Tuesday 5th August
Shortly after Annie has finished singing The Crinan Canal for Me, Alex takes over the helm and sings the Australian National Anthem. We‘re clearly a bit hyper, but also very happy and relieved that the sea is starting to flatten out with the dawn. We’re managing to hold course with a reefed main, no headsail and a few engine revs. Annie asks the wind to swing to our stern or leave completely so we can motor in flat calm! Ian gets up about 9am and starts to assess the damage – thankfully it’s not as bad as feared. Ian goes down the back lazarette to check the self steering – all is in tact but there’s a hydraulic fluid leak so it looks like a land based repair. Annie cooks up a huge fried breakfast as everyone is starving. Alex (usually very health conscious) say’s she’ll happily eat lard today as she thought she was going to die last-night! As the wind and sea settle down we all take an hour each on the helm, even Kevin and Phil! We continue on this shift system throughout the day – everyone is tired – and by afternoon it’s like another world, the sea is again glassy calm and the sun is shining. We motor-sail on throughout the night – we can see another thunderstorn in the distance but thankfully it’s not on our route and we manage to avoid it. We’re going to be in harbour by dawn.