Update to blog, November 2010. Blackwattle Bay, Port Jackson (Sydney) Australia.
It's been a great start to the Austral summer so far. No expensive boats damaged, by me, one saved from the reef, and nobody hurt beyond reef infections and sunburn.
Yes long distance cruising in sailboats is all about going to exotic places, like Scarborough Australia and working on your sailboat. Have you ever seen such a great alignment on the prop shaft as this one in Scarborough?
So I spent the time and money to paint the bottom, zincs, get the running rigging working again, polish the prop, work work work as required. But all in all the 6 months in the hard over the Aussie “winter” was very good on Prism and she was into the water and sailing in pretty good time. And everything seemed to work well.
It was off to Mooloolaba after that, a great spot to sail the Tasman, and I saw humpback whales there, too fleetingly to get the photos though, so you just get my word for it, as well as Shane Holmes, a helicopter pilot from Mooloolaba. After sailing he and his lovely Brenda took me out for drinks and dinner at the Surf Club.
Then it was off sailing, I managed to 'pick up' a young guy from Brisbane as crew, with his help I planned to take Prism outside Moreton Island on course Southport. The last evening in Mooloolaba, I shared some wine with the elder sailor, Alan, and he was going to Southport but by the inside, anchoring at St Helena Island. He marked some good anchorages on my cruising guide.
An early departure and we stopped at Flinders Reef en route for some great snorkeling in warm waters with lots of fish and turtles. Young Matt of Brisbane wouldn't swim there, however. The Aussie Marine Rescue group of volunteers likes to keep track of us amateurs by sail plan and I heard Alan call in a few hours behind us, he was also coming the outside route, the long way with no anchorages and he was single handing, and he is even more mature than I. At least I had young Matt who was over his seasickness and was now turning into a good helmsman. The wind was warm and gentle and we sailed close to her. Darkness fell soon after Pt Lookout and the unlit nasty looking Flat Rocks. Jagged high rocks are bad enough to see, but Flat Rocks barely stick out of the ocean and with no light on them, and with them in the way, and far off Pt Lookout, I was happy to get past in the last daylight and on my way for Southport, about 5 hours south. But a couple of hours into dark, and the Marine Rescue group is calling Alan on his yacht and he is in trouble. Couldn't hear Alan's side of the radio but we turned around and headed north and sure enough he had run her up on Alt Rocks. The wind and tide pushed him in there and she was on pretty high and dry. His speed and the flatness of the rocks, he was well up there as the morning light showed.
He had got rescued by the helicopter, it landed on the rocks and after a night hove to, me and Matt hoped to be of some help in the rescue, maybe even save her ourselves, earn cash rewards and fame and tons of Brisbane Babes. Matt being from Brisbane and all. She wasn't steel, but fibreglass and she might have been holed already, too hard to see, but the waves were coming in pretty furious for a calm sea and the afternoon tide was the best time to get her off. The commercial salvage guys came and we put the long line to her and each wave lifted the bilge and pulled her towards the big 'Suki engine, if she wasn't holed by the grounding, she was now.
The salvors threw me and Matt onto her as she came under tow, with a 10 HP gas pump, she was taking on water, so me and Matt got that pump and hoses put together and the pump making noise and we started sucking water out of the bilge. I got no photos of that part, we were too busy sucking water.
But that was the end of it for us, they transferred us back to Prism at anchor at the Flat Rocks and Matt and I continued onto the bar at Southport. Thank goodness it was an easy crossing, I came to realize that easy crossing of bars on this coast are kind of rare. We motored down to the heart of Southport town and tied up to a bar and drank some beer and stayed tied up to the bar all night. Alan later called to thank me for my help and to enquire about my reef wounds, every time you get smacked onto a South Pacific reef, you get septic wounds for a week or two. Thanks Alan, I am healed now.
Young Matt was pretty good help and he might get a job with the salvors, they always look for young strong guys from Brisbane. But he wouldn't swim in the Aussie waters, too afraid of sharks. He left me on the Flat Rocks and went back to anchored Prism and he couldn't tie up the zodiac. It got free and drifted away. I shouted at him from the Flat Rocks, Swim, you Aussie pussy, swim. But no, he wouldn't, so I swam to anchored Prism shouting all the way, you Aussie Pussy, don't make me swim all the way out there to rescue that Zodiac that you couldn't tye up, you Aussie Pussy and me an old friggin' Canadian and all, you young Aussie Pussy, etc etc etc, you probably get the idea. Ya just gotta get over that fear of Sharks, Matt. It's like fear of flying in helicopters, get over it.
Matt left me in Southport and I got new crew, but she had to go to Brisbane for a couple of days, which suited me since I wanted to go to Tripplers Pass and anchor where you could walk across South Stradbroke Island and go surfing on the outside. Perfect, a snug anchorage and surfing a short walk away. I got there late in the afternoon and went ashore at dark. They had a big galla galla doo at some bar and I melded in and got two free beers. Then I went for a walk to the surf beach, in the pitch dark and scare the poop outa me, a kangaroo comes bounding across my path. My first sighting of a wild kangaroo in Australia. Neat-o. The surf beach was pretty neat in the dark and I walked back to Prism. I should mention here that Queensland, a state of Australia, like Saskatchewan, does not believe in daylight savings time, so darkness falls at 1800 and dawn comes at 0400. Apparently in both places the cows are adversely affected by DST.
Next day I started my daytime explorations at the place where I got the free beer the night before, as you would, and there was the “wild kangaroos” that I saw the night before. They were tame wallabies, a kangaroo relative, but kept by the bar for Chinese and Japanese tourists to feed. Well, I still hope to see a wild kangaroo someday.
