The champagne is gone, the bottle must have broke.

Cruising along comfortably and its time for breakfast and we know we are going have to change directions a bit today with the rain clouds all around and gray skies everywhere, there was bound to be action. So a big breakfast was necessary..

Once again enter Mr Jimmy Dean! Dangerously low now, but at least the customs office won’t get to confiscate the treasure. A nice big breakfast of Texas Migas (well some Malaysian chips for tortilla chips), Jimmy of course and anything else that sounded like Migas that needed to be used before arrival. Yum.. served over Fijian tortilla – close as it gets out here.

Gray clouds, everything is gray. Gone are the blues of the pacific, just grays. Some darker than the rest, those dark ones are dropping water from the sky so avoid them. Rain means a wind shift of some sorts. We were getting set to Jibe through all the gray and trying to avoid the rain droppers to cut across and minimize our time being wet.

There were 3 other boats on our make shift AIS setup that we could see. Also navigating the maze of thunder showers. Visually I spotted what looked like a good opportunity to cut behind a thundershower that just passed but infront of the next one back. Was patiently waiting, and waiting on the passing shower to go by. Taking forever. Hmm. Radar alarm goes off. Go check the radar, sombiotch. That thing is huge, 6 miles long and at least 2 miles deep. Well lets just slow down some and let it pass faster. Bearing away a bit to give us more time. Well the thing gets closer and closer, what was 6 miles from us was now getting closer to 3 miles. Okay, lets just drop the sails and let it do its thing, we’ll motor across.

Roll the foresail (jib) no worries. Turn into the wind to drop the main, now the wind is kicking upper 20s, mainsail get stuck on the way down. First time since we’ve owned the boat it doesn’t come down smoothly. Now we have bouncy seas and lots of wind and sail that won’t come down. I go to the mast to investigate and climb up on the boom and was able tug on the sail and bring it down. Not to bad. Now to tie the main down, I notice that the top batten, where the sail attaches to the cars that slide up and down the mast had an issue. The pin that holds the slide to the sail was dangerously close to going swimming. The pin is normally secured by a cotterpin/split ring that prevents the pin from leaving of its own free will. Well the cotterpin took a break at some point and went swimming without asking. Silly thing didn’t know there was not a lifeguard on duty. Oh well he knew the risks.

Now holding on for dear life with one hand for me and one on the pin the struggle started. Bouncing back and forth, up and down and trying to get leverage to pull the pin or to complete re-insert the pin, either would have been fine, the pin was bound pretty tightly needed a tool or something help. Christine brought me some things to try eventually, a large and I mean large screw driver I was able to re-seat the pin and go in search of the spares. Found em, now back to the bucking bronco to thread this needle with one hand and not dropping anything.

Success, sail still onboard and now completely attached again we will be ready for the wind when it returns in our favor.

We motor on through the clouds, look back at our track and the track of the neighboring boats. No one had fun, they all went different directions to fight their own battles. And then continue on.

Later that evening we are still motoring along, we tried to sail again several times but the wind was too fickle with its directions or speed to provide adequate speed to arrive in New Zealand before the ‘approaching front’ with high winds that we want to avoid. So motoring is the call being made by us.

We chatted on our evening SSB (radio) net with our friends boats behind us, and several hours after our fun, the found the rain system and had also resorted to engines. Made for a nice restful sleep and evening watch as there wasn’t much wind, the waves were moderating so it was just the dull roar of the diesel being burned to keep you awake. Staying awake with nothing to do is always a challenge for me.

Gone is the Champagne sailing, enter the day of the dry-suit. Its cold and rainy, at least most of me stays dry and warm with the layers under the dry-suit.

With champagne sailing comes responsibility. Responsibility to not become bored. So what to do today Christine thought. She wasn’t seasick tho wasn’t feeling 100% but still needed to do something. Or so it seemed.

I suggested a quick trip up the mast to see what the view was like from up there. I can’t remember exactly how she replied but I think it was something about “letting her down”. Something like she is used to Me letting her down, but is sure this is the one time that I wouldn’t let her down. Now I’m not sure if she wanted to stay up on the mast or not – but I got the impression that was not going to be the choice of activities for the day.

She figured it was a good day for baking. So lots of cookies were baked, I think I have already finished the Snicker Doodles .. Gingerbread cookies are probably gong to warm the cold out of the living room in the near future.

Just another nice day of sailing along toward the destination. Lots of naps to the sweet sound of water passing by the hulls.

Another Egg McMuffin for breakfast, and some Cajun Chicken pasta kept the hunger pains away. Oh and lots of snacking fresh cookies too.

All well, still moving along.

Day 3 started just Ike any other normal day. You get up brush your teeth, grab a news paper and check the news for crimes, shootings, and stock tips. WHAT? Who am I kidding we were up all night, rocking and rolling just like any passage should be.

With a nice day 2, could day 3 top it? Sailing is all about speed and comfort, day 3 had all of that. The waves were nice and organized the wind was just nice and the boat was moving along. When sailors talk about passage making, it normally boils down to your daily estimate you use for deciding on how long a passage will take. The normal average number of miles per day varies by boat but 150 per day is considered a nice number. We use it, cause the math is easy to calculate in your head. Well so is 100 but we almost always average better than 100 miles per day. The 200 mile per day is a goal for most cruising boats. A difficult to achieve if you take it mean 200 miles toward your destination. To achieve a 200 mile day you need to average 8.1 knots per hour for 24 consecutive hours.

Yesterday our average toward the New Zealand was 8.4 knot. Wahoooo! That made our day 204 miles, with the 194 the previous day really are TRUCKING right along. Later today we will cross the 1/2 way mark. Still not there yet, and lots of weather lurking to spoil our run at any point.

Rough calculations have us trying to arrive sometime on Tuesday the 2nd of November, just ahead of the Cold Front that is forecast to arrive on the 3rd. Still a little too close for comfort so we will keep on trucking as long as possible and then when we exhaust the wind, turn on the motors and use some diesel to finish the journey ahead of the cold front. Well that is the plan for now.

Gumbo for dinner, we saw okra in the farmers market so Gumbo had to be made. What a wonderful warm meal as my toes are starting to ask for mittens for the feet. Dropped down to 22c or about 71 degrees last night. Long sleeves were accompanied by a wind breaker. Even during the day now the long sleeves are staying on. How long do you think it will take to get used to to sub 80degree temperatures?

Ps. Didn’t break go looking for the sock thingies yet.

Photo of the ships log on day 3.