Tonga to NZ - Day 5

We crossed the official international dateline at 180 degrees last night at about 9:15pm. I watched the GPS as the longitude went from 179 59 999 W to 180 00 000, for about one second, then to 179 59 999 E. Now the longitude is counting down instead of up.

We lost the wind at about 2am last night and fired up the motor at about 4am. It's pretty pleasant with a very low swell. We'd rather be sailing but you get what you get. We can motor for 400 miles total and we have 700 miles to go - you can do the math. Predictions are for a front to hit us around Dec 5th or 6th but it doesn't sound too bad and this morning's prognostications even indicate it might make for a favorable wind.

I think I'm going to deploy the fishing line (and hoping that Tom knows how to clean fish).