Voyageur - Log day 123 - Off to Oz.....

16 July 2010
Aaaah! This morning we received a beautiful email from someone, a complete stranger to us. She is following our journey through the WARC website. It is at times very hard to keep up with the WARC shoreside programme of events, returning the endless invitations of hospitality of other boats, the endless daily tasks we have to do aboard Voyageur to keep her going, to keep her in "tip top"condition. There are only two of us on this boat and there are times when we do feel ever so tired but receiving these lovely messages of encouragement and support from our friends and readers really does keep us going on this trip. Ah, a great big THANK YOU..... and I promise I will keep writing. We feel so very privileged to be doing this trip that the very least we can do is share our experiences with anybody who has the patience and endurance to read our blogs!

We sailed out of Mele Bay and away from Vanuatu. Out past Devil's Point which we gave a good offing to avoid the overfalls where two currents meet. The wind was just about perfect, 10 to 15knots from the south east. We really only just made it to the start line in time due to a last minute dash into town to buy duty free wine and spend the last of our Vatu in the fruit and vegetable market. It really is the most amazing place. People sleep there all night under their stalls. The start line was predictable with all the yachts tightly packed together as they jostled for position. I have asked David to hang back in future. It is really not good for my nerves. We hoisted the mizzen stay sail but before long took it down again. It really wasn't working for us. Soon after that we poled out the genoa and that was the answer. Voyageur got into her little groove and we really had a great night although it was hard work. No relaxation in the cockpit for either of us, our watches were spent in the helmsman's chair, the wind constantly shifting direction A favourable current of up to one knot of current kept our speed up to an average of 7knots over the ground. Voyageur was a hospital ship today. David has back pain due he thinks to a strain injury pulling the tender up into the davits and has had to resort to painkillers. Most unusual. I am suffering from a sore throat. Either I have a cold coming on or I am tired. If it is the latter then it is self inflicted by an over indulgence of partying. We have been religiously taking our anti malaria tablets so hope it is nothing more than a cold.

Day Two
Voyageur has sailed effortlessly on all through the day, with just the occasional tweak to the autopilot. This is just as well as I am definitely "under the weather today". I really hope I can shake off whatever it is. The winds are due to pick up tomorrow night and the following day's forecast is for 26knots. The yachts have thinned out now which will make for a more relaxing night. Ciao and Kalliope disappeared over the horizon ahead, Lady Ev on the beam and we have just the constant company of Chessie off the port. They have stayed with all last night and today and appear to match exactly our own speed until the asymmetric went up and then they started to creep ahead. We will stay with our sail plan of poled out genoa, main and mizzen for as long as we can.

Lunch - Smoked salmon and scrambled eggs. Dinner- Corn on the cob / Lamb moussaka / chocolate steamed pudding with crème fraiche

Susan Mackay