Passage to Mackay

Getting the posts a bit out of order. Took me a while to spel chik dis stori and I got bored of it. ADD kicked in. This is the passage to Mackay. Older posts have us already there so sorry for any cornfusion!!

So it goes…….

I have 7 or 8 days and 1125 miles to pen this up so you know it might get a bit wordy.

So, Port Villa Vanuatu to Mackay Australia….    here we go.

Odd weather pattern coming up. Not liking it. Looks like a beating. Left on a good wind. Died. Clocked. Motored. Very uneventful first night out. Out of 7 or 8 nights for this passage. Easy watch schedule. 2 hours on, 10 off. Had a great match race with our friends on Nexus. We both had the same sail up. Mine being the one they loaned me in Tonga. So it becomes a trimming contest. They are a tick faster being 10,000 pounds lighter but the wind died before they got past me. Then its motor city. Which none of us enjoy. They have two speed props and 2X the fuel I have. They can motor fast and far. So they’re gone baby gone. Into the dead air and good bye. We go putt putt on one engine at 2000 rpm and I watch the fuel gauge. Well, I would if the darn thing worked. But it doesn’t, so I remove the inspection cover on the main tank every couple of days and stick the tank with a graduated pole. Somewhat for information purposes, somewhat because if I don’t get diesel stink all over me every couple of days I just don’t know what to do with myself. And opening the inspection port in 2 meter seas on the nose will get it done right quick.

Don’t know why but I can never sleep for the first couple of nights on passage. You get a little run down. So I go take a snooze after lunch on day two and when I come on deck the crew has this MONSTER Mahi Mahi lying there on the transom. 54 inch, maybe 45 pounds. Biggest fish that was ever landed on Vivo. “What the heck is that?” “We caught it!” “When?” “While you were sleeping!” I guess I should go to sleep more often. So for now we are done fishing. We have plenty. This will be 3 or 4 dinners for the six of us. And Australia prohibits the import of a lot of different varieties of foods. Including most of what we have in the freezer. So we have a whole lot of eating to do over the next week or we lose it when we clear in in Mackay. Most boats are in the same situation. We are going to have to do some power walking in Aus to work off this passage.

We are down to 20 boats now. Rumor has it a couple of boats will join us in Aus but not sure on that one. But we all kind of like the 20 boat number. Radio check ins are faster. We don’t swamp the local bars and restaurants as badly as when we were 39. And we are getting to know each other better being smaller scale. We’ve also sailed ½ way around the world together.

Day and night three were not fun. Big wind and seas on the nose. The crew in the forward berths were airborne ½ the time. Exhaustion will set in and people will start to get some sleep but for now it’s not too much fun. Everyone is tired. I’m on about 50 hours with 2 hours sleep. The fish nap. But I’m just about tired enough to sleep soon.

Day six now and I really cant remember the ones in between. It goes like that on passages. Doing a lot of reading and watching movies. Crew Dave has crew Italy hooked on Breaking Bad. His contribution to international relations. Lorenzo and Glada love it. Well, me, too.      The food is good. The Italian kids are fantastic cooks. Even when they are hampered by not being able to have to many pans on the stove. Like, only one. Or they get tossed when we broach the seas. Gets a bit chilly at night now as well. We have taken to wearing our foulies to stay warm on watch. 19 deg south of the equator and its wintertime here. But nothing like winter in good O’l Chicago baby!

Day seven. Maybe six. Not sure. But a beautiful day of sailing. First one since we left. Seas laid down. Great winds. Romping along doing 8-10 knots and quite comfortable doing it. Dinner might be a four-pan deal. Its safe enough I can cut them lose to cook their little hearts out. And that always turns out well. Its 11:00 PM and we have about 150 miles till we get to the Great Barrier Reef. Then 125 miles threading through the reef passage to Mackay. Still in VHF contact with a couple of the boats and everyone is very excited about making Australia. An Italian boat 4 miles south of us has radio issues and is down to a short range handheld. We help keep them in touch with the others up and down the range. The ones we can reach anyway.  A British boat is coming up about 10 miles behind us. We will all merge up and go through the reef passage together. Then “crack some tins” as the brits said tonight over the VHF. I think they mean beers. If they mean tins of spam that’s fine as long as there is beer to go with it. The first beer after a weeklong dry passage tastes like heaven. Tastes like the beer you used to steal out of the O’l mans fridge in the garage when you were a little kid. Just like that.

After drafting this up we crossed the finish line and entered the passage through the Great Barrier Reef. That’s when the wheels came off the cart. I will post the story sometime. Its not pretty.

peace

M