It’s Still Windy Aye?
Yes, Jess, it’s still windy ……
Hi its Angie again, reporting in after our amazing Gulf of Carpentaria crossing.
We started from Thursday Island 4.30pm and anchored at Gove 350 miles and almost 48 hours later. Two nights and stretched across three days, our on the move routine quickly took shape.
The first evening was spectacular, with a beautiful sunset off Round Island and a keen sense of adventure circulating throughout the boat.
Sunset on Round Island
Silver Fern Sailing leaving us in their dust with their spinnaker up
The wind strengthened to over 30 knots and the boat was lurched about on choppy waves and a swell of one to two meters. Record speed of 11.7kts. Hard for everyone to sleep and the A Team did their best not to lurch everyone out of their bunks. In the end we had to take one of the 4 sails down and content ourselves with Silver Fern sailing on ahead of us. This was to be newly coined as ‘Passion Pop Sailing’ the cheap not so tasty version of ‘Champagne Sailing’.
With lack of sleep and a hangover(not literally) from the cheap taste of ‘Passion Pop Sailing’ the night before, the conditions thankfully eased and our sail into Gove was a little more comfortable.
With an unintentional rearranging of the fridge as it flew open on Jess, and somehow a scattering of toothpicks and oregano strewn across the floor, the calmer conditions were very welcome.
Baz and Angie on the sunrise shift
Peter and Karen lapping up the sun
With a small amount of traffic and even less hazards along the gulf we sailed easily into Gove around 2pm on Saturday the 26th, first spotting the impressive bauxite mine sticking out from the vast amount of land around it. We were looking forward to a hot shower at the campground and a cold pint at the Gove Yacht Club.
A Team Angie Out :)
Gove Bauxite Mine
Salt Lines charging towards Gove
Yet another beautiful sunset