There was no surfing, I couldn't find a board and the surf had no break and I was pretty tired from saving Alan's boat, so I spent my time laying in the shade and listening to the surf. I also got free drinks from a houseboat on holiday, just had to regale them with crossing the Pacific stories.
Then Karina from Darwin came back from Brisbane and we made plans to leave the next morning early for passage to Port Stephens. Her friends were there and she was going to get back onto their boat. We didn't get away as early as I wanted, we ended up hitting the Southport Bar after slack and with the ebb. Well doesn't that Tasman Swell build up nice and swell on the contrary ebb tide? We took two nasty waves green over the bow before we ducked quick past the south breakwater into the normal swells in the 6 meter deep water, scary but nothing like the breakers in the bar. Likewise, I got no photos of that adventure, I was too busy navigating green breakers.
If you want to learn how to sail, the Tasman is great for that. One minute the wind is hard on the nose, next she is off the beam, then behind, then in front. Up the full main, now reef, now another reef, put the genny on a pole, now gybe the genny and the pole, gybe the main, put them all away and start the engine. Etc etc etc. It was a lot of work and before Port Stephens we put into the Clarence River Bar, on the flood tide I can well assure you. We put in on account of a forecast southerly. But it never came and so the next day, on the early AM flood, I wanted to leave, thinking that the southerly had come and gone and was a non event. We came out the flood tide fine, and then the weather hit hard from the south and the tide turned to ebb, so the bar was closed, so there was nothing to do but ride the weather out for, well, 22 hours.
Poor Karina got pretty seasick, me and Prism did nothing in southerly mileage and at 0200 we were back abeam Clarence River Bar. At dawn, Karina got up and said are we at Coffs Harbour? No, we are back were we started 22 hours ago. I took us to the marina and actually paid for moorage, expecting her to quit the boat and nasty blog me for taking her out into stupid conditions, but she wandered the town and had a lunch and some more food, and some more, and she was actually ready to go the next day. So another dawn departure on the flood tide, and a great following sea and wind almost all the way to Port Stephens. We saw more whales at Seal Rocks but they couldn't be caught for all our sailing after them. Lots of dolphins. So we got to Port Stephens just after dark and lined up on the sector light, in the red sector so I was just explaining to Karina how to steer in on the sector light, and I looked up and it had disappeared. Odd, all the other village lights and a red light are there. Called up Marine Rescue, and the batteries are too expensive to replace so the light only works in daylight hours. Well, into the harbour on radar and GPS, no problem and sure enough in the morning, there was the sector light burning bright.
So we left Port Stephens, Karina decided to make the journey to Sydney, and the wind blew pretty good and we came to the entrance to Port Jackson at dawn. Well, what an exciting arrival. Sydney has a great harbour with Port Jackson, big wide entrance ringed in cliffs, lots of ferries zooming all over the place and other boats too numerous to mention. Then you come around the corner with the National Harbour Park on one shore and the Opera House, downtown and the Harbour Bridge before you on t'other shore. We sailed by the Opera House, and I felt another moment of 'I Have Crossed the Pacific'. I had a moment or two of that in Brisbane. I don't know if I am cheating by having too many major milestone achievement moments for the same ocean, but I am taking them as given.
So I called my mom, and I took the photo's, Karina took a lot of photos, her being from this down under and all. She was pretty excited about the Harbour Bridge but to tell the truth, it looks big and chunky to me compared to the Golden Gate. I can't imagine I shall ever see a bridge as lovely at the Golden Gate, it being on t'other side of the Pacific, which I have crossed (excuse me whilst I have that moment once again).
But the Opera House, it is really spectacular to look at and later this week I have every intention of going there and riding my bike all around. The cove just beside is completely ringed by the Royal Botanical Gardens. I have every intention of taking my Zodiac ashore at the Opera House, with pedal bike and exploring the downtown of Sydney. I might even splurge and buy a ticket to walk across the bridge.
Right now I am anchored in Clontarf, a northern suburb in the Middle Harbour. Not a bad anchorage, lots of people passing to and fro on the Middle Harbour. Lots of swimming going on, I will be having a swim myself after breakfast. Then I shall take the zodiac up the middle harbour to investigate two possible mooring buoys for Prism. I am leaning towards Cronulla a village down south on Port Hacking. The southern suburbs of Sydney reach there, as does the rapid transit train, and it is close to Camden where I will be working sometime after Nov 20. The price is more reasonable and it is available, unlike a lot of mooring buoys in Sydney. The Sydney harbour is much better taken as a cruising grounds and anchorage rather than a mooring place. Great anchorages and tons to explore and you can anchor right beside the iconic Opera House and Royal Botanical Gardens, so why pay extra for storage when you can cruise such wonders for free? I am storing Prism on the mooring, since the job entails travel to various helicopter fire fighting locations and they pay expenses and such. I get time off and that's when I want to cruise Sydney. But even Port Hacking should be good cruising, the southern shores are the Royal National Park, the second national park in the history of the universe, the first in Australia. It has lots of interesting stuff to see and will be about a long zodiac ride from moored Prism. Or I can patiently work the tides and take Prism up the Hacking River deep into the Royal National Park.
Right now, the wind is gentle and cool, the water is clear, warm and inviting, the zodiac is all kitted out for exploration and I have to get away from this computer. I now have 'net access from Prism, I bought a nice USB prepaid and so I will be downloading lots of cruising information and photos since it came with 2 Gig of 30 day expiry data. After that it's just a simple email system. So now I have to be careful that I don't spend 2 or 3 hours a day in paradise on the 'net. So you got the latest in news and pretty soon I will report from Cronulla (rhymes with granola).
