22/10/2020

In the morning the wind had completely stopped, but the remaining waves were still very big, so we were going up and down with the waves almost at the same spot. As the wind started to blow from the land, J stepped on the boom to cut the ropes that caught the mainsail and raised it to get the boat running again. We finally passed the reefs with the lighthouse that we had been looking at last night but had never been able to reach.

The sky cleared up and the westerly stopped again before long. We found out that the engine was not working well in waves last night, and now we had to try the spare outboard. It took a little while to get it into the water and fixed it in the right place. 18hp with 20 litres petrol can run for about 10 hours at the speed of 3-4 knots, it won’t make it to Great Keppel only with that.

As we passed Pearl Bay, I sent the lobster shell that we kept all the way, back to its home, thanking it for being my model and also praying for the Lobster god to give us a little wind… J went into the cabin to catch up some sleep and asked me to wake him up if the northerly pick up persistently (he could see the ripples in the northern skyline, so he thought the wind was coming). It was only about 20 minutes later that I felt the cool breeze on my face to the north, and a darker coloured, wrinkled patch of waves was spreading over. Finally the northerly caught up with Mustang. We raised the genoa and Mustang started to ran smoothly again, maintaining 7-8 knots in the afternoon. It was a very pleasant ride. Especially after a storm, we appreciated normal weather like this more.

We arrived at North Keppel Island at 5:30 p.m., finished the 36 hours, 180 nautical miles cruise.

We were all exhausted. I made three shreds stir-fried with pork for dinner, and then collapsed to sleep.