Lat: 21:06.7 S: Long: 149:13.5 E

23^rd July, 2013 – Mackay Marina, Queensland, Australia

One of the highlights of our passage was a fly-by by the French Navy. We received a radio call from them asking our name, destination, number of people on board and whether we had any problems.  Having replied with the relevant information and assured them we were all fine, they said they would fly overhead in 30 seconds. We were just turning round to look into the sky when a very smart jet screeched by at about 500 feet and then banked off out of sight towards Noumea, in Nouvelle Caledonie.

Our second piece of excitement came when we landed a huge yellow-fin tuna. I can’t tell you how much it weighed as it made our electronic scales register ‘OVERLOAD’ so it was in excess of 36kgs.....!

It took Will, Alan and Roger 45 minutes to bring it on board – cheating slightly by Will using his spear-gun to shoot it through the head, to keep it quiet once alongside!

Will and Roger both struggled to hold it up to its full height, so it was almost 6ft long with a girth of almost a metre. The aft deck resembled an abattoir for quite some time but it enabled us to enjoy more of Will’s delicious sushi as well as stock the freezer and give chunks of it to friends.

The downside to the trip was the last two days into Australia, finishing us off with 8 hours of 30-35+ knots of cold headwinds encountered in Hydrographer’s Passage, going through the Great Barrier Reef towards Mackay. This was utter misery, with wind, rain and confused seas leaving me with no other choice but to retire to my cabin and leave the lads to sort out the meals I had prepared in the freezer.