Day 1
The weather forecast suggests a two and a half day window of northerly
(good) winds before the famous southerly change (bad) arrives on Sunday
morning. That should be enough to get to Eden at
the southern end of New South Wales,
and traditionally the last port of refuge before crossing the Bass straight to
Tassie. The southerly should last around 24 hrs then easterlies are expected
promising a “pleasant” two day sail across the straight. To get a
bit of distance in, we left Sydney
a bit early in the afternoon in a light southerly wind with the promise of
north easterlies from around 5pm. Very overcast all day. The promised
northerly didn’t arrive until just before midnight so we were mostly
motor sailing until then with the odd bit of sailing in between (another case
of our Russian friends engine onandoff et al.) Before dark, we rigged the pole
ready for when the wind switched and were able to sail with the genoa poled out
from around midnight. It was great having Helen as our 3rd crew
member – very enthusiastic she was too, to take her watch (a bit
different from when she was a young sprog and would spend the day in her
sleeping bag coming up at dinner time asking that time worn question ‘are
we there yet?’) Had to gybe in the middle of the night – black night
with thick cloud. It was very humid and damp all night, so a bit hot and
sticky. No picturesque sun rise this morning either as we had thick fog until
mid-morning but then the sun burnt off the fog and we were left with a lovely
day. As promised the wind started to build mid-morning and is currently around
25 kts. We’ve just put a reef in and gybed again. It is forecast to
continue to build so hoping to get into Eden
by around 9pm tonight for a bit of shelter.
Days miles: 153