The weather was predicted to be 15 knots and 2.5 meters of
The weather was predicted to be 15 knots and 2.5 meters of swell. It turned out about right except that some of the swells were well over 3 meters once we passed Noosa.
This was the first time we were able to gauge the Integrity’s sea keeping ability. I was very pleasantly surprised to find that she handled the mostly beam on sea with great comfort. I was told to expect a lot of roll from these “trawler” style boats in a beam sea but “Black Label” showed very little tendency to pitch from side to side, instead she tended to rise and fall fairly flat. I suspect the oversize beam width on these 35 Integrity’s changes the rules somewhat.The ride was so good that Annie went to sleep for 4 hours on the saloon lounge. We crossed the Wide Bay bar at 3.00pm on the dot in sloppy conditions but it presented no problems.
The time had come after 6 months to bring the adventure to an end as we steamed off heading for Hope Island marina on the Gold Coast. We had an uneventful trip down and arrived at the marina at midday. It was an anti climax of sorts to tie up, step off the boat and declare that “We were home”
To sum up the trip I would say that the bulk of it was terrific, we both had a great time and brought back some fabulous memories. We met some lovely people along the way as you do on trips like this and made many new friends. The boat performed faultlessly and was just brilliant to drive in all conditions. We did approx. 2,500 miles and averaged 12.2 litres per hour at an average speed of 7.8 knots (9 mph).
John Sullivan
