May 3
Hi All
All is well on board!!!!
It did storm most of the morning Sunday am so it was good we stayed in port. We had a lovely lunch with Terry and Di and another tearful good bye!! What a bonus it was to see them again!!!
We left early Monday…right at first light at 6am…..ugh, another early morning for the Princess!!
We had beautiful trawler weather until about 6pm. Skies were clear, about 70 deg F, winds were <10 kts and seas calm, maybe a 3′ NE swell with medium period and <1′ wind chop….sweet as!!! Then about 4pm the clouds came in, the winds picked up to 10-15G18 from the N….right on our nose….ugh. The ride was ok…..moderately smooth. We were surprised it wasn’t more uncomfortable.
The seas did not pickup too much as we found the Nemo current…..Equatorial Australia Current…..EAC…..it flows north to south and around 6pm we found it off Port MacQuarie with all the “dudes”. It was 2-2.5 kts against us for about 12 hours….arghhhhhh!!! Good news….that meant wind and current were from the same direction which kept the seas from being too rough!!!! Bad news we are losing time to our desired 7.5kt average…..we now have lost an hour, not too bad considering!!
Stats: 02 May 2100 UTC (7:00am May 3 local time):
Position: 30 04S 153 18E
Traveled: 181nm today; 393 nm to go; ETA to Bundaberg 11:30am Thursday
Course: 357M COG
Wind: 6-10 kts WNW
Waves: 1-2′ NW, still a slight headsea; 3′ E swell; 3′ S swell, a little like a washtub but all <3′ so a moderately smooth ride
Speed: current speed is 7.9 kts SOG; has varied 5.8-9.2 kts today; avg is 7.25 kts for passage; 1700 rpm (normal is 1600, went as high as 1800 rpm, even with higher rpm still not averaging 7.5 kts:(((
Weather: 10% cloud cover; sea temp 74 deg F (diving temps, yeah baby!!); air temp 71 deg F
Boat sightings: ~15 after leaving Port Stephen
Fishing: Not yet
Sail: down
Fuel burn: too soon to calculate; 1.1nmpg from Bobbin Head to Port Stephen, not bad @ 1800 rpm and 0.5-1.0 kt adverse current
Hope all is well!
John
Mystic Moon
GO MYSTIC GO
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