Gladstone Austraila
We made it to Australia, not where we originally intended but the same continent! Actually we left too late to make Darwin due to weather in New Zealand, we left late battling winter lows, and had a rough passage. We sailed NNE for 4 days before we were even able to turn west toward OZ. Leaving NZ was NW winds 25Kt gusting into the 30’s so we were hard on the wind and was not a fun way to start a major passage, however we pressed on, just got above the low approaching from Tasmania as it passed under us avoiding north winds, that was the first time in 4 days we were able to ease sheets, two days of nice reaching in 15-20Kt then the winds picked up to 25-30 gusting 35-40 for the remaining trip, some epic seas were endured, we were tossed around like a toy, however Crusoe made it with flying colors, a lighter less stable boat may have had some problems in the seas we were in, some breaking onto Crusoe, the pilot house windows (one of the things that we had reservations about) proved to be as advertised (supposed to be as strong as 8mm steel).
We traveled 1900+ miles in 11days 21 hours, about 158 NM per day average, there were a few dramas but nothing major we could not fix, some with the help of John Robinson (thanks John) but this trip was really the “shake down” sail as all others we did together were light airs and short overnight sails around the Bay of Islands.
We have decided to cruise OZ for a year before heading to Malaysia, as it was just turning into a delivery and we were not going to be able to see anything but ocean for months so we will cruise the Sandy Straits for a few months after Gladstone. I go back to work in about a week, and after I return we will head south at a leisurely pace, stop at Lady Musgrave, and visit Frasier Island, worlds largest sand Island. After the cyclone season ends around April we will start sailing north to Cairns, and around to Darwin. We have done this trip before (twice) and each time we were in a hurry to push hard to make a schedule, now we can explore, rivers, mangroves and reef passages as we have the right boat for it…and now time to do it.
John Fletcher, owner of Sea Sports and a long time friend of ours will sail his Adams 60 up to meet us in the Sandy Straits, see his web site at http://www.seasports.com.au/ChartersForSale/Sandy%20Straits/SandyStraits.htm nice interactive map of the straits.