Horn Island to Tual - day 4 and 5

Day 4

Today was a boat-centric day.

The morning wind was moderate and from behind.  We doing pretty well with main, mizzen and poled out gib, but the swell up and the ride was rolly. 

We seldom sail with only the main and not roll out the gib as well. With the wind from behind, the main sail can block the wind to the gib. This can cause the gib to collapse, then fill suddenly with a jerk only to collapse again or just beat itself against the rigging. It can be quite unpleasant.  

The solution to this is to pole out the gib with a whisker pole, which I think is just a small spinnaker pole, but must check with Tim.  This worked for a while. Our pole is telescopic. It needs to be extended so the gib isn’t completely blanketed by the main.

The pole is extended by sliding the two sections apart until the push button clicks into the hole on the extending section. The collapsed pole is store on the front of the mast.

So Tim gets the pole set up, all is well, he comes back to the cockpit and suddenly the gib is collapsing. Consternation.  The pole had collapsed. This sometimes happens and Tim went out to reset it. After this had happened a couple of times, it seems that the ‘button and hole’ arrangement is failing.  Nothing to be done for the time being and we rolled in the gib and stowed the pole.

With just main and mizzen we were going a long beautifully and we think the ride was smooth without the gib.  A little slow but that suits are arrival time.

By the by, we almost always use the mizzen, putting it up even before we raise the anchor. It can be reefed down if necessary, usually when to much sail ( or any at all) on the mizzen causes yawing - the bow turning up into the wind.

We’re running out of prepared meals, and I really didn’t fancy cooking.  We were actually considering chicken curry from a tin that Tim bought in Fiji when I was in Canada. It is however a meal I feel quite strongly that Tim should eat on his own. After a some head scratching, I decided we’d have the remaining chilli and falafels from previous meals on rice with a bit of grated cheese on the chilli and mango chutney on the falafel and call it ‘fusion’.  It was actually very nice and freed up space in the fridge which is still very full.  

Day 5 

The extra fridge space has been taken up with a lentil veggie soup.  The morning was relatively calm so I went for it.  We had it for lunch with toast with a vegan sun dried tomato pesto I bought to try I Cairns. I wish I’d bought more as it was a really good.

We’re very jealous of the boats that arrived today. It’s very hard to judge exactly when you’ll arrive at a particular waypoint.  The next important waypoint is at the entrance to the river and we want daylight for that.

We’ve put the breaks on so to speak and have a heavily reefed mizzen and gib. If the wind could just blow at the same strength for the next 5 hours, it would be helpful.  We’re trying to keep the speed down to 3 knots.

We had some excitement this afternoon when Tim noticed we were towing a big round fishing buoy by a length of green rope. The last time we would have had something like this happen was probably the south coast of England. 

We haven’t used the engine at all and  we hoped that would mean we were just towing it by the rudder.  We turned Larus up into the wind and the buoy just drifted free.  

It was wonderfully anticlimactic.

Throughout the previous night we passed quite easily between the many large fishing boats lighting up the sea.  From a distance, they seen as eerie patches of the light disappearing into the distance. All were on AIS so their position appeared on our chart plotter, for both the boats and floats on the nets. They were very easy to navigate around.

After dinner this evening, Tim had a frustrating time trying while I was sleeping to get past ONE boat laying out several miles of nets.  We sail with only navigation lights at night so we can see everything around us. They sail with huge deck lights and are blind to everything around them. We use AIS as well. If they chose to lookout for us they could, but you can’t be sure that they will.  In fact you can be pretty sure that they won’t.  

Maybe because it was the only fishing boat in the area that it felt comfortable to go this way, then that way, changing direction as and when it liked.  Tim was sailing this way and that way to avoid them for most of the 3 hours I was sleeping. 

He was a little frazzled when I got up, particularly as he’d just seen an unaccompanied fishing flag drift by.  Even in daylight, you’re unlikely to see flags and buoys unless they catch your eye as they pass. 

We will definitely check our stern before starting the engine.

Halfway through my watch, I can only see a few specks of light in the distance and will keep my eyes in them.

In less than 12 hours, we should be at anchor and waiting for Customs and Immigration to arrive. Very looking forward to it.

Horn Bay to Tual - day 2 & 3

Yesterday there were some items of interest throughout our little fleet.

