Monday 13th Jan '25

Today has been a very pleasant one, not a lot in the way of wind or waves.

It is now 23:30 and we passed over the top of Fraser Island, which is the largest sand island in the world, and started to go down the east of coast of it. Running from here to just north of Sydney, which is a distance of about 500nm or 1,000km is what is known as the Eat Australia current and if you get into the best part of it you can get a boost of up to 2.5kts! So my planned route is taking this current into account. We have been cruising along at 10kts since leaving Mackay and now when are cruising along at an average speed of 11.8kts without increasing the rpm's. Not bad, eh!?

We are hoping to get into Sydney before a forecasted nasty southerly roars through early on Thursday. at this stage I am not holding out too much hope ew will make it in time and don't want to have a sprint race with a 40kt southerly (on the nose) 'cause I know who will win that. So my back up plan is Port Macquarie, Port Stephens, Newcastle or Pittwater all depending on timings and weather. If we do have to divert into somewhere that will be the end of the line for me as that southerly is forecast to hang around for a week or so. There no point me hanging around for a week to do a couple of hours or at most an 8hr drive to Sydney so if we divert I will be flying home. That will be a real bugger as after all these years and deliveries I have never entered or departed via Sydney harbour.

There are no clouds in the sky tonight and it will be a full moon tomorrow so theres plenty of light to see the horizon, almost like dusk but in the middle of the night.

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In Hong Kong commissioning "Pikorua"

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