We’re back! Back in Australia and what can I say other then it’s bl*oody hot here and I am much looking forward to 2 weeks of boat maintenance… NOT! But I am sure we can squeeze in the one or other party and I am looking forward to having Malcolm up here for a visit.
After 1547 Nautical Miles on open ocean in 11 and a half days, we’re passing through a tiny gap in the outer Great Barrier Reef called Single Rock Entrance into the sheltered lagoon. I deliberately picked this passage because it’s at a narrow section of the reef for quick access to the inner shipping lane and most of all, I assumed, the big rock shown on the chart at one side of the passage would make it easy to find. Well, no big rock at single rock passage, I am telling you 
But we found it anyway…
We treat ourselves to a small French-German celebration party with some wine and a cooked breakfast and are now tiptoeing through the reef to find the inner shipping lane, which will take us to Thursday Island on the upper north-east corner of Australia.
Good to be back in Australia although I have to admit that it looks pretty sad up here with no sun, heavy clouds and lots of rain. Well, we’re not allowed to stop anyway until we’re cleared in at Thursday Island so no big deal. I have the feeling it will be quite different on the western side of the cape york peninsula. So, on y vas!
With some great tunes thumbing out of the stereo, we race the trade winds towards Torres Straight with day of 130 to 145 nautical miles a day. Good girl she is ;-). 1000nm covered so far, about 700nm still to go. Sea is relatively moderate with about 2 to 3 m shortish waves however still enough to let BE occasionally swing wildly from one side to the other when surfing down a steep wave. Limits of a windvane but I’m not complaining as I would go nowhere without this little but of metal at the back of the boat… so I simply hold on to the pots a bit more when cooking
Check out this video: steaming.WMV
Crossing the main shipping lane now. Very funny because I actually saw two of these super tankers alter the course to avoid us. But maybe we just look to bl**dy helpless
Down to the last banana and last pack of M&M, which is good because the uptight Australian Quarantine Authorities probably wouldn’t even allow an unwashed spoon to enter the country. ‘Quarantine matter’ - get lost! Will leave dirty dishes everywhere when the do the inspection… Revolution!
Yes, this morning deserved another celebration dance on the deck. So far, all my passage had often wind of 20 knots and more and the seas were rarely less then 2m. Bugger this ‘easy trade wind sailing’ people talk about, I often thought… until now. We have subtle 10 to 15 knots with smooth seas below 1 m. Our lady is goose-winged doing easy 5 knots with hardly any rocking motion. Fingers crossed that it stays like this for a while…
The ocean was calling and I felt that I’d to do it by myself this time and hence send a few people back, who enquired about sailing with me… including Guy, a 66 year old French man. Well, but now it happens that I kept on running into Guy and learned about his quest to sail around the world on other people’s boat step by step and he now needed the ride to Australia. However, I still staid ‘No’ But then I met him one more time, when I was literally going for my last walk to shore before heading off… and to cut a long story short, I said yes and within about 2 hour he had his stuff packed from the hotel and we set sail.
If you ever sail to Numea and tie up at the Port Moselle Yacht Club, stay in row C. I’ve never felt so welcome and met so many nice people in such a short time. If my schedule hadn’t been set, I’d stay longer… Merci bon, mes amies!
Lying in the sun in front of the same island for days on end, Dean and I wonder what happened to all these plans of exploring this great cruising ground. But what does it really matter, when we’re having a great time surfing, fishing and schorkling.
Too soon Dean will have to head back to Australia, which will leave me for the first time without crew. But that’s actually not quite unintended, because for a long time, I’ve played with the idea of sailing a passage by myself. Wonder what it would be like…
