Start Loc: Port Clinton (22o 31.07'S, 150o 46.07'E)
Narrative: After dinner last night I went to bed to get a few hours rest before we headed off. While I was asleep, Heather and the kids did the final night sail preparation including fitting the jack stays and getting the harnesses and safety straps ready. I woke up a bit before 10:00pm, we made a brew, and got ready to head off.
We raised the anchor at 10:08pm last night, switched from mooring light to navigation and steaming lights, and motored out past Round Island.
So much for 15-20kts! Just after the tide turned at 11:00pm, we had a NW breeze at about 10kts. Our heading would be SSE until we cleared Cape Manifold just south of Freshwater Bay, then we would turn south. Our SSE heading had us on a training run, so I had no head sail out and one reef in the main (still kind of hoping for 15-20kts). We motor sailed like this for a bit making 4.5kts boat speed and 5kts over ground.
By 11:30pm the breeze had dropped to 8kts and the apparent 6kts could not keep the main full, so we dropped the main and motored under a few more revs, making 5.5kts boat speed and 6.5kts over ground. Heather went to bed to get some sleep and the kids had settled and were sleeping in the cockpit.
At 12:30am the breeze was less than 5kts and the engine kept reliably chugging away. By 1:30am the kids had both retired to their cabins, but more importantly the wind had picked up to around 12kts. I brought out 130% head sail and switched off the engine. The breeze was enough to give us 3.5kts boat speed and with a slightly stronger tide we made 5kts over ground. I was quite happy to sail for a bit, plus we didn't want to arrive at Rosslyn Bay too early. I was aiming to get to the marina at about 5:30am (an hour after low tide) so that we had enough tide to get in and so that we were entering and berthing after sun rise.
The wind didn't last and by 2:30am was back down to 7kts. Heather came up on watch and we dropped the sails and motored again. Although we could easily do over 7kts over ground, we kept the revs down to maintain our arrival time. I left Heather on watch and went to bed for a bit.
I came back on deck at 4:00am as we had North Keppel Island off our port beam. A heap of small boats came out of Rosslyn Bay over the next 90 minutes, making an early start to the public holiday. I was treated to a pleasant sunrise as we motored in, then woke up Heather and the kids about a mile out from the marina. We got the lines and fenders ready, motored in, located our allocated berth, and were moored at 5:37am.
Today is a rest day. We will do some groceries tomorrow, then head off on Thursday 29th December for Cape Capricorn. From there we will head out to Heron Island and Lady Musgrave for a several days before coming back in to Hervey Bay.
End Loc: Rosslyn Bay (23o 09.75'S, 150o 47.26'E)
Distance run: 43nm (cumulative: 2733nm)
Engine hours: 6 hr, 42 min (cumulative: 102 hr, 34 min)