Peaceful sailing all day with light winds from the NE. The seas gradually came down to match and we celebrated by baking bread in the pressure cooker. The loaf turned out well despite the gently rolling motion of the boat. Rani cut up and preserved our eggplants, since we expect to lose all our fresh vegetables and fruit when we reach New Caledonia.
We saw our first birds in three days - some sort of fork tailed sea birds with grey wing tops and white under bodies - possibly terns. There were 6 of these fishing near the boat and crying out to each other like terns do.
The winds were so light that we turned south of our rhumb line to keep the sails filled. Later in the day the wind rose a little and we returned to a rhumb line course for 4 or 5 hours by poling out the jib opposite the main. This made the roll worse as it reduces the steadying effects of having two sails set on one side and a steeper angle to the wind, so we reverted to our former course south of the direct one around nightfall.
Our position at 0600 on Oct 15 is 21 36 S 170 09 E We sailed about 129 miles in 24 hours yesterday of which about 120 were in the right direction.
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