Day 5
0330 am local
pos: 25deg03S, 157deg09E
238 miles to Brisbane
After motoring most of the day yesterday, we ended up having a sleigh ride for most of the night. A northerly came up, a perfect wind angle for shimmi, soon she was exceeding 10 knots and we had to reef. It was a joy to watch shimmi absolutely fly across the water at constant 10-11 knots, even with a reefed main and jib. I would have loved to have left her like that, to just GO, a wake like a speedboat behind us. But its not safe. I have no crew and this is a family cruise, not the Cape to Rio (which we would have won). So not long after that we reefed again, sailing for most of the night with a double reefed main and jib, doing 9 knots average in around 25 knots of gusty wind. Luckily not much sea came with the wind and it was fairly comfortable. Now the wind is dying and moving onto our nose. I shook out the reefs and we are motorsailing again, doing around 6 knots with 238 miles to go. Quite weird to think that neither Chantal nor I have slept for more than 2 and a half hours at a time for 5 days! And we still have smiles on our faces. Sort of anyway. Chantal made a delicious bright orange pumpkin soup and baked a loaf of bread. Josh and Indie are hanging in there, they have been absolute stars.
We were going to try and make it to Brisbane before nightfall tomorrow night, but that's not going to happen unless we average 8 knots all the way. Brisbane is a tricky harbour to drive into, I will need at least 3 daylight hours just to get into the harbour and find the quaranteen dock which is at Rivergate marina, halfway up a bloody river. So we have another 2 days and 2 nights ahead of us, we should be tied up to the dock by 9am on Tuesday, touch wood. Who knows whats gonna happen on our last 200 miles. Obviously we have to watch out for more big ships.
Do Kangaroos swim? Will they bite our tyres? Is it Sunday today?
G
