[password] Savanna54
[position] 26 40.790s 166 57.172e
[status] Hello everyone! We've got a sunny morning with 10-15kn ESE wind and the sea state is good... Still long period 2m S swell, and small wind chop.. but not quite enough wind to build the chop into anything too bumpy.

A bit of a mixed bag over night with wind up and down from 8 to 20kn, and shifting quite a bit. We started the engine three times, as we stalled in the big lulls and shifts and had to get back on course.. the autopilot, set to steer by the wind, didn't react fast enough to bear away. Crew did well do deal with the conditions. Overall a pleasant night once the wind eased back a tad for smoother sailing.

I've just checked the weather over a cup of instant coffee and some cookies. Not much has changed in the forcast since we left. Expecting lighter headwinds today, before it goes E on Friday, and keeps going around to the N from there. It seems the next 24hrs will be our slowest period, so might invest a bit of diesel in to our progress if necessary.

A 5kn average should get us into Opua late Tuesday.. but still a lot of wind, water and time between now and then, so we'll see how we go. We're wanted to go close to Norfolk island to have a look, but the with the wind on the nose we're likely to pass a bit further west.

We catered for 7days with prepared meals, plus a few back up meals for days 8+, and then after 10days we're into a good supply of cans, pastas, etc.

A problem we face is that all fresh food, and meat etc will need to be surrendered to biosecurity on arrival in NZ - same as if you were flying in. So catering is a challenge.. you want enough food, but not so much that good stuff goes to waste..So we need to keep eating! Still got 4 pineapples, 4 papaya, 3 avocaods, 20 eggs, ham, French pates, etc.. I might have to set up an eating schedule! :-)

Looks like a good day for fishing too, so perhaps some fresh fish to add to the menu. Water temp is under 22C so perhaps getting a bit chilly for mahi mahi.. we've ended up with a good variety of lures.. will have to decide what goes out today.

Our clocks are between new cal and NZ time at the moment.. so 1hr behind home.

Ham and eggs on toast for breakfast I think.

All well on board.

[speed] 5kn
[heading] 155M
[weather] 10-12kn E, 2m S swell, 20% cloud, 1025mb

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