Cabin Fever

We did an overnighter to the Montebellos, had a look around the lagoons and anchored in Champagne Bay for the night. That was fine. The next day it was 30+ knots all day until it eased in the late arvo, and I got a kitesurf in. That was all well and relaxing too. The next day- 25-30 knots again. The books were losing their charm, all the odd jobs had been done (Hutch even cleaned the cutlery tray) and we sat beady-eyed in the cabin eating a third breakfast and realised we'd contracted Cabin Fever. There is only one cure: we secured everything and set out in the late arvo into a 20 knot headwind. The waves, whipped up by two days of strong Easterlies were three metres high or so and we got drenched, slammed and centrifuged. Again a night sail. Tiring this time- Dirk the autopilot does the steering, but needed constant adjustments- in the gusts the boat would accellerate to 8 or 9 knots, then slam into waves and drop off the back of them. Wet and uncomfortable .The solution was to head up 5 degrees, to keep things at 6 knots or so, and following the waves up & down. But in the lulls this higher angle would stop Tribute in its tracks on the next high wave, cured by 5 degrees down again.
Anyway-after 16 hours of this we arrived in Dampier. Bruce 'Useless' Hullett is on his way and it looks like customs is closed until Monday.