Sunday 29 April 2012

Still weatherbound at Digby

Well, sadly we are still here. We were hoping to get away early this morning but at 0300 the wind was already 15 knots and building and now at 0800 it's close to 20 and that's in the anchorage. But worse is the direction (SE) because although blowing our way, it would be dead astern with a big sea and this old girl isn't good in that situation. OK if the wind is lighter and the sea correspondingly smaller but she rolls like a pig and we just don't fancy enduring that for 8-9 hours and hanging on by our toenails!!
So, we're here rolling around in the swell which in most of these anchorages is impossible to avoid. Still better than the aforementioned. It's playing merry hell with our daily averages to the point where we are seriously doubting whether we would make Darwin in time this year and that it may be better to break the Australian coast passage in two and complete the northern leg next year. If we did that there also are other alternatives we could consider.
But all this highlights the fact that this coast is very difficult to sail and is far from the travel brochure stereotype of white beaches, blue water and sky and calm anchorages.
Maybe in the Whitsundays that's the case but down here (we are still 180 miles away) it is not. It's a big country and until one navigates along its coast, one doesn't really appreciate that. We knew the total distance on paper but it's when you translate that into actual daily sailing that the magnitude becomes apparent.
Anyway, today is likely to involve quite a few games of Chess - hopefully tomorrow things will be better but the forecast isn't encouraging.
As always, more later.......

----------
radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.