Around 0930 I got a phone call from Moana, Peter Stuart's wife. Apparently he had called from the ship on his cellphone shortly after 0700. No sight of land but cellphone coverage nonetheless! They were making great progress and were expecting to be at the Ninepin in a few hours. ETA at Opua was still around 1500. I'd rearranged everything to be working from home before heading to Opua after lunch and at midday my phone rang - it was Russell! So good to hear his voice and they were expecting to be even earlier, heading past Russell Kororareka around 1330. So shortly around 1315 I headed up Flagstaff Hill, only to find Moana and Maryanne and the kids to spot the Tucker gliding by gracefully having rounded Tapeka point. I headed off to the ferry to open up the office and wait.

Margaret was already there, Greta just happened to be on the wharf as well as Kate's Mum plus a few onlookers as she came down the channel towards the Q berth for customs. After about an hour and a half they were released from MAF and customs and headed back to her dock at the end of the wharf.

Beers were opened and Geoff soon arrived with a couple of bottles of rum, food and more drinks and a celebration began. It was great as the Fullers boats and Dolphin Discoveries boats headed home, they all waved and shouted their welcome home messages.

What I hadn't realised is that as they passed Russell Kororareka, they decided to pay Kate a two gun salute with the cannon, firing right at Pompallier. So the whole town got the fright of its life with a huge bang - unfortunately though Kate was in Kerikeri but nice one anyway. The following morning when Kate headed in to town, everyone knew the Tucker was home!

I get home after a long day at the NRC in Whangarei only to manage to lock myself out of the house. By the time I walk into town, locate Geoff at the Swordy club it's 7.00 pm and I don't manage to extract him until after 8.00. Finally get in the house, and realise I've left my raincoat there - back to collect that and then at 8.30 log on to the internet to discover that the ship is barrelling down the coast at a great rate of knots and is expected in at 4.00 tomorrow. Looks like Sam was pretty spot on.

Major panic to try and get manifest through to customs (they don't publish a phone number in the book for some strange reason), sort out MAF and let all the friends and family know; cancel my planned day in Whangarei tomorrow morning and rearrange everything.

If you are reading this, be at Opua wharf on 3rd August after 4.00 - consider yourself warned! A bottle of rum is already set aside.

Mike Harris, not only Lucy's dad, but the brains behind Pangolin and the YOTREPS software, as well as host of other goodies that yachties should really check out (visit www.pangolin.co.nz) has corrected my appalling mistakes with the YOTREPS reports. Our passage now tracks nicely across the Pacific. Phew :-)

For some reason, the YOTREPS didn't save the West configuration and tonight's report went in with yet again the wrong position - showing them EAST rather than WEST. So just ignore the Pangolin report - they are not wildly tacking across the Pacific despite appearances.

Winds are still favourable, being Nor'westerly, and tonight's message read as follows:

brd+bttrpudumm
rhwillsndetatomrow

The reason I am publishing these messages in their entirety is that I can't be entirely certain of their meaning. I reckon that Tui cooked a great Bread & Butter pud for supper tonight and that Russ will provide an ETA tomorrow.

So there you have it......

The last 2 emails have included an E postioner for the latitude (rather than West). Previously there was no indicator but it may well have been East. This is quite important as it puts the ship substantially closer than originally shown - please check out Pangolin for their actual position. It accounts for what looks like a dogleg backwards from their sojourn at Minerva Reef! Anyway, what it does mean is that it is all good progress on the trip home and Sam's bet of 3rd August may be a tad optimistic, but perhaps my guess of the 5th August has a fighting chance!

Last night while we were all watching the All Blacks getting the Bledisoe Cup back for New Zealand, the crew apparently caught 2 tuna. Sam has taken to sending the messages rather than Russell and they are even more undecipherable because he runs everything into a single word. Tonight's was a real beaut:

swtstks4etacls1900,isy1430aug3
tnasshiawsmsalngtmbsup

OK, so this translates as:
The sweepstake for the ETA (that's where everyone puts in $5.00 to predict the ETA and then the winner puts the money on the bar on arrival for drinks) closed at 1900. Sam says that it will be 1430 on August 3rd. The tuna was made into sushi and either this was awesome, or more likely the sailing is awesome, thumbs up. They are apparently barrelling along at between 6.5 and 7.5 knots so probably awesome sailing.

I think Sam is wildly optimistic with a 3rd August arrival time, probably because he wants to get home and get started on the house and driveway. Our pick is 1000 on 5th August, but we will see. The weather is looking favourable for the next few days so fingers crossed otherwise, it is more likely to be 7th or 8th.

Progress has been reasonable with around 20k SE winds meaning that the ship was able to visit Minerva Reef on the way home. They stopped off and celebrated in traditional crew fashion with a drink or three, although if it was that Pirate's rum of Chris's they probably couldn't cope with more than one - don't think it ever saw sugar and only the colouring and label would lead you to believe it was in fact rum rather than raw spirit flavoured with vanila.

They are now on their way towards New Zealand and looking forward to getting home now. Winds continue to be kind and whilst not perfect are at least allowing them to head towards home, and not on the nose as we originally feared. It is Russell's desire to sail all the way home, so fingers crossed fair winds prevail.