By Ann Position: 28 degrees, 03 minutes south; 171 degrees, 53 minutes east 130 mile day

I know that no one has been able to create a time capsule that works outside of Hollywood because if they had I would have invested in one. It would sure make long passages easier.

Bob enjoys the long passages. He gets to work his magic coaxing Charisma to sail at her optimal performance. It is pure magic. I love watching Bob come on watch, tweak this sail, play with the monitor, adjust a traveler, tweak another sail by just an inch (I am not kidding) and suddenly we are going a knot or two faster. (As I am writing this he stuck his head out of the companion way and tweaked a traveler on his way back to bed – and we are going a half knot faster.) As the guy announcing the regatta rally race in Va’vau last year kept saying, “And this next boat, Charisma is not only beautiful but boy is she well sailed!” Bob and Charisma have a zen relationship that is unmatched. Now that I am his wife I am no longer threatened! It is a thing of beauty.

But for me the passages are about marking progress. We start out knowing that this trip to New Zealand from Fiji is about 1100 nautical miles. That’s if we are able to stay on the rhumb line, which rarely is the case. In my head I start breaking the 1100 miles into days. We can easily do 120 miles a day. Okay, so we have ten days to get there and I can start counting it off on my fingers. It’s like the last 10 weeks of pregnancy. Once I could count the weeks on my fingers I knew the end was in sight and I would make it.

I came up with a great idea to count hours this trip. Because 240 hours is less than 1100 miles, right? It is all a head game. But I found that the hours take a long time to pass. So I go into the Charisma Time Capsule. You thought I was unable to find one, right? It is not as fancy as the Hollywood type. In fact it is the quarterberth on Charisma. We take turns off watch sleeping here. So when I am off watch (especially as I come off the 9pm to 3am watch) I can put in my ear plugs and snuggle down into my pillow and switch on the time traveler button. When I wake up we will be about 30 miles closer to New Zealand! It is magical! And the miles go much faster when the time traveler is on.

Right now we are about 400 miles from New Zealand. A few more trips in my time capsule and we should be making landfall! I love time travel, I just wish it went faster! But then Bob wouldn’t get his zen time with Charisma. It’s all a compromise.

By the way, it has gotten colder as we have traveled south. Today was probably the last day in shorts and t-shirts. The night watches now include fleece jackets and sea boots. New Zealand calls.

From Bob: Last night was a bit squally. Clouds, rain and wind going from mid-teens to low twenties under the squall clouds. It’s never fun just huddled under the dodger waiting for the squall that blows 40. You never know which one, you just wait and deal.

Today, however, made up for it. Blue sky, blue water, you know the drill by now. It was interesting this morning literally sailing out of a cloud bank into the blue sky. I checked the barometer and sure enough, we have sailed into the high (1020). The wind hasn’t shifted yet, but it seems to be “thinking about it”. It’s trying to back into the east and give us a break. We get periods where we’re lifted 30 degrees to 150 degrees, but then it goes back to the old faithful; 180. The bearing from here to our waypoint where we hope to catch the downwind part of this trip is 163 degrees right now and 115 miles. Somewhere (in theory) between “here” and “there” the wind will lift and we’ll be able to just head straight for the waypoint. But for now, the wind holds us to our course due south. Boring.

But, boring is good in this part of the world where the ocean can become treacherous in a moment’s notice. We’ve had our share of excitement the last two times down and up, so boring is OK with me.

Tomorrow is the crux day. I hope to be able to report that we’ve moved onto the downwind part of the ride toward Opua. Cross fingers and check back then!