A day late and a gallon short - 11 October

A booby hitching a ride on "Moonshadow's" outboard motor.

Family and Friends:

Well, you know what they say about the best laid plans. . . Anyway, we are still at sea, and the good news is the sailing conditions are nice. Twelve to fifteen knots of breeze, clear skies and calm seas.

That was not the case last night. We were bashing into twenty plus knot headwinds and ten foot seas. Verrrry uncomfortable and noisy, and stuff was flying all around the cabin. Sonny was a real trooper and cooked up a great batch of chili in less than favorable conditions. Todd got a good sleep last night so he's been tweaking course and trimming sails all day while I've been trying to catch a few winks and tend to some of the mess inside the boat from last nights bash. Nope, no beer cans or wine bottles!

Since we have motorsailed most of the way from Tonga, we have run down to our critical level on fuel and had to shut down the engine. The headwinds and seas didn't go away so we have been tacking toward Auckland all day. The weather gurus think that the wind will clock around to the northwest this afternoon which will make it a comfortable beam reach into port. If they are correct, with fewer than a hundred miles to go, we should be tied to a dock by mid day tomorrow.

Cheers, George & crew.