First Week

First week out:

Sunday we set the departure date, Sunday night couldn't sleep, Monday walked the line between panic and terror and by Tuesday I was back to being excited. Karl (in a pattern I seem to remember from the wedding) was completely calm until the morning of departure when he realised what was happening and had a little freakout. Leaving Mooloolaba really didn't feel any different than on our previous trips and we definitely didn't really get the fact that we weren't just popping down the bay for the weekend. Our neighbours were there to farewell us and help cast us off and then we were away, heading north, destination unknown.

 Last lunch at our favourite sushi place (Sakana at the end of the spit, the best edamame and a great mixed sushi/sashimi platter to share).

Goodbye Mooloolaba.

This is us actually leaving. Copyright Michael & Cheryl on Gidgee.

And just crossing the Mooloolaba bar.

We settled into sailing and watchkeeping and the general routine surprisingly quickly seeing as we hadn't had a decent trip since Not Lord Howe in November 2017. A little problem in the early days was the reluctance of some crew members (namely Rover, the windvane self-steering, and Ray, the electronic autopilot) to actually steer a consistent course. So that just left me, Karl and Grainne (and she would only steer consistently in a headwind) sharing the helm. And that's very tiring when one person has to be constantly glued to the helm. It took a couple of days to find our sea legs too; dinner on day 1 was Cup-a-Soup and crackers, day 2 was mystery couscous but by day 3 I was whipping up hearty tuna pasta. I was worried one day by the sour smell coming from one of my food storage cupboards that there was a spilled milk catastrophe in the offing. I couldn't be bothered tackling it so used a combination of my two favourite strategies – denial and avoidance. Happily, later that day Karl realised that the smell was from the t-shirt he had hung there to dry after maybe not doing such a good job of laundry. When the wind dropped out (our plan for deciding when to stop) we were near Northwest Island. So that's where we dropped anchor. A small, sandy, forested island surrounded by a large reef. We jumped at the opportunity to crack open the champagne our neighbours had given us to drink at our first anchorage (thanks Michael & Cheryl!).

We spent a couple of days enjoying sleeping together for 8 hours overnight, opening cupboards without things flying out, eating dinner at the table and feeling like we owned the island and were entitled to glare at any intrusive fishing boats that came by. We also read the instruction manual for Rover and discovered we may have set up the lines the wrong way around (which would explain why we had been exasperatedly asking him why he always seemed to steer in exactly the wrong direction) and that he would work if we paid attention to trimming our sails properly.

 I claim this island in the name of Karl O'Neill.

When the wind came back we got going again. We were the most diligent we have ever been in setting the most perfectly trimmed sails. We gave the helm to Rover. He worked! A glorious moment that was celebrated with a mini-champagne between the three of us. Then we really started to enjoy ourselves. Time for lounging, reading, Karl playing guitar, staring at the waves, staring at the stars, staring at the bioluminescence, having Karl keep me company below while I'm cooking. All the good stuff.

The way it should be, I get to drink coffee while Rover does all the hard work.

Just starting to appreciate that we live on the boat now and will do so for the foreseeable future. We can't just bring our laundry home to the washing machine. We don't have an endless supply of water and are very, very stingy with it. Showers are neither hot nor long. Having power depends on having sun so it's really quite exciting when it's a “charging day” and all the phones and Kindles and laptops get plugged in. And a super-special treat is the combination of a calm anchorage and sun – this is a toothbrush charging day!

In other news, Karl's hair is still growing straight up. We're taking bets on when it will fall over.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/karl_oneill/albums/72157719873916070