Heading North - Day Three - 25 00.391S 153 33.588E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Fri 28 Jun 2013 06:20
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It was quite a bit warmer on watch last night (our 3rd night
at sea). Not sure whether that was due to being further north or the forecast
southerly winds actually coming from the north east and north west! Winds from
the north are quite a bit warmer. It was a frustrating night. The local
Coast Guard kept on putting out a great forecast giving southerly
winds of 15-20kts, but we had winds from the north or no wind at all, motoring
in a flat sea (relatively speaking) for nearly 5 hours. Also the friendly moon
isn't coming up now until midnight, so with cloud and rain showers my first
watch was in pitch black conditions. The lights were switched on again just
as Liz came on watch. However, from early this morning the southerlies
have finally arrived. With both genoas poled out and a following
sea and swell we're making 6-7 kts on a lovely sunny day. For those
that know the area, we're about 14 miles to the east of Sandy Cape at the north
end of Fraser Island. (The position in the title is our noon position
today.) Although picking up this morning, we've still plodded most of the
last 24 hours, only making 120 miles. But 120 miles north is 2 degrees of
latitude, so 2 degrees a day for several days will make a
difference.
Had a couple of interesting events yesterday. When putting up
the poles and wallowing a bit, AIS showed a ship heading directly for us.
It was a long way off (over 10 miles), but thought we would call him up
anyway as we wanted to pass green to green (red to red is the
rule). Try calling: Darling, Darling, Darling this is . ...etc
on channel 16 and keep a straight face! It was a tug on it's way
to Sydney and we assume from Darling Harbour. (The name is part of the AIS
data, so even at 10 miles we knew it's name and what it was.) At the
same time we noticed a fin breaking the water only a few feet from the boat.
This was a shark circling and we thought it was time we got going!
Have just had to break off from writing this as we have a
visit from a pod of dolphins. It's still a lovely sunny day and they are
still with us after 30 minutes, bow riding and jumping every now and
then, but mostly surfing in the waves following the boat. The seas are up to
about 2 meters and the waves are rolling up high behind the boat (before she
rises and they go underneath) so the surfing dolphins appear to be at deck level
and above and are clearly having fun. It's always wonderful to see and we
feel privileged to get a performance like this that's just for us (and
them).
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