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.

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 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.

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

Today at 13.00 local time, after 1400 miles, we dropped anchor (in the wrong place at first!!!) in the area where we will undergo customs clearance. It has been a longer passage than anticipated for various reasons; lack of wind, detour to avoid a nasty low and also a bit of rust in our intrepid sailors. The one who really shone was Pointzero that always took great care of us and gifted us with many hours of very pleasant sailing despite the rough conditions.

Certainly what will be always remembered of this passage is the sinking of our fellow boat, it took all of us by surprise and left us in shock and disbeliefs for a few days. Almost all is forgotten but the more we experience the pleasure of sailing the more we learn of its dangerous pitfalls, sometimes it's hard not to think of them; it's like being a teenager that is scared of nothing and as he or she grows older, and gathers experience, the recklessness slowly fades away.

The first half of the day we prayed for more wind; with 6-8 knots SE and 3-4mt high waves, sailing with genoa and main sail was impossible (genoa flapping with each wave). We decided to give it a go with our gennaker. To our surprise, we gained little speed and smashing against incoming waves made it very awkward and unbearable so back to motor sail.

The second half of the day we got our winds, much more than what we asked for - South East 23-30 knots with gusts at 35kts and quite rough seas, but hey, at least we're sailing now! Total for a day: 140 miles.

Sadly, today we lost one yacht from our little flotilla; its crew is safe and sound on board another vessel that was miraculously nearby. The vessel sunk in calm conditions late afternoon due to an unsolved leaking problem. All of us are shocked, lost for words and hurt. Even the sky last night was somber with not one star shining; all of our souls and minds are resting upon the (un)fortunate survivors.

As for our little journey after an extra 250 miles we are now where we didn't wanted to be. Close to the center of the low with very little winds and confused sea, gently motoring not to hurt Pointzero; the bright side is that we didn't get nasty rain or wind and the skies are clearing. So our tactic to slide on the low system's back paid 50:50.

Threading water is the name of the day. Last night we had 700 miles to go and as we close the day today still 700 miles ahead of us. The reason for this is that at one o'clock this morning after having downloaded the latest weather data (the low that was approaching us was worsening by the minute) we turned Pointzero bow left 90 degrees. This way we are heading for the back of the low system thus allowing us to take advantage of it rather than facing it and its strong wind and rain. Tomorrow we will know if the tactic worked but I'm sure the extra miles will be well spent.

The rest of the flotilla followed the same course and by this morning everyone was on the same avoiding game. When we talked to each other on the net it was like a group of agitated hens chatting about the farmer being around with a hatchet in his hand. Run 90 miles in total, although we haven't gain anything towards reducing the rest of mileage.