Heading West - Day 3 - 10 52.500S 134 45.805E
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Wed 21 Aug 2013 08:45
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The Gulf of Carpentaria and Cape Wessel are both well behind
us now. Better winds overnight gave a noon to noon passage of 156 miles.
The winds turned southeast for a while and the leeward pole had to come down in
the night to allow that genoa to draw, but come the morning it turned
more easterly again and stayed that way all day, the pole going back
up at first light. There's quite a knack to sailing downwind with 2 poles and
getting the best out of them. The sea is still from the east, so still right
behind us, and we hope it stays that way. No birds again today, but we did
have quite a sizable flying fish on deck in the morning. First time we've had
that for a long while. We're running about 60 miles north of the coast, Arnhem
Land - Aboriginal Land. Oh, and one thing I forgot to mention is that the tow
generator went out at the start of the passage, the first time for
almost a year. It's so simple, just a propeller on a long rope that's towed
behind the boat and turns a generator on the stern, but it gives us an
almost constant 6 amps day and night which makes a big difference when
running all the electronics we have on when on passage. The drag
slows the boat down a bit (less than half a knot), but it's worth
it.
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