Day 5 Opua-Bundaberg

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OK, well the conditions over the last 24-36hrs has certainly put the boat and her systems to the test not to mention her crew!

The low up towards New Cal grew a little bit in size which meant we got a bit more of the crap weather than I thought we would according to the forecast a couple of days ago.

As the wind and the seas increased and came more round to NE we slowly followed it to keep it all from behind so as to have a safer ride.   Well we ended up heading SW (Bundaberg is NW) and towards Lord Howe Island.

At it's peak we had gusting 40kt winds and over 5mts breaking waves.  The throttles were set to 1900rpm and in nice conditions that gave us an average speed of around 9-10kts.  During the wide ride we were surfing down the waves normally around the high teens but the highest speed we notice was 22kts!!  At that stage I reduced the rev's cause although the boat and auto pilot handled it extremely well I was not overly comfortable doing that speed down a wave in a 62ft boat!    

The wind will slowly reduce over the next 24hr or so and is starting to come round more from the south so we have been able to start coming round more towards our destination.  Although the waves are still around the 4-5mts they are a little bit more organised and will reduce with the wind.

It is now looking like we will be in Bundaberg early Thursday.

Photos never show the true scale.  This is a 5mt wave picking us up.  


 

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