Off to Southport to join the Go East Rally

Thursday, 10 May to Monday, 14 May, 2018

Our next adventure in Phase2 started in the customary way with a wave from Mum at the entrance of Raby Bay. Her chocolate slice and biscuits were a welcome addition to the ship’s stores we had loaded over the last few weeks.

We finally got away at midday and motorsailed to the Southport Yacht Club in a light northerly just in time for the welcome function for the rally. The Masquerade party was a lot of fun and allowed the extraverts in the group to shine. 

The next few days were spent with final preparations - running the para-anchor bridle and jackstays, final shopping trips etc. We met a few more crew of the 33 boats planning to set out and kept the Iridium Go! busy with regular downloads of the PredictWind Offshore app that we would be using on the passage for weather updates.

On Friday we were told we wouldn’t be leaving on Monday as planned due to strong winds and big seas. MetBob (Bob McDavitt) was again providing advice to rally organiser John Hembrow who was trying to find the best weather window for the 5-6 day trip. On Sunday we were told that a Tuesday departure was looking good so the final countdown began. Customs cleared us out of the country on Monday and we settled down to our last full night sleep for a while.

Print this post