It was a tough decision to go or not. We had already been waiting for a weather window for just over a week and delayed our arrival to Australia because of it. But the weather hasn’t been favourable and it is a long treacherous passage of around 800nm or 4-6 days sailing. We had not had an easy passage to New Caledonia and I wanted to try give my little crew the best weather possible. But as luck would have it I got sick and a fever the day before yesterday and lay in bed all day yesterday. Last night was not easy either with a few squalls running through us with winds up to 35knots. All this was expected and I planned jump on the back of this weather and try make hay whilst the window opened.

From what I could discern from the weather between New Caledonia and Australia, this big low pressure runs from west to east from Australia to New Zealand and when it is close to NZ we get nice stable South Easterlies. Which make our passage pleasant but sadly from my estimation these could only be reliably expected for 3 days at most and our passage is 5ish. And when its not South East it could easily be very strong westerlies which would be horrible for us. So since I had already been watching this pattern the last month and knowing that I would need to wait at least another week for the next window I decided to go.

Everyone else onboard seems cheery and ready to go so who was I to stop the fun? Only little Azania had a little sore tummy this morning but that was soon gone and frankly all the ladies onboard have been extraordinarily energetic today.

So we weighed anchor much later than usual due to my very disrupted evening of storm watching and my general indecision and set off on our merry way around 10am. The wind was around 20-25knots and pretty much on our nose but this was to be expected but also expected to shift more to south and offer us a close reach (around 60degrees apparent). I had prepared everyone for what was to projected to be the hardest day of our passage. Strong winds but also a big swell into us just off our nose. It was as expected pretty bumpy but we were prepared and everyone seems very very happy which frankly is all I wish for on the boat. I was expecting much more grumpiness about the conditions and at least one of the ladies feeling ill but not a sausage.

I must also announce we have another male onboard. Liam the kids surfing teacher has joined us for the passage to Australia where he will be starting his new job onboard an epic adventure sailing vessel. Liam is a very keen fishermen, spear fishermen and sailor and an absolute pleasure to have onboard helping on the night shifts. Who can complain about a little more sleep?

Anyway, before departing we had kitted out a bunch new lures and got all our rods ready. We were very very excited about catching something exhilarating. Anyway, today was a lot of false starts. Firstly we lost something super big which spooled the reel (when all the line runs out before you can even start reeling in) in less than a minute before we could slow the boat down. Not a good start. Chin up I said and lets re-spool the reel and try again. We did and an hour later another hit on the same rod with the new line and the reel tangled because of not enough tension got stuck and broke the line. Arabella 0 - Fish 2. Bad day fishing but we will come back harder tomorrow. Arabella kinda laughed that we need to figure our how to do things with Liam onboard. Sometimes kids just get right to the point. We will need to have a team talk tomorrow morning on protocol.

The girls seem more bubbly than ever. None has shown any signs of sickness and its very rough out here. They really are little sea creatures now and are seemingly as happy on anchor as they are out at sea. Arabella and Alex had a music day playing loud music and singing along on the flybridge and Apple and Azania spent most of the day playing in the cockpit. Mommy was always looking after me and making sure I was fully medicined up with oils, chinese medicine, food and drink. As I have said before there is no place on earth serving better food than SV Arabella. Case in point is the dinner I am eating while writing this.

Beef Lasagne with a cuttlefish salad from the massive Cuttlefish Liam speared yesterday. To top it off, we had tiramisu for dessert. It is stupendously delicious and could easily be found in a fancy restaurant.

So back to the sailing. We are moving slowly now around 6-6.5 knots with the sun having set. For the most of today we averaged about 7-8 knots with a strong current against us. SV Arabella continues to do a wonderful job.

Main Sail - 2 reefs

Storm Jib

Moon - New moon so nothing much as usual and setting at 9pm

Partly Cloudy

No chance of rain

Position 22.57S 165.5E

DTD (Distance to Destination) 736nm

DMG (Distance made good or in other words complete) - 57nm

AWA (Apparent wind angle) 60 degrees

AWS (Apparent wind speed) 18-25knots

COG 230degres

GPS Speed 6-8knots

Lastly, I am not feeling too bad. Not great but nothing the drugs can’t fix. Hehe

Till tomorrow.