I set the alarm for an early start at 2am, however we were awake at 12:30am so we decided to get up and go. We motor sailed with 10-15 kn breeze which calmed to 5-10 kn. We had current against us so we only averaged 4.9 kn, as it wasn’t cold we didn’t mind going a little slower than we like.

We had a beautiful sunrise and were very excited to hopefully see our first whale. I went down for a rest while Dean kept watch. I woke to Dean yelling WHALE! I jumped out of bed we could see our first whales in the distance. From then I couldn’t stop looking. The best way to spot whales is looking out for their water spouts, which we saw quite a few. I was watching 3 water spouts ahead and thought that we wouldn’t get near them, however within 15 mins they were on our bow. They were just leasurily swimming along, they were going slower than us. They were kind enough to show us their tails and also breach. At the same time we had a large pod of dolphins swimming around us as well.

We made it to Wollongong by 9am, we were both feeling quite good so we made the decision to continue on to Port Hacking. We arrived at 3:30pm and picked up a courtesy mooring. We had a celebratory drink while watching a twilight race.

 

 

 

72.6 nm, 14 hrs 45 mins, avg speed 4.9 kn, 5-10 kn W, total motor sailing 14 hrs 45min.