[password] Ridingmore
[position] 26 21S 175 49W
[weather]10-12 knots from NE
[status] The heady days of fast broad reaching and dizzyingly high daily averages that we have enjoyed over the last week appear to be over, as the wind backed further and dropped over night. We had hoped for a heading of west, but ended up running at 290-300 for most of the night, doing about 0 knots VMG (O for Awesome) but with the sunrise came a slow shift in the breeze back to the north east, which is allowing us to now sail WWWSW - which is better than WNW! So we're making some VMG's again, albeit teensy weensy peensy VMGs!

Yesterday I pulled all the autohelm electronics to bits, identified the likely problem with Michel Angelo, cleaned him, dried him tenderly, and now have the whole kit'n'kaboodle bundled up in rice whilst sitting in the sun, all cosy like (Denis loves our colloquialisms so I'm trying to rock as many as possible) . Although I'm getting impatient - I wana get this up and running again asap, so may have to try it later this afternoon [truth be known, I love the hand steering but I miss my evening shifts where I get to park my bum on a comfy cushion in the cockpit and watch an hour of Black Sails in pure peace and quiet with nothing but the sounds of the wind and waves in my ears. Oh, and pirates]. Ah hem, the guilty pleasures of cheesecake TV, gota love it! Ps I'd welcome other suggestions of appropriate series/movies to watch whilst passagemaking..

Oh, yesterday - whales!! Like 10 of them, hanging out on the surface, lolling around with their fins in the air, just hanging out, and they were soo close that a braver man than me could have launched from the handrails and landed on one! Not that we condone that sort of activity being responsible marine biologists and all that, but less than 10m away from them was a-maz-ing!! There were near tears from at least one of aboard! We are moderately sure they were sperm whales, but they could have been a melon-headed whale, but we just don't know the distinguishing differences (although they should be pretty obvious..) - is anyone near the internet?!? Anyway. pretty cool, even if I was clutching the wheel pretty tightly in case one decided to come say hi..

Oh and fresh baked lemon cake for morning tea this morning, and fresh bread in the oven now, so it must be baking day! That's even better than pancake day!

Everyones all G homes, aaaight..

Patea stats to the end of day 9:
Time: 1200 Friday 061120 (NZST)
Speed (SOG): 5-7 kts
Course (COG) 270T
Last 24hr distance: 171NM
Last 24hr VMG distance: 113NM
Distance to Opua (great circle): 732NM
Average over ground speed this trip: 6.94kts
Average VMG this trip: 6.3 kts
Wx: Wind: 10-12kts from 50, waves: 0.5m from E, water temp: 21.4, brrr! Bucket baths on the back deck have become far more invigorating over the last days!
Fish to date: 1, 1 big hit yesterday that we couldn't get to the boat. And 10 'big fish' seen - does that count?!

Patea saying sayonara
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