We had planned to tackle the Mary River - sailing up from the heads to Maryborough, but the tides weren't in our favour. After much drawn out deliberation, we decided to take off from Hervey Bay Sailing Club, sail to Mark's sister's aquarium and back. Although that doesn't sound exceptionally thrilling, it did mean that we had to sail out around the Hervey Bay Pier (which used to be 3690 feet long, but now is about 800 feet).

We had had to replace a chainplate for one of the stays after our first sail, as it was cracked and old. Rigging up was noticeably quicker this time. I spent long minutes convincing M that we needn't tip Oomoo over on to the sand to run the sail up the mast, but instead should attach the sail to the mast before putting the mast on the boat. He said '...that's just not how it's done'. Finally he conceded we could give it a go, and of course, was instantly converted. Everyone was much happier.

The wind was at about 15 knots, gusting to 18 knots - which meant Oomoo was being tested like never before. He sailed admirably. I sailed us all the way to the pier, where M took over. We were in a deep water channel with a wind against tide situation, which made the waves short and steep - probably up to a metre in height. It was very wet in the boat and we gave our bailer it's first workout. It performed very well.

We tacked a couple of times while heading towards shore, and - after about an hour of sailing we made it. It was v.exciting to run inside the aquarium and say hello - having arrived via wind power! We hung around for a chat and toilet stop, but had one eye closely on the tide. There is a big sand bank that runs along the end of the pier and we didn't want to have to carry Oomoo over it.

I bailed out some remaining water, and we took some photos. In the one to the immediate left, you can just see the pier in the background. We sailed a looooong way! Below left shows me bailing out some left over waves. The sail, if I do say so myself, looks completely awesome.

Sailing back was far, far easier. M said that's because we were going downwind. So 'downwind' is now my favourite bit. There was one small hiccup (which nearly led to a bigger one) when I looked in the storage compartment for some water and took my eyes of the horizon. Oh no! Was immediately overtaken by nausea. M let me steer in an effort to cure me, but I stayed a little bit queasy for the next few hours.

I learnt a few things this time out;