Hi all, I left New Zealand back in mid November, in order to head back to Italy where my beloved Gaby and my dad were waiting for me.

Since then we have been busy (not really) with routine medical checks and tests, Christmas and New year celebrations. Visiting parents and friends is the name of the game during the festivities.

Now that Gaby is getting more and more pregnant every day, traveling has become a luxury; even our swimming sessions that we started in December have now been scaled back.

We are expecting the main event sometimes in early February so we'll keep you posted.

After 1100 miles and almost 8 days at sea we are safely docked at the Customs dock in Opua. More to follow... now I'm going to bed.

Another day has gone by and very little wind helped propel us towards our destination. We had some westerlies but only 5kts or so; we motor sailed almost all day. Our fuel consumption has been very good running on average at 1600RPM for the last three days.

Still no fish caught and I don't see much sign of sea life around here; no birds or flying fish... Later we should be going over some sea mountains reaching 900 meters below sea level maybe that will bring us luck. In the mean time we have 310 miles to go with a current ETA to Opua-New Zealand as Sunday morning.

Another day has gone by. We are currently sitting inside the high we mentioned yesterday and we are becalmed. Have been running the engine on and off since midnight last night and we still have 560 miles to go. No fish yet decided to join us for a meal so we will start the pasta and rice diet soon. All is well though and Robin and I are having a great time out here with full moon and clear skies nights not often seen.

Another calm day in paradise. We are still sitting under this high pressure system that's bringing us sunny days and no wind. Today we motored all day unlike yesterday when we had the chance of playing with the gennaker for a couple of hours and motorsail for most of the day. To make things more exciting today we had a strike from an unidentified fish. As we were reeling it in, suddenly we lost it and we were left looking at a loose fishing line. To make up for this loss we baked a chocolate cake that we topped with some whipped cream. It's few hours past the usual update but right now we are 430 miles from our destination. From tomorrow afternoon we should start picking up some westerly winds soon backing to some cold southerlies.

Day 2 just finished a few hours ago; we have a full tummies from chicken curry prepared before departure. Since our stock of fresh meat is running low we started fishing.

340 miles in the bag and still 710 to go. We are now entering a big High pressure system that is sitting between us and New Zealand. Right now this system is very slow moving and will stay on top us for quite a few days, brining with it calm seas, sunny and clear skies and NO wind. We will have to start using up our stores of fuel and will try to make the best of what little wind we will have.

Right now temperatures are at 28 degrees celsius but being on deck is very hot (yes, Gaby, I'm using sun cream); wonder if there is any ozone left here. At night temperatures only fall to around 20 degrees but being humid it gets quite cold and one need te be well dressed.

This morning Robin and I left Fiji with destination Opua. 1050 miles away, so far 50 in the bag and 1000 to go. Wind up to 25kts is coming from south west which means upwind (bolina) sailing conditions. Motion could be better but could also be far worse, so can't complain. Hopefully wind will veer few degrees making for a better and faster ride.We miss Gaby

Hi All,As you might have noticed our interest in updating the website has been diminishing since we got to Fiji. The reason of this is that we are expecting twins; and with Gaby being the main publisher and also suffering from first trimester sickness the updates have been non existent. All is well and Gaby is now in Italy being taken care of by my dad (or viceversa... not sure). Despite our initial wish to sail to New Zealand together and have our babies born there we finally decided to go back to Europe and have our families enjoy the new arrivals. Then we will fly back to Pointzero with the augmented crew.

At the moment Pointzero is in Malolo Island, Fiji, being prepared for the sail South to New Zealand, where she will rest for a few months in Opua. The bottom has been wiped clean and all seem ready. On Friday we will clear Customs and depart on Saturday together with other boats. The weather looks good, for the first few days with a low developing over New Zealand for the end of our trip. Hopefully it won't bring too much cold, rain, wind and waves; all being unwelcome components of the weather in the cruiser's dictionary.