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Day 48

We have been back on the road again now for 24 hours and it feels good. Wellington is already a distant memory although every time we open the food bag and see fresh food we are reminded! No longer can we hear the creak, creak of the rudders, no longer are we stressed because at any moment one will pop into the air and cause a big wipeout.

The boat no longer smells of diesel, nor is the cabin contaminated with carbon monoxide twice a day and we have a working generator again. Hugo Boss is back at 100 per cent and it's a great feeling.

When we arrived in Wellington it was howling, we took on a tow from a rib but 180 horsepower was not enough and the police very kindly came to the rescue. Getting the boat into the marina was a real struggle and once parked the work began day and night for 48 hours. A big thankyou to everyone who lent a hand, Dave the sailmaker, all the guys from Hakes Marine who have just built Ecover and Aviva and David Minors who flew down to solve some of instrumentation problems. The biggest thankyou goes to my team Harry, Scott and Clifford, who gave up Christmas with their families to get us back on the road. Thanks guys.

It was a little light leaving Wellington but soon we got some breeze and now are reaching in 20 knots of wind at the boats optimum wind angle averaging nearly 20 knots. Ahead the situation is complicated, normally we would head southeast down to 50 south and then hightail it east to cape horn but there is a weather system that would give us strong easterlies blocking our path so soon we will sail east or slightly north of east to get to the north of it. It is a longer distance but should be faster than going south. It will be interesting to see how the leader deals with this situation or maybe he will get in front of it. Time will tell.