Wednesday 17th October

At Sea

22 24.543 S
157 50.833 E (at Midnight)

After dropping the main at midnight we motored for the rest of the night making an average of only 4 knots per hour. We cooked breakfast and then hoisted the main sail again as the wind was beginning to pick back up, ever cautious we left the first reef in place. A very short while later we let the jib out about half way - there still wasn’t enough wind to prevent flapping if we had it out all the way, with both sails partially deployed we motor sailed until lunch time when we thought that there was enough wind to turn the motor off and just sail. It worked for a short while and then we became frustrated with the constant struggle to prevent the flapping so we turned the engine back on at about 15.30 hrs and furled the jib back away. The on going saga continued – jib came out again at 17.30 hrs, we ate dinner and then turned the engine off, this time though there was enough wind for the sails to hold there shape. The wind continued to increase and by 19.00hrs we had a steady 14 knot breeze with a few gusts reaching 20 knots; we were managing to do a steady 7 knots speed which kept us happy. The sea for some reason was flat calm so it was fairly pleasant sailing. The moon came out and was a little bigger tonight – all the better for seeing you with and there were hundreds of stars twinkling in a relatively clear night sky. Surprisingly the night was a bit warmer than last night and we didn’t need our wet weather gear for the night watches.