Miles to Fremantle Just under 500 miles
Current ETA 28 -29 December 2006

Christmas Day aboard Saga Insurance
Lunch to-day will be boil in the bag Chicken Tikki Masala followed by a mini Christmas Pudding. Toasts are with orange juice, not by choice. The music is a classic collection as it has the Hallelujah Chorus on it which I associate with Christmas. I would have brought a CD of the King’s College carols had I thought I was going to be at sea for Christmas, but I’d also have brought more whisky and wine as well had I known that! Never mind, the bright side is that no one had to share my singing.

A lovely Christmas present from the family, “Does anything eat wasps”? It will turn me into a quiz bore of course but at the moment it is something new to read.

The wind is still from the East North East so I cannot head straight for Fremantle which is why the distance to Freo is not going down very fast. I am only able to head well north of Fremantle at the moment and the winds to allow us to sail straight for the city are not due until the evening of Boxing Day, so making 7-9 knots hard on the wind under Solent and two reefed mainsail. I did have the jib up but at 12 knots the pounding into the waves was a bit too aggressive and I don’t want to break anything else now.

A bitter sweet Christmas present from the computer industry. The weather programme has gone phut so I cannot download any weather now. The other side of this is, of course, that the weather it was giving me was not very good anyway, so maybe I will be better off with out it. The wind was meant to have veered, it hasn’t, so eventually I will get sufficiently far north to be able to make closer to Freo on the other tack.

The sun is out; the seas are grey, Force 4 and the wind that too I would say. I can console myself with the thought that I can do what I like with the day provided the boat is cared for of course. Thirty-eight years ago I was closing in on Cape Horn and I gave myself frightful indigestion with a plum duff of my own making, but I did have alcohol then to provide a bit of extra stimulation. Have a lovely relaxing day, I intend to do as much as sailing allows.