Southbound across Bass Strait

We sailed off in the morning of 5th November, the warm sun being such a contrast to what I'm used to - it's nearing freezing point in Sweden. However, most of the Aussie crew members found this to be much cooler than at home. I was not the only one travelling to Geelong from afar - Mike came all the way from the US.

Mike managing a halyard during a sunset, photo taken from the boom

Before entering the channel to go through the Rip, we did a Man Overboard drill. We were not in a hurry - a huge cargo ship was on its way through the channel, so we wanted to wait until it was gone. The channel is narrow, cut through the bay that otherwise is so shallow that they used to walk sheep across it back in the days.

There were a couple of hours of quiet motoring through the channel, and we were passing through the Heads as the sun was setting.

The sun setting as we are about to pass the Heads.

Out of the bay, we were met by 2,5 meters waves that were not as palatable as the calm waters on the inside. A few of the crew needed sick bags the first night and day, before they get the sea legs. It sometimes takes a short while to adjust. But already after the first night, there were smiles and happy faces.

The night was beautiful and starry, with lots of traffic around like extra stars at the horizon. VHF communication is sometimes required to understand each other's intentions. Towards the morning, the traffic was gone and it was just us, the sea, and Salt Lines around.

Sharon planning the next move in the dark of the night, somewhere in Bass Strait

As we closed on to the northern coast of Tasmania, the wind increased. The weather report said 25 knots, gusting 30 - but during a few hours we got 30 knots, gusting 35 and even up to 37. We reduced sails and managed them to avoid overload in the gusts.

Thanks to the wind, our speed has been between 7-8 and 10 knots. A pod of dolphins came to keep us company, jumping happily and diving along.

We had about a dozen of these guys palying around the boat, among which was a mom with a babe.

Finally, we reached the Tasmanian coast. Now, there was too little wind instead. The next step is to motorsail towards Macquarie Harbour. We're looking forward to Hell's Gate, which is supposed to be “not for the fainthearted”, to quote the pilot books.

I got the evening's workout climbing up and around in the boom (one of my happy places), to make a small repair of a lazy bag batten that had chafed through. Now as the darkness has fallen, we have another night to look forward to before we'll arive to Hell's Gate.

Patrick got a shot of me at the helm, enjoying the sun and the wind. Great sailing day!

Lena, Chief Mate Silver Fern