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The frustrating passage south continues and I'm getting pretty tired by this stage. Sleep is not easy to come by with huge ships constantly passing by in the narrow shipping channel, squalls making life difficult and my speeds low. I press on though hoping the week old weather report of calm conditions is still on the agenda.

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Closed Captions (CC):

0:24
Good morning guys, well it's actually maybe one o'clock in the afternoon. I'm here
0:29
in Cape Grenville, last video i was arriving here at six o'clock this morning. I think I slept from
0:39
yeah I slept from seven until one had a few good hours sleep feeling pretty hungover though. It's
0:46
not feeling like super super strong right now but it's okay had some breakfast and a coffee now
0:51
feel okay and i was actually just about to get going i turned everything on and was
0:56
about to get moving but uh then this rain squall hit so i'm just waiting a second
1:02
uh actually looks pretty gray everywhere so it might be more than a second it might be an hour so
1:06
yeah i sort of didn't know if i was gonna leave here like stay the whole day and the
1:10
night and leave tomorrow morning but i don't know it doesn't seem too much point really
1:16
i might as well just get going even if i'm just cruising along slowly i might as well
1:19
be on the move it's nice here it's nice and comfortable i'm in three meters of water it's uh
1:26
very safe very uh calm yeah i don't know doesn't really see much point staying
1:33
the water looks pretty crazy that with what with the the rain on it i'll get another camera and
1:38
show you okay i'm on the move finally i waited a couple hours for that weather to dissipate
1:46
and uh yeah as you can see up here weather doesn't look incredible i'm going this way
1:54
but it doesn't actually look terrible either and i don't know the seas look calm but i am in
1:59
a massive sheltered bay so we'll get around the corner and see but i've sort of plotted two or
2:04
three places i can stop one's about 12 hours away one's about 18 hours away and then the next goal
2:10
would be cape flattery which is about uh 28 hours something like that so yeah we'll see i'll just
2:18
keep going if uh if it scores come rolling in and it's just like last night i'll just stop after the
2:27
12 hours it doesn't look like an incredible anchorage there but it'll be safe and uh out of
2:32
the wind a little bit i guess it'll probably be rolly though anyway we'll see how we go
2:38
none of it's fun at the moment this isn't you want to be sailing the opposite way
2:41
i'm going that's the whole problem but here's what it is all right let's get
2:45
moving anyway i'm going to pull up the sail and get around the corner i've got a few reefs to
2:50
navigate a few little islands here before i get down on the shipping channel again
2:54
i'll show you here so this is where i've been anchored i'm going to come out around here
2:59
drop down between these two islands this is the main shipping channel i'm going to drop into here
3:09
there's already more wind out here than i thought
3:10
there would be and i'm not really around the point yet
3:15
i don't want to have the same [ __ ] as last night i'm just burning diesel for nothing and
3:19
and yeah just going nowhere so i'm going to go a bit further around the point
3:24
down between those little islands and if it's 20 knots again straight on the nose and the
3:29
you know the short sharp waves i'm just going to turn around come back and sleep the night here and
3:34
see what it's like tomorrow morning but i'll give it another half an hour or so and just get around
3:38
out of these islands just so i can really see but it's not really looking good actually right now
3:42
the wind is good it's coming from dead east and i'm going south so i would be able to sail but
3:48
i think it's lying i think it's just come around this point and as soon as i get round
3:52
into the real course it'll come down from the southeast again and be straight on my nostrils
3:59
well we're sort of down in between the islands we're getting down the channel now and we're
4:04
sailing got about 15 knots of breeze from the east which is which is the good direction for now
4:13
it actually looks really gray and black out this way and it looks less so up where i'm
4:18
going so i'm guessing that's why the easterly winds coming here and not from the south but
4:22
it could be when that passes on that i just get it more from the south again like before but
4:28
we'll give it another half an hour this way but i'm sort of committed to it now i guess
4:36
we'll see it's nice to be sailing even if it's only for 20 minutes
4:44
i can't wait to get back far enough south that when i decide when marie comes back
4:48
and we go north again we'll be in trade winds actually sailing properly and enjoying going
4:54
fast in this boat we'll have a fresh bottom job by then and we should be
5:00
a proper sailboat doing proper sailing again all this bloody motoring and going to windward is just
5:07
getting on my tits now it's about 10 o'clock at night now haven't seen any ships all the time and
5:15
a pretty narrow shipping channel then murphy's law i was just sailing good just a good angle i
5:22
knew i was going to be turning into a different angle soon and probably going to have to motor
5:28
wouldn't you know it just then this massive ship pops up on the ais look here
5:36
