18:16.963 S  161:42.027 W

17/08/09     16:00

As the wind has settled at North East we are able to drop the pole and our boat speed  increases.  We will arrive tomorrow almost certainly after dark.  There is an anchorage with 6 mooring buoys.  Let’s hope we can find a find one in the dark.  The locals are meant to be very helpful.  Apparently you are adopted by a family when you arrive. We will make contact when we’re a couple of hours out.

11:00

We poled out again late afternoon.  The wind comes and goes.  Still not a decent sunset.

The sea is down and we’re making steady gentle progress.

18/08/09  06:30

Lots of rain squalls around all night.  I come on watch to find the  wind has dropped to  6-7 knots and has turned West. We are sailing slowly South.  I decide to wait and see what happens as although we’re not using the pole at the moment it is still up and I’ll have to drop it to  tack.

We’ve only got another 120 miles but at this rate we won’t be in  before first light tomorrow.

07:15

Dawn is a monochrome affair.  Bands of grey gradually getting lighter. What little wind there is, is still  a few degrees North of West.  We’re still on the  marginally least worst tack.

08:00

The wind kept going South so I tacked and it came back to  SSE 15+ knots.  So we’re now doing 7 knots in the right direction....

12:00

Still grey and squally.  We are poled out again back on the Starboard Tack. The wind has stayed ESE, dropped a few knots and taken boat speed down to 5-6 knots.

This is definitely not tourist board weather.

Yesterday’s run a modest 161 miles.  At least  we’re not getting beaten up.  88 to go.

13:00

We just spotted a whale spout  about a quarter of a mile off the Starboard quarter.  Unfortunately he/she wasn’t coming in our direction and after sounding  half a dozen times disappeared.