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Starblazer - 10/11/2014 –A Brilliant day!



The slightly lumpy seas of Sunday afternoon finally abated and by midnight
the sea was quite slight. The moon shone like a beacon, illuminating the
sea all around the horizon. There was a slight downside, it was cold!
Musto fleece lined mid layers are very good! Some people might consider
them a bit OTT for sailing in the tropics but I can assure you it is not
tropical here.

With a stunning sunrise the temperature rose fairly quickly, the seas became
even flatter and what little wind there was veered to allow us to set a
course for our waypoint off North Cape, New Zealand. We have been motoring
steadily all day, getting a boost from the current occasionally, getting
held back some of the time. It is great to see the Distance To Waypoint
(DTW) reduce at roughly the same rate as we are travelling. Early this
morning the breeze was actually sending us further away from New Zealand
before we tacked.

We have had a productive day. I made some ‘No Cook Energy Bars’ this
morning; yummy they are, diet friendly definitely not. These used up much
of the honey another boat had given us plus sunflower seeds and dried fruit,
all possibly prohibited. Lunch was another ‘prohibited food mountain’
destruction: crustless quiche using eggs, milk, onion, yellow pepper,
tomato, lardons and ham with coleslaw using the last of the cabbage, grated
carrot, raisins and homemade mayonnaise. All those ingredients except the
milk from NZ are almost certainly prohibited. Tonight’s dinner was Veal
Fricassee with rice and roasted veg (last of the yellow pepper, onion,
aubergine and garlic. As you can see, we are eating very well. Our ETA in
Opua is Thursday morning and we have just enough food without resorting to
tins.

Tomorrow’s job is to make a carrot cake to slice and freeze and freeze some
of the beetroot I cooked this afternoon. I’m not sure if Biosecurity will
object to frozen veg, they didn’t in New Caledonia. We will, however, be
very honest and declare what we have.

Personally I don’t care if the wind stays at 5 knots, we have plenty of
diesel and we don’t have to worry about straining the rigging. We do expect
a little more wind tomorrow from a helpful direction so we might sail or
motorsail, we would like to keep up the 6 knots we are currently making in
the right direction.

Joyce


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