27:27.234 S  157:14.754 W

28/5/08

18:00

It’s been a wonderful sail so far today, just like in the movies. 
Plenty of sun, no sea and broad reaching at  9 knots plus.  The nearest squall is 15 miles away and may well miss us. 

The new sails are definitely giving much better performance especially in the lower wind strengths. We suddenly don’t  need a stiff breeze just to get just going.  This is very satisfying.

When we bought the boat, the curtains were made by Lang and Potter, a respected company who do all the soft goods  for Princess Yachts.   After  4 years of exposure to the sun they were looking very tired.  The lining was not UV proof. So Steve sent the old ones back to England to be copied and remade, this time with a UV proof lining.  It cost about £150 to send them back and another, £165 is excess baggage charges when I flew back to NZ with the new curtains; still you would think this was a reasonable plan.  You would that is until you tried to fit the new curtains.  They are hooked into a track top and bottom and the spacing between the hooks is so tight that it is impossible to fit some of them and those we have fitted are so tight they are almost impossible to open or close. I’m hoping there will be some stretch but the new lining is very tough. They were supposed to send a couple of the originals back so we could compare with the new, but that didn’t happen before we left NZ.

I’m not quite sure how we’ll get this sorted whilst in Papeete so that Demetri and Ellen can bring them out in their excess baggage later in June when they rejoin the boat.  Ah, the domestic joys of international yachting......

29/5/09

01:00

The wind is holding WNW Force 5, still on the beam and we’re still tramping at 9 knots.

There are a few squalls about but nothing has hit us yet.

In Greece I always notice the moon rises about an hour later every day.  Here it seems. to be rising an hour earlier every day, but I suppose that’s because we’re upside down. Anyway it’s very dark out there.

03:00

It was quite a lively watch in the end.   The wind became NW6 gusting 7. I double reefed the Yankee and single reefed the main and she was fine. The squalls still haven’t dumped on us but they do generate a breeze.  There’s some lightning in the distance, but we seem to be maintaining a course just ahead of the squalls as they pass behind.

09:00

Jon certainly had the wet watch last night.  An hour after I went to bed the squalls hit full force and it came bucketing down so loudly we all woke up.  Definitely  a case of “Apres moi le deluge....”

The wind went West behind the beam and slowed us down a bit. Its now back to WNW Force 4 and we’re doing 7 knots. 

13:00

The Wind is back to West Force 5.  We had our best run yet: 202 miles (no engine hours).

Best of all it’s 26 degrees C in the cockpit. We’re ¾ of the way there with  560 miles to go.