An early start and a bit of a treat; finally under sail in a 12 knot westerly with just a little bit of swell. Richard makes the most of the quiet time with the motor off. Belinda and Yves do a bit of morning whale spotting. For the moment they’re a long way offshore. When I hear ‘Are they getting closer?’ I pop my head up to take a look and am surprised by a group of 5 humpbacks surfacing about 50 metres off the starboard quarter, on a converging path. We alter course 20° to port and when they keep following us closely, turn the motor on to make some noise. A variation of a childhood nursery rhyme plays in my head;
Whale, whale, stay away
I really do not want to play.
I know my hull is sleek and blue
But it wasn’t built as a mate for you!
We travel in company with them right on our stern until we pass Broughton Island. Then they hang back and head inshore. One of them treats us to a spectacular breach; I can’t help but take it as a flipper wave to say ‘Farewell’. Alas, we’ve lost the whales but also our wind. The motor stays on and eventually the sails come down again to stop them flogging. Back to motoring; at least the sea is pretty flat.
After another beautiful sunset at sea, Yves and I are on duty approaching Crowdy Head. After checking YB Tracker I discover it’s been set to ‘off’ all day – apologies to those at home were were trying to follow us, and no; we haven’t sailed over land again. The forecast hasn’t changed; light, variable wind and decreasing swell all the way to Coffs. At this stage it looks like we could be there early tomorrow afternoon. Once there, we say goodbye and thanks to Yves, with the hope that he’s enjoyed the trip. He’s certainly been a keen learner. Jim is already in Coffs waiting for us. It will be good to have another helmsperson on board. Although I’m still daunted by the challenge of a 6-day ocean crossing, the lure of some consistent, good sailing winds is calling temptingly…
As we pass abeam of Crowdy Head I go to the nav station to do the sched call in to Marine Rescue NSW. Yves heads downstairs so there’s no-one looking aft (I keep an eye forwards from the companion way for whales in our path). When Yves comes back on deck, we discover an alarming situation; bean-bag overboard! It must have slipped under the lower life-line and off the deck as the boat rolled in the swell. A quick torch search of the water behind us confirms that we’ve lost sight of it. At night, I’m not going to turn the boat around for a man (bean-bag) overboard drill. We’ll just have to fight it out for who gets to use the remaining one on deck during shifts.
Two shifts later and Yves and I are on dawn duty. We’re entertained by a pod of about 30 dolphins all around the boat. I pull out my iPhone to record some video – mostly too far away. Just as they come closer the batter dies! But Yves has a morning I doubt he’ll forget in a hurry, sitting on the bow watching a dozen dolphins criss-crossing under his feet, so close he could have reached down and touched them. They stay with us for about 20 minutes, then head off out to sea. Another beautiful sunrise at sea, the back downstairs for a rest while Belinda and Richard take the shift which will get us all the way to Coffs. It’s a beautiful, sunny day and after showers, drinks and lunch at the yacht club, siestas are in order all round as we begin to enjoy the sort of climate we came looking for…