Day Twenty Five – Sleep, finally

Sometimes you just gotta do what you gotta do. Last night I needed to whatever it took to get some restful sleep. The engine was on due to lack of wind, which made for a smooth ride. I put my ear plugs in for the first time and my eye mask on. I had already […]

Day Twenty Four – Impermanence

In many regattas, certainly ones with multiple races, sailors are able to drop a race from their overall points score, so even if they do badly in one race, as long as they’re consistent in their other races they can still do well. The thinking being success is all about consistency, but that everyone also […]

Day Twenty Three – Tired

The first thing that greeted me this morning was a dull ache in my hands, fore arms and lower back. I tried to get out of bed, but the exertion was too much, so I laid back down to try to assemble some order from the foggy chaos of my thoughts. I reminded myself of […]

Day Twenty Two – Broken Gooseneck

It was a relatively calm morning, at least to begin with. I sat in the cockpit enjoying my coffee, looking out to sea, soaking up another beautiful sunrise. There were grey clouds in the distance but nothing that looked as fierce as previous days. More intense rain cells than full-on squalls, or at least that’s […]

Day Twenty One – Half-way

At approximately 04:30am this morning I passed the halfway mark. Given I’ve been sailing for 3 weeks this felt somewhat anticlimactic as rather than feeling a sense of satisfaction, it was more a realisation that I still have a very long way to go. I no doubt have many challenges ahead, so Cairns feels like […]

Day Twenty – Back on track

I awoke before dawn, eager to get myself and Ahyoka sorted. Thankfully the sky was relatively clear, so after a strong coffee and some muesli, I got started on repairing the mainsail, reminding myself to take it slow and “measure twice, cut one”. After about an hour, the repairs were looking pretty good and I […]

Day Ninteen – Torn mainsail

It was a simple mistake. It was also a stupid one. One that could seriously affect the success or failure of this mission, making my isolation feel all the more acute. The morning was cold and wet with thick, black pockets of cloud in all directions. It was obvious there would be many squalls today, […]

Day Eighteen – Land Ahoy!

I’ve been able to have a restful day getting in a couple of naps to rebuild my strength from the previous few days. The islands of Yap, Palau and various atolls are all with sailing distance so pose somewhat of a navigational challenge for the day. These islands mark the halfway point in this open […]

Day Seventeen – Rough seas

Today was a wet weather jacket, shoes, PFD and glove day. That is to say, hard, wet sailing. The wind was 12knts at dawn and the sea state fairly flat, so we made good progress early on, moving along at an average of 6.5knts. However, by late morning the wind had increased, and we’d already […]

Day Sixteen – Acceptance

There were no major mishaps today, at least while the sun was up. Just what I needed. A solid day’s sail on or above the rhumbline, so every mile I sailed got me a mile closer to Pioneer Channel. While we sailed hard on the wind, seeing my bearing remain relatively steady throughout the day […]