July 12

The Queen Jane has departed Papua New Guinea today bound for Cairns, Australia, about 502 miles away.          Having spent only 2 days at Pana Bobai Ana Island (the Westernmost of the Duchateau group) we decided to leave this morning as all the weather reports are favorable. The weather was fine with about 20% cloud cover and bright sunny skies. We raised our anchor at about 9am this morning and headed out of the pass into the sea. Conditions in the pass were chaotic with huge swells and over falls. Wind was about 12-15k from the ESE. By 9:45am we raised the mainsail and let out the genoa and began sailing in earnest.

Once clear of the pass the seas calmed down quite a bit. At 10:30am we have 14-16k of wind from the ESE and the swell is running about 5-8ft from the SE. We are making about 7.5k over ground on a course of 205M. The course to Grafton Passage, the entry to the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Cairns, is 219M but we are steering upwind a bit while the wind direction allows since we are expecting the wind to tend a bit more to the SE over the next day or two. We currently have 473 miles to run to Grafton Passage and another 33 miles after that to reach Cairns . We expect to arrive sometime on Friday, though we cannot be more specific at this time.

At about 1pm the wind began to move more to the SE and we had to haul in the sheets and sail very close to the wind. The skipper went forward to tighten the outhaul (line which pulls the ‘tack’ or aft end of the mainsail back) and he over tightened it and the car at the aft end of the boom (which rides on a small track) broke off the track. The wind was up to 15-18k at that point so we put a reef in the main which bypasses the tack and outhaul. We continued sailing well at 6.5-7k. Seas remain rough and skies are becoming overcast.

By 4pm the wind has come back to the ESE and we have eased the sheets. Our speed has dropped some but we are still making 6-6.5k over ground. Skies are mostly cloudy and the sea remains moderately rough.