We have passed the 180E and are now in W… but not yet over the date border!
This night we passed the 180 degrees East and sailed right into the West! We did not pass the date border yet, as we are still within the limit of the Chatham Islands, our next stop. The Chatham Islands are about 255 miles away, but at our current speed we could be there in a day and a half. We have been averaging 7 to 8 knots all day since we started sailing again this morning. The wind is North East about 20 knots sometimes less. During the afternoon we had the main topsail set and made a bit of a workshop out of setting it, making sure everybody on board gets the hang of setting them. Hopefully they will be up a lot during this Pacific crossing.
We have also spotted a new breed of Albatross, one that has his home on the Chatham islands. It is a huge bird with a grey head and back and a thin orange line around his eye. I believe they are called the Mollymawk (read more: http://www.nzbirds.com/birds/mollymawkshy.html) . It is such an amazing sight to see these huge birds in flight, especially when the wind picks up and they can just glide in front of the waves.
The weather has been good so far, the logbook reads fair for the last few days. The night seems a bit colder, but that could well be because there is more wind.
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