Hmmm sorry for any confusion but we actually left Chesterfield Reef on Thursday the 10th October.  You do tend to forget days and dates a bit out here.  The passage back to Bundaberg is approximately 450NM at a course of 215M and should take us about 3.5 days.  The forecast is for 1 day of good wind, 2 days of light winds and good wind to get us into Bundy on Sunday.

 

The forecast has pretty much been spot on so far.  We had a great sailing day on Thursday and into Friday but the motor went on at around 3am and we motor sailed for most of the day.  We have had some really strange currents / tides out here and for the most part of Friday we had up to 2 knots of current against us at times making it for very slow progress however, the conditions are pretty comfy on board so we can’t complain too much.  We saw  a ship in the morning which was pretty exciting – it was heading to Chile so has a big voyage ahead.  We have also been lucky enough to see quite a few sea birds during the day which we figure is because there are quite a few reefs and islands not too far from our track.  We were quite surprised to see a large pod of dolphins during the afternoon – we have never spotted dolphins out in the middle of the ocean but they may also be here due to the small land masses close by.  We were very lucky to have two overnight guests on board overnight.  The first was a red footed Booby which took up residence on the first spreader which ended up not being a good choice as the motion of the boat made it quite untenable to the point that he had to leave shortly after arriving.  Can’t say we complained too much as he kept pooping on the boat.  The second visitor turned up about midnight and was much smarter landing on the pulpit.  He was a juvenile Booby of some description and seemed quite at home up there until first light when he went on his way again.  

 

The current today (Saturday 12th)  is much more palatable and we are getting anything from 0.5 – 2 knots with us which is much nicer and the conditions on board are still really nice for travelling with low swells and the days are still warm and sunny with cooler nights which make sleeping down stairs comfy.  We will cross the Tropic of Capricorn sometime this afternoon which means we will be officially out of the tropics.  Unfortunately we are still motoring but we are expecting some good winds to pop up in the early hours on Sunday morning so should be able to spend the last day of the passage under sail which would be a nice way to finish off the trip. 

 

We are currently 155 NM from Burnett Heads at Bundaberg and based on our current rate of progress we would expect to be arriving at Bundaberg sometime on Sunday PM and if all goes to plan will get our customs clearance early on Monday morning.

 

So far we have been living on board Mustang Sally for just over six months and have covered around 4,500NM so far and we haven’t quite finished yet.   We are already planning and looking forward to our next adventure in 2014 which is a trip up the east coast of Australia as far north as Lizard Island and back home to Melbourne.

 

Our current position is “23:04.07S 154:29.20E”