Drifting through Backstairs Passage

Where Next?
Bob Williams
Thu 21 Dec 2017 05:39

Noon Position: 37 54.4 S 139 28.8 E
Course: W Speed: 2 knots
Wind: SSW; F1 – light air
Sea: slight Swell: SW 2 meters
Weather: mostly sunny, warm
Day’s Run: 49 nm

After getting off to a flying start yesterday on a brisk beam reach with the spray flying, come evening we found ourselves all but becalmed twenty miles short of Investigator Strait. I was expecting the winds to ease but was hoping that we would get through the Strait before they did so, so that we could get into the relative shelter of Gulf of St Vincent and out of the three meter swell. Alas, since two this morning, Aeolus abandoned us and we have been mostly drifting with a little bit of motoring to help us at least make a few mile in the right direction. Making the most of the few zephyrs that have toyed with us, we have now worked our way through the Strait, with the flooding tide taking most of the credit.

ETA Adelaide, sometime tomorrow, I hope – there’s a barbie on at my brother John’s place tomorrow evening.

All is well.