All packed and ready to go....

It's great to be able to report that we are 100% on or ahead of program for our departure north. This is a great outcome for a project with as many (human) variables as this one has.

Today was spent loading non-perishables and freezer food onto the boat and topping up the diesel tanks.

Endless Summer sitting quietly after a hard day's packing
  Image by Navman

It seems unbelievable in an area with such boating and tourist potential, but there are no on-water refuelling facilities anywhere within 30 nautical miles of here. Consequently we have been using jerry cans to fill Endless Summer's 855l tank.

We knew that this would be a big task, so we started a few weeks ago, and I am pleased to report that we bought the last 130 litre consignment today.

Anyway, it's all done now, so Endless Summer is sitting quietly waiting for the big adventure to begin.

Today I also went up to the local Marine Rescue base to begin the necessary paperwork for our tracking sheet as we head north. Unfortunately it seems that we will have to do all of the paperwork again when we get to Queensland. This is yet another example of each state doing their own thing, and everybody else suffers with the inefficiency.  Don't get me started on that..........



Now to the all-important weather. The computer models continue to show that Monday will be a good departure window. The model is also predicting that Tuesday will be a good day to continue north. Let's hope that it continues in that vein. As you can see from the image below, the weather patterns after that  look very ordinary for quite a few days.

Image courtesy of Bureau of Meteorology

I have been asked by several people where to find this information on the web. The link is:
http://www.bom.gov.au/australia/charts/viewer/index.shtml?domain=combinedW&type=sigWaveHgt

Check it out, I think it's a great aid to voyage planning, though of course I wouldn't base any voyage on just one data source.

Signing off for now and

Happy Boating,

Navman