Tasman 2025 – Update 24th March

Written for Grant and Luke by John Mitchell, Project Manager

Since the last update Grant & Luke have continued to advance towards Australia averaging around 5kph.

Grant & Luke’s progress up to midday 24th March

The weather has remained benign with the easterly winds and calm seas continuing to assist them.

The main concerns over the last two days were the two shallow reefs ahead of them – Middleton and Elizabeth Reefs. They are the southernmost open ocean platform coral reefs in the world and are just under water at high tide.

Over the last 200 years these two reefs have claimed numerous vessels and lives. Modern GPS makes avoidance easier but only if the charts in use are accurate and the navigators remain on the ball. The team decided to deviate from the direct track and go around the reefs well to the north – safety first.

Middleton Reef has several visible wrecks including the remains of a Japanese fishing trawler the Fuku Maru. The most recent grounding was the yacht Sospan Fach in 1974. Its crew of four was rescued after being stranded for six weeks, during which they lived on the wreck of the Fuku Maru.

Elizabeth reef also has several wrecks. The Kaineo Maru was wrecked on the reef around 20 January 1969. More recently British sailor Steve Landles, a solo sailor, was sailing the yacht Lamachan from England to Australia when he ran aground on Elizabeth Reef. He was winched to safety by a Royal Australian Navy Sea Hawk helicopter from the stranded yacht on 2 August 2007 and the yacht abandoned.

During the early hours of this morning (24^th) Grant and Luke rowed the Pavlova safely around Middleton Reef, passing about 20km to the north.

Now they can concentrate on the best route to the coast. Only a couple of things in the way. First of course being the currents and eddies of the East Australian current, which flows southwards along the coastline at up to 3 knots. The other is traffic – numerous ships of all sizes run up and down the coast between the main Australian ports. The route to the Pavlova’s landing point (where ever that is – still to be decided) crosses the main shipping lanes at right angles.

The remaining currents to cross

The shipping traffic ahead of the Pavlova as they pass above Middleton Reef

Grant’s thoughts for today:

Cleared reefs overnight which was front of minds for past 3 days.

Luke caught a massive tuna but it got away just before we landed.

This current stretch of water I have done before, in 2017, with my 1st attempt to cross the Tasman, leaving from Australia. I was blown just north of Lord Howe Island before turning back and heading back to Aussie, arriving at Ballina after 24 days and 2200km at sea, being blown in a big loop. How surreal to be in exactly the same position again 7 yrs later but having rowed from NZ.

Arrival looks to be around Sunday. Location not yet confirmed but somewhere between Brisbane to Coffs hopefully. Mood onboard is starting to get excited, but reminding ourselves the most dangerous part of any row is leaving and arriving. We have shipping lanes to cross which scared me shitless when solo in my previous attempts. Wind and rain and low visibility 7 years ago. Then there is finding a safe enough spot to land in as most entry points have sand bars and breaking surf.

A massive thanks to our met team who are providing fantastic current and wind data to aid decision making on an hourly basis.

The Paihia kiwi is now less than 500km from reaching Australia. Our main aim is to finish the expedition in the style we started, no on-water support and under our own terms as we touch down in Australia quietly and safely.

Captain axe and Captain Luke signing out 500km from Australia.