Aside from the distant burn of Noumea, the lights have just turned off. It’s a really black night and only 6.30pm, another sign of leaving the tropical Pacific behind.

We are old hands at settling down to life at sea. I think we are all appreciative of the fairly short time we have left in the kind of simple Plastiki world, where our lives are focused on looking after The Plastiki, ourselves and responding to the ever changing natural environment.

The weather forecast shows light variable winds for the next couple of days, with stronger trade winds filling in at the weekend, which should stay with us well into the following week. The new wind will come initially from the SW and then swing to the SE. To get to Sydney we have to make nearly as much southerly as westerly. In the current season we will have no problem to make the west, but the south is going to be our challenge. Our strategy at the moment is to sail as south as we can while we have the light winds, then we will be forced to make west when the trades fill in over the weekend.

Towards the end of next week we hope to be able to eat away at more latitude. Noumea was a much needed stop to prepare the Plastiki for her run to Australia. We have reinforced the sails, tweaked with the rigging, and handed out all unwanted weight. Right now we are creeping into the night at 2.3 knots on course to Sydney, which is 1032 nautical miles away.

Fresh Haricot Verts for dinner – yummy!

Jo x