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We spent 56 odd hours on this leg on Kioni

The wind was too strong to leave Yeppoon as scheduled so we had an extra 12 hours layover waiting for the tide so we could leave the marina. We walked around, ate lots of food, drank lots of coffee and took lots of photos.

The last 24 hours have been interesting. We sailed with the tide from Yeppoon at around 1430 hours and immediately headed into reasonably strong winds. I went straight down for a sleep as I knew I was on the 6-9 watch. Around 8pm the wind got up to 28 knots. I actually got to call out “All hands on deck” as i roused the sleeping lads to come up. We made a headsail change and then put a reef into the mains’l. After handing over at 9 we went back to sleep to wait or next shift at midnight. From midnight to three the wind had eased a little but we were making tough going of it as we were in a channel that had shoals, wrecks, a container ship going past us, fishing boats we had to avoid and if we went the wrong way reefs. The worst thing was that the wind was right on the bow for most of this time forcing us to make numerous tacks. As we came back on deck at 6am we found that we were still in sight of the carpark of container ships outside of the port of Gladstone but we had moved well to the east. The rest of the day was pretty good sailing with good winds and clear water.

As we moved beyond Lady Elliot Island we came out of the shelter of the Great Barrier Reef and into fully open ocean for the first time. We enjoyed a dinner of frittatas cooked by me and party pies, along with a beer and some laughs as the sun went down. I’m now off shift and writing this before i sleep ready for my first watch at 9pm.

I just came off shift – its 6am Tuesday morning and we are alongside Fraser Island with only 80 odd nautical miles to go to Mooloolaba. My ass is so sore I am going to not want to sit down for a week after I get home. And after 2 1/2 days in the same clothes I reek. Cant wait to hit the shower block at Mooloolaba.

Crashing into waves, winches and blocks creaking, foot steps crunching above, the noise of water slopping in the bilges and swirling past the hull. There is a lurching corkscrewing motion that lifts you up and drops you down, then hangs an extra pause and then smashes you into a wave before picking you up and dropping you down again. the feeling below decks is quite disorienting. At times it feels like you are falling and falling.

On deck there are uncomfortable places to sit and even more uncomfortable places to sit. The most fun is standing at the helm with the wind whipping into your eyes as you steer someone else's $800,000 yacht through the ocean. That is exhilarating riding 20 knots of wind and surfing up and down waves. There are 7 tons of wind pressure trying to knock the boat over counterbalanced by 7 tons of keel holding it up. The deck is canted at 15 degrees and the spray is leaping away from the bow as it slices into waves.

Awesome!

Now I am going to sleep some more.

The last day of this leg was pretty calm with not a lot of wind. We saw whales dolphins and a sea turtle – though I was not quick enough to get a picture of that. We joked around a lot and had fun as we cruised quietly into Mooloolaba, arriving at 8:15. We headed straight into Hog’s Breath for a steak before going back to the marina to shower. Here we say goodbye to Mark, and tomorrow we do the last leg down to Southport.