[password] pilot25041
[position] 13 30.75s 165 12.46w
[status] Monday 27th August at midday (FP time) ........ and in the middle of the deep blue sea ...... we left the beautiful atoll of Suwarrow yesterday, checking out with customs formalities, getting the requisite passport stamp, before weighing anchor just after 11am. Out through the pass we set our fishing lines and once around the northern most point of the reef set course for Samoa. With little wind and from directly behind us we initially just set the gennaker, but a little while later with an improved wind angle we then raised the full main, with the stbd engine on fast idle to keep us going through the lulls!

Saturday morning we completed all the jobs on our 'to do' list, then in the afternoon we went snorkeling to two of the reefs near the lagoon entrance, lots of fish and sharks, again the coral looked in wonderful condition and is recovering from the cyclone of a number of years ago. Then in the evening we all had sundowners on Pzazz (us, the crew from Complicite and Aussie Nick), again Martin starred by providing two wonderful plates of raw fish. Nick & Complicite are both leaving Suwarrow today, we expect to meet up with them again in Apia towards the end of this week / weekend.

We eventually switched off the stbd engine around midnight, as the wind had risen to 12kts, we then had a good sail all night, under a full moon ....... at times it was so light it seemed that someone was driving behind us with their headlights on full beam! This morning at sunrise was also spectacular, in the west we had the moon still shining brightly through the clouds, whilst behind us in the east the sun was lighting the sky as it began to rise, something that can only be experienced when far out at sea with no obstructions. After sunrise the wind gradually veered through 70 degrees and increased in speed to 15kts, so we dropped the gennaker and set the genoa. The skies by now were beginning to darken menacingly, with black clouds stacked high from forward of our stbd beam, right around behind us to our port beam, the wind gradually increased to 20kts and we could see numerous rain squalls around us. The swell increased to about 3m and we were bouncing along at 8-8.5
kts, the rain eventually came and as it finished the wind backed through 80 degrees and dropped to 4kts. The autopilot found this all too difficult so tripped out, we hand steered back on to a proper course, set the sails and then 5mins later it veered around the 80degrees again, so now back to square one, but with little wind. Which is where we find ourselves now 7-9kts from the SE, a rolly 1m swell and about 90% light cloud cover. So progress to Pago Pago may be slower than we would like, but hopefully we'll be there before dark on Wednesday.

We made 130nm over the last 24hrs and currently have 318nm to run to our waypoint just south of Pago Pago entrance!

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