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Starblazer - 19/07/2015 – Halfway to Australia



The rally set off from Port Vila on Efate Island, Vanuatu at 1000 on
Thursday for the 1,000+ miles to Australia. Our waypoint on the finish line
took no account of the minor zigzags, to avoid the southwest corner of
Efate, to give the Entrecasteaux Reef north of New Caledonia a wide berth
and to avoid the Marion and Wansfell Reef close to the Hydrographers
Passage. We passed the halfway point just after 1300 today, Sunday, after
some interesting sailing.

The first 35 hours was characterised by 15-20 knot winds on the port
quarter, rear nearside if you drive a British car. This is a fast, fairly
comfortable point of sail with the genoa poled out to windward and the main
out the other side, tied forward with a gybe preventer. The problems arise
when the wind backs (goes anti-clockwise) and gets the wrong side of the
mainsail, the rolling of the boat can also cause the wind to alter its
aspect. Our average speed was about 6.8 knots which we were quite pleased
with.

The wind disappeared at around 2100 on Friday so John rolled away the genoa
and pulled the mainsail to midships and we motored. The seas flattened out,
the feeble breeze wandered around from east through to northwest. Just
before the 0900 SSB radio roll call Juno, the leading boat, reported passing
through a front, the swell building rapidly to 3 metres+ and the wind
filling in from southeast at 20 – 27 knots! Forewarned is forearmed, we
dropped two reefs in the mainsail and put the spinnaker pole away which had
held the genoa out to windward.

About 14 hours after the wind disappeared it came back with a vengeance. We
spent the next 24 hours charging along at speeds close to 8 knots. In fact
the noon – noon run was 185 nM. The swell is still about 3 metres but is no
longer from the south and the interval has lengthened so the boat is more
comfortable; the wind has also moderated a little but we are still making a
good speed.

Australia, like New Zealand and New Caledonia, is very strict about its
bio-security so our challenge is to eat as much of our meat, vegetables and
fruit as possible before we arrive, they’ll take away any left on board;
smoked, chilled, frozen or cooked. Tinned should be OK. They’ll also
remove honey (should finish the jar tonight), popping corn, dried beans and
will inspect lots of other things.

Thursday’s lunch was a large Italian sausage in a chunk of baguette. Dinner
was a chicken casserole I’d made a couple of weeks ago and frozen. The
first dinner on a passage is sometimes a challenge to cook so now I usually
set off with something which just needs heating.

Friday started with bacon and scrambled egg in a wrap; normal
bread/crispbread, ham and cheese for lunch; pork chop with apple sauce,
potatoes and veg for dinner.

Saturday started with cereal, usual lunch then dinner of chicken breasts
roasted on a bed of assorted vegetables including potato slices,
chayote/christophene, onion, baby aubergines.

Sunday lunch was a mixed salad with cold roast chicken breast, yummy.

As you can see from the above, my efforts to lose weight are being
compromised by the ‘eat it or lose it’ approach of the biosecurity people.

Joyce


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