GPS: 19 20.417S 160 26.357E
Run: 156.5nm (283.3km)
Avg: 6.3knts
24hr: 151.1nm
This morning we were greeted with a nice sunrise developing into a warm, sunny, almost cloudless day leaving no signs of the excitement that happened during the night. Around 9.30 pm whilst Sue was at the helm she noticed a cargo ship appearing on the radar on a collision course with us. With the vessel being 23 minutes to collision, 10 nautical miles, Sue called Andrew to come upstairs. With 11 minutes to collision all the crew were called on deck for avoidance manoeuvres. We tacked behind the cargo ship and 10 minutes later tacked back on course. As today went on the wind slowly died to below 10 knots so we dropped all sails and put up the gennaker which surprisingly gave us a very good wind to speed ratio, sometimes achieving 6 knots from only 7.6 knots of wind. This evening wind direction has changed and has slightly increased so we have pulled down the gennaker and are running with just the headsail up averaging 6 knots. This afternoon another cargo ship passed us but with ample room no additional manouevering was required. Due to the low winds, expected arrival at the reef tomorrow is about lunchtime.
Today a bird tried to land on the wind generator breaking one of the blades. Again Wolfgang is preparing dinner for us tonight, a lovely chicken and vegetable soup.
