progress report 4th Nov

Last night was a mixture of motor and sail, but the wind came through in the early hours of this morning and we have been making very good progress under sail since then. Have just been in contact with NZ customs on the SSB radio to say we should be arriving at 6am tomorrow. In fact if we continue at the speed we are doing now we'll be there well before dawn, but luckily we have a large bay to go through, so can follow the buoys slowly waiting for it to get light.

At breakfast time the mainsail suddenly blew out - it's an old one. Too difficult to get it down and put another up in these seas because of the in-mast furling, but we're doing fine with genoa and mizzen.

Position at 06.00 GMT 4th Nov 34 08 S and 174 29 E 63 miles to go to the entrance to the Bay of Islands