Wild Flower is a Juneau DS 42 Yacht owned by Dan. He has engaged me to skipper it from Sydney to the Whitsundays with him. We planned to try to get to Qld non stop due to a strong current which sets to the south along the NSW coast. We needed an extra crew so we could do it safely so Brett from Tassie joined us for the first hop through to the Gold Coast.
Anyway we passed out of the harbour this morning at 8am with a light NW breeze and motor sailed for an hour. Just past Long Reef the breeze filled in to 15 knots so it was off with the motor out with the headsail and trimmed for a close reach.
We played around with Mary-Anne the hydrovane for a few hours but she was a bit overwelmed by the sudden attention after 18 months of iddleness and was a bit sticky rather than smooth in her reactions to the wind.
We occasionally engaged Ginger the Auto Pilot but we weren't too happy with her energy consumption. So we are hand steering since we all need the practice anyway.
Both Ginger and Mary Anne were stars of Gilligan's Island.
At 19:30 we are passing Newcastle doing about 6.5 knots heading towards a waypoint off Point Stephens.
All is well on board. Dan had a bowl of cereal, Brett fancied a can of cold baked beans while I had hot roast chicken and veges for dinner.
Wayne
PS my dinner was out of a can too
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