[password] beeskiff
[position] 23 58.400s 160 40.700e
[status] It was a really peaceful night with the small seas, favourable current and moderate SE breeze giving us easy miles. We both had good sleep whilst off watch and good dozing whilst on. Beautiful 3/4 moon bathing the ocean in gentle light through thin cloud cover.
The wind and waves increased a to about 18 knots around first light and we had another brief autopilot spin-out broach ?rudder not responding?. Was able to get the wheel on before we passed head to wind and recovered to course with no major panic. This prompted a sail reduction to 1 reef and 1/4 furled jib which has hardly slowed us as we rip along at 8s and 9s thanks to the good current.
Strategy for the current and wind for the rest of the trip is tricky. There?s a big counter clockwise eddy centered about 100 miles north of the rhumb line to Gold Coast, which we will get to in about a days time. To get good current to the north of it we would need to be heading for Bundaberg for a day, too much extra distance. We could also get good current to the south of it by heading south of Gold Coast course, but this would be a less comfortable wind angle for the day. Also our final approach to GC is forecast to have stronger NW winds, so a more northern position is desirable when this happens for a more comfortable wind angle. Probably we will try a course a little more north of the rhumb line and more or less through the center of the eddy, minimizing bad current and leaving us well placed for final approach. It may all depend on where the wind wants us to go today.
[speed] 8.5 knots
[heading] 250T
[weather] 14 knots SE, 1.5m waves from the SE. 50% cloud cover.

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