Day 41, Year 3: Tomorrow is THE DAY – Over the Top
Date: Thursday, June 19, 2008
Weather: Overcast; Winds SE 20
Latitude: 10 degrees 57.980 minutes S
Longitude: 142 degrees 40.800 minutes E
Location: Escape River, Queensland, Australia
Total Miles Today: 71.59 nautical miles
Tomorrow is the day we go over the top. This will be a milestone in our circumnavigation. We are not halfway around the world in miles, but once we are over the top of Australia, I think we will feel like we are headed home. Last night was a full moon and tomorrow is summer solstice. I can’t think of a grander place to spend summer solstice than at the tip of Australia at Cape York. So we are definitely psyched for tomorrow’s passage. Today was our longest day yet as we head up the east coast of Queensland and tomorrow will be the shortest. It is about sixteen miles from here to the Albany Passage and then less than ten miles up around York Island and back down to anchor on the WEST SIDE of Cape York. Today’s sail, being our longest day sail, went well. We had twenty knot winds, but that is an average. We actually had everything from ten to twenty-five and we changed our sail plan three times before 8 am. But we got it right at that point and sailed wing and wing with our main out to port and our headsail out to starboard for most of the next six hours. At one point, we had both sails out to port, but basically we had a great run for most of the day with boat speeds often over seven knots. Entering the Escape River was a bit of a challenge with pearl farms everywhere and shallows and rocks here and there, but we negotiated that successfully and will follow our own tracks out carefully tomorrow morning. We are hoping we have the timing right for going through the passage tomorrow, and if not, we could have five knot currents against us. But we will think positively and be assured that we will fly through the Albany Pass with a five knot current going our way. Cape York, here we come!
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| 080619 Day 41 Margaret Bay to Escape River |
