The following day saw very good progress up the east coast of Tasmania however the weather forecast was a bit of a problem.

The direction and strength of the winds forecast meant coastal sailing was too risky.

David plotted the course and we headed towards Gabo Island off the south east coast of Australia.

Some 12 or so hours later I found out what the term 'Lay in Hull' means.

The wind was far to strong for the sails, we had to conserve diesel so we just had to drift and ride it out.

Fortunately we were some 15 miles from land by this stage.

It was my first really rough night at sea and I was stunned at the sound of the leeward side of the hull 'slapping' the valley of certain waves.

At times it sounded to me like it could shatter the hull.

The following day provided us with a very good run at an average of 6 knots for around 7 hours.

Towards late afternoon a wall of clouds suggested a cold front so we lowered the main sail.

Surprisingly the jib alone kept us around 5.5 to 6 knots, not as tight to the wind but much flatter on the water.

An hour or so later found us through that wall and in calm of around 1 to 2 knots.

David reluctantly let me put the main sail up from which I learned a hard lesson.

That storm emerged and we'd almost capsized several times before we got the main down.

David set the jib at about 1/4 size - just enough to point us up into the wind.

That was to stabilize the boat without risking the sail being torn to shreds.

By this stage we'd gone backwards nearly 3 miles and I agreed to always get the main in well before dark from there on.

The storm calmed about 18 hours later, we had sailed about 12 miles but off course and only gained a relative 4 if that.

The following 2 days saw us average about 1.5 knots and still slightly off course, enough to be really frustrating.

It is likely the lee of Flinders Island wasn't helping but we were already 30 nautical miles off it's east coast.

There wasn't enough wind for the main sail, so the opposite tack was almost directly east.

Moments later, still fighting sleep I was crawling over the side of the stove to try and get out of the cabin.

David was preparing to go forward rather than risk me but he did not have his harness so I just went.

I had slept with my harness and life jacket still on.

I heeded David's advice crawling up the side, one hand for me, one for the boat, steadily reclipping as I went.

Once forward I clipped to the mast and straddled it to pull the main in.

It was almost in when I saw David's mouth open, his hand come up to point behind me and I realised quite well what was about to happen.

I wasn't frightened, just really annoyed.

I was wearing my last dry clothes, it was the first time I was warm in hours (from all the activity) and then a thump on my back and an icy slap around my neck and ears.

If that wasn't enough it curled around the mast and blasted me in the face.

We battled on till the wind calmed around 11pm. Having just passed a cargo ship (lightning never strikes twice and all that), we agreed it was time to 'lay a hull'.

About 2 hours later I woke to that airborn feeling similar to earlier. Picking myself up off the floor I took a look outside.

It looked like a tanker had just come very close and that a cargo ship was heading straight for us.

I called out to David but he did not rouse so I started the engine and motored away from what appeared to be its path.

Later I realised there was only one boat that had passed at least half a mile off - it was just the combination of it's wake and choppy seas that threw me out of my bunk.

By this time David was awake, so we decided to have a cup of tea...but found we were out of gas.

At least we still had some cereal and powdered milk...hmmm.

The next morning was dead calm so we checked the fuel and decided to motor for a while.

We had a few stops with oveheating and found it was better to keep the engine below 2000rpm.

With only about 4 hours sailing to get to Eden we had to conserve fuel.

There was very little wind so David showed me how to do a goosewing without raking the jib.

Thank goodness we didn't, another sudden change hit.

By the time we got the main down it was badly torn, Eden was in sight but we couldn't risk it.

With a safe amount of jib we sailed back out to sea and as dark hit motored an extra 3 miles.

We layed a hull 10 miles out and woke 14 miles out.

Breakfast required the last of the cereal so I put a container of pasta, powdered sauce with water aside to soak.

It was now eight days since we'd left Wineglass Bay and for the first time since leaving Hobart we had the wind to our favour.

A few hours later and feeling desperately hungry I crunched through some of that pasta.

Some time later, David insisted I have his share.

We tied to the jetty at Eden about midday.

Having allowed 5-6 days supplies it had taken almost 9 days to sail from Coles Bay.

We set out with a hundred litres of diesel expecting to use 20-40 but used almost 90.

Other people moored at the jetty were very helpful, one repaired the radio for free and another the fender boards.

We found out about a couple from Bega who were kind enough to come down to pick up the sail for mending and bring it back when finished.

All at a very modest price.

The next stretch took us through to Ulladulla and while the winds and swell were fine we had the worst rain for the trip.

We were in a white-out and were less than a mile off the headland by the time we could see it.

By the time we got there my palms had the texture of a kitchen sponge. It took them hours to dry back out.

At a reasonable distance we tried the engine and the electrics failed - we'd experienced this problem previously.

At an uncomfortable closeness the engine started but the overheating alarm came straight back on.

There was plenty of water blowing out of the exhaust pipe and the alarm soon went off but what a pain.

For the rest of night we used a combination of flashlight or reflecting light by mirror to watch the compass.

We allowed a slight degree of error to be on the safe side but it still took us a significant distance from the coast.

At first light we could just see the Sydney CBD on the horizon.