Bound for Auckland - 7 October

Family and Friends:

After a lobster dinner and a restful evening we are underway once again, bound for Auckland. We weighed anchor at 0700 this morning and headed out the pass from Minerva Reef in light winds and cloudy skies.

We have had two strikes from the gods today. First, the electrical god took my cruise alternator as a sacrifice in a puff of stinky electrical smoke. No worries, as we have redundancy in the battery charging game and we are headed to a first world country where things like that can be repaired or replaced. Second the wind god, Aeolus, switched off the wind. The isobars out here are about as far apart as restaurants and gas stations, so we are motorsailing in a knot-and-a-half of wind and gentle rolling seas

The third strike was from a four foot mahi mahi (dorado/dolphin fish), but it managed to shake the hook and then did a couple of leaps to celebrate its good fortune. We made a second pass by the floating object under which it was lying, but no dice.

So with warm weather, relatively calm seas and motorsailing, it's a lazy day for us out here.

Cheers, George and crew

Our position at noon today was 24 deg. 02 min. South latitude by 175 deg. 22 min. West longitude, or about 825 miles north/northeast of Auckland.