Location: 38° 05 S, 122° 00 E
Friday 12:00, 03.09.2007

The Schooner Maggie B was at 38° 05 S, 122° 00 Eat noon on March 9th. We are headed straight for Davie Sound in SW Tasmania, 110 degrees magnetic at 1136 NM. We have come 642 NM since Fremantle. We are doing 8.5 knots with the wind at 180 at 25 knots. The seas are lumpy, with fair wave chop and swells from both NE and SE. The sky is overcast with promise of more light showers. The barometer is continuing to drop and is at 1002 (999 as I write this at 1700). We have the jib up full, the fore down and furled and the main with two reefs. The boat is comfortable and dry (at least below decks!).

Quote of the day: Future: One of the crew with his/her granddaughter: “Grandfather (grandmother) - how windy was it when you first crossed the Southern Ocean to come to Tasmania?” Answer: ” Aaaarggg, Maggie, it was so windy that there were whitecaps in me cocoa!”
We are learning Aussie Talk. Some of it rather resembles English, though we do not want to be associated with any Pommie B*****ds. My favorite is “Good Onya” which is “good for you,” or “well done!” The everyday greeting is: “How ya gong,” as in “How are you going.” A basic cup of coffee with milk is a “flat white.” “Bugs” on the menu of a top restaurant should not startle too much as they are medium-sized crayfish. So much to learn!

I realize that some of these reports have made it sound as if the systems on the Maggie B are a basket case. Certainly we have had some things to fix. But I wanted to take the time to highlight the systems that have worked great for the last year and 17,500 miles. The first that comes to mind is the Onan diesel Genset. Yes, it did eat one impeller a bit early, but it spat back all the pieces and the change was easy and it shut itself down as soon as it noticed the problem. It has worked 642 hours for us so far with essentially no maintenance other than changing oil. Another is the Spectra Watermaker. It has produced 1800 gallons of fresh water for us with barely a hiccup (one new salinity probe). Bravo! More tomorrow.

We are driving for Tasmania with a careful eye on this one low ahead of us. It is supposed to exit SE fairly fast, so we should have an easy time after it. Perhaps six days to Davie Sound. It should be marvelously wild.

All is well.