Friday

Well we left, once again, very very early…between 4 and 5am… This early rising is anathema to a Headlam, and I must say not all that pleasing to this particular Harmsen. It was very cold and dark, with bright twinkly stars above us. I sat outside with Pete for hours, with Stephen Fry in my left ear, and then Pete said, “Why don’t you go inside?” Well the reason I never go inside is…I feel ill in the cabin when we are on the move… But I was SO cold I took a chance and went and lay on the couch, with Stephen still uttering soothing stories about Cambridge Days in my left ear, and, I am SO happy to relate that… I just lay there, a bit corpse-like but happy enough, and didn’t have to rush back out into the cold and dark! A big breakthrough!

Not long after daylight, Pete came inside too. He said, “It’s time to get out the heavy artillery!” and he went and lugged Big Bertha up the stairs – Big Bertha is the bigger of our two gas heaters. For the next three hours we, rather guiltily, huddled inside the super-warm cabin, and watched the seascape on split screen – radar and chart. I looked at email and did a blogthing.

Re-invigorated by warmth and rest, we rugged up again and went back out to be proper Sailors On Watch. It was still bitterly cold.

(I must tell you that I am not looking all that lovely on this trip. And yes I am just a bit vain; this does not make me happy. When I look in the mirror I see someone with wild, unkempt hair under a khaki-coloured beanie, pink cheeks, despite copious amounts of beautiful skin care products (thank you Mum!!), staring eyes devoid of mascara, and wearing many many layers of clothing – thermals, trackpants, merino top, woolly jumper, pufferjacket, Stormy Seas jacket, gloves, sunglasses. Thank goodness my sunglasses are BIG and hide a lot of the Bad Look. Pete, on the other hand, still looks just like Pete, only with a few more layers of clothing…)

It took us from very early morning till well after 5pm to get to our anchorage in the Gippsland Lakes area. I would have thought I had nothing at all to tell you other than how horrid I am looking, but… in the last few hours of our sailing supermarathon, we turned, once again, into David and Davina Attenborough! Birds…oh the birds were wonderful! Even better than further south…petrels and small unidentified diving birds, and even a pair of beautiful albatross which came and bobbed about on the water just near us, not far from the Lakes Entrance bar. (No not sure exactly which sort of albatross…I hunted through my Bird Book but am still unsure…)

And while I was sitting, lightly frozen, at the wheel, Pete called to me in delight – dolphins!! I left the wheel (on autopilot, NOT to its own devices!!) and went to the front of the boat – 3, 4, no 5 lovely big dolphins, racing us up the coast! We were going at our very fastest by then, with two engines and two sails – about 14 knots, and they dived and splashed and whisked about ahead of the boat for at least half an hour. I got quite wet but why would I care – have I ever been splashed by dolphins before?? They disappeared and went off for a bit of a rest; maybe some dolphin-esque light refreshments? A few minutes later they were back – with friends!! And – now I am going to be totally poetic – 2XS had managed to acquire a double rainbow on the starboard side of the boat. These lovely dolphins were diving in and out of rainbows!!

Finally we were approaching Lakes Entrance…there is a bar… I think everyone know a BAR is scary… Pete was very well prepared (he is a Hero of the Sea.) Some of the info we read told us how many people had died being foolish or unlucky crossing this bar…oh dear and oh no…. We put on our safety devices and lined up our leads (a big downwards triangle and a big perpendicular mark, outlined in fluorescent blue,) went off privately and separately to do nervous last-minute wees, then got ready to…cross the bar. At this precise moment…SEALS! Dear little brown seals, leaping out of the water! Pete was not quite as entranced as I was….

Going over a bar, in case you don’t know, is a bit like white-water rafting (one of my least favourite Outdoor Pursuits.) You point the boat in the right direction and…whoo and whee…over you go. We were very happy to be up and over with the minimum of drama and disgrace; I think Pete had prepared VERY well for this moment.

Next thing – we were into the Gippsland Lakes area. How lovely, how calm, how civilised. We cruised in for another two hours, hoping to get to Paynesville. We are nearly there, moored off Raymont Island (I think…by the time we anchored I was peeling potatoes…) So beautiful, so sheltered. One minute we were cruising with albatross and seals, the next we were sailing past roads, houses, pelicans, swans, cormorants, blah blah blah birds….

Saturday we are meeting up with Pete’s lovely friends Helen and Michael, who have a holiday house in Paynesville – hence this particular destination….