At daylight (20th) the morning was dull and cloudy:  a bank of heavy threatening clouds, rising from the eastward, induced my steering to the westward to await the issue of this weather, so unfavourable for our doing any good upon the coast, as well as increasing the danger of navigating among reefs and islands where the tides were so strong.  The next morning at daylight we had a squall with rain and wind from the eastward after which a fresh breeze set in from the same quarter:  as this weather appeared likely to last I very unwillingly determined upon leaving the coast and returning immediately to Port Jackson.

February 21 to 24.

From the 21st until the 24th we had moderate winds between north and south-east which gradually drew us out of the influence of the damp, unwholesome weather we so lately experienced.  Our course was held to the northward of Rowley’s Shoals which, upon passing, we found a strong current setting towards them at the rate of one mile an hour.  This indraught increases the danger of navigating near this part but I do not recollect having experienced any when we passed them in June, 1818.  The current, therefore, that we felt, may be only of temporary duration, and probably caused by the variable state of the wind.

1822.  February 24 to March 3.

Between the 24th of February and the 3rd of March we had light and variable winds from all directions but, being more frequent from the eastward than from any other point of the compass, I became reconciled to the step I had taken of leaving the coast, since it would not have been possible to have reached Port George the Fourth to effect any good.

The thermometer now ranged between 87 and 89 degrees and the weather was consequently extremely oppressive and sultry.

March 3 to 11.

On the 3rd at noon we were in latitude 18 degrees 45 minutes 18 seconds and longitude 111 degrees 4 minutes 15 seconds when a breeze sprang up from the South-east and carried us within the influence of the trade, which blew steadily between South-South-east and South by East and advanced us on our passage but carried us considerably to the westward.  On this course we were accompanied by immense shoals of albicores (Scomber thynnus, Linn.) but they were of small size; very few measured more than twenty inches in length, and the average weight about ten pounds:  The meat was very good and tender and as a great number of the fish were caught, proved a grateful relief to our salt diet.  The atmosphere was very damp and before the vessel entered the trade we had lightning every night, but it ceased the moment that we were within its limits.  Tropic and other oceanic birds, some of a dark brown colour, hovered about us and were our daily companions, particularly the latter which preyed upon the small fish that were pursued by the albicores.

March 11 to 14.

From the 11th to the 14th the trade ceased and the interval was supplied by a northerly wind, veering round to west, which enabled us to make up for the ground we had lost by its having been so much from the southward.  After this we had variable breezes between South and East-South-East but the current, which before had been setting us to the north-west, now set to the north-east; this change was probably occasioned by the south-westerly swell.