Never over 'till THE FAT LADY SINGS

Rejoicing that we'd made it across The Great Australian Bight can be premature. The Cat crews, by now well used to chatter among themselves trading sailing and trim advice, were on 71 again. Phone reception, although intermittent had enabled them to contact their families. They were very chirped up.

Trying not to be a killjoy, I called them on 71 and cautioned that we still had a job of work ahead there was another one of those 4 letter words to negotiate called a C A P E !!

Cape Bauer at the head of Streaky Bay. If you think the photo looks bad, well so were the conditions

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Was it a case of 'Be careful what you wish for'? Who would know except that the Bloke had already spotted that the port-side inner-shroud was beginning to sway (it helps support the mast). Despite his euphoric sailing at 8knots over the preceding hours he decided it would be wise to take the rag down. If you think it, it is sometimes already too late. This is a truth shared among sailors. The sails were furled up, with some urging along the lines of "quick as you can" in that Woof Woof tone, and sheets stowed when the wind cranked up to a steady 20-25knots. It was actually forecast. Defying recent experience, we still seem to cling to the notion that they could be right sometimes....there is psychological research on this phenomenon. Then it cranked up some more..... YUP we recognise THAT sea state.... 35knots for certain. And our rigging has a very distinct screech at that velocity. We motored with our 54hp Yanmar screaming at 2,000 revs which would normally deliver us 7.5 knots.... not against this stuff though. 2knots was all that the horses could deliver. Some would say 'lucky us'.

Our poor ensigns getting a flogging. Needle kit required.

We optimistically thought this might be some sort of land breeze that would die off as soon as the big driver in the sky went to bed. Not that we'd seen the sun all day. The tropical low had completely captured the sky above with milky, solid, low cloud all day, with and without rain. We hoped too that once we'd be in the lee of Cape Bauer we'd get some calm. No joy. A steady 28 - 35knots with gusts across our bows of 40+. Heck, we could see the end right there! We could even smell it! Yes, after 5 days at sea we could smell the land... so weird...a bit like getting off a transcontinental flight and getting that rush of new air - but more so! The air was incredibly hot too like opening a fan forced oven. Our teak decking smelled like it might ignite any moment. We were once again covered in sea spray after being so grateful of our rainy wash down earlier. Darn it. (What trivial thoughts in the scheme of things). It didn't matter though because we were soon deluged again. The Great Australian Bight was not through with us yet! It took an excruciating 4 hours to cover 17nm and anchor. Phew!

The Bloke particularly didn't like the look of this cloud

While this was all happening, Easy Tiger were having a crisis. A pile up of malfunctions and breakages had left them with hugely depleted morale and high fatigue levels from the stress; a main sail that had lost its sail bag and lazy jacks (guide ropes that deliver a sail into a sail bag) and without the ability to be controlled and contained, threatened to spill off the coach roof and into the sea.Their port motor had been out of action for 2-3 days compromising both their speed and their maneuverability. The fuel tank for that motor could not be accessed to at least feed the remaining motor. These problems all piled up the stress levels for the Easy Tiger crew. The fleet had already made a fuel exchange mid ocean to ensure they could keep going. With the end so desperately close but now in the most dangerous location of all.... NEAR LAND....Volunteer Sea Rescue were contacted on emergency Channel 16 to ask for help. The voice at the receiving station thought that it would calm ET with the weather forecast which was for "light breezes to 10 knots". Who concocts these things? Even in the seriousness of the situation we fell about in a hysterical type of laughter.....OPEN THE WINDOW (if you can) it's blowing dogs off chains out here!

The Love Cats as seen through the stays in position for a fuel exchange. In the end, Easy Tiger didn't need our offer of 20L

There was so much going on on Channel 16 we had to break all the rules and turn the radio off. We needed ALL our attention (greatly depleted with fatigue of course) to keep focus on steering Zofia into safe harbour. The Bloke kept his head up, eyes forward, steering and not daring glace down to consult the "God Pod" (navigation screen). I watched the iMux navigation screens on the iPad giving instructions "...no, no the other North!"while the Bloke took greenies in the moosh and me down the back of my neck. Oh, the joys of sailing. The Bloke was right to ask me to take a backward (West) facing photo across The Great Australian Bight.... because we ain't comin' back!

Good Bye to all of that and thanks for the memories

PS:Urchin had been on standby through all this and steamed in a couple of hours after us. We were able to return their favour of being the beacon to guide us into an Abrohlos Island anchorage at night after 40 hrs in a shocking sea returning from Steep Point (Shark Bay) 2 years before. Now we could burn up every last amp to show them, in a galaxy of town lights, where to point and anchor.

Easy Tiger managed to get to Pt Gibson under their own steam and were then met and towed in by the local VMR. Today they began dragging anchor (as the winds picked up again around midday) and were taken to a mooring. I think they'll be hard to shift from there for quite some time. The barnacle hat will pass to them for sure!

Are these winds normal for here? Or is this still the remnants of the tropical low that has pushed down through the continent and popped out to the ocean around here? We'll tell you in a couple of weeks because the washing is going to take at least 2 weeks to get done!