Year 2 – 1 April 2025 – Urangan Harbour -Bundaberg

If anyone reading this and is free from late June to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present.

We woke around 7.00am to a bit of a grey day and it had rained in the night. It was still drizzling and that very wet light rain which soaks everything. We had a bit of breakfast and upped the anchor with Trevor on the helm and me doing the dirty end. The tide was running at about two knots and so when upping the anchor Trevor had to motor forward to take the tension off the anchor chain. We managed it and the chain and anchor came up muddy. There was some wind but we had to negotiate the shallow areas first so we motored initially until we were clear of the sandbanks and shallows.

The rain continued and instead of continuing to use our light jackets we put on our full wet weather gear which I have had to do on very few occasions on my circumnavigation. We reached the end of the shallows and put up the full main and genoa initially. The wind was about 12-15 kts from the East/Southeast and we sailed about 130 degrees off the wind. This was almost on course for the channel into Bundy. Initially we were making about 5 kts and gradually the wind increased so I put a reef in the main and we began to make 6-6.5 kts.

The rain and drizzle continued and everything was soaking wet. We saw a number of large logs and tree trunks floating about which would have come out of the rivers due to the recent flooding and rain. We sailed on well and fast and began to make early 7’s in terms of speed. There was no one about (that may tell you something!!) and we were on our own again and enjoyed just sailing and being despite the wet weather. As time went on the wind increased into the early 20 kt range and so we put another reef in the main and then reefed the genoa a little and then when the wind started to get into the 24kt range we changed down to the staysail with no real drop of speed but more control .

We gybed with about 20nm to go and came inside the line to the waypoint and close to the shore so that when we gybed again we were on course to our waypoint being just outside the channel into Bundy. In fact, the wind veered more Southeast which meant that when we gybed close to the shore it put us more off target. I therefore took down the main and we just sailed with the staysail, which allowed us to sail more downwind and put us back on target to the waypoint. The rain was still around and we arrived at the channel by about 3.30pm and then motored in again to Bundaberg. We anchored in our usual place opposite the marina. We had covered the 47nm sailing most of the way.

As we anchored the rain decided to stop and we lowered the dinghy. The restaurant in the marina was not open in the evening so we had to go to the Lighthouse Hotel again which was a bit odd but the food and beer was good. We eat early as we planned an early start to Gladstone the next day which is about 90nm away. It would be good to get North from Bundaberg. There are various fronts and troughs around and we expect more rain over the next few days.

The picture of the day is coming into the channel of Bundaberg again.

Need/Opportunity Year Two

I am in need of more crew from late June to Mid-July so if of interest do email me at  hine.nick9@gmail.com  

In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.

The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com