Australia Bound

0700 position 32-33S 156-20E. 229 miles from Newcastle, Australia

I drew the short straw yesterday and got to pick up Zappa in the newly repaired dinghy. Fortunately, it all went smoothly and the repair held. I landed the dinghy on the beach by the airport and went to the terminal to meet our arriving crew member. As we walked back to the dinghy Zappa told me "You're not going to believe it, mate. As I was waiting for my flight customs rang and told me that I couldn't fly to Lord Howe! Unbelievable! The guy I spoke to had been misinformed of the situation though. It was all OK after I explained it to him." We were a bit concerned that this comedy would continue with the Lord Howe policeman chasing us down in his motor launch, blue light flashing, as we sailed away. Fortunately, we didn't see any sign of a pursuit.

At 2PM we slipped our mooring and were underway. Our destination is Newcastle where we plan to clear in and then head immediately to Pittwater where Zappa and Marie live, forty miles to the south. Van Diemen smoked along on a port tack broad reach with a full jib and single reefed mainsail until the wind began to die off at 10PM. We turned on the engine and have been motor sailing ever since.

The gribs predicted the wind direction correctly, and it slowly backed during the night. At 4AM we jybed to starboard tack. The forecast missed the mark on wind strength though. Since the engine went on we've only seen half of the predicted seventeen knot breeze.

I woke up just before 6AM this morning and went on deck to find Geoff, Zappa, and Marie in their jackets and wool hats trying to stay warm in the damp chill of dawn. Zappa was standing there by the smoking barbecue, tongs in hand, with a big grin on his face. "There's a lot of meat we've got to eat before we get to the coast, mate," was his morning greeting. "We don't want the customs man to get it!" It wasn't even fully light out yet. I guess Marie took inventory during their early morning watch and determined that we'll be eating meat breakfast, lunch, and dinner until we get to Australia so the prohibited imports won't get confiscated. I'm not going to bother putting the fishing lines out.

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