At about 1200hrs local Sydney time on the 4th of December Drina reported her position as 41.27°S and 178.43°W or 17 miles west of the date line. Because they are at sea they use the UTC convention for ship's time and date. Even though they are west of Chatham Islands their date is 03/12/2010 while those on the island to the East of the are already on the 04/12/2010. That's because Chatham Islands are in the NZ time zone and the de-facto date line is considered to be to the east of them. So the convention is that land based communities can decide their own date and time within reason, while those at sea must follow the pole to pole meridians and move the clock one hour for every 15° east or west of 180° Longitude, otherwise known as UTC or Zulu time. So there you go they get to have Friday the 3rd all over again.
Their report shows they are experiencing little wind, 5kts from the SW with a boat speed of 4kts and a course over the ground of 100°M. They are slowly trying to make southing though with the present course they are probably making easting and northing.
I've passed on best wishes from those of you that asked to be remembered and I know that they are appreciated. There's a lot of reading and listening to music going on onboard, though the genre and volume changes with the watch.
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