Leg 3 - Day 12 - 12th December

We had our final bit of good sailing today – according to the forecasts the winds are due to drop.  However we still managed good speeds during our night watch. It's still cold but feeling much milder – and there are fabulous sunsets and sunrises at the moment that use the whole of God's great paint palette.
The engine was turned on this morning, as the winds did finally drop, so we likewise dropped the sails and used the day for starting the deep clean. All the floor boards came up for a scrub, the bilges were emptied, drained and cleaned, and the lazerette pumped out, all with great vigour as everything we did now would mean we had less to do when we finally arrived in Geraldton. It's amazing how an incentive like that can make you four times as efficient than normal. We achieved so much in a couple of hours, Piers had to keep finding more things for us to do!  But then again Watch-leader Parsons was cracking the whip!  No shirkers allowed on my watch!!!