[password] Ridingmore
[position] 20 37.1S 165 06.1W
[weather]12-18 knots from SE
[status] To our great enjoyment, after two days of intense rain that has soaked every crevice and crack on Patea, the sun finally arose this morning, and the sky has returned to its typical tropical hues, mainly blue with a light scattering of puffy white drifting slowly across the horizon. We have serene winds from the SE sector, which is starting to dry the boat out, so that is a relief!
Less exciting, Michel Angelo, our trusty autopilot, who has served us faultlessly over the last 2 years, has clearly been emotionally scarred by the lack of sunshine over the last 3 days. He has started drinking again. And I'm pretty sure he's gone straight to the Chartreuse (he normally drinks Uzzo, being Italian), and now he's completely incoherent and erratic - like a spoiled 2 year old child fighting with a 6 month old chimpanzee, running this way then that, then throwing his toys out of the cot and having a proper-lying-on-ya-back-flailing-legs-in-air tanty. No problem, we'll use our back up autohelm controller, our old chartplotter 'Manuelle', who has always been a little fickle, being partially blind and a raging alcoholic. So not that reliable normally, and it seems that both Michel Angelo and Maneulle have been drinking their way through this recent wet spell, and they are both refusing to report for duty. Sooooo with Michel Angelo back on the sauce, we've been hand
steering for the last 24 hours, whilst Kath and I crawl into every nook and cranny on the boat checking wire runs and connectors. The job continues today, but we're thinking that the continual inundation with salt and freshwater onto our 10 year old autohelm controllers has led to water ingress, resulting in Michel Angelos heavy drinking problem, and our current predicament. Say la vie. Wish us luck as we problem solve. We've accepted that we'll be a little more 'hands-on' over the rest of the voyage, and Izzie may get more screen time than is ideal, but all good. Fun and games! And very jealous of you people tucked up, or about to be in Opua!

Our friends on Windchase are due to arrive back into Opua today, after completing a 2 year circumnavigation - congratulations guys, an amazing achievement!! Now, whats next??!?

Patea stats to the end of day 5:
Time: 1200 Monday 021120 (NZST)
Position: 20 37.2S 165 06.8W
Speed (SOG): 6-9 kts
Course (COG) 250T
Last 24hr distance: 175NM
Last 24hr VMG distance: 157NM
Distance to Opua (great circle): 1394NM
Average over ground speed this trip: 6.46kts
Average VMG this trip: 5.87 kts
Wx: Wind: 12-18kts from 150, waves: 1m from S, water temp: 24.6, and dropping!
Fish to date: 1

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