[radioactiv]

[position] 27 38.737s 178 37.100e

[status] How we looking on the Pacific AIS page now? We’ve been sailing hard today, with surges of speed up to 15.2knots!! Awesome eh? We reckon we will reclaim ‘front of pack’ status overnight if the wind gods favour us - as they are now. Today we have all had a bit of sun time, reading outside in the cockpit on the beanbags, or lying on the squabs on the port hull deck (where the sun shone all day). We had a celebratory beer at noon with some salted peanuts (For any Foodstuffs readers: YES, Eta sorted it the nuts were perfectly salty) and after that both Mal and Sash had naps – a beer in the sun does make one a tad sleepy doesn’t it? We’ve been gybing today, in an attempt to get back in front of the pack, or at least catch up with those speeders Fusio! By mid morning we had COP-E CAT, WINDFLOWER and FUSIO all on AIS again, and Sasha and Lanye (on FUSIO) had a catch up over VHF. VHF is the new FACEBOOK, Mike is disappointed as he was hoping Sasha would have a nic
e break from her phone. Sasha is super-excited as her phone has been replaced by Moonfish’s suite of radio’s onboard. Sasha completed her first report to Gulf Harbour Radio (GHR) this morning at the end of her shift, she is still not 100% sure it was heard completely, as Patricia at GHR was very faint at the other end. In Opua Patricia sent Sasha a list of things to run through, and the order that she should report it all. It’s a lot to get through and Sasha wasn’t sure if she should say her report in bits and get some sort of reply from GHR, or all at once. In excitement she said the Lat and Long in one go, and then all the rest; Course, Speed, True or Magnetic, Weather, Wind Speed, Direction of Wind, Cloud Cover, Barometer read, Sea State and any other comments. Apart from that Layne on Fusio topped my encounter with Dippy, they saw a whale this morning, pretty cool stuff! Also Fusio have caught a MahiMahi (one of my favourite eating fish) so they are having some f
antastic dinners aboard at the moment. We had homemade pumpkin soup for entrée, Tina (Mike’s sister) and Ross her partner grew it and gave it to us several weeks ago. Mike and I got out the big machete we have on board to deal with any large fish that might come our way, and chopped up the pumpkin in the cockpit, then Sasha set to work making the soup. It was delicious and there is leftovers for the night watch crew too (thanks Tina and Ross!). For mains we had butterflied lamb with sautéed buttered cabbage. Sasha is really impressed at how well the cabbage has kept, just wrapped in handy towels in a dark ventilated bin. Sasha has finished Johnny Wray’’s ‘South Sea Vagabonds’ – an absolute fantastic read, and has started on ‘The Care and Feeding of Sailing Crew’ by Lin Pardey with Larry Pardey, heaps of handy tips like how to keep your eggs fresh, just turn them upside down daily – who knew!? Well it’s 7:21pm here, so I am going to hit the sack, Mike is
already there… and Mal is on watch first again. Mike’s given me the sunrise shift again (Erica if you’re reading this - your words of wisdom shone through on the boys today, because I am doing the cooking and the radio I’m getting cut some slack on shifts yay!) so I can call into GHR again tomorrow for the weather report from David. Wow! It’s busy on a boat in the middle of the ocean! We’ve reduced our headsail, and have discussed putting a reef in the mainsail, but not actioned that one yet. All are very full, and well on board.

[speed] 7knots

[heading] 019

[weather] It’s dark at the moment, so can’t talk to you about the clouds. The swell has definitely picked up as we have been surfing down the waves which is exciting. There is more wind, perhaps 13 to 15 knots which is lovely. And it’s getting warmer all the time.
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