Passing Cape Farquhar

Hi everyone,
We've made reasonable progress today. We're now off Cape Farquhar at postiion 23 35.8S 113 14.0E. Our noon to noon run for day 1 was a modest 113nm, about half of which was motoring.

Last night a nice SE wind came in around midnight and allowed us to sail at last. Initially we were close hauled but the wind gradually backed around to the east by dawn. We had a great sail, initially with a single reef and a few rolls in the No 2 since the wind got up to nearly 20 knots. As it swung it eased and by dawn we had full sail up. The wind lasted until just after noon when the engine had to go on again. Right now we're motoring into a 5 knot southerly and hoping an easterly will come in tonight too. There's been a 2 metre swell running throughout which slows us down a little when the wind is light but otherwise isn't a problem.

Sailing!

We've seen several big ships passing by hull-down offshore. Those we saw initially on AIS. No other vessels seen. Last eveningt the stars were spectacular with no clouds at all. The moon rose around 2200 and then we had a very bright night with very good visibility.

It's still warm here. Water temperature is 28 degrees and air temperature gets close to 30 during the day. Pleasant temperature at night too. I'm sure things will cool down in a day or two!