Day 13- from handkerchief to full sails

Time: 0100 Zulu noon New Cal (Tues 13 Nov)
Position: 25*27'S 155*29'E
Wind: ESE 8 Seas: SE 5-ft
Avg. Course: 247-deg T
Avg. Speed: 4.5-knots
Rig: 100% jib, double-reefed mains'l
24-hr Distance noon to noon point: 109-nm
Distance to Brisbane: 150-nm

What a difference a day makes! Conditions began to ease ever so slowly as the sun got closer to the horizon. Just after our nightly contact with Convivia/Britannia in the lengthening twilight, Shawn decided conditions had actually mellowed enough to raise the storm jib. Through her watch until midnight, conditions continued to gradually decrease necessitating preventing the mains'l from flogging as we rolled in the large left-over seas on our beam. Chris' watch saw more decreases in the winds and shaking of reef after reef. As the sun rose, the main came up and was soon followed by a heads'l change to our 100% jib. The front that so recently provided us all the fun weather has moved east and been replaced with a nice stable High. Unfortunately, we are near the center of that High which means very little wind. This is why we wanted to make miles in yesterday's conditions, using the winds while they're here. Too much, not enough, always in search of that perfect balance, we are definitely not complaining. It is a treat to have such calm conditions. We have been eating a ton of food, cleaning up, drying out, and starting to catch up on a backlog of sleep. Every so often we hear distant traffic on the VHF, reminding us that we draw near to a major continent. Time to start making preparations for impending landfall in the next couple days.