort.  At least we’re not slamming which is probably what caused the problem with the mainsail batten and which broke the flagpole holder  that we had had repaired in Ushuaia.  Hopefully the wind will catch us up.

20:00

We  are still making too much Easting and we try tacking which gives us a SSW course. It will hopefully take us closer to where the wind is meant to be.

26/5/08  01:00

The front came through at 21:30 (01:30 UTC)last night bringing drizzle and  20-25 knots of ESE wind.  We are doing 8 and sometimes 9 knots nearly on course.  I’ve had the following from the weatherman:

“My satellite connectivity is still poor - I begin to suspect that I need to 

check my power cabling.

As far as I can tell the front approaching will be with you in about 6  hours
(2000 UTC) which ever direction you go in. The northern route will take  you
up to 20N with a total distance of 3000nm. I will try again tomorrow to send you a briefing.”

I replied: “We are currently 1700 miles from Easter Island and the idea that we have to cover an additional 1300 miles can't be right.  There must be another way.  I do have at least 600 miles of motoring if necessary.”

Hmmmmm.

Meanwhile another mainsail batten has dropped.  Each batten is in several pieces which screw together and for some reason they are unscrewing.

26/5/08 09:00

We’re poled out now riding this low sometimes touching 10 knots. It’s been a damp grey morning but there are signs the cloud cover might break up a bit. It’s a pleasant change to actually be running in the right direction.

13:00

Still no sun but it’s dry at least.  Our 24 hour run was 187 miles and we’ve been sailing since last night.  A direct course to Easter Island would now be 1555 miles which is progress.