Category: Sailing Australian East Coast (Page 3 of 3)

Sailing from Sydney to Bowen and back to Brisbane on Australia’s east coast

Broughton Island to Laurieton

May 20, 2020 / fiandadrian

Laurieton was going to be our first bar crossing in NSW to enter the Camden Haven river. These shallow river entrances can be very dangerous to cross (google NSW bar crossings for some great youtube fun). There are safer times to cross when the swell is low and the outflow from the river is not strong.

To arrive in daylight and 3 hours after low tide we needed to leave Broughton island at around 11pm and arrive about midday the next day. After pulling up the anchor we followed our waypoints between shallow shoals and out into open ocean. I found it surprisingly easy to get off course on a dark night with no landmarks.

There were several other yachts heading in the same direction that kept us company for most of the night. AIS again proved invaluable in determining how far away they were as this is difficult to judge from their lights. We navigated way off the coast where there are less hard things to run into.

We had good steady sailing conditions all night. Dawn brought schools of dolphins to accompany us along the coast.

We put a fishing line out but seemed to attract more birds than fish. Fortunately no birds managed to catch it, also, no fish.

Perpendicular Point provided shelter from the southerly swells to drop the sails and line up for the bar crossing. Whilst the bar crossing was uneventful, there were still people there filming us crossing, presumably expecting some event. Despite being tired we managed to smile, wave and look suitably nautical in our brand new foulies.

This is view toward the breakwaters on either side of the bar. There were no breaking waves, but it was not nearly as flat as it looks here.

After a short motor up the river the Marine Rescue team directed us to the pier in front of the United Servicemans Club where we tied up, enjoyed our arrival beer and relaxed. We reflected on our passage, and noted that we got a lot of things right such as our sail plan, but we also learned a lot, such as not to kick out the autopilot power cord while attempting to reef the headsail in the middle of the night, going the wrong direction towards land, really fast. But overall, first overnighter, first anchoring in open water and first bar crossing…tick.

Port Stephens and Broughton Island

May 16, 2020 / fiandadrian

By Fi

Fame Cove – Port Stephens

We spent a few days in Fame Cove, enjoying the serenity of this quiet little bay. Eagles flying overhead, fish jumping, and the daily visit from a pod of dolphins who would come in and get their breakfast.

We spent our days fishing, finishing off some boat jobs, looking around the creek to the end of the bay that was only accessible in high tide, and watching the amazing sunsets. It really was the bay for sunsets and every day they continued to amaze us.

Left: Cooked blue swimmer crabs
Right: Processed crab

We caught 2 good sized blue swimmer crabs one morning and enjoyed them for lunch. The recipe is stir fried blue swimmer crabs courtesy of the Sydney Seafood School cookbook. We had to ad-lib a bit as we can’t duck to the shops to pick up the perfect ingredients, but the substitutes worked, and with such fresh seafood, a cold glass of wine, and a beautiful vista, who cares!

The Auto-Tiller repair was one job that we needed to prioritise, as we knew our next leg would likely be an overnight and we need our third crew member on overnight passages particularly. Coming up from Newcastle, the auto tiller repeatedly jumped out of its cradle, which was distracting. Adrian fashioned a new mount for the end of the tiller from some marine ply we have onboard, and some epoxy and fibreglass. Its not pretty, but its super solid and that’s what we need.

Left: Bernie looking soaked after an accidental fall in,
Right: Bernie swimming to Fi on Addictive from the beach

And not to be outdone by the sunsets, seafood and boat jobs, Bernie took it upon himself to have 2 unapproved swims, the first, when he decided to jump into the dingy, then while trying to get back on board the yacht, fell in, and the second when he was on the beach with Adrian, he decided he would swim all the way back to his Mum on the big boat. Adrian couldn’t keep up with him rowing. He had a great time that day, not so much when he accidentally fell in. Little guy is getting more and more confident with his new lot in life which is great.

Shoal bay. Addictive is in this photo on the right hand side, second boat in.

Shoal Bay – Port Stephens

After a few days of chill at Fame Cove, we set sail for a little bay on the southern side of Port Stephens near the entrance called Shoal Bay. We sailed all the way there, enjoying some really perfect conditions and a sunny day. After picking up a mooring ball, we had some fish and chips and a coffee on shore, then went to walk up to the headland. Unfortunately with COVID19, the walk was closed so no luck. Instead we tried our luck at fishing in the clear waters there. Also no luck. Until next time little fishies.

Broughton Island

Shoal Bay is close to the heads of Port Stephens, meaning the next day we could just pop out the heads, travel up the coast for a couple of hours and arrive at a gorgeous island called Broughton Island. The sand was white, the swells were low, the water was like glass and I couldn’t wait to get onshore and explore. Its a bird sanctuary, so little Bernie was confined to the boat with a peanut butter filled Kong, as Adrian and I went and explored. After trying my hand again at a little fishing onshore, it seemed like I would have more enjoyment in the water itself, so after a tentative moment of “ooooh, it is a little chilly” I got used to the cool water and enjoyed a little float in the turquoise.

Rounding the island to our anchorage on the left

We spent about 32 hours here soaking up the sounds and smells of this gorgeous place. Our next leg, however, was calling, and so time for some final planning and checks, for our departure at 11PM on the 13th May. This leg, we will sail from Broughton Island, overnight to Laurieton, which is just south of Port Macquarie, and just north of Taree. Its our first overnight sail by ourselves, so we’re a little apprehensive and over preparing, so watch this space for our write up of our experience!

