One of the joys of sailing north up the Queensland east coast is the Trade Wind. While not quite constant this SE wind is fairly reliable and means that yachts can easily sail northwards with the wind behind them. Going back the other way is going to be a problem however! Usually the wind is fairly benign, but it can blow 35kts for lengthy periods – that’s quite strong and requires us to reef.

Here is the good ship VS powering north on the port tack with full mainsail and genoa. The genoa is poled out to keep it full when on a broad reach (wind over the rear quarter) like this. Our genoa pole is a real handful; it requires both crew on deck to launch it and has a lot of rigging – two uphauls to hold the pole up, a foreguy and and afterguy to both hold it down and keep it at right angles to the boat, an outhaul because it is telescopic, a pole heel lift and downhaul to adjust the mast end, and a separate sheet attached to the clew (corner) of the sail to control it. Careful examination of the photos may reveal some of these ropes dangling about:

 

 

 

When we want to go right downwind wecan goosewing, with one sail either side:

 

 

On this occasion the mainsail is reefed as it’s windier than it looks! You may notice that both photos are unhelpfully looking into the sun – that’s because the sun is in the north here all day, so the cockpit is permanently in shadow. Really frustrating because the wind is biting cold, seemingly straight from Antarctica so the crew is usually to be found dressed in full thermals all day. Queensland had its coldest day for nine years last week, and of course the crew of the VS were here to experience it. But at least it’s wall to wall sunshine, almost every day.