[password] pilot25041
[position] 33 45.9s 175 46.7e
[status] Sunday 21st October late morning & less than 24hrs to go to Marsden Point, the sun is shining, the sky is clear blue and there's hardly a ripple on the water ..... which means one thing - no wind, well very little, so both engines have been purring away since last night to speed us on our way!

So yesterday we continued basically the same as the previous days, fairly flat seas, beam reaching under variable winds, with the wind gradually decreasing as the day progressed, until at 20.30hrs last night and after chasing what little wind there was for over an hour Barry admitted defeat and put the port engine on. Then during the later evening as the wind disappeared even more we needed both engines on so we can reach our destination by tomorrow late morning, which is the situation we are now in.

We've seen lots of wildlife, including sharks, dolphins and flying fish, whilst Anihera is still convinced we will see an elusive 'whale' before we reach our destination! As it was cloudless last night, the temperature initially was fairly cold, however, as the wind dropped and wind chill disappeared it was then a very pleasant night, although not ideal for star gazing as the moon is now nearly full. Today with the sun out its back to 'shorts' & t-shirts weather ...... which we like a lot!

Yesterday we had a relaxing day, today very busy ....... washing salt off and cleaning windows, cleaning the cockpit arwa, washing storm sail bags and drying storm sails, cleaning out all the food cupboards, fridges and freezer, vacuuming up and removing any bugs etc so we're as clean as we can be for the Biosecurity tomorrow. The outside freezer also appears to have stopped working as it has defrosted, whilst still switched on, checks reveal there is power getting to the compressor but its not running ....... after reconnecting again it now runs, possibly it did not reset itself after the low battery voltage yesterday and something to check in the future!

Apart from that everyone is well on board and excited to get to our destination at the end of what has been a fabulous last leg with brilliant sailing conditions ...... what more could we ask for!

Position 11.00nzt. 24hr run 141nm. DTG 138nm.

[END]