From Flinders Island to Morris Island

Yesterday we sailed the 80 miles from Eagle Island to Flinders Island. When we left at 4 am, we noticed that the wind was down from the 18-21 knots of the previous four days to 15 knots. The forecast called for 20 25 knots The 15 knots gave us a good sail until around noon and then the wind just died, and we had to motor the rest of the way to Flinders. The bright spot was the King Mackerel that I caught in the afternoon. Enough nice, white fish for supper for four days.

The wind came up at 1 am this morning. We know since it generated a steep chop in the anchorage that hit the boat at the stern (wind and current were not from the same direction). Nothing to be done but try to sleep as well as we could as the boat pitched around. We left at 7 am for Morris Island, about 60 miles away. We were able to sail for the first 6 hours but then the wind died again and we had to motor for 3 hours before we got a little breeze again. On the bright side, the seas were quite flat except for those hours at anchor. There are five other Sail Indonesia Rally boats here (one US, one Canada, one Brazil, one France, and one Australia) and I expect all will head for the same place we will head tomorrow — Portland Roads. But if the wind is too light, I think we may just wait another day at anchor.

Posted via email from sabbatical3blog’s posterous