One boat chose to head directly toward Tual, rather than stay in Australian waters to avoid all the fishing nets in international waters. During the first night, they caught the end of a net, but managed to get free in daylight. They are now sailing with gib alone as there in-mast main sail furler jammed before they arrived in Horn Bay with the sail on the outside. They had wrapped the sail round and round the mast and lashed it tight. Then they left Horn Island with no main sail.

A yacht following us had a reefing line break.  Reefing lines run out through the end of the boom and with the ring and hook a the mast end, together they allow us to make a horizontal tuck in the sail to reduce its size. This isn’t something you can fix underway, but normally a sail has 2 or 3 reefing points, so they would will have to settle for a bigger or smaller sail area.

On another boat, the first mate, who suffers terribly from seasickness was resting uncomfortably. :(

We had the relay that turns the power on and off to the autopilot and radar stop working. This happened once before so Tim was pretty sure what the problem was. He knew exactly where to go to unplug and plug it back in.  The relay lives in the aft cabin under our food and stuff storage. While I moved the food and stuff, Tim hand steered and while Tim unplugged and plugged in, I hand steered. We were very glad not have to hand steer the rest of the way to Tual. Now that Tim knows this wasn’t just a one off thing, he’ll look into it not happening again.

……

The Tradewinds don’t seem to be as strong or consistent recently. This afternoon we have 10 to 14 knots from the stern and we’re wallowing quite a bit in the continuing swell, compliments of the Bay of Carpentaria.

We have been so used to belting along at a great rate of speed that our current of 3.5 to 5 knots is a little underwhelming. This time yesterday was beautiful gentle sailing. The wind was more from the side, which fills the sails better and gives you a constant bit of heel. The effects of a wave or gust of wind are less as you are already over leaning consistently to one side. 

You can put something on the counter, turn your back for a second and you will probably get away with it. We make ‘getting away with it’ more likely we use a Silpat baking tray liner on the counter. It has a tackiness that keeps things from sliding. 

Today, with the wind coming from further behind, we are more vertical. As the wind is light as well, when a wave comes we roll to starboard, then to port, then to starboard…etc.  If another wave happens to come along while all this backing and forthing is going on, the rolling gets deeper and faster causing the sails to whip back and forth. This can make horrible crashing noises. It isn’t dangerous but it’s not kind on the rig, sails or your nerves.

If it has been calm and you get caught by a rogue wave mid lunch, everything on our 3 foot galley counter can shoot from one end to the other - jars, plates, bowls, cutlery and food all rolling around together. Apples and oranges can be particularly good fun. The Silpat will minimise the damage and you can pick it and wash it in the sink.

All this is currently on my mind as we are down to our last whole wheat, banana, oatmeal, raisin, walnut muffins and I will be baking more shortly. These are our go to snack. I find if you have a huge variety of goodies you/I eat them whether you/I are/am really hungry or not. 

Muffin update. Thanks to a change of current from southerly to northerly, our progress is much smoother, which means the baking was too.  They look good though with not as many walnuts as normal. I have two vacuum sealed bags of them that I normally keep in the fridge. As the fridge is so full at the beginning  passage, I put them somewhere dark and at least coolish until there is space.  I have had many thoughts as to where they might be but no luck finding them. Will try again tomorrow.

We have a guest onboard this evening. A black bird with a white cap started circling us as dusk approached. It eventually settled on the railing on the aft deck. 

Two days ago, I noticed the thin smile of a new moon in the west when I started my watch. Tonight it’s not quite half but bright enough that the stars seem dim. Less than an hour later, it was gone.

Bird Update - it was up at dawn despite being perched on the stern push pit. It must have sticky feet as the stainless steel tube it was standing was too big to get a good grasp. When the boat rolled, it would shift weight from port to starboard. It also spend a long time gloomy and fluffing its feathers. I didn’t see the launch but it was swooping behind the boat.

Horn Island to Tual Passage - Day 1 and 2

One forgets how crappy one will feel on the first few days of a longer passage.  Getting your sleep in 3 hour portions is tough.

We had a fast start through the Torres Straits. They are narrow and shallow with at LOT of water going west through them. The farther we got into the Gulf of Carpentaria (doesn’t that have a wonderful ring to it?) the rougher the seas got. Not particularly big, but with a short interval between them, and when the wind came up a few knots the motion got quite rough as well as noisy.

