27:28.16S 153:02.29E

Curious is  now safely tucked up in Dockside Marina in the very heart of Brisbane.

Echos of both St Katherines Dock in London and Viaduct marina in Auckland.

We arrived at our waypoint off the entrance to Moreton Bay, 1350nm in  just under 7 days after leaving the Bay of Islands.

The passage gave us just about every wind and wave conditions from the initial 35kts gusting over 40kts and 6m seas to no wind at all for the last 11nm!

1 ½ days were spent sailing to windward in testing conditions, 2 days gave us near perfect beam reaching conditions and 2 days were spent with a poled out yankee and preventer on the main, wing on wing in 20kts to 25kts and 1 to 2m seas bowling along at 8 to 10 kts. The final run in saw us making the most of lighter winds until finally the wind died completely with 11nm to go.

I have been asked about the close encounter with the whale and can confirm that we passed a 90 tonne(big anyway!)  Sperm Whale re oxygenating on the surface after a deep dive to feed. This great creature was no more than about 20m from us and seemed unpeturbed (or too tired to care). In addition to this one whale we had dolphins both day and night and lots of sea birds including a few majestic albatross.

First impressions of Brisbane are good, multicultural, vibrant and growing.

After 7 days without alcohol or coffee it was nice to have a cold beer and good meal last night and a good cup of coffee this morning.

My crew have now left, Terje for Norway after a brief stop in the UK and Darren to visit friends before returning to the Bay of Islands tomorrow.

My thanks to both for sharing a memorable passage, good company and  great fun. I hope to sail with both again.