Day 1, Year 3: Overnight Passage to Great Keppel Isles
Date: Saturday, May 10, 2008
Weather: Sunny Skies; Air Temp 68 degrees F; Winds SE 10-15
Latitude: 24 degrees 19.212 minutes S
Longitude: 152 degrees 07.960 minutes E
Location: On Passage from Bundaberg to Great Keppel Isles, Australia

Sea Moth . . . Yes, I think if I were to ever rename Windbird her new name would be Sea Moth. Not a very romantic name, really, but a practical one. If you have followed our logs in the past, you have probably heard me singing the praises of our cockpit enclosure. This is the plastic and canvas “cocoon” that envelopes our cockpit and protects us from the weather. It is the beginning of winter here in Australia, and even though the sea and air temperature are both around 68 degrees F, that can
feel a cool when you are out here on the water with nothing to protect you. We were brave this morning as we were starting out. We only put up one side curtain (clear plastic) on each side of the cockpit. When our friend Gerry of Scot Free II asked if we wanted to take time to put up the rest of the plastic we replied that we didn’t think we would need it, and if so, we would put it up later. I mean, really, we are sailing through the Great Barrier Reef in Australia. Do you think Crocodile Dundee
would need a cockpit enclosure?! Well, I just got up from an afternoon nap (yes, we do have to nap when on passage) and when I got up in the cockpit, the cocoon was surrounding me. Mark said the wind felt a chilly, so he gave in. I’m sure that in the middle of the night, we will be very glad that we have our warm little haven, but right now with the mid-afternoon soon bearing down, it feels a little like a greenhouse. The seas are very calm, so I have opened the front “curtain”-a zippered affair
that allows us to roll up the middle part of our front “windshield.” Normally you take the chance of getting a rogue wave in the cockpit if you open up the front, but I think not this afternoon. We are sailing wing and wing with the headsail poled out to starboard and the mainsail vanged out to port. The wind is right behind us, coming from the southeast as we head northwest up the coast of Australia. The sun is in front of me right now, but I can see Dutch Touch out in front. Dutch Touch is
a much bigger and faster boat than Windbird. Behind us is Scot Free II, although they were in front of us for most of the day. They were sailing with just a headsail, but they are now also sailing wing and wing and starting to catch up with us again. We are lazing along at 5 knots and are not quite one-fourth of the way to Great Keppel. We will probably have to motor during the night if the winds don’t pick up and hopefully we will make some speed then. It is just too beautiful this afternoon
to turn on a motor and even at this speed, we will make our destination sometime tomorrow afternoon. We think we are moving a little more slowly than normal, probably due to a fouled bottom. We made the decision to not have Windbird hauled out of the water before leaving to have her bottom scraped and painted. It is illegal to dive on a boat to clean the bottom while in a marina in Australia, but when we get to Great Keppel, we will take the plunge and see if we need to clean the bottom and scrape
the propeller. More than likely we have a family of barnacles living on the prop and that really slows you down when motoring. We plan to have the boat hauled and the bottom painted when we reach Darwin if it is needed, and if not, we will wait until we reach Thailand. It is much cheaper to have that kind of work done there.

We were up at the crack of dawn this morning in order to get everything ready to leave by 8 AM. We didn’t quite make our goal, but we did pull away at 8:30. Paddy of Zfarse came by to say so long. He had a last minute offer on his boat and he has made the decision to sell her. He and Allison were going to be in the Sail Indonesia Rally with us and we are going to miss them. Paddy will return to the US and will probably buy a new boat there. He thinks he will work in Alaska this summer and Allison
will join him there. Most of the folks we know that are going our way have already headed north, so we are going to have to play a little catch-up. I left the dock this morning with mixed feelings. There is no doubt that it feels good to be out here sailing again, but leaving the dock is that final act of cutting the ties with land. There’ll be no more Skype calls home to talk to and to see Sam for a while and that is hard for me. I’ll just have to keep in touch via email. Thank goodness for
HAM radio. I guess a cockpit enclosure and HAM radio are at the top of our list of things world cruisers must have.

080510 Day 1 Leaving Bundaberg