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Mischief - Up to Mischief again: Log 64 Further adventures of S/Y Mischief through the eyes and ears of Chas Baynes



Tuesday, 24th July 2018 - Passage Vanuatu to Mackay, Australia

I spoke too soon yesterday when I mentioned getting off lightly with the boobies - this morning at first light noticed that we had been dive bombed heavily and there were black splodges all over the cockpit combings and decks - they must have done it on purpose and were very good at it by the looks.

Again, another glorious morning for sailing with a 15 knot breeze from the port quarter and beam, occasionally more, a little too much for the spinnakers but we were doing 7.5 knots+ without so they would not add much, only to angst perhaps. We did however risk putting the asymmetric kite up this afternoon and attached it to the furling system for the Code 0 but it was not successful when we tried to roll it away in the evening so back to plan A.

Interestingly, we have not seen a ship at sea for months it seems and here we are having seen three in five minutes! They all appeared to alter course for us which was nice to see but I suspect it had more to do with them missing one another. We were of course crossing a major shipping route from Australia outside the Great Barrier Reef to Asian ports and China.

Dave made a chicken curry for tea with the last of the chicken in the freezer and has everything in it - who would know we were using up anything we have before hitting Mackay; potatoes, peas, tomatoes, peppers, you name it it was in it. Very good too.

All in all, a perfect day sailing with decent winds from the right direction and with the sun out all day. It is not often that you can look around the horizon and see only blue sky without a single cloud. Quite remarkable. Tomorrow late afternoon we expect to reach the finish line for leg 7 at the beginning of the Hydrographers Passage, the commercial entrance through the Great Barrier Reef, should this breeze stay as it is. We will still have 100 miles to go to port but shall be in Australian waters and subject to constant surveillance by satellite and border patrol boats by all accounts - Big Aussie Brother is watching you!

Wednesday, 25th July 2018 - Passage Vanuatu to Mackay

The wind did not play ball last night unfortunately. We were expecting a wind shift to the south that never materialized, instead it backed the other way to the east so was dead behind us, plus it was dropping off again. At one point it was down to 7 knots with 3 knots boat speed so I was even contemplating putting the engine on, but that would have been a shame as we have zero engine hours on this leg so far.

At first light the wind backed still further to NE and we gybed onto starboard tack and back on a course of 265 degrees. We are presently having a bacon sandwich and contemplating putting up the big spinnaker.

There are hundreds of flying fish this morning; up 'til now we have seen the odd one or two but today they are all over the place, some landing on deck too. However, unlike yesterday and the day before there are hardly any ducks about which is all a bit strange as the fish are here - you would have thought they would be here in abundance.

We did decide to put up the big spinnaker and it has added a bit to speed at 6.5 knots across the water. However, there is an adverse current here of about 1 knot at least so we have a speed over the ground of only 5 knots. This is making our finish line ETA look a little optimistic and may well be there around midnight at this present rate.

1200 Position: 19 deg 52' S 151 deg 17' E DR: 997 nm DTR: 55 nm

Our noon to noon distance has dropped to 142 miles (just under 6 knots per hour), whilst our midnight to midnight distance was at 156 miles showing how the speed has dropped off. We may well as a result face an adverse current in the Hydrographers Passage of up to 5 knots as it is spring tides between the hours of 10pm to 4am, just when we may now arrive there which is a pain but there is nothing we can do about it other than accept the fact and grin and bear it. After all the sun is out and the sky is blue.

But it was no use, the wind dropped off to not a lot and went still further behind us so we had no alternative but to drop the spinnaker and resort to the engine. It sounded like a number of other boats in the vicinity were doing the same given the amount of chatter on VHF. We were still only managing 4 knots over the ground as there was an adverse current, but at least we were headed directly at the finish line at the entrance to the Hydrographers Passage, about 40 miles.

We crossed the finish line at 2253 hrs and turned into the shipping channel, due south. It is all very well marked with lights on the reefs as you would imagine for a busy shipping area. As a bonus, the wind had returned at 15 knots and so the sails went up again and we are now on a beam reach at 7 knots, yet only making 3-5 knots across the ground with the current.

The next waypoint was 30 degrees to port which put us back into the wind and whilst we sailed hard on the wind for a while into a short chop it was not too comfortable and when the wind died off again the engine was straight back on and the genoa furled away. The sea had smoothed out too so it was quite pleasant.

It is getting quite exciting now as we approach the mainland. We still have a way to go as Mackay is 100 miles from the finish line but we will be there sometime tomorrow, maybe not early enough to get cleared in meaning a night on the reception pontoon, but the anticipation of reaching Australian soil in palpable. Aussie, here come the Poms!!



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