Agony & Ecstasy!

It was a tough night last night..just after Dave wrote the blog a local front came through with a sudden wind shift,very dramatic cloud front,rain and sudden wind increase..we were kept busy for awhile getting settled then with the wind forward of the beam is was a very uncomfortable ride under the cover with one falling on the other ..of course the saltwater was getting through so it was good to see the light of day and a drop in wind with a shift astern..can't complain really as Bligh was getting hammered regularly in this part of the world with much stronger winds and bigger seas. Food has been the topic of the day..everyone has been randomly bringing up all the stuff missed the most..we are all hungry now and can see weight dropping off..our water has a funny white algae in it but still tastes OK..Dave W is impressed as he thinks his double chin is gone and he is hoping to be at his ideal weight when we get to Kupang..but will he/we be able to keep it that way...the strangest thing is when we go to the toilet..I know you may not want to know about this so skip to the next paragraph if that is the case.....OK ...still here??..well we are not eating much food right..but the amount coming out is amazing..for every one unit going in we recon there is at least 2 units coming out!!!..we are all surprised..the toilet is bum over the down wind side by the back of the tent...you Butt is right at the water line so water washing is no problem and you have to have all your clothes off because if the boat takes a roll at that moment you go under water to your waist which happens most times...but washing is far better than paper so that issue is a non event..we do not miss it! We have been making over 100 mile days for the last three but have slowed now..we are about 850 miles from the entrance to the Great Barrier Reef so my estimate is that we could arrive there on the morning of the 30th at the earliest just over a week away...it will be good to get in behind the reef..we have had some big seas and a few times layed over but we all know they could very easy be bigger?? so far so good...for those thinking of coming to Kupang my ETA now is about the 16th June at the earliest, probably the 17th? so we still have not caught Bligh yet..we are moving faster in the water for equivalent weather but Bligh just had stronger winds..on that basis I am happy to be behind him still.. We have some blue sky at the moment, temp about 30c,wind from SE 10kts, sea about 1.5mtrs ,sailing at 3 kts....still no Noon sight today as overcast again but we just add up our speed estimates and courses to give us our Dead Reckoning position.. The two Dave's stink at the moment..they both had a fresh water shower in one squall..Chris and I were off watch in the Tent and remain real men..what would Bligh think!! I think of them in their boat out here all the time ..wonder what they would have been talking about and how they would have raced to sail their boat fast to port..calms would have been very frustrating.. All good here....Don