Wednesday Nov 23.
A Southerly swell was met with an Easterly but for the most part extremely light conditions. It’s cold, grey and spectacularly DULL, even our regular ‘happy hour’ has in itself been an exaggeration. Whilst pleasant enough the cold tends to take the edge off the moment so Peter decides it’s time for drastic measures. It’s somewhat ironic that we were held up in port due to the installation of the air-conditioning unit and what appliance do we turn on for comfort as we near summer? The Heater! Sad to admit but we’re complete whimps and although it doesn’t really ‘heat’ up the boat (one would have to completely close the hatch etc) it does offer us some sort of emotional comfort. Although, if one was to stand right next to the unit it is rather toasty!
A good 3 hours of Wednesday was filled in with sorting Peter’s music on his computer, some of which haven’t been identified correctly. We got most of it sorted out but if someone can tell us before we reach Perth, who did the song “Little Miss Can’t Be Wrong” we’d be eternally grateful. I for one have been sweating on the question now for 24 hours and it’s beginning to drive me nuts!
Over the past few days I’ve had the sneaking suspicion that on the subject of watch rosters, I am loosing the plot. Twice now Hugh has corrected me when I’ve mentioned that I was off to bed that it was in fact MY watch shift, even though (and this usually happens after all 3 of us have been up for a few hours) I was under the impression the I had just finished a watch. Each time I’ve done a recount in my mind and could have sworn that I was right, but a look through the watch sheet confirms Hugh. So back I go on watch whilst they go to bed.
Well, well, well. This afternoon we discover that the watch roster has a few errors and I have in fact been doing the occasional double shift whilst the skipper (inventor, supplier and auditor of said sheet) and Hugh (himself completely innocent of all dastardly manipulation) have availed themselves to a few extra hours of sleep every few days! Strangely the mistake in the roster schedule only affects (adversely) one person and that just happened to be me. (I forgive but I never forget).
We got a flying visit from the coast watch guys around 1500hrs. They did a low pass, photographed us and had a chat with Peter over the VHF.
Happy hour took a step up when we went for the Ploughman’s Lunch washed down with Coopers Stout. Perfectly appropriate for the conditions we thought.
Thursday Nov 24.
Cold, cold, cold, it’s hard to believe summer is nearly upon us. All things considered we’ve been lucky with the wind and sea conditions though with the South swell and the predominately south easterly wind Last Chapter tends to rock and roll. Hugh decided to stop dropping the tablets and is going cold turkey. Bad move. He’s now feeling less perfect.
Late in the evening and Hugh is out for the count dashing to the rails and feeding the fishes with some very unattractive burly! (Sorry that last sentence should have had a “do not read whilst eating” warning). The wind has increased to the mid 20’s and the poor bastard is laid up in his bunk and there is no way he’s capable of any shift, so Peter and I swap to a 2hrs on 2hrs off routine. Outside of bouncing around a bit the night goes without to much of a problem.
Friday Nov 25.
Passing Albany today and the our somewhat still green-in-the-gills Hugh spends the day laying down, the wind has dropped and we’re getting good boat speed with a more comfortable ride. Peter got Hugh to hit the Phenergan now that he’s stopped throwing up and he’s feeling much better. The night brings a revelation that has befuddled me for days. For some reason I seem to be doing and extra shift a day. All the scouring of the times fails to shed light on this dilemma. Then it dawns on us it’s HUGH doing. Inadvertently (we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt here) after each happy hour Hugh has been skipping a shift. It comes to light as Peter realizes this as this time it’s him that ends up with a double shift. We go back over the boat log and yes Hugh has thrown us out!!!!
Peter and I now plot to exact our revenge on Hugh. (Insert visual of both of us sitting together at night, lit only by the soft glow of a red night-light rubbing our hands together in mutual conspiracy, the evil mutterings of “Mwwwaaaaaahhh” punctuating our dastardly plans).
Saturday Nov 26.
Are we there yet? . . . . are we there yet? …… are we there yet?”
The sun is up and although the wind is still bitterly cold it’s a pleasant enough sipping coffees under the comfort of 3 layers of clothing, beanies and wet weather gear. Whilst whiling away the morning we spot quite a sight. For the entire trip we’ve seen a few dolphins and sea birds, nothing else – a veritable feather and fin black hole until out of the corner of our eye we spot, launching itself out of the water a massive black fish. It’s absolutely huge. It’s about 500 meters away heading east swimming against the prevailing conditions. Again it shoots out of the water long enough to know it’s far too big to be a dolphin (unless Neptune has Dr. Frankenstein doing work experience somewhere below us) but moves exactly the same as one. It’s definitely not a whale or marlin leaving us with only the possibility in our limited aquatic life knowledge of it being a killer whale as it’s shape very much like but without any white markings! Got any ideas folks?
Early evening and we pass Cape Lewin, a minor milestone in this nautical adventure. A major milestone psychologically as we are gradually heading more north with Margaret River and all those yummy wines just out there (yes we are close enough to the coast to make out buildings and as night falls the lights of cars as well).
Once again our hats off to Duane, the predicted weather pattern though expected about 6 hours later kicks in. Thirty plus knots from the east and we’re grunting along at up to 9 knots with only the inner headsail up. The mood of the boat has lifted up a notch as we realize that we’ll be in Perth by around 1100 hours. It’s a wild ride and getting wilder as night falls punctuated with a massive electrical storm to our north and east. The winds have consistently hit 35+ knots but at least the swell from the east has abated due to us being in lee of the coast.
Sunday Nov 27.
All is good in the world. The easterly is still in the mid to late twenties but the seas are relatively flat and Fremantle is only a few hours away. We do the breakfast thing and all three of us are beaming from ear to ear. The worst (hopefully) part of the voyage is nearly over and the clear skies promise a beautiful day. We motor into the Fremantle Sailing Club and after a few hospitable gestures from other yachts (making room for us to berth within 50meters of the club) we step ashore at 1130hrs and knock the tops off some nicely chilled VBs. Peter again has excelled himself getting us through some less-than-pleasant conditions unscathed. Hugh has found the going harder than he expected but is justifiably proud of the achievement. He’s come through with flying colours and has (when vertical and not feeding the fish) been a pleasure to sail with. Both Peter and Hugh honor me with a toast to my realization of my now complete circumnavigation of Australia. The first third of this (Last) chapter comes to an end.
Detlef Bauer.