At the start of Tuesday 1st February, the skipper's birthday, we expected to farewell Graham and then spend the day tucked up in Stanley Harbour given the forecast. Then the strong wind warning was cancelled and the revised forecast looked manageable, so we decided around lunch time to leave for Three Hummock Island. This was to be a staging point for the long leg to Macquarie Harbour.
As we came out of the shelter of The Nut, the winds went up to 20 knots and the seas built somewhat. The required course was a reach across the seas which was difficult to hold. If Tegwen's stern was picked up by a wave, the sail area was then presented beam on to the wind causing more rounding up and extreme rolling. It was not long before the wind had come up to 35 knots sustained and gusting over 40! With two reefs in the main and the genoa partially furled it was still very hard to hold Tegwen on the intended course across the face of the seas.
Having expected a leisurely 10 to 20 knots we started out without all our wet weather gear on and by the time we donned it we were soaked through anyway. The thought of trying to put the third reef in the main in the conditions at the time with only two on board was a little daunting as was the thought of a further five hours sailing when soaked to the bone. We turned around and made our way back to the shelter of Stanley Harbour once again for a total round trip of 9.8 nautical miles.
The only consolation was a dinner at the Stanley pub with the captain and crew of the trawler we had been rafted up to for the last few days. The harbour had a bit of movement in it all night and Tegwen required some additional springs after the wind changed during the night.
Wednesday's dawn saw overcast conditions with drizzle and quite a breeze - a sense of deja vu overwhelmed us and it was difficult to get motivated to try and leave again. Mark and I spent quite a bit of time going over the next two legs and sussing out the likely weather. It was pretty obvious that we needed to try and enter Macquarie Harbour no later than Friday morning if we weren't to spend a further several days waiting for another weather window.
After walking to the end of the harbour and looking out at the sea conditions, we decided to have another go at sailing for Three Hummock Island. As it turned out this was the correct decision. Once clear of The Nut, the drizzle disappeared and at times the sun came out. The seas were only slight and there was a light breeze. We motored until well clear of Stanley to avoid the influence of The Nut and then were able to set sail and stop the motor. Not a great speed but at least we were sailing. Unfortunately the breeze gradually died over time and we forced once again to motor sail and ultimately just motor.
Despite the motoring we had a good trip and on looking back after a few miles had been covered, it became obvious how much the Harbour weather was dominated by the micro climate surrounding The Nut.
Having started late we used the twilight to maximum advantage and were finally at anchor well after sunset in a rolly but quiet bay along the northern coast of Three Hummock Island. Quiet that is, apart from the cries of what sounds like little penguins esconced amongst the cliffs around the bay.