Tonight, Thursday the 11th, we have very light winds and are ghosting along at 4 knots in a flat sea. It’s hard not to chortle, ‘we are going to sleep SO well tonight,’ but it’s best not to tempt fate.

We’ve pretty much stayed inside Australian territorial waters so far, with the short exception of a dip in the border’s red dotted line just before dusk.  Rather than detour under it, we cut straight across. There we found what we’d been warned about - Indonesian fishing boats laying out miles of nets. It was nice to discover that it wasn’t actually that bad.

The boats we saw were laying out a string of three buoys, each fitted with AIS beacons to show their position, what they are, how fast they are moving and in which direction. This is the sort of information you get for any AIS target - just touch the target on the chart plotter screen for basic info and for more choose View AIS Data option. It is useful and very reassuring. You can’t necessarily see the target with the naked eye, but AIS sees all. All, the is that are sending AIS information. Not everyone or everything has the kit to do it, so keeping a good watch is always necessary.

We saw three boats layout one  3 or 4 mile net each, with each net having three AIS beacons.  The boat laying out the net beacon like a mother duck dropping off ducklings as she paddled along.

They seemed to lay them from east to west across the current, which would make sense. There were at least a couple miles between each boat and there net and all the nets were parallel with each other.

We passed between two boats laying their nets and the gap between them was 5 miles. Plenty of room for Larus to squeeze through.

These are commercial operations and it was all very logical and organised.  We will not assume it will always be like this!

We have another 36 hours (or more as we are only making 3.5 knots in very light winds) before we turn north for Indonesia.

We don’t mind taking our time as we need to arrive in daylight and Tim would quite like to watch the England in the Euro Cup final which is on Monday night here and we will still be at sea.

There I go tempting fate again by even mentioning the match.  Happily, we have lots of wood to knock on. 

Last of Australia and beginning of Indonesia

We arrived in Debut, (Tual is normal port of entry, but the rally we are participating in arranged for the authorities to come to us in Debut) early morning on the 16th of July. We had hardly announced our presence to the Indonesian authorities before we had 7 people in the cockpit. They were very thorough, professional and friendly.  We went ashore late afternoon to finish off the check in process.  

We met some of the locals and they are also very friendly. 

Its’s a very different place from Australia this is only a peek.

We’re having a little down time after a very busy, entertaining and interesting 4 days in Debut and are in the Banda Islands. 

I am now going back to Australia so I can then focus on Indonesia guilt free. :)

Cairns is on the Barron River. 

The tide is out, but the reflections of the rising sun makes the mudflats look quite beautiful.  There is some lovely movement from the rivulet to the sweeping clouds. The lumps in the foreground are rocks. The lumps in the middle ground, if you zoom in and  follow the rivulet on the left toward open water, are pelicans. 

As swimming in the bay is out of the question they have designed a fantastic freshwater paddling/swimming pool next to the bay. 

Even if the tide was in, saltwater crocodiles are a BIG issue the northern Australia. The farther north you go, the more likely you are to encounter a crocodile.

We did a lot of provisioning in Cairns. There are certain items that we bulk buy in case they aren’t available where we are headed. Cairns is the last city and the last supermarkets (as we known them ) for he see foreseeable future. I vacuum seal anything that might need to last a long time in a humid environment. We have been know to vacuum seal electrical spares against the chance of them getting saltwater on them.

Staples like wholewheat flour (for muffins and bread), walnuts and raisins (for muffins), rolled oats and quick cook oats (the first for granola/porridge and second for muffins and emergency cookies), butter (for emergency cookies and maybe scones), ‘peanut only’ peanut butter (for sate sauce for tofu and my breakfast with apple slices. Yum. I came to peanut butter late in life), whole grain rice and pasta (unlikely to find and if you do it is probably riddled with weevils so best not), Whittaker NZ 72% dark chocolate that is occasionally on special at the two major supermarkets Woolworth’s (up market) and Cole’s (down market) (I favoured Cole’s as they sold the Veef plant protein range. We loved their burgers, truly excellent but I don’t think you can get them outside Australia. Sad.), Skim milk powder (finding fresh milk will be unlikely and we like skim, which would be even less likely) and last but not least, Weetbix, the antipodian version of the UK’s Wheatabix, because if one had to choose one food to eat for the rest of your life, Tim would choose that. I would choose Rhubarb Crisp, but have little hope of seeing any rhubarb until we are back in Europe/UK/Canada.

