Friday 3rd Jan '25

Well last night (Thursday) took an unexpected turn.  The nasty weather that was forecast further south and the reason I decided to go in to Mackay in the first place arrived way sooner than it was supposed to. 

At times we were down to less than 4kts to try and stop the slamming.  Catamaran are well known for not wanting to head directly into the waves as it causes what is known as "hobby horsing".  I described this in previous blogs.  The conditions we had last night and this morning were exactly what we and the boat didn't need or want.   Those bloody short sharp waves with very little gap between them, on the nose and this time they were getting up to 2m.

The last hour before we got into marina this morning I was operating the throttles manually.  Whenever I saw an opportunity I would accelerate then slow down when the nasty stuff came along, then speed up again, then slow down, then speed up then..... this went on until we were safely inside the marina.  A tiring process but meant we averaged a much better average speed so getting out of the shit weather sooner.  We have had more wind and bigger seas but those were the worst conditions we have had on the whole trip.

Later in the afternoon after we had tied up the weather got ridiculous!  Torrential rain and howling wind that was nearly blowing the trees over.  During the really heavy downpours you couldn't even see 100m it was like fog.  And the wind!  OMG, all I can say is I am really pleased with my decision.

The question now is when will we get a weather window to get going again?  Unfortunately the current answer to that question is not the one we want to hear.  

Watch this space.