Day 184, Year 2: Third Day of Passage to Aussie Land
Date: Thursday, October 25, 2007
Weather: Another Lovely Day–All Sunshine and No Rain; Winds E 15 Knots
Latitude: S 23 degrees 27.723 minutes
Longitude: E 160 degrees 24.409 minutes
Location: On Passage to Australia
Windbird is my hero, or maybe that is heroine. She always comes through for us. Today has been another beautiful sailing day. When we talked to Ranger and Scot Free II at 7 AM this morning, they were both behind us and having to motor due to low winds. I think Windbird carries her own “wind bubble”, as we had steady 15 to 18 knot winds throughout the day. It is nearing sunset now and the winds are becoming more variable. Our GRiB files say that the winds should shift to north of east late this
evening and the wind speeds should decrease. It does look like that is beginning to happen. We now have winds coming from the E instead of ESE, but we still have a good 15 knots. We are sailing wing and wing as of a few minutes ago ago and we are making great speed. I would imagine we will be motor sailing by midnight, but if so, we will have the memories of an incredible three day run doing 150 mile days. Sometime tomorrow we will be half way there!
Around noon today, we could see two boats behind us. We had heard Monkey’s Business and New Dawn on the radio and assumed it was them. We called Monkey’s Business and confirmed. Jason is from Colorado, so I’m going to have to talk with him about the World Series tomorrow. I got an email from my sister saying the Red Sox were leading the Colorado Rockies in the first game, but I will have to wait until morning to get an email telling us who won the game.
We spent our day reading and relaxing. I did some boat cleaning inside today and hope to do some outside work tomorrow if the calm seas persist. I had to throw the mint I have been growing overboard today as no live plants are allowed to enter Australia. I am refusing to get rid of my ivy plant, however. It was one of the ivies I grew for Heather’s wedding and it has been on Windbird since 2003. Before we reach Australian waters, I will get rid of all the dirt and clean the roots. I’ll put
the roots in a carafe of water and hope the Aussie officials will let me keep it aboard. I really want this plant to make it all the way around the world.
