Day One
30 Sept 2009
12pm local
Destination: Queensland, Australia, either Bundaberg or Brisbane.
Distance: 780 nautical miles
ETA: Around 5-7 days
We spent 2 days in Noumea doing a much needed food shop, 3 outings to the Macdonalds playgym and 1 outing to the Merrigoround, with Indie for the first time as Josh's co-pilot. The immigration officials looked at my lack of visa and gave me 2 days in New Caledonia, after which they graciously told me to F off. The joys of the South African passport. Chantal and the boys, being on Dutch passports, did not even get a stamp or a second glance. But hey, 2 days was enough, we had already black flagged it for a week! So this morning we decided after much consultation that we are going to go for it, and sail for Brisbane. It seems as if a low pressure comes off Oz every 4 days, we are going to run into one, no matter what. At least 2 other yachts also left for Oz, one yesterday and one today.
So after a fuel up we left the harbour at about 10 am with a stiff SE trade blowing, this wind is generated by a high pressure to the south, exact same kind of weather as in South Africa. Its now 2 hrs later, we are out of the lagoon and back in open ocean. The sea is rough, the wind is around 16-18 knots SE and shimmi is flying along at 9 knots under full sail. We cant complain about rough seas when we do these kind of speeds. But shimmi is bucking all over the place, Indie has just vomited and Josh will probably follow suit. Its looking pretty grim on shimmi right now, we all have "first day of the crossing" blues. The wind is just not strong enough of us to bother with a reef, but it makes for nervous sailing.
That's all for now
G