this huge ship here i'll go and see what is
5:44
it's from soul mask soul it's 900 foot long it's doing 17 knots and we would have met
5:52
straight in the middle of this in this narrowest bit here where he has to turn
5:59
so i've just radioed him and told him uh i'm gonna stay on the north
6:06
side i'm not going to enter the turn until he's passed so i've just uh put the headsail down
6:12
and got the engine running i'm just pulled over to the side and just going to stay out of his way
6:18
and then once he's clear because he's nearly he's 900 foot long he's got to
6:23
turn through that dog leg i'm assuming he's going to take up the whole shipping channel
6:30
and there's no way i want to be beside him in that narrowest point so i'm just sticking out of the
6:33
way and once he passes i'll zip on back on course but yeah of course it would happen right there in
6:39
the narrowest part of the whole reef after that it's ten miles just straight line like three
6:44
three miles wide but of course he would come right then all right guys morning time again
6:50
um i'm in a place called portland roads i got in here at five o'clock in the morning so i
6:58
left last night at sunset and arrived here before sunrise so it's only a short sort of 12-hour hop
7:05
it was an okay night as i said i had that ship crossing at the narrow point but after that it
7:10
was alright just tides against me and wind and i've just seen i haven't really had this uh before
7:18
that when i'm motoring this is just such a small little engine it's it's it's fine 90 of the time
7:24
actually four years of having this boat i've never had it before but with against tide and against 20
7:29
knots of wind it's just it's underpowered like i can well without pushing it like at my cruising
7:36
speed of 2 300 revs normally i'm getting five and a half knots last night i was just getting three
7:43
and a half and that was i guess a knot of current and a knot of wind against me that was you know
7:50
but trying to get anywhere three and a half knots is just painful just takes too long the first six
7:56
hours i had good wind actually sailed the whole time which was awesome and that was you know
8:00
six and a half knots so it offset the slowness later i still hadn't you know close to five
8:06
average i guess so it's not too bad but just a bit painful but it's just it is what it is i'm going
8:11
down this coast i'm going to be against the wind and mostly the current here is north which is the
8:18
opposite way i'm going so when the tide's coming in it's going north and when the tide's coming
8:21
out it's going south but it's more that when it's going out it's just nothing so yeah so you
8:28
get six hours of no current and then six hours of against current you don't get six hours of against
8:32
and then six hours of width so it's a bit sad but anyway is what it is it's saturday morning now um
8:40
i've had yeah i slept here for two hours and then i probably had three hours sleep during the night
8:46
maybe yeah maybe three three and a half so i'm feeling a bit hungover again i've didn't have
8:51
a good night's yeah no it's been three days now since i had good sleep but i'm just gonna push
8:55
on i'll sleep during the day today hopefully um yeah margaret bay is about 26 hours from here
9:05
at five knots so maybe 30 hours at three and a half but the weather report that i got three
9:12
days ago well that's three days ago obviously um was saying that saturday sunday monday tuesday
9:19
should be very calm and sometimes variable winds so not just southeast winds against
9:26
me and so those four days were the days that i was like i'll do the bulk of this trip to cairns
9:34
three days ago i wasn't expecting i'd be this
9:36
far already so i have sort of pushed through this heavy wind
9:40
so yeah if those forecast reports are still right starting from today we should get four days of
9:48
pretty calm weather i guess apart from squalls and local stuff but the tradewinds should die
9:54
for these four days so i guess i'm just going to push on through and do i think i have about
10:00
well i have 24 hours down to the cape to margaret bay
10:05
and then from there i have 36 hours to cans and i have four whole days to do it so 96 hours
10:18
so yeah it should be easy enough i'll be running on diesel i think that'll be my
10:22
main problem i'm going to hope i can sail a few portions through this next four days
10:29
this is a mission just burning diesel not going anywhere diesel's the most expensive it's been in
10:35
10 years and i'm not getting any sleep hope you guys are enjoying this me not so much
11:27
of course it starts raining just when i want to leave
11:31
this trip is challenging me that's for sure challenging challenging
11:37
but anyway it's only drizzle this cloud's over here some houses up here some holder houses it's
11:44
the first sign of civilization that i've seen since first island from first island to here
11:51
it's just absolutely barrenness not one single road or house or yeah a few ships passing in
11:57
the night that's it so this is the first sign i guess these are holiday houses there's no uh
12:03
well there's no internet here so i guess that means no one lives here permanently
12:06
it's a italian day well dolphin massive dolphin right there oh there's no point
12:13
showing you you won't see it but there's a huge dolphin well that's a good sign apparently
12:20
when you're about to leave and you see dolphins and to put the heli back on
12:41
all right
