28,29,30 July

Hi All
28/7/2012
Position 14:00 UTC -10 10 08.633S 144 08.804W

Wind not playing fair. Fuel safety margin of less than 300lt. Need more wind

29/7/2012
Position 14:00 UTC -10 10 35.277S 145 50.798W

Still little wind. With the asym up we hardly make 4knots. A light rain squall actually dropped a little rain on us and produced virtually no more wind.

30/7/2012
Position 14:00 UTC -10 11 07.374S 147 43.6W

Downloaded a new grib chart - the forecast is no wind for the next 3 to 4 days on our route and we still have 1600nm to go. At our present progress that will take us something like18days. If we use the motor we run low on diesel, if we sail we take longer and run out of batteries, which means diesel. Change course. Papeete, Tahiti is less than 400 nm south, so we are motoring there to get diesel. Makes the leg a little longer, but gets us diesel and the forecast is for better winds to Tonga.

Just after we had changed course a rain squall dropped a reasonable amount of rain on us. At least I was able to soap up and wash it off. Gosh what a feeling to be a little bit cleaner.

Cheers

Chris