The big delivery

Bass Strait
We have all lost our Bass Strait virginity! (yes, that's a reference to Richard Branson, our poster boy for the trip). Feeling tired, sore, sleep deprived but generally in good spirits. No injuries or incidents, in some testing conditions.
Day 1
Left Scamander on the north east coast of Tassie at 4am to make full use of a favorable weather window to make the 280 nautical mile trip to Eden. It was a good, well thought out plan based on the isometric charts for the following four days. Trouble is, the winds didn't drop off as expected and by mid afternoon the wind speed indicator had hit 35 knots and the seas had built to about 4 meters. We couldn't trust the autohelm under those conditions and hand steered through the night in two hour watches with two people on deck, just in case... Lifelines and harnesses were mandatory. It was a rough night with winds reaching a maximum of 45 knots and we concentrated on keeping the big waves on the aft quarter. I'm not religious, but in a quiet moment as I came off watch for a lie down, I found myself saying a little prayer. It was a strange feeling to know that we were out of contact with the rest of the world. The mobile and the VHF radio were out of range. The only device left in a total emergency was the EPIRB (distress signal) which operates using a satellite network. We were very much out on our own.
Playing the harmonica was a nice distraction, and after breakfast I pulled out my uke and sang a few songs. It's such a jolly instrument - it always makes me smile.
Day 2
The conditions 'eased' to 30 to 35 knots and we settled into one man watches of an hour and started to catch up on sleep. When reheating our breakfast the gas ran out which meant no cuppas or hot meals for a while. Later on, when conditions had eased a little I checked and found that the gas bottle was completely empty. We swapped to the spare bottle and resolved to turn off at the bottle each time. Pain in the arse, but at least we got something hot inside us. 
There is life out there: the albatross went out maybe 30 miles from shore but after that we saw mainly sheerwaters. Pete reckons he spotted some varied markings during the trip. Also, there were lots of small dolphins which followed us from time to time.
Day 3
The wind continued to drop and although we were making good boatspeed we were fighting a strong current. But the swell was noticeably smaller and less threatening so we pulled out a bit more jib and sailed as fast as possible. We put the motor on early and motor sailed through the morning.
We now have 3G and have resumed contact with the world. 35 miles to go to Eden but we are sheltered from the big seas and making good progress. Oh yeah, and I will see my woman tonight...