In short, that was an adventure!

We have been lucky with the weather so far. The wind does what it wants and on most occasions we have to wait until it is aligned with the direction we are trying to go. For this passage we wanted a northerly wind, and ideally a northerly swell.

Northerly wind was forecasted 4 days after arriving at Lady Musgrave and we were planning to use it to sail back south. We initially wanted to stop at double island point again on the way down as we weren’t able to spend more than a day there on the way up. It was a beautiful spot and there were a few walks we wanted to do around the area.

The closer we were getting to our departure date though, the clearer the forecast was. The northerly wind was only going to last 3 days and then switch to southerly for what looked like a week due to a low pressure system offshore. We definitely didn’t want to sail into a storm and we wanted to be back at Moreton Bay Boat Club for the 6th.

If we had stopped at double island point, it would have only been for a few hours of rest before leaving again, not to mention we would have run the risk of hitting the storm.

Ultimately we decided to do the whole trip in one go, which was by far the longest at sea passage we’d done so far, and with only the two of us!

PredictWind forecasted this passage to be 1 day and 17h, we ended up sailing and motoring for 2 days and 1h.

Note: I will have to work on our boat polars as we could not keep the PredictWind downwind headings due to the light air and the swell.

Shifts and decision

Date / Time	Crew	Comment
27/11/2022 09:00	Erica & Nico	Leave anchorage
10:00 to 13:00	Nico	Meal: Sandwich
13:00 to 16:00	Erica
16:00 to 19:00	Nico	Meal: Chicken pesto pasta
19:00 to 22:00	Erica
22:00 to 28/11/2022 01:00	Nico
01:00 to 04:00	Erica
04:00 to 07:00	Nico	Meal: Bacon egg burrito
07:00 to 10:00	Erica
10:00 to 13:00	Nico	Meal: Sandwich
13:00 to 16:00	Erica
16:00 to 19:00	Nico
19:00 to 22:00	Erica	Meal: Barramundi and rice We were both awake to sail/motor through the Thunderstorm
22:00 to 29/11/2022 01:00	Nico	Really fatigued
01:00 to 04:00	Erica	Erica sailed at 3 knot to allow me to recover before getting in the channels to Moreton Bay
04:00 to 07:00	Nico	Meal: Cereal bars
07:00 to 10:00	Erica	Anchor in Moreton Bay or go to the club depending on the weather and level of tiredness. We were both awake to arrive at the marina

Sailing with only two people is tiring. We aimed to only do course changes when necessary, as few times as possible, and during the day.

On the 27th we were on one gybe (jibe), on the 28th we were mainly on the other gybe (jibe). As you can see in the picture at the top, this decision brought us considerably offshore. At one point we had close to have 4 km (2.5 miles) below us. For reference that is about the height of Mt Rainier and the Mont Blanc massif would only be 800 meters above water if it was sitting below us!

The Storm

We knew that a thunderstorm was coming, but we were not sure of its path. Since the wind was going to increase we reefed early and as soon as we saw the wind consistently being over 17 knots, we put in the 2nd reef.

We hoped that the storm would mostly stay on the mainland based on the forecast. We were still a 4 hour sail away from the coast but we could see it moving north. While I was off shift and trying to get some rest, the storm started to come a lot closer to where we were, which got us worried. I didn’t end up sleeping at all. The lightning was illuminating the dark clouds above us and we could see them landing on the horizon. Apart from a couple times, we never heard any thunder, this was the only comfort we had as we assumed that it meant the lightning was still far away.

We didn’t film during the storm, but here is a quick video from a few hours before the storm was above us.

In order for me to get some rest and to avoid getting into Moreton Bay completely exhausted, Erica sailed slowly (averaging 3 knots) from Mooloolaba to the red channel marker for Moreton Bay.

Highlights

It wasn’t all doom and gloom, prior to the storm we had had a really nice day and a half of sailing.

We were greeted quite a few times by pods of Dolphins. They seemed to like interacting with the boat and jump along side it. We also saw different sea birds, we could identify where the fish were as they would be congregating there. One of them had decided that our mast would be a great spot for the night. We watched it circle around trying to land on our spreaders probably 20 times before it decided the top of the mast would be more desirable. We had to scare it off or it might have taken down our radio and anemometer instrument!

The best was bioluminescent planktons! I was hypnotized by that the light produced by the plankton in the wake of the boat. I felt really lucky to be able to see that. Unfortunately, they weren’t bright enough to show in any video or pictures, so you’ll will have to trust me or see for yourself in person.

Lessons Learnt

a 2-day coastal passage is tough:

• There was was not enough time to adjust and sleep properly, so our moods deteriorated quickly with tiredness
• Number of dangers to watch out for along the way – The coast, rocks, traffic (tankers, sailing vessels, fishing boats), buoys, sand bars, crab pots
• Using the auto pilot consumed a lot of power so we weren’t able to rely completely on renewable sources (solar and wind) and the batteries needed to be charged with the engine after a day or so