Return to Oz, Noumea to Bundaberg

Tuesday, 18 October to Tuesday, 25 October, 2016

We left Noumea at 0800 on Tuesday morning in almost calm conditions, a change from the strong winds of the previous few days. We exited the lagoon through Dumbea Pass and set a course of 244 degrees Magnetic. By 1100, we had enough wind from the ESE to set the spinnaker.

Seas were slight, the sky was blue and we were making good progress towards Bundaberg, now only 780nm away. We dropped the spinnaker at 1700 and sailed under genoa until 2200 then motor sailed until 0600 Wednesday. We made good progress in light winds with our genoa until lunch time, then more motorsailing until 1600.

We elected to keep the genoa and full main up overnight and were rewarded by covering 94 nm in perfect conditions. Thursday was also good sailing and we recorded a noon to noon 24 hour distance of 179 nm.

It was perfect conditions for the genoa and with 1 to 1.5 knots of current with us, we were averaging 7 knots in less than 10 knots of breeze.  We were in HF radio contact with another yacht, Moonshine, during the passage. In todays sched, Simon told us their autopilot had failed so they were now handsteering. Not a nice prospect. We changed to the jib before dark and covered another 92 nm overnight with 2 reefs and the jib. Conditions were not the greatest with confused seas. Advice from our weather router, Bob McDavitt, was that we needed to be in Bundaberg by 1300 Sunday. So on Friday, when our speed dropped below 5 knots we started an engine.

We had spinnaker, genoa, jib and motor all going at various times on Saturday in winds around 10 knots. By 2300 we had a double reef and with Bundy only 50nm away at 0200, all was looking good. Unfortunately, the southerly change came in at 0330 and by 0900 on Sunday we had 20 nm to go in 35 knots, rain and steep 2m seas inside Hervey Bay.

Needless to say we made it but it was certainly a struggle. We went straight into a marina berth and were cleared immediately by customs and quarantine without any issues.

Trip stats were 821 nm covered in 127 hours at an average of 6.5 knots. We sailed for 101 of the 127 hours, motoring or motorsailing the other 26 hours. Best daily miles was 179nm, top speed 10.4 knots, maximum wind 35.7 knots.

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