We have been underway for 2.5 days now and have just under 120nm left to make our intended landfall. This morning we have been treated to slightly more comfortable conditions than we have experienced for the previous 24hrs. The winds have moderated again to approx. 20 to 25kts; a high force 5 to low force 6. It's incredible how much more comfortable that is than 25 to 30kts (high force 6 to low force 7) which we had for much of yesterday. The increments between these forces are certainly not equal and by 28kts there is most definitely a feeling of "hanging on" rather than enjoying a nice fast sail! I spent much of yesterday wedged into my cosy little corner of the saloon fighting an ever-present low-level nausea despite taking my sea sickness meds. Today we are able to move about the cabin more easily; we have far fewer boarding waves and therefore a much dryer cockpit and less seawater finding it's way aboard and everyone's spirits are generally higher.

During the night the captain reported the chart-plotter showing us passing a small fishing vessel (one of only 2 vessels we have seen on our screen since departing Nuku Hiva; the other also a commercial fishing vessel). We also passed the "disappointment islands" which we believe to be the most northerly of the Tuamotus and apparently provide little shelter for anchoring. I know nothing else about these islands other than that stopping there is allegedly very difficult and therefore they have been named accordingly!! I do hope there hasn't been some huge misunderstanding and these are beautiful islands with perfect anchoring spots sheltered by reefs where wistful islanders look out at passing ships and wonder why nobody ever stops to visit them!!!

This morning we nearly caught a whopping something on our fishing line but unfortunately the whopping something took hook, lure and all and disappeared with it. My dreams of Poisson Cru on arrival have been shattered again!!! I am absolutely in love with this local preparation of tuna; served raw having been marinated briefly in lime juice and then served in coconut milk with rice, it is absolutely delicious and even rivals tuna sashimi which is now only my second favourite serving suggestion! Having lost another of our lures to the big blue sea we might have to start making them as we have read there are various ways you can fashion effective fishing lured from items such as crisp packets. I am keen to try this although my concern with loosing any lure is not only the harm to the fish if it remains attached to the hook (although the hooks are designed to rot away quite quickly) but also depositing plastic in the sea which as we all know is already chocked with plastic. We will have to consider this carefully when we design our homemade fishing lures.

Not much else to report really; we have spent much of the last 24 hours reading and watching Game of Thrones (late review; how amazing is GOT??!! We have been trawling our hard drive for stuff we never watched that we have been given and have recently finished watching "Breaking Bad" and are now halfway through Game of Thrones - never thought I'd say this but it's bloody good isn't it!!)

Otherwise we are watching the miles tick away and adjusting our sails; we still have the mainsail deeply reefed but are still making a comfortable 5-6kts of speed so happy with that. Seems unnecessary to have more canvas out at the moment but we expect the winds to lighten tomorrow so we will probably put out full sail then.

We have a happy ship and a happy crew so all good. Wishing you all a good Saturday night and hope that you are enjoying a sunny, relaxing weekend.