Day 14 to NZ

At the risk of sounding respective, the last 24 hours were a lot like the 24 before except a little less tippy and faster.

That’s a hazard of being on a passage ? the days tend to blur together, especially when the weather doesn’t change dramatically. But we’re good without dramatic weather?

With a new weather projection downloaded last night we decided to make a course change and give up our hard push to go West before going South. Basically it looks like by the time we get to New Zealand the wind is going to be lousy and in our faces whether or not we are a few more degrees to the West. So we decided to head a little more off the wind, sail faster and be a bit more comfortable.

This afternoon we sailed through the Kermadec Islands. From a distance they look pretty desolate, though Raoul Island to the North apparently has a research station and some people the Southern islands we passed looked pretty empty.

This whole trip actually has been pretty empty. We’ve not seen another vessel by eye or instrument since leaving the Tahiti/Moorea area. One night we heard what we thought were dolphins, but we haven’t seen any during the day. Birds even had been few and far between. But that has changed in the Kermadecs, as we’ve had a lot of birds around us this last day.

The weather is clear and the wind is holding, thought the weather forecasts suggest that most of that will fade in the next twenty-four hours as a high pressure system moves in. We expect to arrive in about three more days ? hopefully by Friday in New Zealand time.