From the Captain Garry McKechnie 11/03/06

0700 Breakfast on deck consists of cereal, muesli, fresh fruit salad, yogurt, juice and tea or coffee. Jayne is doing a sensational job in the galley. Her job is one of the hardest on board. We are fortunate that she has a high degree of resistance to seasickness. Everyone else helps out with dishes and cutting up vegetables etc.

Overnight the wind has continued to freshen and we are now experiencing 20 - 25 knots which is expected to rise further to around 30 knots by the afternoon. On this basis the GBRMPA team and myself have agreed to abandon our next survey site at Turner Reef about 20 miles to the north. Turner Reef is unprotected on the weather side and faces the full force of the SE winds and swells coming off the Pacific ocean. We judge it is too dangerous to attempt the survey in these conditions. We opt instead to head for reef no. 212529 about 30 miles WNW which is the final site for this stage of the expedition.

The rising wind and swell mean that Pelican now has waves breaking on three sides and is beginning to roll in the swells that wrap around the northern extremity of the reef. We raise the anchor without incident and set a course for reef 21529. We are sailing comfortably down wind, relieved to have finished a difficult section of the project, when about an hour later Paul comes up to the wheelhouse with some bad news. The video monitoring on the last transects of the reefs surrounding Chinaman's failed. Our data is incomplete. A hurried conference is convened on deck while we drop sail. No-one wants to return to repeat the work in the conditions which now prevail. None of us like the thought of fighting our way upwind to the reef we have just left but the researchers may not have an opportunity to return here for months. Fortunately Paul and his team come up with a solution to cover the data loss and we continue on to the next site which is completed without fuss in choppy conditions. Marina dives again with Ewan and Pedar. All the trainees are gaining skill and confidence daily. Ini and I are working hard to hold Pelican in position for the divers in 25 knots of wind metres from the surf on a lee shore. I mention casually to Nick that a relative direction over ground meter would be useful in helping us to maintain position.

Our final scheduled survey is now finished for this section but Paul is interested in looking at the Percy Isles on a casual basis to get an idea how this (largely scientifically unsurveyed) area is fairing in the current coral bleaching event. Middle Percy island is one of my favourite places so I suggest West Bay at Middle Percy as a good anchorage and base. We set sail. Conditions are perfect for passage making with the wind on our starboard quarter at 25-30 knots. With both genoas partly furled across the bows we are sitting on 10 knots and surfing up to 15 knots. Later before dinner I furl the sails further and limit our speed to about 8 knots so that we can dine comfortably on deck. After tea Nick shows me our new toy that he has just incorporated into Pelican's on board computer system; a drift direction gauge. Amazing.