Brisbane to Gizo race - Trade winds race to the Sun

by Stuart Scowcroft on 30 May 2000 DRINA

But the breeze finally came in, after another day going nowhere slowly, and we suddenly had our hands full with thirty plus knots just like the forecaster told us. Funny that.

There followed several days of wonderful sailing. This Langeverne designed aluminium ketch relishes a blow and Mike Thurston is so at home with his yacht that he was able to make her fly without ever feeling over-canvassed or putting her on her beam ends. We made eight and even nine knots for hour after hour. Things were looking up.

As we headed North it became progressively warmer (as it does) and even the odd rain squall was pleasant - a chance for a quick shower and shampoo.


We did catch a wonderful, prize-winning fish. John and Stuart M had set the line during their pre-dawn watch and we were making about 7kts. Mike and I had taken over and Mike was below making a brew. I was enjoying the morning sun when I notice the line. It hadn’t been notified as part of the hand over at the change of watch (Well, why would you?) so I wasn’t keeping an eye on it. Slowly it dawned on me that it was moving in a somewhat unnatural way.

I stuck a head below.

“I think we’ve caught a fish.”

You couldn’t have got everyone on deck faster if you said we were about to be hit by a cyclone. It was really John’s fish. He’d set the line and determined that we could catch one. Together we hauled in a 1.5 metre mackerel, the biggest fish I have ever caught. We posed for the camera, sliced off a decent sized steak for breakfast and unfortunately had to consign the rest to the deep, because our freezer was already full.




The entrance to Gizo through the reef is narrow so we had to concentrate even after the finish. It was a brilliant sunny morning and we headed up the channel and then tacked for the anchorage, sailing past the village under full sail. Mike said everything felt so right with the boat, and he just wanted to prolong the moment. She must have been a great sight. Later Dayle Smith, the race chairman, told us the locals were clapping and cheering as we went past and neatly dropped sail before coasting in to anchor with a tickle of the motor.

We had only an hour before the official sail past. Exhausted and elated we piled primary school children on board and proceeded to engage all the other yachts in water battles that delighted our young passengers and made it easy to forget that we hadn’t slept for a long time. They sang songs with the beautiful harmonies that seem to be born in the people of the Pacific and laughed and screamed and laughed some more.

The Solomon Islands people are warm and friendly and the location just about cliché perfect.


Stuart Scowcroft