Arrival in Darwin

Dear all,

After lots of sun and very little wind Ocean lady pulled into Fannie Bay, Darwin in the early hours this morning.

We have to be disinfected before being able to move into a Marina. This was done this morning and we hope to move tomorrow morning.

Sorry for the lack of emails but we ran out of credit on the sat phone!!

Hope every one is well,
Love Ocean Lady

Darwin here we come!!!

Dear all,

We are still making our way towards Darwin, last night we passed Cape Wessel
and at noon today we were in position 10 53S, 135 19E. It has been pretty
hot on board and the wind has reduced so we are having to motor sail.

We have tried a bit of fishing but lost another lure!!

Lots of love,
Ocean Lady

Congratulations Colin and Emma

Dear all,

We are doing well across the Gulf of Carpentaria, good winds and sunny
weather. Our noon position was 10 52S, 139 50E.

Congratulations to Colin and Emma Stuckey who had a lovely baby girl a
couple of days ago, looking forward to seeing the photos once we reach
Darwin.

Lots of Love,
Ocean Lady

Torres Strait

Dear All,
Today Ocean Lady passed through the Torres Strait and is now sailing across
the Gulf of Carpentaria towards Darwin.

The sun is out and our 16:00 position was 10 49S, 142 00E

Hope everybody at home is well, Happy birthday to Sam Woodger.

Lots of Love,
Ocean Lady

Still Going North!

Dear all,
We are making good progress towards Cape York. Yesterday we experienced
lovely sunny weather, but a lot of haze over the land.
The wind has been variable between 15 - 40 knots!
Life on board is good and comfortable. Tonight we hope to anchor in Escape
River before heading around Cape York tomorrow.

Our nearly noon position (11.45am) was 11 27S, 142 56E

I hope everybody at home is well,
Love,
Ocean Lady

Going North!

Dear all,

Following our great snorkelling expedition on Sunday we left Port Douglas
for an overnight passage to Lizard Island, once again the wind was much more
than predicted and with the rain, it made for a rotten night. The channel
was narrow and there were plenty of ships to contend with. We arrived at
Lizard Island mid morning and the rain did not stop. Putting a real dampener
on everything.

After a lazy day and lovely roast beef meal we had an early night. The next
day we were all up early for a long day sail to King Island, which on the
end of it features Atkinson Reef. This was a lovely anchorage. We have now
headed off up towards Cape York (although it will be a few days and a couple
more anchorages before we get there), and have pleasant winds from behind
and sunny conditions. It is the first time we have had full main since
inside the reef in Fiji!!

Our noon position was 13 37S, 144 04E

I hope everybody at home is well,
Love,
Ocean Lady

The great barrier reef

Hello everyone from Port Douglas!

So we checked out of Cairns yesterday morning after having a fantastic couple of days. We were lucky enough to be there for the beginning of Cairns festival, so the atmosphere was buzzing!

Yesterday we made our way up the coast towards Port Douglas! Finally we had a lovely sunny day for our trip, but little wind! Thankfully it was only about 5 hours away.

Today we have been out to the great barrier reef and done some snorkelling. It was fantastic, we have seen sharks, sting rays, wrasses, jacks, barracudas, nemos, giant clams, corals and much much more!

Tomorrow we are heading up to lizard island and then over to Darwin the following day.

Lots of love,
Ocean Lady

Ocean Lady has arrived in Australia

> Dear all,
>
> The title says it all, we have safely arrived in Australia. We managed to eat all the fruit and veg onboard so very little was confiscated by customs an immigration, who have a reputation for being strict. They almost took our tuna and pasta bake that Laura had cooked for supper.
> After a couple of drinks ashore we retired for a full nights sleep.
>
> Cairns is a fantastic, lively town, set up for back packers and tourists. It is nice to get back to civilisation with reasonable phone call costs, and access to spares.
>
> Today we have taken the scenic rail up to Kuranda. Then caught the cable car down over the rain forest. A lovely relaxed town with quirky Market stores.
> Margaret and Laura had a cuddle with a koala, we fed kangaroos and kept well away from the snakes!
>
> We plan to be in Cairns until the weekend before heading north towards Cape York.
>
> Take care,
> Love Ocean Lady
>

Laura's Birthday

Dear all,

Today we have been celebrating Laura's' birthday. When the realisation that
we would be at sea and not in Australia dawned upon her, we all smiled and
said it would be lovely, wind behind us, sun shining etc. In fact we have
the sun shining but we also have 20-25 knots of wind, on a port fetch, with
the occasional wave jumping into the cockpit.
However, She has been surprised by the number of birthday cards she has
received from home (thanks mum) courtesy of "mail Alan and Margaret" and of
the videos from her
friends at home. Margaret went to the effort of baking a cake whilst heeled
over to some stupid angle and Stu let Laura have an extra couple of hours in
bed rather than having to get up at 4am!!

