And we’re off! Leg 3 has finally begun and we’ve started our adventurous passage across the Great Australian Bight. With a short turn around this time and a long list of jobs to do, I yet again explained to my new crew that I was excited to be heading off so I could finally stop working.

I’m impressed with the amount of work we managed to get done(or give to contractors) in the few days leading up to leaving. We picked up and fitted the new shiny anchor, chain and windlass, fitted a new windlass switch, refitted the VHF arial on the top of the main mast, unblocked our troublesome heads, replaced all the broken cars on the main and mizzen(there were a lot!), grunted away some of the rust on deck(which is no small feat on a steel boat) and even gave the engine a full service.

After the chaos of the lead up it was actually a little disconcerting to think that we were going to be organised and ready to go on the 8th. Something had to go wrong…….surely. I was having flashbacks to Darwin when we discovered the bilges full of water as we were getting ready to slip the dock.

I was keen to get more helming practise on this beast of a boat, so Matt let me drive off the dock and over to the fuel jetty. I can safely say the boat is still in one piece. That’s a win for me. With an unprecedented amount of refuelling on the last leg due to lack of wind I wasn’t looking forward to the exercise of filling up all the jerry cans yet again. This was miraculously a painless experience as we tied up to the Bailey’s fuelling wharf that was thankfully set up for recreational and commercial vessels(unlike the huge jetty we were pinned to in Broome).

With only 7 POB for this leg, my new tiny but mighty crew made short work of the refuel and we set off from Fremantle just after midday. Next stop Albany. After running through our MOB drills and explaining the new watch system, we settled in for the next couple of days. The winds have been light and the seas fairly flat so we’ve had a relaxed start to the trip. Maybe a little too relaxed for some…………. As we’re running a 3 watch system with 2 people on each watch it’s fairly obvious when someone else is missing. Our new crew member Melissa(or sleeping beauty as I like to call her) was nowhere to be seen for her first afternoon watch. As she’d had a late flight to arrive the evening before I let it slide this time but I certainly won’t let her forget about it!

With a wealth of sailing knowledge and experience with all of our new crew the atmosphere has been relaxed despite there being less hands on deck. As we motor sailed through the night and the next day we passed Cape Leeuwin just after lunch on the 9th. Cape Leeuwin is the most South-Westerly point of mainland Australia and one of the 3 great capes in the Southern Ocean.

We charged on through the night and even had enough wind to turn the engine off! Glamour. Everything was running smoothly until he who shall not be named……..let’s call him the ‘Chaos Creator’ for now, decided to crash gybe the boat at 5.15am. With 30mins left till I needed to be up for my watch I clung tight to my bunk and hoped that Matt would get up to deal with the issue(thanks Matt!). With the wind and swell building in the early hours of the morning the auto helm was struggling to keep up with the gusts pushing us up and the waves heading us down. As we zigzagged our way across our planned track a wave picked up the stern and corkscrewed the boat around. With the auto helm not reacting quickly enough to this, the crash gybe was inevitable……..or so I’m told. Someone has to do it at least once during the trip. Let’s hope we’ve got that out of our system!

Next stop for us is Albany where we’ll spend the evening ashore and recharge our batteries before making our 800NM journey across the Great Australian Bight!

Till next time,

Jess :)

Join the crew for a sailing adventure

The Great Cape

Avoiding the Void

Then there were 6