Tasman Sea, (Lat 40 00S, Lon 161 39E), Course 80 degrees (compass)
Friday 31 January 2020
Jorge calculated at 5am this morning that we have reached the official half-way point. And now at the end of the day, we have around 570 miles left to travel to reach Picton. That’s four days at an average speed of 6 kts
The weather forecast remains idyllic and so there’s every chance we will complete the crossing in the expected ten days, sometime next Tuesday 4 February.
We continue to chart our course along the 40-degree line of latitude – on which Cooks Strait lies – with tonight seeing us officially swap the order of our flags. Instead of Australia above New Zealand, it’s now New Zealand above Australia.
In preparation for arrival, we’ll start to complete the paperwork tomorrow; emailing NZ Customs at least 48 hours before arrival.
John and I continued with our “home improvement” tasks, with Jorge and Jodi adding three coats of teak oil to the toe rail, which I was able to finish with a coat of Teak Sealer before the sun went down.
Gee was in charge of dinner tonight and apart from cooking pop corn to accompany the showing of a movie in the saloon, there’s little more to report.
We continue to see the occasional albatross, but apart from that, and a few other birds, we seem to be the only ones out here. That said, Jodi called out during dinner (she was on watch) that she’d seen a big animal … probably a whale, but despite everyone searching far and wide, nothing more was sighted.
As for the night watches, there seems to have been some reorganisation of the times, with Jorge and Jodi just about to wind up the 6-9pm shift, followed by John, then Jim, then it’s Gee’s turn to see in the sunrise.
Smooth seas fair breeze and it’s all downhill from here
Rob Latimer
NZ2020 