Day 183, Year 2: Second Day of Passage to Aussie Land
Date: Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Weather: Lovely Day–All Sunshine and No Rain; Winds SE 15-20+ Knots
Latitude: S 22 degrees 56.211
Longitude: E 162 degrees 54.915
Location: On Passage to Australia

Again I can say, what a difference a day makes. Today has been sunny and the seas have calmed. We sailed all night and all day today on a broad reach averaging 6.2 knots over ground. It doesn’t get much better than that. As evening is approaching, the winds are coming around more to the east and will be further behind us and if the weather information we are receiving means anything at all, we should have one more day of this before the winds back to north of east. Right now it looks like we
have no major weather systems to deal with, just a couple of days of light winds. But, of course, that could change.

We are making this crossing to Aussie Land with the Port to Port Rally. That means there are more boat in transit than normal, so we have to be on careful watch during the night looking for the lights of other boats. Last night we gained on a boat that ended up to be Scot Free II and around noon today we passed them. I can still see their sail in the distance but if we keep moving at this rate, their mast light will be out of sight tonight. Right after we passed Scot Free, another boat passed
us. It appeared to be flying. We think it was Ef-Jay, a large catamaran from Darwin, Australia. The captain, Kerry, was our radio contact in Noumea for the rally, and I’m sure he will be in Bundaberg in two to three days time. We are still planning on arriving on Monday or Tuesday, October 29 or 30, depending on what happens with those predicted light winds. During that time we will have a full moon on October 26 and our thirty-third wedding anniversary on October 27. Last night the near full
moon was beautiful. It was like sailing with street lights. I love passages with moonlight.

We hear from our daughter that the Red Sox are in the World Series. Throughout our lives together, Mark and I have not been big on competitive sports, but when we moved aboard Windbird in 2003 at Shipyard Quarters in Boston, all of that changed. You just can’t live in Boston and not be a Patriot’s and Red Sox fan. I guess our daughter Heather will have to keep us posted on the World Series.