Last night went smoothly, though our watches were screwed up because I got very tired in the early evening and by the time it was 11pm I was ready to pass out (it had been a long day). I got to some at about 11:30pm and Kate took the watch. Normally I take 8pm to 1am, Kate takes 1am to 5am and I come on again at 5am. Last night, instead, I woke up at about 2:30 and Kate went to sleep. She was up again at 5am and I had to sleep again. It is now 7am and we are all awake.

Jonah has gotten seasick again. He didn't start till about 4pm yesterday then went to sleep at about 5pm and was out cold till about 4am when he woke up barfing again. Kate gave him one of the new anti-seasick suppositories, especially for kids (she has adult ones also) but a few hours later he woke again and barfed more. Now he is watching TV in the saloon.

The wind last night fluctuated every few hours from 18-25k to 25-35k and now it is about 20-25k still from the SW. Our course is about 14 True, just a bit East of North. We are actually a tad East of the rhumbline now (a bit to the east of our planned course) but that is Ok since the SW wind we are having now will eventually give way to the SE Trades and then the extra Easting will help steer a better angle. If we get to far to the West of our rhumb line we will surely end up close hauled once we are in the Trades.

Its check in time with Russell Radio in about 15minutes. Dez is a volunteer - I may have wrote about him last November during our passage down. He provides weather reports via HF radio to yachtsmen two or three times a day (4.445mhz in the AM from 1930UT and in the evening at 0700UT and also on 13.137 at 2000UT and again at 0400UT). He collects position and weather reports from each boat - and we can each hear the other's reports - and for each boat gives a forecast for what they will see in the next 12-24 hours (farther out if possible). I listen to other boats to find out what they are experiencing as in many cases I will be in the same position they are in a day or two.

Not much change since this morning. Dez advised to expect the same conditions today and the weather fax charts I received last night said the same thing. Sure enough, same thing. It is now 5:30pm and the sun is quickly setting. The wind has picked up in the last hour and we have 30-35k with gusts to 40k. We are under double reefed main and staysail and are making nice progress doing anywhere frm 7.5 to 8.5k with occasional forays into the lower 9s. Our total milage covered since Tauranga is 205nm and our average speed is 6.9k so far. We have 656nm to go to South Minerva, 1063nm to SavuSavu, Fiji.