It was not all work and as we there for less than a week, we chose big for our one sightseeing opportunity and booked at trip on the Kuranda Scenic Railway and Rainforest Village.

We start in Cairns with modern engines and old fashioned car.

The views were quite spectacular.

We were seated in the caboose, which was very convenient for the halfway stop where we walked to platforms overlooking the Barron River.

It’s was awe inspiring even in the dry season.

The next and final stop was the Kuranda Station, a pleasing mix of tropical and Victorian details.

There were many things to see, but only so many that were free. Like the remnants of this Douglas C-47 Skytrain. 

Enlarge to read Geronimo’s history.

I mentioned earlier that this was the dry season. In the wet season, there is much rain as well as the possibility cyclones from Bundaberg and further north. The highest water is marked by flotsam in the trees.

As we walked along the river there were a few other people doing the same. Several had dogs with them. One couple was watching as their small dog frolicked in the river.  Another couple walked by us with a dog on a lead and I asked if there might be crocodiles in the river. ‘Yeah,’ came an Aussie drawl, ‘Could be a freshie.’  There is a big difference between freshie/freshwater and saltie/saltwater crocodiles.

What is the difference between Freshwater and Saltwater Crocodiles? 

There were lots of walks along the Barron River but our time there was short and we soon headed back down to Cairns.

The return trip was via the Skyrail Rainforest Cable Car.  There were 2 scenic stops.

We followed along wheelchair friendly walkways through rainforests…

…and great views of the falls we had first seen from the far side of the valley.

Back on the cable car we were treated to spectacular views. This reminds me of Tolkien’s drawings of the Misty Mountains in The Hobbit.

Further along we had views of Cairns laid out before us.

There was also a small water sport lake where we watched water skiers and wake boarders being pulled round and round by underwater cables. Round and round they went like hamsters on a wheel. 

The next day we left Cairns for the Low Isles.

There were no crocs on Low Isle and many tourists.  Many smaller and tastier looking too (in case ‘no crocs’ turned out to be wrong), all snorkelling happily so we snorkelled too.  The Low Isles are made up of two islands - Low Isle and Woody Isle. After one swim and one night we moved on.

Our next one night stop was MacKay Reef where Graham on Barracuda took this terrific photo of the four boats. From left to right - Larus, Into the Blue, Estehr and Barracuda. This photo makes me want a drone though I have no idea where we would put it.

Our next stop was Hope Island where we were invited onto Estehr to celebrated National Sweden Day, June 6. 

We arrived at Hope Island before Estehr and Into The Blue. While we waited for them we were approached by a Queensland Fisheries boat. 

There are a lot of rules regarding Recreational Fishing. Each state issues its own fishing licenses. If you do not have a license, you must not fish. You may not even have fishing gear on deck unless you have a license. 

They came along side and a nice young woman came aboard to check that we were in compliance. No gear on deck - check. No fish in fridge or freezer - check.  The Australian are a fishing crazy people and I always feel a little embarrassed that we don’t feel the same. By way of excuse, I mentioned to the young woman, that we often eat vegetarian meals, and she smiled and said, ‘I saw your tofu in the fridge. I’m vegetarian too.’ Hahahaha. If you don’t bond one way, there might well be another.

June 6th. Happy National Sweden Day.  

Ann-Sofie and Johan put on a marvellous spread and we non-Swedes pulled out all the stops to show our support.

The ladies - Ann-Sofie, Zoe and me.

The gentlemen - Bill, Tim and Johan.

Barracuda missed out on these celebrations to head to Cooktown, which was the last provisioning stop until Horn and Thursday Islands.  We followed in their footsteps the next day and saw them leaving as we approached Cooktown.

One of the jobs that needed to be finished sooner than later was to replace a zip in the insert between the spray hood and the bimini.  

Alison from Venture Lady talked me through the process and it was far easier than I expected. Only having one zipper added a little tension. If I messed it, we wouldn’t be in trouble, but we might well get salty. The insert is important to keeping us dry when it’s windy and the seas are rough.  I only replaced the bimini side of the zip as the zip that attached to the spray hood was still okay. When it did fail a week later, the remaining half of zipper had the right end to marry up with the half on the spray hood that was still good. Phew!

