SHIPPING LANES

SHIPPING LANES

Position: 21D51'.985S 154D16'.292E

Countdown to Australia - 200 nautical miles

Wednesday, November 2 - We are now approaching the shipping lanes that run along the eastern side of the Great Barrier Reef. These lanes are a super highway for large ships navigating their way along the Eastern coast of Australia. It is mandatory for some of these ships to have an Australian Pilot on board to safely guide them through the hazards of the barrier reef and avoid any mishaps. We are 10 miles east of the shipping lane at the moment and have picked up 2 large ships on the radar. We can calculate the speed of the ships using the radar and it would appear that they are travelling at 30 knots. We can see 1 huge ship visually on the horizon. We were lucky to have good winds last night that enabled us to arrive outside the shipping lanes during the day as it is much easier to see the ships and avoid them. We will all need to be alert on the night watch tonight to make sure we avoid the shipping congestion as we near the mainland of Australia The wind is slowly decreasing and we are only averaging 5 knots now but we will keep adjusting the sails to make as much distance as we can. We would also prefer to sail into Bundaberg rather than motor. Our food supplies are just holding out okay except for fruit and vegetables. We have a few meals planned to last us up to our arrival in Bundaberg. Quarantine will confiscate most of our food stores so I think we have provisioned pretty well for the last part of our journey. Arthur is particularly concerned that we will have some of our quality wine removed so he has organised them into a priority list for drinking versus destruction. It has been really good having Arthur onboard as he has a great sense of humour(he must have to do a crossing),is a really really great chef, has assisted with all the jobs and has made the night watch much easier. Previously we were exhausted every day of the journey. With our current 3 hour watch pattern we rarely feel exhausted-particularly important as we get to the shipping lanes of Oz.

If all goes to plan we will arrive at Bundaberg at 8am (we have no more time zone changes on our long journey). Ian will put the sail out even if we end up motoring for the last day. It will be great to see the Australian east coast sunrise on arrival. A different aspect from our normal 8am arrival on the Emirates flight.