E80 – MESENAK ISLAND TO KENTAR ISLAND
Sailing out of Mesanak Island
What a suprise! As we sailed out of Mesanak Island we found a head wind again but to be honest, we ARE going the wrong way back to Australia at the wrong time of year, so who’s fault is that ?
Overcast skies mostly left us beating to windward in up to 25kts with a reef in the main and about 80% headsail. That gave us a solid 6-7kts into the tidal flow but it soon became apparent we wouldn’t make the bottom of Lingeh Island before sunset, so we went with plan B and headed into Kentar Island as the sun came out and the wind eased.
Tacking against the tide
The afternoon was spent tacking into the tide, but also a calm sea and 10-15kts of wind with all sail set. That gave Starlight perfect conditions and we had a great sail right into the anchorage and anchored under sail at Tan’s request
An evening thunderstorm
As is typical in this part of the world, we had an evening thunderstorm which left us exposed from one of the few directions the Kantar Island anchorage is exposed to, but the anchorage is a pretty safe one and we rode it out for about an hour before it passed and we dropped off to sleep in rolly conditions!
