Terra Australis: Sailing in Moreton Bay (May 1-3)

Getting up at 6:00h is nothing out of the ordinary for me. Ever since I arrived in Oz I went to bed early and consequently got up early too. Of course, when you need to wake up early you could sleep much longer ;-). So I got up a little later than expected and checked out of the YHA. With all my gear packed in one plastic bag, one day pack and my suitcase I boarded the train and got down to Manly once again. Having arrived there I was able to store my suitecase and met my fellow sailors. Phil (skipper), James (lawyer from New York), Scot builder from Brisbane), Darryl (structural engeneer, originally from Malaysia) and Kuan (architect, also originally from Malasia). It was a great team with everyone being very polite and helping out as good as they could.

Our boat was a Jeanneau Odyssey 40 by the name of Capriccio, built in 2001 and owned by our skipper Phil. It is a great boat with a lot of space, four cabins, a nice living area, two steering wheels, a single line reefing system, a furling jib (not entirely sure this is the right word. It would be Rollrefffock in German).

Also it was equipped with a digital speed-o-meter and a gauge for depth, apparent and true wind.

Phil used to be a farmer for most of his life and after he had sold his parents farm he bought this ship for his family. Having saild more than 20k nautical miles with it there was no topic he couldnt give detailed information on. It was really dificult to understand ihs Aussie accent with all these English nautical terms but it was ok by the end of the first day.

Having not sailed for almost 7 months it was a great feeling having 25 knots of apparent wind in your face while standing on a jumping and heeling boat screaming orders to the head sail trimmer.

My body is full of cuts and bruises from tightening sheets and winching jibs.

Special highlight was 3 hours of night sailing on the first day. The helmsman ususally changed every hour and when I took over the wheel at dusk I was the lucky guy to steer until total darkness.

There are not many lights on in the Moreton Bay area and I would have been lost immediately. But Phil makes these trips for some years now and he didnt even need a map to point the right way. He just told me to follow the Southern cross.

What impressed me most was the brightness of the stars. I was warned by Andi but would have never thought it was that remarkable. You could basically see the entire milkyway with the Southern Cross up front (Southern Cross is the stars constellation that is shown on the Australian flag). There were even shooting stars to be seen.

So there I was standing at the helm in 18 knots with the boat heeling at 30 degree and calling the shots, above an absolutely amazing spectacle including shooting stars. I just wonder can it get any better? Is scuba diving in cairnes or skydiving over Fiji gonna beat this?