Our Current Position

Saturday 23 January 2016

Days 46- 47 The Unpredictable Bass Strait

Well so much for putting up the No 1 headsail up and forecasted light winds. We'd been going for about four hours when the wind started to pick up, and so in went the first reef and then the second and the headsail became more and more furled. We then endured about six hours of very gusty winds and messy seas before things started to moderate and then went to no wind at all. 

We then had fun and games when we tried to furl the headsail and it jammed. So we had to drop the sail on the foredeck which is never fun. So it was a slow road to Eden again, motor sailing for the last 12 hours, the last six of which were in the pouring rain. On the positive side we had some really nice light wind sailing and saw lots of Common Dolphins along the way, who loved to come and play in our bow wave.

We arrived in Eden at 0130 in the dark and rain and are now anchored next to the wood chip plant again. The East Australian Current (EAC) which we benefited from on the way south, was of course against us this time. Although we tried to route around it we weren't too successful and our return trip was between Wineglass Bay and Eden was 16 hours longer than the trip down.

Once anchored we had a wee celebration and finally got to be around 4am. There seem to be three empty bottles in the galley this morning. Quote of the day from Debi just now was " what are we going to do about my head?"

We will be staying here today to avoid a string southerly wind.  Welcome back to NSW!

Great to be sailing with Common Dolphins

Crew relaxing during a quiet period in the Bass Strait




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