EMIGRE

Tuesday, April 28th 2026. I woke to the of gently flogging sails. Our speed had dropped to around two knots overnight. The wind can’t have been above force three. We probably should have started the motor during the night but both Kevin and I were catching up on good sleep and neither of us felt like listening to the racket made by the engine. I had arranged to operate morse code with some friends this morning so I got up, put the kettle on, started the motor and turned on t

Monday, April 27th 2026. Much like yesterday, today has been overcast with 8/8 cloud cover. The wind was light, ranging between a force one and a force three. The seas have been smooth, eerily smooth for being so far offshore. Gentle Antarctic swells lift and lower Emigre like clockwork. April was recommended to me by Jon Sanders as the ‘quietest’ month to sail south of Australia or anywhere in the Southern Ocean. I hope his theory remains true for the remainder of the trip.

Sunday, April 26th 2026. Not much to report out here today. The wind has remained light, mostly out of the south. We managed to sail all day and maintain a course slightly north of Kangaroo Island. With approximately 400 nautical miles to reach Kangaroo Island, we had to make a decision whether we would stop at American River on the Northern side of the island or continue South to Tasmania. For this trip I purchased a subscription weather routing service called ‘predict wind’

ANZAC Day Saturday, April 25th 2026 After an uneventful night, we woke to find emigre on course and making reasonable time. So far this voyage has been relatively slow paced. That’s fine by me. We are in no race and have no deadline to meet. As long as we are moving at about three knots and the tiller pilot can steer a straight course, I’m happy. Our average speed for the trip has remained at 4.7knots despite three days of wind mostly below a force four. Emigre has been fully

Friday, April 24th 2026. Lunch is the highlight of every day at sea. (Other than breakfast and dinner) Today happened to be leftover vegetable pie. Not bad at all. The drone of the three cylinder Kubota purring away under the companionway steps becomes white noise after a few hours. It was using very little fuel, approximately 1.7L/hr at 1800rpm. That gave us about 4 knots speed over ground. The mainsail, still at the third reef was sheeted centre. I went forward to adjust th

Thursday, April 23rd 2026. Today was relatively uneventful. After retrieving and securing the anchor, I turned my attention to our course. The wind had backed from North East to North West. We were sailing on a broad reach with a wind angle of approximately 160°. Our course over ground was closer to 70°M. I decided to rig the spinnaker pole on the Port side to pole out the jib. It’s only a number three that doesn’t overlap the mast and sets flat as a board when poled out. I w