Rally fleet all advancing on the 'Start Line'.
Of course 2 boats traveling in the same direction is a race, yes, definitely a race!
Exit point in view
Steve, Leanne and team all set to go aboard Easy Tiger.
Some tooting of car horns from the Seaway wall carpark.
Rom and Basia's view of Zofia passing through the Gold Coast Seaway
As if just getting away were not enough to contend with, Telstra was stealing our oxygen. Cancelling our phone and internet services was always going to be a last minute job. So far we'd succeeded in changing one phone to a prepaid $70 plan, valid for 12 months and effective from 24th. That took 2.5 hours the day before. Just finding out what to do took a couple of hours a month earlier! The Bloke's phone being on a business plan, was taking longer still. If fact, we'd abandoned the attempt the night before when an hour-plus effort via 3 operators ended up with the advice that it would require a phone call. It was a 24 hour service apparently. A glimmer of happiness was soon snuffed out by an automated recording of their business hours - midnight was excluded. Tuesday morning it would have to be. Just as soon as the sails were set, both the Bloke and I 'think' we achieved the suspending our services just as the lines were starting to crackle and drop out. Bearing in mind that the Telstra signal is still present to at least 25nm out to sea, you might get a sense for how long this took. With the job finally completed, I succumbed to mal-de-mare! Was it the sea state or Telstra? In any instance, a killer combo.
Tuaranga romping past and the last of the Rally fleet we would see for the next 5 days
It didn't take Tauranga long to come in close for a brief greeting and tear off, never to be sighted again. A much bigger vessel than us and a ketch too, capable ofcarrying 3 sails simultaneously. What an ocean killer she is. Never to mind, we'll catch up eventually in New Caledonia after dragging our little heavily laden gin palace across the divide!
The wind dropped off in the afternoon by the time we'd encountered our first commercial AIS target. We dropped our speed giving it right of way.
We were close enough to get a whiff of this vessel's engine fumes as we sailed across it's wake!
It was not long after dark that Grace7, a 13m Hallberg Rassy in our fleet,and about 6nm behind us, radio'd to say we'd dropped off their AIS plotter and asked if all was OK. OK? Yes, OK but now worried that Mr Murphy had stowed his Law aboard somewhere. Hard to be happy about that. This is the kind of news you only ever seem to receive after dark. Luckily we had back-ups: Two pairs of scanning, popping, peering eyes. Navigation lights at night are a big help and we had clear air.
Good night.! At nearly 17:00, we were motor-sailing to keep up with the 5knot cruising rule and it's lights out from us - nearly 12 hours in.
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