Last night and this morning it rained continuously, the soaking type of rain that turns everything into a sodden mass. But the wind held and we had a great sail through the night, unfortunately the south-east wind that was forecast didn’t arrive and the south westerly breeze pushed us too far to the west.
All day today we have sailed on the port tack, wind on the bow as usual, waiting for the wind to back to the south east. It hasn’t. We are now about sixty miles west of our track for Minerva Reef. Looks like we will not be stopping there unless the wind backs overnight or I put in a long tack to get back East. Let’s see what happens overnight, there is no hurry as I don’t want to arrive at New Zealand before the next big low has passed by.
The sun came out for a couple of hours this afternoon, the boat dried out quickly and hopefully the sun put back enough charge into the batteries to see us through the night.
Today has been an eating and snacking day. I topped up on fresh food before sailing and as I don’t have a fridge on board the food only has a few days life. I must scoff all the good stuff before it goes off.
We now have less than one thousand miles to go. I am really looking forward to getting home, not least for the luxuries of a hot shower, a big stable bed and laundry.
On the subject of beds – when I am sailing I sleep on one of the settee berths in the main cabin, depending on which tack I am on. I have a lee cloth rigged up to keep me in place if the boat rolls and tries to dislodge me. It’s not the most comfortable of places but I don’t spend too long there in one go. There is also a snug quarter berth that is ideal for sleeping at sea. However, as its close to the cockpit I use it as a handy store for all the stuff I need when sailing.
The Adventures of Captain Ray Penson 
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