SV SEAKA: CRUISING AUSTRALIA IN 2019.

The weather on the BOM Meteye internet site suddenly changed so that Tuesday to Thursday would be much the same. I therefore made the decision to go on Tuesday. So at 0600 today I rose and we were underway by 0650 and out of Maria Inlet at 0700. I had the full main and Genoa up in the light winds as we motor sailed along the Sea Reach from Port Alma. I noticed that there were differences in the placement of the port channel markers, no doubt resulting from the last flood in the Fitzroy River.

As we cleared Sea Hill I decided that we could cut the corner, without going to the outer buoy, towards Peal Island and soon after we did that we came out of the shelter of Curtis Island. The seas were about 1 meter plus, as predicted, but the wind from 0800 till about 1000 was a tad stronger than forecast. Now this caused an immediate problem; we were overcanvased. [Always wanted to write that!] So thanking all those who convinced me to bring all the sheets back to the cockpit, I immediately put in two reefs. To do this of course I had to heave too, [the act of stopping the boat by allowing the sails to draw on the wrong side without adjusting them] that was no problem and I very quickly had two reefs in and had Seaka turned around and sailing again.

Well almost, a few moments later I had to duck below and found my bed soaking wet, Arggg! Quickly chucking the dry stuff where it wouldn't get wet I returned to the cockpit. Thinking about what had happened I realized that I had just been unlucky. See, when I hove too, the Genoa was across the deck as it was supposed to be but unfortunately the leach [bottom] of the sail was across the forward hatch and we must have taken a wave over the bow onto the sail and down into the rear of the hatch dorado and so down onto my bed. Just plain dumb bad luck! Normally water would never enter through the dorado.

Apart from that the sail today was one of the fastest Seaka has ever done. Over 30 nautical miles in five hours we averaged a speed of 6 knots. We were averaging around 6.5 to 7.5 knots between 0800 and 1000, even after putting two reefs in the main sail. After that the wind did drop, but our speed was still around 5.5 to 6.5 knots. The wind was from the SE and hard on the starboard quarter.

After arriving at Great Keppel Island we rounded Middle Island towards the anchorage. The wind was now fine on the starboard bow so much so that eventually I gave up started the iron sail and dropped all standing. Looking at a couple of yachts off Leekes Beach I decided that was to exposed to the SE wind so motored over to Svendsen's beach and anchored at 1200 in 1 meter of water [it's low tide]. I spent the next three hours changing the foresail down to a normal jib, once bitten twice shy, stitching up a strap that came adrift and drying out bedding and wet weather gear.

The plan now is to leave Great Keppel Island tomorrow at 0700 and sail the 9 nautical miles into the Rosslyn Bay Marina [Yeppoon] by about 0900. This will give more time to do the necessary jobs than if I had gone in today at around 1400. We will stay there tomorrow night and sail [42nm] for Port Clinton early on Thursday morning.

A great days sail, hope I have more of them now!