[password] Savanna54
[position] 29 44.240s 168 08.170e
[status] Night 4 started with a giant full red moon rising out to Port.

It also started with the old Port engine squealing when I started it to warm some water. One of the belts is slipping, and I notice the rev counter isn't working.. im sure it must be related.. but can't see how??

The salt water pump belt is quite loose, but doesn't seem to load up enough to make such a squeal. And plenty water coming out the exhaust. It's a pain in the butt to access, so I'm going tighten the easier to access alternater belts first. One of the alternator's belts is a bit loose. A job for tomorrow...

We've passed Norfolk (and smaller Phililip island) and had a look from about 6 miles away. Saw a plane land, a ship anchoraged off the town, and even picked up Norfolk Fm radio for a good few hours. Heard some news and "Rick Dee's weekly top 40". Also saw a huge whale breaching in the distance.

We've had pleasant sailing since about midday when we turned off the starboard engine .. I think it needed a break!

We're currently sailing with screacher and 1 reef in the main with 12-15kn NNE, making for good reaching conditions with wind at 90 degrees. We've got some current with us, pushing us along at up to 7.5kn SOG (speed over ground) at times.

We're putting a bit of west in the bank for later if necessary by setting a waypoint slightly west of the rum line, and 180nm south of us, to ensure that we've got a good wind angle to make North Cape if the wind goes SW.

380nm to North Cape, and about 3 hrs before we cross from the 20's and over the 30 degree lattitude line as we head south! Out of interest, the furthest north we got was 16 degrees south when we stopped in Savu Savu for a few days.

All well on board, especially after yummy pumpkin tofu soup and corn fritters for dinner.

[speed] 6kn+
[heading] 138M
[weather] 10-15kn NNE, 1m SE swell, 20% cloud, 1023mb

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