Big news today: we're getting North!
Nasdaq finally got fed up of short-tacking close inshore to avoid the East Australia Current, and last night headed further out from the coast in search of more stable wind.
Things look good so far, although we know we will have to cut back West again at some stage so we're sailing as close to North as possible. The seas are bigger out here, so although the frequent spray helps keep the crew cool on deck, down below we are living in a combined trampoline-sauna-obstacle course as we bash upwind.
There is a weather front moving North up the coast towards us which should bring a switch to South or South East winds behind it. As it potentially comes with strong, squally wind shifts, it would be very convenient if we could get through it this afternoon or early evening, whilst we still have daylight. We have been watching the barometer fall, and scanning Southern horizon for the tell-tale cloud line of an approaching front, but seen nothing yet.
Another momentous event today is that we have moved! Hanging from the Nasdaq nav station is an inflatable globe (not to be used for navigation) on which I have been marking our track around the world since leaving Liverpool. The globe is slightly smaller than a football, and at that scale the marker pen trail is approximately 100 nautical miles (nm) wide. Not exactly precision stuff then, but a good graphic reminder of how far we have come and how far we still have to go. The last update to the globe was our arrival into Sydney almost a month ago - since then we have recovered the same track twice on our run down to Hobart and back. But today the blue marker line has been extended to Brisbane - progress indeed!
In the Nasdaq Bistro today, Ted Billbe's first ever attempt at making bread from scratch was declared a delicious success. He later admitted that actually yesterday's mother Jackie Patton had done most of the work, but if it tastes that good then no one really cares who made it.
Now then, where's that weather front?
Cheers, Rob