[password] pilot25041
[position] 26 18.29s 179 42.93e
[status] Thursday 18th October late morning & we're heading south with all haste, having left Minerva Reef yesterday just after 11am.
The first of the 11 boats hunkering down in Minerva Reef started leaving around 07.30 yesterday, a gradual procession continued all morning with everyone leaving for NZ, after breakfast we launched the dinghy (which needed pumping up as the cooler temperatures had softened the tubes) and ventured across to the reef. A rather damp experience due to the wind and waves being against our progress, once safely on to the reef and photos taken, Ron, Anahera & Tony ventured across to the far side (outside) of the reef, progress being fairly difficult due to treading through 6inches of water that was flowing rapidly against their progress and the very uneven surface of the reef, hence the reason Barry & Allan didn't attempt this feat!
Anyway on their return the intrepid trio decided to snorkel inside the main reef, which they all did and were extremely satisfied with what they saw, back to the boat and prep for sea, Barry issued Stugeron sea sickness pills to everyone else! We then raised our anchor around 11am, being the 10th yacht to depart from Minerva yesterday. Once outside the reef we set off with 3rd reef in main and reefed genoa, as the seas were still fairly big and wind 20+kts, as the day progressed the seas settled and we had a full genoa out by around 6pm. Ron cooked a lovely spaghetti bolognese for dinner, which was scrummy ...... everyone participating, so either the Stugeron was working or they've all found their sea legs? later on at 9pm shift change Allan & Barry shook out the main sail reefs as the wind had eased too. However, a short while later the wind rose again and Allan was sailing at over 10kts in the dark, just on the edge of his comfort zone, but by the time Tony took over at
midnight things had settled and we've maintained good boat speed overnight and throughout the last 24hrs.
At 07.45 this morning we passed from a 'W' to 'E' Longitude, we now have around 15kts wind, sailing at between 60-90 AWA and 6-8kts SOG, the seas are currently running a 1m swell, and we've clear blue skies ..... so what some people would call 'champagne' sailing conditions, we're all certainly enjoying it! We've also started feeling the cold and needed blankets on beds from 3 nights ago for the first time since a week after leaving Auckland in May, also needing more personal attire for nighttime sailing shifts!
The gribs predict a large 'no wind' area ahead of us, so its difficult to accurately give any prediction on our ETA at Whangarei, but we'll keep those interested updated daily via these blogs!
Position 11.00nzt. 24hr run 176nm. DTG 636nm.
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