Today was a day of two halves. The first half starting with last night was tough. The wind was incredibly shifty and also stop start in nature. One minute it was blowing 20knots and the next 4knots. One minute from the South and the next from the East. Super annoying and tiring re-setting the plan because the autopilot was not liking wind hold into the oncoming waves. And then just like that it was heaven. For about 8 hours solid now we have had the boat set to 80degrees apparent wind hold and staying broadly on course doing on average around 9.4knots through the water and real GPS speed of about 7.8knots. Champagne sailing. Bar one small concern over a loose shroud but after a call (thank you Elon Musk again and again) to my brother Craig I have been left less concerned.

And with that change everyone onboard settled right into the passage. It helps that the sun was out most of the day and the waves are now mostly coming from behind us. If passages were all like the last 8 hours then we’d be sailing everyday. Touch wood we get more of this through tonight and tomorrow.

Today was a Scum cards day. The girls taught me this game they have been playing with their friends and invited me to play. This is a sure sign that their options are thinning out and they have no friends around. Daddy being invited to play cards is a real treat because I secretly love playing cards. It was fun and hopefully I may get a few more invites as the passage goes on.

No fish, no bites, no nothing. Less said the better.

Dinner was off this planet as expected. It feels at times that Delphine is determined to outdo herself night after night. Tonight was Hunan style pork ribs, with morning glory, rice and some citrus salad. We are on a mission to finish all the meat before we arrive because the lovely nation of Australia is very strict about bring foodstuff into their nation. But lets not sway from the ribs. If you haven’t tried Hunan style ribs you haven’t lived. They are totally my favourite and I still think back to our time in Shanghai and the local restaurant we would visit to get them and often just getting them delivered to our house. So so yummy.

And based on my enthusiasm from the ribs you can guess I am feeling much better. I am still masking the real effects with a heavy self prescription of painkillers to remove any fever and pain but I do feel much better. Especially after a good 2 hour nap in the late morning.

So all is well on SV Arabella. We were visited by a lovely pod of Bottlenose Dolphins which were doing big whooping jumps and briefly rode our bow waves but were rather disinterested in us to be honest. We saw a ship (yes this is not common on our passages down here) and it actually needed to change course slightly to avoid us. We were under sail and had right of way but to be sure we would have moved if necessary, She was 228m long. So we were exactly planning on a game of chicken.

So another perfectly uneventful day onboard which is exactly how we like it.

Main Sail - 2 reefs

Full Genoa and briefly flew the Gennikar this morning

Moon - New moon so nothing much as usual and setting at 10pm

Partly Cloudy

No chance of rain but it did rain last night for a while. So much for my forecast

Position 24.14S 163.17E

DTD (Distance to Destination) 575nm

DMG (Distance made good or in other words complete) - 221nm

AWA (Apparent wind angle) 80 degrees

AWS (Apparent wind speed) 15-18knots

COG 220degres

GPS Speed 6.5-8knots

That’s all for now folks.