The zips fail due to sun damage. The fabric of the zip fails and the teeth start to fall out.  We have flaps that should cover the zips but there are places where the protection isn’t consistent or the flap put on the bimini gets blown back and has never provided any protection.  I noticed the latter issue soon after the bimini was made in Trinidad, but we were on the moved by then and we hadn’t yet had the insert made. With the insert in place you don’t always see the unprotected zip and I completely forgot about. 

So! When I did the second repair I added a jazzy new flap to the insert so any wind would blow it toward the bimini this covering the zipper. 

New zip under jazzy new flap. 

You can also see the old flap behaving badly. We could physically tuck the old under the new but it zips/unzips from underneath and I suspect it would make the unzipping impossible.

This is the sprayhood-side that was the second repair. 

The  bit of flap covers the zip if you smooth it down, but it works its way back up. I tried a little sticky-back velcro but it barely adheres to the canvas and you need to continually press it closed. Maybe a flap extension with a dart to help it go round the curve? However any work on the  flap sprayhood meaning taking the sprayhood off and that off is a much bigger job. Maybe we’ll just wait till we need a whole new sprayhood, insert and bimini and we finally know what to lookout for.

We really enjoyed looking around Cooktown.

First to see were the wonderful tiles that decorate Reconciliation Park. We came ashore via the Cooktown Wharf. 

‘The Cooktown Wharf; Fun for all generations; Sponsored by the Palmer Family’

I would not be surprised if the Palmer Family were related to Arthur Hunter Palmer, who the Palmer River  was named after. The Palmer River provided transportation to the Palmer River Goldmines.

The tiles below are part of the Milbi Wall.

 The Milbi Wall and Cooktown Public Art puts them into context.

The first thing was saw on a Sunday afternoon was a rehearsal for The Reconciliation between Captain Cook and the indigenous people.  

The next Sunday was the actual performance and I would have loved to see it.

For the dirt on why they needed to reconcile this Wikipedia article tells that story and much more very well indeed - Cooktown, Queensland.

Captain James Cook

Not the first nor the last Crocodile warning sign we’ve seen.

Somewhere we saw a ‘what to do if you encounter a crocodile’ sign. In a nutshell, if you see one walk away, if it run towards you run, run in away in straight line, do not zigzag, and a last helpful bit of info - crocodiles do not like to climb rocks or steep banks. And always report a crocodile sighting as they can come and go anywhere they like.

We visited the Botanical Gardens. It was lovely to walk in the cool of the trees.

There was more artwork to be seen here too. That is one big gecko!

The Persephone Mungaroo Python was carved from ironwood over 30 years ago a local told us and it hasn’t deteriorated despite years of sun and rain. 

I like the support of the Community Gambling Benefit Fund. We saw quite a lot of things supported by this or that community fund.

The Soldiers Memorial Hall, Bar and Bistro.

The main street.

The building in the middle has rooms to let an above and a bar downstairs with big windows and wooden shutters that open onto the sidewalk/pavement. We walked past it often and never stopped for a beer. It looked cool inside and I wish we had taken the time. It probably would have been the most authentic Australian thing we could have ever done.

Back to Larus and on the move again.

We spent a couple nights at Lizard Island which had a resort and a runway. While walking we met a couple from Melbourne. They were visiting various islands along the coast by helicopter. 

We had great sailing much of the time with consistent winds from the southeast.

We often stopped on a island that was mostly sand spit just to anchor for the night and moving on the next morning in.

Southern end of Ingram Island beach.

Northern end of Ingram Island Beach. Tim spotted this croc on the beach. It probably was probably eyeing up its dinner.

Another sliver of sand to anchor behind; this one was accented by fresh crocs tracks.  These were wiped away as the tide rose.

The croc tracks are about halfway along the sand spit. Just before dusk the sand had disappeared.

This was the welcome party at Portland Road for another one night stop. I suspect fishing boats anchor here and the sharks come for a free meal.

We think they are Nurse Sharks. They were lithe and whippy and frolicked around the boat like puppies. They are reputed to be friendly, but even if they are, any crocs in the area wouldn’t be.

One thing that most of our anchorages had in common was that at some state of the tide, they would get uncomfortable/rolly/lumpy, however you want to describe it.  There was one exception and it was such a big dull bay that I didn’t take any photos, but we stayed there for 3 days enjoying 3 uninterrupted nights sleep. The wind blew from the shore and we were far enough into the bay that any swell that did make into the bay was flattened out by the strong offshore wind.  It was bliss.

