Location: 37° 32 S, 32° 118 E
Thursday 12:00, 03.08.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 37° 32 S, 118° 31 E at noon on March 8th. We were headed 140 degrees at 6 knots. The wind has come around to SW at 14 knots. It is overcast with some breaks to the West. The barometer is steady at 1007.

We have come 472 NM from Fremantle and have 1299 to go to Davie Straight in Tasmania.

We’ve had the front come through, with the windshift from north to SW. We have perfect sailing conditions for SW Tasmania, with a nice fresh SSW breeze. But we have a problem. This nice little front that just passed becomes something rather nasty by the time it wraps itself up a bit in the middle of the Bight. Winds of 50 knots with higher gusts! Yike!! So our job right now is a tough one for the Maggie B — go slow and don’t overrun the front (it will slow down a bit). So we’ve double reefed the main and will double reef the fore by sunset, but we are still going over eight knots….

This storm is a bit unusual in that there is less wind to the south, and also the Bight is best know for light or no winds, though the Bass Straights at the Eastern end has a nasty reputation. We’ll keep a careful eye out.

From loving to stay in Fremantle and our attraction to Tasmania, we have bypassed much of Australia’s Southwest and Southern Coast. Some of the names that we have missed are fascinating: Quindabelup, Mooringa, Moulyinning, Jerramungup, Warrawoona, and “Ivy Tank Motel.” Less interesting for sailors is: Windy Harbor and Foul Bay.

Earlier I mentioned that Australian Customs were interested in what bottom paint we had and when it was applied. I feared that they were perhaps after boats coming in with banned bottom paint. The true story is worse. Australia is concerned that boats arriving might carry some bottom pest that will infect Australian waters. There is a proposal to make all arriving boats to have been recently hauled and had new anti-fouling applied and then are hauled and cleaned AGAIN within a week of arriving in Australian waters! It seems a little mad as I can’t imagine that it will apply to all the huge container ships, so why pick on the little boats? The Fremantle Customs seemed pleased that we had been hauled and repainted in December, but there was no talk of getting rehauled. Perhaps cooler heads have prevailed.

All is well.