05:14 ....29 knots of wind on the port bow, two knots of current in our favour. Every little bit a wet dog shake wave rushes across the bow. We are drinking coffee and attempting to cheer each other up. We are making good speed..6.8 knots, and really enjoying watching the helicopters bringing the pilots to and from the big ships. We timed it right, riding the flood tide all the way til 11:00. By then, we were far enough in that current was negligible. There was the most magnificent army of squall system clouds coming from the south east. All day long they formed ranks, marched across the sky, blew 25-30 knots of wind that sent us galloped along in, and dumped big drop rains on our salty boat. We were very happy for the beautiful rain washing a lot of the salt off. Of course, more waves came calling with their attendant salt, but the rains helped immensely. I am astonished at the size of the waves and the continuing veracity of the wind ! At the end of the day, on the approach to Mackay, we were ripping along at 9.8 knots. The wind never abated, and neither did the waves. Hanging the fenders in preparation to enter the harbour, waves were washing over me just outside the harbour entrance! It was lovely to come in out of the washing machine, but we ended up right between huge intimidating tugboats as we motored to the marina fuel dock where we tied up for the night to await all the officials’ visit at first light. It felt good to stop after that eight day wild ride. At 22:00 hours we were finished tying up and began the staging process for next morning.
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