Change of itinerary

You always know it's going to be bad news when the Captain turns up to do the briefing for the next day.  A big low pressure system with 50 knot winds and huge waves has been working its way along the south coast of Australia towards the Bass Strait and Tasmania.

You may have heard the tragic news from the Sydney to Hobart Yacht Race that started at 1pm local time on Boxing Day.  Two sailors were killed in separate accidents over night, one sailor was rescued after being thrown overboard, and 21 of the 104 yachts that started the race have withdrawn, lots with broken masts.  The race leader is not far from Hobart now but most of the yachts are still strung out across the Bass Strait.

The Captain told us that he had decided to sail the opposite way around Tasmania in order to have some shelter from the worst of the storm.  So we are going anti-clockwise instead of clockwise.  The hairiest passage was around the north east corner of Tasmania at about 3am, (in effect cutting across the route of the Race a few hours before the leaders got there).  Most people on our ship were woken as we turned the corner by the crashing sound of the stabilisers working very hard.

After a bumpy day at sea with the outside decks out of bounds, we are now safely docked in the Tamar River where we were a few days ago.

The image is a sailor on the tug joking with one of our sailors.