The Escape River, last stop before rounding the tip of Queensland, was another night stop and was most notable for our rough passage out of there. 

The mouth is wide but quite shallow and as the tide rushed out it makes for a lively ride.

Albany Pass, a short cut to the western side of Queensland.

Albany Pass is on the top right between the mainland and Albany Island.  You need the tide with you, which we had, and we flew through the pass. 

It was a dull day and as we rounded Cape York, the tip of which is this point of rock, those ashore took photos of us as we took photos of them.  I think they got the better deal. :D

We could have anchored further around the corner, but the tide was running so hard we carried on to a calmer anchorage. The next morning we headed to Seisia (say-sha) a small town on the mainland with a shop to buy food.

Behind Larus you can just make out two buoys, a green on the left and a red right.

We passed through buoys and made a 45 degree turn west to follow the beach, past the dock and to the anchorage.  

There was only us and the power boat permanently anchored there in the bay. The current was quite strong thought the between the island and the mainland. There were many sandbars that appeared at low water.  

It is such a long drive by land that most of the of the stores, fuel and food are brought by ferry from Cairns.

We visited the little shop and found very little fresh food, but we knew a deliveries came on a Friday.  We asked about bread as well and the lady in shop told us to watch for the ferry and come a couple hours after.  The ferry arrived in the night and we wait till noon it give them a little time to get things onto the shelves. 

We were happy to find frozen loaves of bread in the freezer but surprised to find no fresh produce at all. We asked when the produce would arrive and were told,’It’s here in the back and it will come out once it been audited. The audit would be finished by Monday, the day we were leaving.  So we bought our bread and some green pears from the previously delivery and left it at that.

Other than a camp ground, a gas station and a shop, this is Seisia.

We ventured into the camp ground office to ask about about the area, and were astonished to be greeted with by a couple with broad Irish accents.  It transpired that they were managing the campground for 3 months as part of their one year visa requirement. As we chatted they explained how the visa worked.  They could stay for a year if they were prepared to work for 3 months in a rural area. If you wanted to stay in Australia for 3 years, the work requirement was 6 months in a rural area. I ask if they planned to stay for 6 months and they said, erm, no. 

Unless you are a keen fisherman there really wasn’t a heck of a lot to do there. There was a town inland about an hours drive away. There was no public transport. We were told that hitchhiking in the day was okay, but they did not recommend it at night. And it was dusty. There was a strong wind blowing from the south and the orange dust was everywhere. It might well have seemed a little bleak to someone expecting the bright lights of Brisbane or Sydney.

Our final stop in Australia was Horn Island.  

We’d gotten used to rather dull blue water so it was quite a nice change to see stunningly turquoise seas. 

I couldn’t find which type of ant built do with type of hill, though I’m quite sure the tricycle incorporated into the design was not in the original.

I did find a site about natural navigation and ant hills were featured. Natural Navigation. I found it interesting.

A Weaver Ant nest.  

We’ve seen the nests and the weaver ants all over the place in Australia. The ants are and they light brown/golden with a green abdomen. Honeydew is part of their diet and we were told by a local they taste like lemons or limes. Yum.

The main anchorage was on Horn Island was a wide strip of water between the shore and a reef.  It was well protected from swell, but the tide ran hard either east or west with a short slack time between. While we were there the wind blew hard from the south/southeast.  We were often pinned over on one side or the other between the changes of the tide.  

The ferries from Cairns arrived frequently. This one was a drive on, pick up the containers and drive off. That burst of smoke is it lining up to the ramp just ahead of it.

Thursday Island, where we cleared out is on the far side of the bay. It was a small town with one of every shop one would normally need.  It had two churches.

The Anglican Church and School…

… and the Catholic Church and School.

Both churches and schools on the same block, side by side, which I think is nice.

We clear out at HM Customs House by Border Force Australia 

This was the first time I’d seen the King in an official photo next to the Australia Coat of Arms, which was a charming watercolour print. 

Rachel, our Border Force Agent, was absolutely charming and I was rather sad when the interview and paper signing ended.  She was a big town girl who had relocated to a small town and loved it. Would have like to hear more of her life at the top of Queensland.

We had a bright breezy day to leave Australia.  Bruno’s Girl is reefed down and we were sailing under only gib and mizzen.

Next stop Indonesia!