Location: 40° 15S, 130° 35E
Sunday 12:00, 03.11.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 40° 15S, 130° 35E at noon on March 11th. We are out of the bad weather, shaking ourselves off like wet dogs, headed directly for Tasmania at eight knots under all plain sail. The wind is from the SSW at 12-15 knots. We have come 1068 NM from Fremantle and have 716 to go to the SW corner of Tasmania.

The skies have mostly cleared and we have carpets, towels, boots, socks all hung out to dry. We are running the Yanmar to keep it healthy, but also to circulate some heat in the cabin and heat hot water for showers (ladies first!). We had lunch on deck for the first time in a while. Hannah made hamburgers with a mushroom, onion, olive and corn hot chutney dressing. We had fresh steamed celery and cauliflower. Hannah found 100 tiny green worms in the cauliflower when preparing the dish and threw them all overboard. It is awful seeing them wiggling their way after us, squeaking for help, chased by every bird and fish in the ocean.

As regular readers and family will know, chocolate is a regular issue on board. One of Fremantle’s many charms is the Chocolate Factory, which is only two blocks from the Fremantle Sailing Club. We definitely stocked up there. We also have gotten lots of lovely chocolate bars stuffed in packages. Today, at lunch, we laid out all our chocolate, just for taste quality control and to inventory. We had: Mango Crush, Dark Chocolate with Rosemary, Macadamian Nut Dark Chocolate medallions, Hazelnut medallions, Chili Chocolate, Raspberries in Dark Chocolate, Ginger crystalized in Dark Chocolate, 55% Dark Chocolate, Lavender Dark Chocolate, Cadbury Thins milk chocolate, Mint Organic Chocolate, Lavender Organic chocolate, Dark Chocolate Ginger, and Dark Chocolate coated plums. So much chocolate, so little time….

We are slowing down a bit, only 197 NM yesterday. There is a new high filling in behind us which will position fairly far south, so we may have light, unfavorable, or no wind tomorrow. We are heading south of the rhumb line to minimize our adverse winds.

All is well.