10:41.44S 142:31.46E

Cape York, 22/06/13

Anchor up 0645, anchor down 1030

Woke up so that was a promising start to the day. Remembered to top up the hydraulic steering fluid, so far so good. The habitual mug of Milo to get the day started then went to start the engine…..flat batteries. WHAT!!! At noon yesterday the battery bank was indicating more or less full and the solar panel was producing 5.9 amps.

Hurriedly connected up the ‘PimJam emergency elektrikery’ (the petrol driven alternator) and put some juice into the batteries. 10 minutes was enough to get the donk flashed up but tempus fugit, today of all days we have a tidal gate to make, the Albany Passage. I got 40 metres of chain up in record time, I’m either going to be bloody fit at the end of all this or dead. This morning it could have gone either way I feel.

The engine behaved itself and we made the tidal gate with time to spare. I haven’t seen 9.3kts over the ground for a long time!

So, that was the Pacific then. It didn’t always live up to it’s name but it was definitely character building. I can’t make up my mind about the trip up from Brisbane. Most of the anchorages looked the same, virtually all were wind-blasted and most were rolly. Most of the time there was a little too much wind for peace of mind but sometimes not enough. The majority of the days were grey and overcast but sometimes the Sun shone and then with a following wind and sea all was fine and dandy.

Right now there is no 3G signal despite the Optus map promising a connection. Hmmm.

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