12:44
of course i only had two hours sleep here but i went and jumped in bed with half asleep and
12:49
then the wind started banging the hell yeah around so they jump up
12:53
take that apart so it's not banging on the mast yeah cool for two hours sleep
13:00
still i had two hours really good sleep like a dead person to be honest hardly surprising though
13:09
seem to be careful that uh my lack of sleep doesn't start affecting decisions
13:14
last night my decision with the ship that was passing was good i radioed him waited on the
13:18
north side for him to get past uh that was good decision making and yeah i haven't really made any
13:24
other bad decisions so far whenever there's been squalls i've reefed early and things like that so
13:30
i'll try and keep an eye on myself sure i'm not making bad decisions if that happens
13:35
then i need to just stop and uh anchor somewhere and sleep properly for a night
13:42
i guess that's self-evaluation yeah
13:46
i haven't really talked much about solo sailing and how i do it so far um
13:53
yeah i started solo sailing just out of necessity really
13:59
i just needed to go places and i didn't have anyone to go with me but i really enjoy it
14:05
it's just me and my few older egos that i have to talk to but basically i'm in charge
14:11
they try and tell me various things but i don't have to listen to them if i don't want him
14:16
i think every solo has a few older egos maybe but yeah you don't like when marie's on board
14:22
i love it she's the best person ever the only person i'd really want to have on board
14:28
but it is still another person i have to think about when we're doing passages because i know
14:32
she doesn't really like doing them so i'm making i'm taking that into consideration i'm
14:39
making decisions based on her comfort and
14:43
those decisions aren't always the best ones for the boat or for getting places safely
14:48
and it's also not the decision that i would personally want to make and i live instinctively
14:53
most of my life i try to anyway and when i have to do something that goes against my instincts
15:00
i don't really feel good about it even if it's for somebody else and i know that i'm doing the right
15:06
thing for them it it gets on wears on me a little bit that no but i could go faster i could be there
15:12
easier or it would be easier on the boat if i did this but then i'm going like no i'm going to do
15:17
this because i know that it's going to be more comfortable for marie so those things get on my
15:24
nerve a little bit and it's a it's fun but when i am by myself i realize that i'm quite free to make
15:29
and do any any things that a way i want to do them so that solo selling for me it's um it's it's very
15:36
free it's freedom for me obviously you know i'm just winging all the time now it's not much fun
15:42
this sort of it's not really solo sailing it's solo motoring against the tide and wind but
15:48
yeah for people who are scared to solo sail i don't know what to do about it really it's
15:56
not for everyone that's for sure one thing i did in the beginning i had to train myself
16:02
not to be anxious not to be up in the cockpit looking out all the time i would go downstairs
16:09
and make a sandwich and halfway through the sandwich i'd be like i've got to go up and
16:13
look i've got to go up and look and i'll be like no you're fine you just keep making this sandwich
16:19
and it might only be five minutes that you're making the sandwich but halfway through it
16:23
you're getting anxious oh i'm not looking what if something's coming but you have to be
16:28
mechanical and mathematical about it and be like okay i've put the autopilot on this course from
16:38
here to here for the next 10 miles there is nothing that i can hit the only thing that can
16:43
hit me is if something's moving as in a ship okay so how fast would that ship be going the fastest
16:49
ship that i've seen is going 20 knots most of them are doing between 10 and 15. so you can work out
16:56
if they don't if you don't see them on the ais and your ais is showing you 20 miles out and they're
17:02
doing 20 knots well then you've got an hour at least probably more if they're a slower boat so
17:07
making a sandwich for five or seven minutes you have literally no chance of hitting something
17:13
unless there's a log or a container or something but chances are you wouldn't see that anyway
17:20
you know like for me that's the fatalistic part of solo sailing people are like oh it's so dangerous
17:25
like no it's a needle in a haystack out here we're a tiny tiny boat in a massive massive ocean
17:31
and there can always be something even if people are keeping watch all the time
17:36
they're not going to see a log at night time or a container never going to see that at night time
17:40
doesn't make any difference if you're just staring straight ahead you won't see it at night time
17:44
so what difference does it make really if something that the tiniest tiniest chance
17:53
if it happens it's going to happen you know you have to just be like
17:58
well that's life that's the way it is you do as good as you can and then that's it
18:03
one thing i will say to be confident solo sailing you have to have a very good autopilot it's
18:10
the total uh most important single thing on a boat when you're solo sailing you have to
18:15
rely on it to be able to go to sleep and like now going between all these reefs
18:21
be able to go to sleep safely and you know sleep properly without worrying you've got to know that
