Three days from now and we should arrive at Hiva Oa! The wind has freshened and we have been sailing for the past 36 hours at between 6 and 8 knots, back to 160+ miles-per-day. Everyone is anxious to complete this leg and get off the boat to stretch our legs.
We saw four Rally boats in the last day as everyone's course converges as we all approach the finish. Friday night is the first social event for the group and we look forward to hearing about all of the stories about fishing, gear failure and other (minor) problems.
Speaking of gear failure we just suffered the loss of our generator, apparently the alternator windings shorted out and burned. We had a real fire drill because of the distinct electrical-burning smell which spread through the boat but we reacted immediately and there was no fire danger. Not having two means of producing electricity leaves us with only our main engine's power generating capacity which, while sufficient, leaves us with no redundant means of keeping all of our systems powered-up. We hope to have the generator repaired soon although we won't know the parts availability situation for several days. Fortunately this has happened at the end of this passage and we do not have any great distances to cover for the next few weeks.
BRIZO Crew