Thursday 10th June – Day 4 At Sea (Lini’s Journa l)
Brindabella's Web Diary
Simon Williams
Wed 23 Jun 2010 16:32
calm not even a ripple broke the strange pink oiliness of its surface.
We’d motored all through the night with minimal wind and the direction
indicator whizzing round in circles. We ate breakfast from china mugs
and bowls then Si went in search of ‘the mouse’. The squeak seemed to
be coming from the direction of the Hydrovane rudder but removing it
revealed no problems. Si lifted the aft cabin bunks and disappeared
head first to investigate further and I took instructions from the
protruding legs to manually steer from one side to the other. Our
mouse was located and with possible rudder bearing problems, I being a
worry bags suggested we set up the emergency tiller steering for the
Hydrovane rudder in case of problems in blowy conditions later.
This morning’s entertainment came firstly from several shearwaters,
mainly young we thought, swooping around the boat, gliding with a wing
tip skimming the water then diving down for fishy snacks from our
wake. A huge pod of large speckled backed dolphins then gracefully
arrived. We watched their dark shadows below the surface before they
danced from the water, investigated the boat then disappeared into the
distance.
By midday there was a decent SW F3-4. We hoist the sails and got
Humph the Hydrovane steering us. Oh! How heavenly to cut the engine at
last. Si listened to Herb’s weather radio net late afternoon and it
looks like we have done the right thing sailing east. The low is now
due to pass tomorrow and we heard Herb say there is a storm brewing
out to the west due around Tuesday. In a couple of days we’ll be more
clear of its route and which way to sail to avoid it. For now though
my prepared vegetables and some chicken were thrown into the pressure
cooker and within the hour we’d eaten and I was tucked up in bed with
the barometer still steady and F5 winds: Perfect!