Day 7, passage from PNG to Palau and squalls

We're almost into day 8 on our passage and we're just really looking forward to ending it. The last two days have been quite windy, gray and very squally, of course mostly at night. We have had several squalls that have brought along 30-35 knots of wind when it's worst, sometimes lasting up to two hours. We're going for headsail only and often it's partly furled. We have had mostly 1 knot or even more of current against us, but luckily it's now down to about half a knot against us. All this wind and squalls (and worse weather north of us, exactly where the wind comes from) means a big seas and us bouncing around.

But, it does look like we'll make it to Palau on the 24th, fingers crossed, touch wood! Very typically, when I wrote the six months anniversary blog, I actually knew that our main auto pilot ram was playing up and needed work. Unfortunately this time Phil wasn't able to fix it and we're going to need a new one when we get to Palau. We're now using an old ram that still works, but it has already done a lot of miles and it's making some noises too. More fingers crossed it will hold up for this last bit as we wouldn't like to have to hand steer the whole time.

We played some Christmas music today to try and bring some holiday spirits to Sophia in the middle of this massive blue ocean. I'm also hoping I'll be able to do some xmas sweets and baking tomorrow, but it all depends on the state of the sea.

Position: 5, 44, 66 N and 136, 42, 15, E
Miles to go: 162
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