OFF CAPE HOWE, SE AUSTRALIA, 24th Februay, 2011

 

It is still sinking in slowly that some friends we met on the Blue Water Rally have been shot by Pirates near Somalia.(It happens to other people, not friends).

Phyllis and Bob, were such a laid back couple enjoying life crewing for various yachts on the long passages in the Blue water Rally.  Phyllis, whom we got to know better, would not have hurt anybody, she was kind, thoughtful and would never 'back bite' she was also huge fun and loved dancing at any of the parties that happened.  What should have been elation at getting through the pirated waters between India and Somalia, one of the most challenging aspects of the Rally, has ended with huge sadness. 'Quest' for some reason unknown to us decided not to follow the Rally advice and tactics and went their own way through those dangerous waters, I doubt we will ever know why.

 

We have been sailing up the Tasmanian coast, spent the night before last in 'Skeleton Cove' and then set off early, after Jonathan decided to dive under the yacht in freezing water to clear some kelp from our rudder.  On our way up the coast we saw lots of Seals in 'gaggles'? floating on their backs flippers just showing then heads popping up when they realised we were near and diving to get clear.  We also had hundreds of Dolphins playing around our bow, I mean hundreds.  I have tried t take photo's on sports mode and will see how they turned out and when we are back in port will download them and send some to the blog site.  We also caught a couple fo Tuna which is great as we hadn't caught any fish for awhile, caught by Jonathan and expertly netted by Gabbie, after she slowed the yacht down, got the 'Balls protector' on Jonathan, handed him the knife and made sure he did not fall overboard... saying all this as there are some people who sometimes come on our yacht (usually the male species) who feel I am unable to do this, A Man's Job, the male chavinisim is amazing sometimes on a yacht, luckily for me Jonathan has great faith in my abilities.  We had a good forecast so set sail across the Straights to main Aus' land.  Jonathan did the 10.30 to 1am watch and I did the 1am to 5am watch.  We had a fantastic sail wind westerly 15 -20 knots and we hummed along averaging between 8 -9 knots. Jonathan even did 11 knots down one wave it had to be a knot more than my 10 I achieved on my watch....what was it I was saying about chauvanisim.....

 

We have also seen lots of Sheerwaters huge wing spans but sadly I have not seen an Alabatross, Jonathan, David and Tom saw one on their passage across the Straights in January.

 

We hope to be in Eden by this evening for the night and then set off early again tomorrow to make our way up the coast.

I am having a great time, and really enjoying this sail up the coast.