Looks like the weather is finally warming up as we head north! Either that or I’m becoming acclimatized to the cold. The wind died off yesterday afternoon and we’ve been motoring on one engine since then. Checking the GRIBs, it looks like we might get a decent southerly push tomorrow as we’ll be on the west side of a low-pressure system. After that, it’s looking like light southerlies or even calm conditions for the next few days. Looks like that duty-free fuel is going to come in handy! And Starlink is a fantastic addition to any yacht delivery.
We are done! The boat's tied up safe and sound in the marina, the crew has packed their bags and headed off, and I'm here doing the final clean-up before I leave at 6 am tomorrow morning. I have to admit, I was pretty anxious for the last 24 hours. I was on the edge of my seat, hoping those saildrives would hold out for the final stretch. I even changed the oil in both of them around 3 am, because we were going to make landfall around 5 am and its quite a way up the river, and the tide was going to be dropping as we went up, meaning they'd have a bit more work to do. And the final approach was definitely… engaging. There was a fair bit of tide coming out of the river, which dropped our boat speed down to around 4 knots. We also had the added obstacle of river traffic to contend with, and the channel margins were tight – about half a meter on either side. It was one of those situations where you're constantly running through scenarios in your head. I was thinking things ...