Sunday, October 20, 2013

...to australia - day/night #5

painfully slow - that's what sums up the last 24h.

unfortunately all the good wind disappeared and when some of of came back we were already fighting the north going current.
the east coast of australia barriers itself with two strong currents - further out east there is the north going current, closer to shore there is the famous east australian current running south. ( i ( i say famous because it's the one that nemo's dad takes down on the way to sydney....for further research watch "finding nemo" :)

so our wonderful penta came to the rescue again as we were only doing 2,5kn with flapping sails. (it was 5,5kn through the water, but the current got good hold of us)

the traffic increased significantly in the last 100nm - i know i have said it a few times already, but AIS is just a great magic invention.

and so we sat on rolling maloo, watched the sun come up and for something to appear on the horizon listening to the australian coast guard checking on ships and yachts. they must have quite a powerful vhf as we picked up mooloolaba coast guard and tincan bay coast guard 60nm off shore.

at 8:00am i went off watch to get a bit of sleep - at 9:30 Mark woke me with " land ho!"

to be honest...i was still half asleep when i went out and saw moreton island to the port side...but when the two dolphins came to say hello i was wide awake!

we will anchor in the bay for the night and go into brisbane tomorrow...

and maybe by then my head will be clear enough to sum up what it feels like to be here as i simply miss the words at the moment. you have to excuse me though - after 3 complete sail changes (meaning all sails in /out/in/out/in/out) within the last hour of my watch and a rolly bed afterwards i am stunned, happy, sad and most of all - a bit tired:)

thanks to our wonderful maloo again for bringing us here safe and sound - tonight's toast will go out to the best boat in the world!

3 comments:

  1. So you made it to Brisvegas. Were did you park? Love to see you and celebrate the journey. Andrew, Melissa Thomas and Zoe.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Mark and Karline, Firstly Congratulations for reaching AUS and a most sincere welcome back DownUnder. You don't know me yet but I have been hearing about all your exploits from your very proud father Neil. I know your father from Kunama Jindabyne. I am Alan's daughter Robyn. I heard recently that your plans have changed a little and you are now heading for Sydney very soon. As it happens I live in Sydney... and I sail. It would be great to catch up when you make port in Sydney if you have time. Where are you planning to moor Maloo?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi its me Robyn again. How can I give you my contact details without publishing them online? I do have a an old google email account which I don't use much... however my main email is with Yahoo.

    ReplyDelete