An early rise had us heading out of the lagoon with the sun barely up. Just our luck it was an overcast sky with strong winds. It was almost impossible to spot the bommies and determine depth. After several aborted attempts to find a safe passage, we eventually were able to get out of the lagoon as the sun rose higher and there was slightly less gloom. Another yacht was able to take advantage of our attempts and followed the safe passage we had found.
We have been out of radio and phone range for several days now so once again we picked up our weather report off the HF radio.
Poor Jasmine was initially sick at the start of the trip to Great Keppel Island. Good news was that after a few hours everyone improved and we settled down to a steady pace for our next stop on the journey.
Once again we spotted dolphins on the journey, they only stayed briefly with us but it was a welcome distraction.
Mummy found a copy of the extracts from Capt James Cook's journal published in "Curtis Coast" by Noel Patrick. It was absolutely wonderful reading, it described the very area we were travelling through and was amazingly accurate and fascinating to read. Here we were with all the modern comforts, HF radio for weather, detailed charts with depths, depth sounders, auto-pilots, engines, fresh water, easy to furl sails, yachts that can easily sail up or down wind. We really have it easy!
We crossed the Tropic of Capricorn at approx. 4pm and arrived around the back (Northern side) of Great Keppel Island to anchor for the night, sheltered from the Southerly wind and South East swell. It was pitch black. There were at least another 10 mooring lights visible as we approached the anchoring spot. At night it is almost impossible to tell distance from the lights. We anchored as close as we dared and attempted to settle down for the night.
The South East swell rolled around the Eastern point and while the Yacht was pointed South into the winds which were still over 20 knots even with the shelter from the island, it left the yacht in the trough (side on to the waves) and rolling terribly. Daddy had difficulty keeping in his bunk. We attempted to cast out a light stern anchor, however it dragged almost immediately, a second attempt also failed.
As a final last ditched effort we tied a long rope from the jib winch on the starboard side to the anchor chain. This allowed us to slowly winch the yacht so that it was pointed into the rolling swell making it far more bearable. A good lesson learned the hard way!
Off to Port Clinton tomorrow.