[password] cloud&sun
[position] 6 11.83S 165 08.32E
[status] We got through the sling shot maneuver without a hitch and are continuing to head NE. We want to mention that we?ve been working with Bruce Buckley, a weather router based in Australia. We?ve worked with him on many passages and he has been fantastic. In this case, our initial impulse was to try to get past this system on the east side. That would never have worked, and we would have aborted the effort. But, we would not have had the confidence to try this sling shot move without Bruce. It?s one thing to try to maneuver around a tropical low once it?s up and running, it?s another thing entirely to figure out where it will form up and what it will do afterwards. Bruce was also able to keep us out of most of the squalls and thunderstorm activity surrounding this thing. He was a senior meteorologist at the Perth Tropical Cyclone Warning Centre and he?s vastly better at it and has far more information about it than we have. All told, it has been an excellent passage so far. We had a very nice day of sailing yesterday, with good wind all day and overnight. We went through one squall during the day that dumped a lot of rain on us, but thankfully no lightening. The wind held out much longer than we expected overnight and we just started motoring around 1800 UTC after the wind dropped below 7 knots. We had a bit of excitement when we Ken test started the engine (for the first time in 5 ½ days!). After Ken put the engine in gear, it started to make a horrible screeching noise. Ken turned it all off and inspected everything but couldn?t see any problem. This noise happened on another starting attempt. It was almost like the shaft couldn?t turn. Ken fiddled with it some more, muttered some incantations, and then it worked! We?re still not sure what the problem was, but at least it is working now.
[heading] 45T
[speed] 6.5
[weather] Wind 4 158T. Baro 1005. Waves 1-2 meters. Cloud everywhere. A few patches of blue sky. Looks pretty muddy to the north and east.

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