West Coast Day 3 (making miles)

The wind completely disappeared today. Don't worry, we expected and planned for this! We put the headsails away for most of the day and motored straight towards Taranaki with just the mainsail out.

We were once again visited by a couple of albatross, which are simply majestic, beautiful animals. They glide across the water with almost no effort, turning to "surf" down the faces of the waves.

After whipping up some "zhoushed up" 2 minute noodles (with meatballs and some spring onions), the team took a breather and put our swim gear on. Safety first though, we slowed the boat down to less than 1kt, had two lines trailing in the water for safety and a third line ready to throw if needed, and always kept one person on the boat. We then proceeded to enjoy a dip in the gorgeous blue waters of the Tasman Sea.

The water was warm and clear, but at 1500m deep there was little chance of seeing the bottom. After a couple of dives, a short drag behind the boat and some obligatory manu's, we climbed back on board, dried off, opened a couple of cold ones, and continued South.

The forecast Westerly breeze started to fill in, so we pulled the big genoa back out and made good progress, at times cracking 8kt. Unfortunately the breeze didn't build as we had hoped and we've been averaging closer to 6.5kt since. Regardless, we made a heap of miles in the right direction today, and the mood on board has been very light and happy.

Plan is to head in close to the Taranaki coast to get some updated weather forecasts, and update family, friends, and Coastguard of our whereabouts and eta into Nelson. Fingers crossed we'll get a beautiful sunrise with Mount Taranaki in the background in the morning!Read more