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The Coral Sea

The last 24 hours have been pretty tame on the sailing front, but we're making good miles, which is the important thing. We're relying on the best engine we have left, and we've picked up about a knot of favorable current, giving us a nice push in the right direction. That current boost is adding something like 25 nautical miles to our daily run, which is always welcome.

I'm fresh out of the engine room, and… well, everything's looking "good." But "good" is a relative term these days. The baseline has definitely shifted. The new "good" means that everything is liberally coated in oil, and there's a fair bit of oily water sloshing around. Honestly, under normal circumstances, I'd be tearing my hair out. But considering the fact that it's only this bad now means it's actually good? I'm weirdly satisfied.

We're still heading east of Brisbane, and it's looking increasingly likely that we'll be facing some headwinds. The only question now is how strong they'll be. The weathher models loosely agree with the direction but not the strength - worst case we will be blown backwards for a day or so, and best case we will just be blown off course a little bit but hopefully our tactical course change now will mean we are in a better position to deal with what ever happens. The other option is that the weather models are wrong with the S and the wind is SE and the only down side of that is we have gone out of our way slightly.

We had a couple of unwelcome guests last night. A pair of feathery idiots decided to set up camp on top of the mast. I'm very grateful for the hard top because every now and then, there'd be a dull, wet splat as some freshly digested fish landed on the roof. Not the most pleasant soundtrack to a night watch but definitely better than it landing on your head.

I'm not a huge fan of corruption, but I also recognize that it's a reality in many places, and sometimes it's not worth rocking the boat. For example, immigration in Port Vila charged us around 5000 Vatu to clear in, and I'm pretty sure a chunk of that went into his pocket. We did get a piece of paper with the amount written on it, but it conveniently disappeared when he came back for the money. However, he came to the boat several times, gave us his phone number to make sure it worked, and genuinely tried to do his job. So, if he pocketed $25, it's not the end of the world, and it probably helped ensure he was friendly and helpful.

Biosecurity, on the other hand, who have a fair bit of responsibility protecting the local habitat, agriculture, and tourism, didn't even bother coming to the boat until we were leaving. They didn't fill out any forms, inspect our stores, or do much of anything, and then slapped us with a 6000 Vatu charge. I asked for a receipt and gave him my email address. Unsurprisingly, I haven't received anything. So, I sent a group email to the port captain, immigration, and the five customs officers I've been communicating with, politely requesting that they contact biosecurity and ask him to send the receipt. Customs replied promptly: "Thank you for sending this email. Biosecurity is in copy and will respond to you with your request. Team Biosecurity assist our client accordingly." And then, shortly after, biosecurity emailed me: "My apologies for not getting back to you with the receipt as the piece of paper you wrote your email on was misplaced." I bet the 6000 Vatu wasnt misplaced.

One of last nights visitors before he annoyed me by landing on the mast head. 


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