We have less than 24 hours to go, just about 60 miles to the reef pass
(Grafton Pass), so hopefully we will be there some time tomorrow,
afternoon/evening all depends on the wind.

We had two birds take a ride on the boat for a rest last night, they looked
exhausted. Very impressed how they could land on the spinnaker pole in low
light levels whilst Ocean Lady is jumping over waves! Even more impressive
was there mate who landed on the top of the mast the other day!

Our noon position was:
Lat -15 48S - Long - 148 21E

Hope everybody at home is well,

Lots of Love,

Ocean Lady

Variable wind strength!!

Dear all,

Early last night we were sailing with the 2nd reef, staysail and a small
yankee when the wind gradually picked up.
For a decent nights sleep we put in the third reef and let out some more
headsail. This worked well for most of the night with only a little bit of
motor sailing to aid our progress.
But then today the wind would vary between 16-30 knots, not helpful as you
go from being under powered and
lolling about to over powered and trying to reduce the headsail.
our 16.20 position is 15 30.2S, 152 52.4E
We are trying to eat up all our veggies and meat before reaching Australia
as they will confiscate it all!!

fingers crossed for some south easterly winds!!

Lots of love,
Ocean Lady

Sunshine and headwinds!

Dear all,
We are still making good progress towards Cairns, despite the wind shifting
to the south/southwest.

The sun is shining and life on board is good.

Our noon position was 15 36S, 155 23E

Hope everyone is well at home,
Love Ocean Lady

Rain, rain go away come again another day!

Dear all,

Following our last blog update the weather has been pretty windy and
overcast. Often a wave ends up in the cockpit. Stu had the pleasure of
cooking lunch then two saltwater showers whilst eating it – not a good day.
Today is the first day of champagne sailing with sunshine and clear skies.
It's been nice to stretch out in the sun rather than wearing waterproofs and
hinding from the waves.

We are making good progress our noon position was 15 47S, 157 31E with just
over 700 miles completed.

Hope everyone is well at home,
Love Ocean Lady

Day two!

Day two and all is well!
We are making good progress to Australia, our noon position was 17 43S, 163
21E
A good SE breeze pushing us along with clear skies. It gets a bit chilly at
night but we'd prefer that to rain!!!
Lots of love,
Ocean Lady

Day two!

Day two and all is well!

We are making good progress to Australia, our noon position was 17 43S, 163 21E

A good SE breeze pushing us along with clear skies. It gets a bit chilly at night but we'd prefer that to rain!!!

Lots of love,

Ocean Lady

Australia here we come!!

Dear all,

 

Ocean Lady left Vanuatu yesterday morning with a dull, drizzly and overcast sky. Shortly after leaving the drizzle stopped and we were experiencing good sailing with the yankee and two reefs in the mainsail. Beam reaching with a rolly sea. We had the odd bit of green water over the deck and Stu had an impromptu shower whilst cooking supper from the hatch above the galley!!

As the night drew in the seas got smaller and we had a great night making good speed and almost on course.

Our noon position was: 17 48S, 165 43E

 

Lots of love,

Ocean Lady

 

More Rain!

Dear all,

 

Just like the UK has been suffering with lots of rain so have we! We have left the main port Port Vila after clearing customs and having a nice outing to the Cascades waterfalls. We are now tucked up in Port Havannah. We had a good snorkel and dive on the boat yesterday making sure the bottom is as clean as possible before entering Australian waters. Today we woke to overcast weather and frequent rain showers. We were meant to be heading back to Port Vila but behind the protection of the headland we still had 30 knots of breeze on the nose and were soaked to the skin!

 

We are hoping to check out tomorrow or Saturday and head for Cairns. It is quite a weird feeling thinking that our next country will be Australia and we have all sailed here!! The journey should take 12 days and once the current conditions have moved on we should have fine weather and good breezes – if you can trust a GRIB weather file. We have worked out that since Niue, every leg has had in excess of 35 knots of wind. So much for trade wind sailing conditions.

 

We hope the Olympics are going well and everybody is well at home,

 

Love, Ocean Lady