[password] pilot25041
[position] 23 11.2s 146 45.9w
[status] well the last 24hrs have certainly been different ....... just after nightfall we could see lightning on the horizon behind us, then the moon came up briefly amongst the clouds and overnight we had numerous heavy rain squalls come through, which although they gave the boat a good clean didn't help our progress much. At dawn, although we couldn't see it through the thick cloud cover, the wind had dropped to 5kts and was veering through 90+degrees, so it was time for the diesel spinnaker. Around 9ish the wind then filled in to about 12-15kts and from behind us so we got the gennaker out, as the wind was still all over the place it made hard work keeping it filled and holding a course in the general direction of Papeete, however, at 1300 the wind was building and there were some ominous clouds ahead, so gennaker away and back to headsail and reefed main (we reefed this morning when we found a broken batten car to mainsail track attachment - to prevent further damage u
ntil we can replace it).

Throughout the day it has been cool with frequent rain showers, some quite heavy and as we get to the end of another 'day' we are surrounded with thick cloud, so what the weather has in store for us tonight will be interesting.

Nothing much else to report other than Andrew continues to feel better, the inside freezer cuts out when battery voltage drops below 24v ...... we need to keep a close eye on this until back to a full house bank! No other issues with the boat to report!

Having until today been tacking up wind, the wind is now directly behind us, so now we'll need to gybe to keep on track, unless it continues its anti-clockwise rotation and gives us a beam reach to Papeete, which will be a real bonus in helping us on our way after the pain of the last 4 days!

Position 13.00 nzst. DTG 364nm
[speed] 5kts
[heading] 260T
[weather] 11kts SE, 1.5m swell from the SW, 100% cloud cover.

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