Weathering the Bad Weather!

Saturday 26th July

We had the most horrible day yesterday. The wind was coming from exactly where we want to go to - ie Cairns, and so we ended up doing a zig-zag course all day, and by evening were 36 miles closer! Wow.

Then at noon roll call Wizard, the South African boat, calmly announced that his mast had gone at 9 the same morning. On completion of the roll there were many offers of help, us included. Wizard is going to motor all the way, but like the rest of us does not have enough diesel.
Last night 2 boats transferred some fuel across, and another one will do more this evening. We will rendezvous in the morning as we have 120 litres spare fuel in cans, and a spare set of navigation lights on board that we have brought all the way from Dublin. At last someone needs them!

Today we have trade winds again and are sailing along in beautiful sunshine with good winds and moderate seas, long may it last. At roll call today Strega said that their engine is unservicable due to overheating. I gave them some advice and offered to meet them and tow them in if its needed.

This trip has been plagued. The anchorage at the start was on shore with good holding, but no shops, water or diesel.There was only the open beach, with surf, to land the dinghy. There were several landings in the water, although nobody was hurt. We took a trip into town with 7 empty fuel cans, filled them and returned in the same taxi. Val did some food shopping as well, but we are being carefull with drinking and washing water as both are in short supply. Darryn is going to look at the watermaker filters now that the weather and seas are calmer. We should have it running again soon. Our arrival time looks like late night of the 30th so we should be in time to meet everyone.