Heading to Cape Leeuwin

Dec 1, 2014  33.21.129 S , 114.55.735 E

Dec 1, 2014

Last night I witnessed the lights from Alek and Maryanne’s truck on the beach at Binningup, and then the gale set in for the night. 

Alek on the beach, Binningup talking to Glenn on West Wind II via ham radio

Woke this morning after sinking into the abyss for two hours, my mouth full of parchment.By the time I got down the coast to Bunbury I had to tack away from shore and out to sea for the night. I was very tired by 9:00 pm, so tired I was afraid I would fall into a sound sleep and disconnect from this world. The thoughts of being so close to land at night in a gale my first night at sea made me very nervous. It started the game of “What if?” in my head and because I was so tired already the number of scenarios I envisioned about going ashore was more than enough to keep me up all night till around four a.m. when I felt confident enough to hit my bunk for a solid two hours. I was up nine times during the night tacking twice and plotting my position.

The wind this morning has filled in from the southwest and if it holds we’ll make some good miles towards Cape Leeuwin. The sky is overcast and it’s a comfortable 20 C down below. We made 115 miles yesterday which I’m very happy with. We are sitting at Lat 33 21.129 S and Long 114 55.735 E.

Cape Leeuwin,Western Australia

I am sitting at the nav station yawning, so I’ll send this off and hit my bunk for some well earned sleep. 

Position: 33. 39 S,  114. E Course 265 T Speed 7 kts Wind S 30 kts Waves S 2m Cloud 30 % Temp 20 C Baro 1009 rising Miles in last 24 hrs: 120 nm