May 29,1999 - Greetings from the Southern Ocean

G'day friends and family:

Well, our onboard tekkie, Dale, finally got our two tin cans and string version of on board email kicked over, so it looks like you can expect to get at least a few messages relayed by my mom from us during the passage.

We are all pretty tired as we are just getting used to being at sea, two of us for the first time. Conditions are fine, but mal du mer has paid visits to a couple of the crew. MaiTai is well, has gotten her sea paws, and apparently suffered no jet lag on her journey from San Francisco. Thanks to Barbie Tice and the Moores for making that happen!

After motorsailing out of Auckland in light air and flat water, we rounded the scenic Corumandel Peninsula around dusk and began broad reaching in light northwesters. The wind picked up and we have been beam reaching in 12 to 27 knots ever since. This is the sort of sailing "Moonshadow" likes and we have been averaging eight to ten knots. At noon Sunday we had sailed 195 miles in the 24.5 hours since leaving Auckland and our position was 36 deg. 39 mins. South Latitude and 178 deg. 31 min. East Longitude.

Aside from getting used to a lot of new on-board systems, some new crew, and the occasional ghost in the machine, "Moonshadow" is performing as well as ever, thanks to the gang at Salthouse Boatbuilders in Auckland.

I'll write again when we catch a fish, spot a UFO or have something else exciting to report.

Cheers, George, Paula, Phyllis, Steve, Dale and MaiTai ~(^..^)