[password]bulletYIT
[position]24 12.6 S 177 24.2 W
[weather]5knts NE, sunny clear with high cloud
[speed]5.5
[heading]005
[status] Day 7 noon update - 225 miles to Tonga. Yesterday just before lunch we had some showers on the back of Revilo. This involved stripping to undies, togs or nudie and then putting a cold wet harness on and standing on the swim platform to lather up and hose with salt water until acceptably clean. I think the earlier explosion of concentrated foot odour prompted this attention to personal hygiene. A final rinse with warm fresh water sealed the deal. What a makeover. Checked in with Toronui to chat and swap positions. A medley of fish cakes and pumpkin soup with croutons at lunch took us through to early arvo where we struck two albacore tuna on our twin lures within a couple of seconds of one another. We swung to action stations cutting the music and sealing the windows in preparation of the bloodbath that was to follow. Fortunately the fish were smaller and the mess was limited. Craig filleted the fish over the back and while selling to us the gorgeous flavours to be fo
und in the fish when eaten raw, he took a small bite of some only to gag and spit a mouthful over the back. This put us on the back foot when it came to tasting the raw tuna, but seems he'd got a mouthful of the fishes stomach contents and bile. A true privilege. He sliced some of the choice bits up for us and served then in soy sauce. Surprising how tasty it was. More of a texture and not at all fishy tasting. I'm realising the sheltered life I've led! The wind continued to drop right off and we motor sailed all day after dropping the headsail early on. Listened to a lot of music and the climate was most noticeably warmer today. All of us in shorts and t-shirts today. We heated up another tasty dinner of chicken pot pies with broccoli and corn and ate this below dropping the main just before sunset. We all felt nicely tired and retired to bed to charge up for our watches that were set to be a bit boring under motor without sails and seaway to add excitement. A coffee straig
ht up at the beginning of my watch seemed a good solution to the grogginess I felt the previous night. After midnight our AIS alerted us to a large ship called M/T Box that was 200m long, 30m wide with a draft of 12 m moving at 14 knots. We called him to check in via VHF and he passed 3nm behind us in the darkness. We haven't seen many other ships out here this trip. The motor chugged on... We awoke and cobbled together a tasty breakfast of tuna rolled in soya, oil and herbs on the BBQ with some boiled spuds coated in butter. Very tasty breakfast and you knew you'd eaten. We had a brief broken communication with Toronui who appear to be approx 20 nm off our starboard quarter. Hoisted the main again into a now building NE breeze. The forecast has the weather bringing heavy rain at midnight and winds going from NE through to NW of about 15 knots. We'll tack when it comes around and hopefully it will be a nice upwind run to Tonga on port tack. Amazing how flat it is right now o
ut here in the sunshine. We're being told that this is very unusual weather for a crossing to Tonga...[END]