Well last night was a little bit of a mixed bag with some really light winds. Most of the night I was trying to sail in 5-8 knots of wind going the grand speed of 3-4 knots but at least I was moving.
Arrival of the Boobie birds
Well I am still pleased to report all is going well on-board Climate Action Now, even if I am sailing a little slower than I would like in these light winds. Last night was another crystal clear evening and I found myself on deck just after sunrise re-trimming the sails when I noticed that the moon still wasn’t out and so the stars were on full display.
DECISIONS DECISIONS...
I was tossing up my options with navigation as I have the edge of the Great Barrier Reef which I need to sail around and then just next to it is another small outcropping of reef. This other outcropping is about 35nm from the Great Barrier Reef. My initial plan had been to sail directly between the two as this would give me the shortest distance to sail however the wind gods had other ideas making it difficult to make the NW heading that I needed. At around 11pm last night I was just coming up on that outcropping of reef and needed to make a decision of if I was going to tack and spent the rest of the night tacking between this reef and the Great Barrier Reef or if I just eased sails and changed my heading 10 degrees I would be able to sail right around the outside with no tacking required...
Warming up...
What a sweltering hot avo it is as I drift around in 2 knots of wind that seems to be blowing from all directions. I was really hoping for some more wind out of that forecast Southerly winds last night but unfortunately the winds remained light although I was able to sail the rest of the way past the Gold Coast and Stradbroke Island but I really wanted to be able to put in some good miles.
Zig zagging past Byron
The cheese is saved...
Well last night was a night of frustrations with lots of light winds. I have managed to have about 2 knots of current against me from the East Australian Current that runs down the east coast of Australia so even though my boat speed was up around 6-7 knots in 8 knots of wind I was only making 4 knots in the right direction.
