[password] Cowboys99
[status]
:position 30 50.305s 171 47.448e
We departed Opua Marina the day before yesterday at about 3:30pm with some trepidation as we expected strong
Southerly winds from a passing storm. We weren't disappointed with sustained winds upto 40-45 kts (and gusts I don't even want to contemplate), fortunately from the ideal direction and with almost no ocean swell but incredibly cold. So we reefed down and held the wind over port aft quarter, rocketing northwards on a deep broad reach, switching helmsmen every hour so they could go below and warm up. It made for a loooong night! We left when we did because we knew that the Southerly wouldn't last long and we'd be motoring for a while once it had died down. And just as the forecast predicted, 24 hours later the engine came on and we motored through the night with next to no wind. Still motoring in fact, now 225 miles ESE of Norfolk Island. There are faint signs of the wind returning from the East, but the most notable thing about it is that it's *WARM*! Thank goodness!! So with 308 miles behind us and another 588 to go, we can finally begin to shed the fleeces and beanie-hats :-) We had a brief scare last night when the autopilot stopped working! Too dark to investigate, this wasn't a good omen! We'd barely started using the thing since we'd had to manually steer through the strong winds on leaving NZ. I pulled the contents of the cockpit locker out onto the deck, and as I had during my last departure from NZ up to Fiji, lowered myself into the bottom of the boat to see what was wrong with it. Fortunately, it turned out to be a loose wire - my forte - and I had it going again in a jiffy. We've all celebrated with hot showers, a bacon sandwich, and a spirited discussion of the shortcomings of the autopilot's helmsmanship. Hopefully the wind will be back soon :-)
Tony
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