Captains Log Date: 26 August 2007

There is no dirt at sea. No traffic. No queues, advertising, smog or noise pollution. The creatures that live here are not obviously dominated by the detritus of the modern world. Its great to be at sea again.

August 25 2007
After six months tied alongside in Victoria Dock Pelican is revelling in the clean air and ocean light of Bass Strait. We are headed to Cooktown for the Pelican Hope Vale project sponsored by ANZ. We have 4 People on board for the trip to Cairns. Marina Forni and Nima Shahidi from the Sea Shepherds are kindly helping us with the delivery. Raf Heale and myself round out the crew. Samantha Proudley will replace Marina in Southport. The rest of our project team will join in Cairns.

We have just completed an extensive refit of Pelican at our home berth at Victoria Dock in Melbourne. We have refurbished the galley, repaired sails and rigging and installed new sail covers, phone, internet and radio communications, wind generators, and dinghy launch and retrieval system. Most notably we have transformed Pelican into a 62 foot convertible by adding a new soft top and sides to the central deck providing much more comfort and shelter for clients and crew alike. As a bonus Pelican is also more streamlined and we anticipate an improvement in her performance to windward. Pelican looks even more beautiful than ever in her own ungainly sort of way..

Pelican undergoes refit in Melb (click for big image)

I would like to thank the many people who assisted, supported, encouraged donated and in other ways helped us to get Pelican ready for the next round of projects. The work has taken us offline for some months and we are itching to get back into it. A big thankyou to Paul Nechwatal, Phillip Wright, Graeme McKechnie, Phaedra Press, Raf Heale, Neil Addams, Tim Oddie, Estelle Kefford, Nick Kelly , Natalie Davey. and Lara Crew. Our gratitude also goes out to our families and partners for their tolerance and support of our involvement. and of course to our shareholders for their continued support, Mike O’Mullane, Brendan Condon, Damien Cook, Jenifer Nicholas Peter Gill and Peter Malcolm.

Aug 26 0500 hours
n the wee small hours as we motor past the oil rigs off the Gippsland coast in glassy conditions I reflect that the reputation of Bass Strait has received an unwarranted battering in the press. A legacy perhaps of the Sydney to Hobart disasters. Despite a fearsome reputation Bass Strait is often tranquil and provides some of the most beautiful coastline uncluttered by rampant tourism to be found anywhere. I am hoping that the storms in southern Queensland will have settled down by the time we get there.

Under sail Bass Strait. August 26

Whales frolicking! We observed a number of Humpbacks breaching south west of Cape Conran. They appear to be showing off, behaviour typical of breeding season, as we regularly observe further north but I have never seen them take up residence so far south. Certainly they did not appear to be travelling north. Again just north east of Gabo Island we observe a pod of whalers but are unable to positively identify them. In glassy conditions we motor northwards. All is well.

Happy Sailing Garry McKechnie