Sunday Island – west of Sydney

Sunday Island is sailing her merry way from Fiji to Hobart. We are now 270nm west of Sydney. I am constantly updating my weather using Grib files downloaded via HF radio. I have been monitoring a weather system developing off Sydney for the past few days and believed I had routed my track around the worst of the storm. A few hours after the front passed late yesterday afternoon I thought I’d nailed it, with wind 25kt from the SE. With two reefs in the mainsail and the staysail only we were sailing along beautifully at 8kts towards Hobart, but in the evening the wind increased to 30kts, I was preparing a reef in the missen when a huge gust of wind blew out the staysail sheet and the mainsail at the same time. I bore away and replaced the staysail sheet and dropped the mainsail, then I hoisted the missen with one reef. We were able to maintain course in the right direction and away from the storm at 5 kts through the night.
In the early hours of the morning, just before sunrise, I downloaded the latest Grib file from a station in New Zealand, made a good pot of coffee, cooked some eggs and sat down to contemplate the situation. The weather forecast is not abating off Sydney for a few days, the only way to calmer weather is to sail south towards Eden on the SE tip of mainland Australia.
When I bought Sunday Island I looked at the reefing points in the missen and laughed, telling the previous owner Peter “I hope I never need those tiny reefing points in the missen” . I also looked at the size of the trisail and laughed at how cute it looked. Well, the Tasman Sea has certainly made a point for itself, and this morning, once I had finished my coffee and eggs, I hoisted the trisail and altered course to Eden.
We now sail along with a steady 30kt wind on our beam, with staysail, trisail and reefed missen, making a brisk 7 kts in the right direction towards Eden.
These are definitely the roughest conditions that I have experienced on Sunday Island, and only the third time i have ever put up a trisail in my life. Despite huge seas crashing over the deck, submersing the entire boat, Sunday island shakes herself off and carries on. I think she is actually enjoying herself! Down below is reasonably dry. Quite a bit of condensation due to the chill in the air which was below 12deg overnight , and a bit of water that I have dragged below in my foulies, but other than that Sunday Island is quite dry, with thankfully no big leaks, just the odd drip here or there occasionally.