Not your perfect passage

Maggie Drum and crew are doing well at the moment so don't take any of this the wrong way. Our stomachs have settled down and I had two "normal" meals yesterday and got some good sleep (or what passes for good sleep in a rocking and rolling boat). Cindy has not rested as well though and is still just snacking on food. I put on one of the Scopalmine patches for seasickness that we have never tried and it seemed to work the best of all I have tried. Cindy has one on now and it seems to be working for her. Our new radio is a major improvement to our life on board. We can download email much quicker than before and we can hear others and get out better to others than ever before.

The bad news is that the aft main mast shroud on the port side broke two days ago. This is potentially a serious problem but we have pulled our running back stay on that side back and cinched it down and also pulled a halyard around the mast at the spreaders and tied it off on the same side. I think it will be fine but we cannot pull the main sail out more than just a scrap so we have lost the power from our main. We are flying the jib full out and going about 4-5kts. There is a major low pressure system just south of us that is expected to bring stronger winds in a good direction to start but then to have winds on our nose for a day in the 15-25kt range (not good). The winds after this low are supposed to be favorable the rest of the way to NZ provided we get there before the next system pulls in.

We have a lot of fuel on board and will motor to make up lost time as soon as we get another day under our belts. We still hope to get to Whangarei, NZ, on the 14th before a major wind system hits the coast on the 15th. We will be very happy to get there and are already planning things to do.

We have lots of food to pitch when we get there since you cannot bring in any meats or vegetables in to NZ and we have not been eating much of it. Some of it is getting old as we got it either in Mexico (8 months ago!) or in Tahiti. There was very little to buy in Tonga.

So, we are OK and expect to stay that way but this is certainly a challenging passage.

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