Leaving New Caledonia

Mojo 2
Andrew Partington
Wed 12 Oct 2011 04:46
Mojo 2 is moving west again on what will be the last leg of this journey that has taken us through 13 countries since leaving France. At around 11am this morning we left the Port Mosselle Marina and headed out through Dunbea Pass and into open ocean again.
 We did some last minute shopping this morning and gave the boat a much needed clean. The boat now looks a treat and we are being weighed down with fruit, vegetables and chocolate...all set!!
We are in a southerly wind of around 10 knots and are just able to sail with the genneker and mainsail. We are getting along fairly well at around 5-6 knots. The seas are flat calm and we have clear skies and warmth, plus I think we have a full moon tonight. Gerard could not have asked for a better introduction to his first blue water sailing experience. Robert, Jane, Sharon, Keith, Dean and my folks would have loved this introduction to open water sailing!!  The only issue we face is just how much wind we will have in our first 24 hours at sea. There is a good chance we will have very light winds tonight but the forecasters often seem to have this wrong so we will just wait and see.
To reach Queensland we have some 790NM to sail. The forecast is for following winds so if all goes well we should be there in a week. At 3.30pm we have 740NM to go to our waypoint. Looking forward to a good first night for Gerard and hopefully some wind to push us along towards Australia.
Andrew.