Once the wind and waves settled down and we got through a few squalls in the morning, it turned into another good sailing day with wind on the beam and seas of about 2 meters.  The sun came out in the afternoon and apart from a couple of squalls we had great, comfortable conditions.  The wind was due to head us later on in the evening and get up again which it did around 5pm.  However we had sailed high to the west in preparation and were able to bear away and reef down a bit more but still kept up good speed.  For the first half of the night the wind was around 20 knots but went down to around 15 knots as the night wore on – blooming cold though!  We had a few more rainy squalls during the night but nothing too serious.  This morning the sea is boisterous as we approach the shallows (less that a few thousand meters) around North Cape (NZ), with the wind out of the SSW at around 15 – 20 knots – not bad conditions!   Seen quite a few more albatrosses and lots of Australasian Gannets (not sure when they change from being French to Australasian but I’m sure these ones have an extra layer of feathers for the cold!)  We’ve just passed the 3 Kings islands to the north west of New Zealand so now not far from the North Cape where, once round, we hope to find flatter water in the lee of the land.  Matt was net controller this morning. We have 12 boats currently on passage between Fiji and New Caledonia with destinations of NZ and Oz.  Also talked to NZ Maritime Radio to advise them of our ETA of Saturday lunch time at Opua and our change of destination from Nelson. Now that they know our position, it’s quite likely we will get a visit from an Orion SAR aircraft, always fun to talk to. Jean still on top form thanks to a new potion suggested by Heather on Evergreen. We’ve been having three good meals per day, every day and must have put on kilos. This morning we had French toast with maple syrup followed by cereal and coffee. (In fact Matt is going to want Jean to take these tablets every day – we never have anything but cereal or porridge for breakfast even at anchor!)   It’s a hard life!

24 hour distance:   180 miles