SV_Stylopora's blog

Third blog- In praise of diesel 650 miles from Brisbane surrounded by a totally flat sea, which of course is much better than a stormy sea. Seems like we asked for a calm passage and certainly got one. Thankfully we carry 500 litres of diesel. As we are approaching Noumea and seas are calm we are feasting and trying to consume our food stocks so we dont hand too much to quarantine on arrival. Its tough but some one has to do it. We stopped briefly yesterday in a particularly flat sea and all got off (one at a time) and swam in the 1 mile deep sea. Amazing experience. Totally clear water, warm and eerily quiet. Other than flying fish and the odd seabird we have not sighted a living thing in the last 3 days. Steve likened it to a watery desert. Weather is quite stable so we expect calm conditions again today with the prospect of a bit more breeze tomorrow.
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Nearly half way 365 miles from Brisbane and nearly half way to Noumea. We will cross the half way point today and celebrate accordingly. Great sailing conditions so far but lighter winds are expected today and tomorrow so motor sailing at present. Had an unexpected visit from Dolly the booby (it's a seabird) who perched on the bow of our boat from dusk to dawn and enjoyed a free ride part way to Noumea. Crossed paths and made contact with Tony and Vicki on L'attitude this morning. They departed Southport in their catamaran same day as us. All enjoying the voyage. Only incident so far is our radar is not cooperating. We suspect a flying fish who landed heavily on the dodger may be the culprit but he refused to make a statement. Sent from Iridium Mail & Web.

We've ticked a lot more off our list and still hope to be ready to leave in the first week of May if the weather's good.