Rolling along

What a difference a day makes; the wind has been moderating all day, giving, by early afternoon, the resumption of normal trade-wind conditions - blue skies dotted with puffy clouds and 15 knots of SE wind. The seas are still reducing so we've postponed the celebratory papaya crumble again, but we managed to eat well today anyway.

Sometimes ingredient shortages enable culinary creatively to move in new exciting directions; the lack of coconut milk prevented poisson cru, but I remembered the ceviche we first sampled in the Galapagos. Even cooked fish loving Charlotta conceded that some raw fish dishes might be worth trying back home - progress. Ceviche for lunch and the last of the tuna in steaks for supper finishing with banana custard - a dessert I don't think I've had since I was in primary school.

We headed a little more south than necessary over night on our broad-reach so in a brief flurry of activity this morning we poled out the genoa, enabling us to steer more westerly with goose-winged sails. Since then the boat has more or less looked after us. A couple of chaffing ropes to attended to, and a sheered off nut joining the boom to the mast which we'll keep an eye on, but probably won't fix until we find a peaceful anchorage inside the Great Barrier Reef.

Our flying fish count this morning: 2 large 1 small. With our fridge devoid of fish it looks time to dust off the flying fish recipes.

Position @ 19:00 (GMT +11): S13° 14' E157° 59.8'
Distance to Raine Island Entrance: 819
Daily run: 157