Oh Yeah Baybee, rock and roll

'Sarf & West mate, Sarf & West'
Pete Bernfeld
Sat 1 Jun 2013 02:21

Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island, off Townsville.

28 hours anchor up/anchor down, about 135nm. The first part of the trip, as far as Cape Bowling Green was pretty good. The wind was around 20-25kts, maybe the odd gust to 30kts. Following sea, following wind, what more could you want? An autopilot that could cope with it most of the time would have been nice and less tiring! In the end I settled for a series of gybes and 'Pertwee' (the autopilot) coped better. At times it was almost a magic carpet ride, surfing along on breaking waves AND it only rained once....until Cape Bowling Green.

CBG. Hmm, well this involved another gybe (went OK) in at least 25kts of wind. Then the tide was foul so 25 kts on the beam produced a meagre 3.9kts SOG. That did get better but Pertwee got a strop on so I had to hand steer for nearly two hours whilst trying to get a decent sail set, in the rain. Boring! That put paid to any ideas of pressing on!

So, tomorrow the wind is 15-20kts so I feel another sail coming on. I don't think I'll shoot straight for Cairns (another 130-odd nm) but there are two stops that I have in the faithful IPad routes.

Now for some sleep!

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