18:26
your autopilot's just going to keep going where you set it because you set it from here to here
18:30
and there's nothing in that line but if it would go off course 40 degrees then there's
18:34
a reef you know a lot of people a lot of people forget when you're sailing you're moving at a
18:39
jogging speed most of the time like if i'm going at eight knots that's 16 kilometers an hour
18:44
you know that's a reasonably fast mountain bike speed but most of the time you're at a jogging
18:52
speed you don't need to be like oh here's a corner quick lean into it because you know you've got an
18:57
hour you don't have to worry too much so yeah you have to train yourself solo sailing go downstairs
19:02
and just force yourself to read a book for for 10 minutes set a timer on your phone
19:08
you today has been the best day so far by far feeling pretty happy today
19:15
started off pretty tired pretty shitty and then got around the point and then the wind actually
19:21
after a sort of squall past the wind actually was in my favor for the first time on this whole trip
19:29
only just it was hard on 30 degrees i had the sails all pulled fully sheeted down
19:36
but it was enough and we were we were sailing properly we were doing six and a half knots
19:41
healed over there was a lot of current against us but we were
19:45
we were doing good it was just like wow and i just keep looking out going oh this is going to
19:49
stop it's going to stop and we've got about six hours out of that so that was amazing quiet and
19:55
there were some waves but it just makes such a difference when you're slicing through them
19:59
when you're sailing or if you're motoring into them just going boom boom boom when the boat's
20:03
healed over it just slices through you don't have to even notice the waves and oh it was just
20:09
if that was the only sailing we get that sort of already bucked my spirits up and then about an
20:14
hour ago that it just slowly died out as you can see the sky is uh it's raining right now but the
20:22
sky looks very good in the distance i i think this is the three days of the next three days of calm
20:30
by the look of it the horizon is the first time it's looked like this so far on this whole trip
20:36
from thursday island so four days there's always been big black squalls out there big thunder heads
20:42
all high up and you're like oh what's going to hit us next but this is just looks good
20:46
and this is just little squally rain there's no wind so yeah it's completely calm now but
20:54
that's also okay it's completely flat water i can motor normally it's still half not a
21:00
current against me but that's okay rain i don't give a [ __ ] still got the mainsail up and it's
21:06
still giving us a bit of uh help you're probably wondering why i'm stopped well i need to pump some
21:11
fuel up from the keel into the day tank and you have to turn the engine off to do that
21:15
so i'm going to do that quickly then get back moving while the going's good
21:24
so open this just so i can check the
21:29
the level this is the day tank the diesel day tank and then down here we've got a little switch
21:40
move the rubbish bin out of the way
21:45
in the engine room and then there's a little up here
21:53
and now you can hear the diesel
21:57
here's the diesel going into the tank so i'll pump 30 liters up
22:04
pump 30 liters in there and we'll be good for another
22:08
about 20 hours yeah it's one and a half liters per hour it's about 20 hours of motoring i'm
22:14
going to be completely empty of diesel by the time i get to cairns if i even make it i might
22:18
have to stop in cooktown depends if we get a few more little bursts of wind where i can sail with
22:24
no engine i'll make it to cans but otherwise not so much i think i've got a hundred liters left
22:32
of diesel i've used 100 so far so yeah 100 left that gives me about 65 hours or something
22:46
i don't know i'm too tired to do the maths but i think uh on avionics when i put in from here
22:52
to cairns at four and a half five knots i was needing a 120 liters which i don't quite have
23:01
but yeah maybe we'll get some wind like today i wasn't expecting that wind at all we had
23:04
six hours of of not burning diesel and going two knots an hour faster so get two two more of them
23:13
and then that puts it all in our favor but we'll see tonight i'm gonna cook some
23:19
because it's nice and calm yesterday i hardly ate anything i had breakfast
23:25
at about one o'clock because i slept all morning muesli and banana and yogurt and
23:31
then i had some snacks and dried bananas and things and that's all i ate and then
23:38
this morning oh that's the autopilot
23:42
we can't hold the course we're not moving then this morning i had a
23:47
muesli banana yogurt as well and then a couple of bits of bread with jam and cheese for lunch
23:56
and tonight i'm going to make rice and beef rendang with vegetables with some carrots and
24:03
potatoes and coconut milk mixed in there should be good because i haven't really been eating much
24:09
the last three days i haven't been eating much at all obviously big breakfast because that's easy
24:13
to eat on a boat and i like the museum fruit and yogurt but i haven't been cooking much i
24:19
haven't been doing anything i haven't really been burning energy so when you're motoring
24:23
you're not really doing anything all right i'll fill up the stairs and we'll get moving
25:02
you