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Newcastle for a while

May 7, 2020 / fiandadrian

By Fi

We arrived at the Newcastle Crusing Yacht Club marina at about 6PM on the 27th April. We were pretty tired after a big day in conflicting seas, so put the boat to bed, had a nice hot shower and some take away Thai food – and a beer.

We would spend the next 8 days tucked up in this lovely marina, exploring Newcastle and naturally, doing boat jobs. Here we are safely in our berth.

While in Newcastle, we went for some pretty big walks. I never realised how lovely Newcastle was. I grew up not far away in the northern most suburbs of Sydney, and always perceived Newcastle to be an industrial town dedicated to big ships and coal. What we discovered was a gorgeous city with amazing coffee and food (OMG the oysters), beautiful views and ocean pools, and parks and gardens to walk through.

The “Bogey Hole” (shown here) is a super cool ocean pool built by convicts around 1819 for Major James Morrisett, the Commandant of Newcastle at the time. It was of course unfortunately closed due to COVID19 (as were the beaches, museum and most shops).

We took a long walk to a chandlery (about an hour each way) to get a new fresh water pump as ours had packed it in completely just before we left Pittwater. It was a cheap water pump and therefore we replaced it with something more robust. And in particularly exciting news, I had a tea cosy made by the wonderful Alie Jane designs so my tea in the mornings stays warm in the pot. I’m rather beside myself with happiness for such a simple improvement! Plus its cute.

We chose to stay in Newcastle for longer than we had planned (and enjoy hot showers), as just after we arrived, the winds picked up to gusts between 20-35 knots for a few days, and once that calmed down, the seas were up to almost 4m which in our sized boat isn’t really an option to be going out in (for us, for now anyways). We started planning out leaving time once we saw the swells were due to drop. We still want to head north so that we can get into QLD as soon as we are able to when the border opens. With that in mind, we mapped out some options for a few north heading trips, the first one being to Port Stephens. So, after some preparations and provisioning we left at 9AM on the 6th May, dancing around a couple of freighters as we exited the port.

Military jets buzzed along the coast at low level heading to nearby Williamstown airfield. Adrian captured this absolutely stunning shot of two low flying jets passing overhead.

We arrived in Port Stephens to a welcoming party of a pod of dolphins! We elected to enter at low tide as time leaving Newcastle coincided with this, and also we knew then the tide would be coming in so if we were to touch bottom, we’d eventually be lifted off. As it were, following the lead lights that guide vessels in to port, and then following the marked channel, keeping a good lookout and checking the chart and chart plotters, we made it in with no issues and no anxiety. Future port entries up the coast will be over bars, and so we will be planning things differently for them.

We have chosen to stay at a mooring in a place called “Fame Cove” which is a lovely protected area. Now that we are here, we will review our plans to head north based on the presiding weather conditions at sea. We’d like to go to Broughton Island, as well as get the chance to look around Port Stephens.

Pittwater to Newcastle

May 2, 2020 / fiandadrian

The day had come, and we planned to leave the gorgeous cliffs, flat waters, fish (no fish) and vistas of Pittwater, and head north. We were originally hoping to drop in to Lake Macquarie but a safe entrance on a rising tide would have meant travelling through the night or arriving in the dark which we’re not so keen on at the current point in our sailing adventure. So we picked a day with favourable southerly winds and aimed for Newcastle.

We use a program called “Predict Wind” which provides us with 4 models of how the winds (amongst other things) will affect our journey, and therefore which course we should take and when we should leave. 3 out of 4 of the forecast models had us hoisting the sails and sailing most of the way, leaving at 6am and arriving around 4pm, but the 4th model was correct and we motored much of the way in rolly seas and arrived at dusk.

We noticed this tug that seemed to be pulling a barge gradually catching up with us. Using AIS really helped us with working out which direction they were going and whether or not we’d have a collision. As they passed behind us the ‘barge’ turned out to be the retired Manly ferry ‘Lady Northcott’ being moved to Newcastle.

The final couple of hours almost made up for the motoring (and queasiness) with a a great sail past all the massive ships lined up to enter Newcastle harbour. Although Fi is frowning, she actually really enjoyed this moment on the helm! This is concentration face.

What happened to our flat water sailing in Pittwater?

Adjusting to life on a small boat

April 28, 2020 / fiandadrian

We wake up in some beautiful spots and don’t need to change our background to some exotic location when on Zoom meetings. But whats it like living in a space smaller then many peoples living room?

Washing up at home was stacking the dishwasher. On the boat we have been experimenting with water conservation to see how long we can last without going into port. Washing up is one of the biggest uses of water so we have been washing in salt water (we have lots of that) and rinsing in fresh water. Much less water but its also slow even for two people.

Showering every day…I remember that. To save water, most days we basin wash with a towel and have the occasional camp shower on deck. Bernie gets most of the showers as he has been doing most of the swimming.

Toilets that flush? We have a composting toilet that is really just a box with a fan and some compost. Its surprisingly odourless and just requires a quick turn of the handle after each use. Emptying the wee bucket is a more smelly task! Overall we think its much better than the smells of many (especially sea water) toilets on boats and has freed up lots of storage space (we use that for Bernie’s food so he appreciates it too!).

Living in a small space means everything takes longer as it needs to be set up and put away. Before we set sail we fold up the dinghy, stow the outboard, put everything away inside, fold up the sun shelter, tie down the freezer…you get the idea. The boat converts from a house to sail boat but it all takes time. The biggest adjustment we have found living in a smaller space is making peace with the extra time everything seems to take.

Life would be much easier in this 55ft $2m world cruising boat that pulled up beside us, but for now we are enjoying the challenge of making a small space work for us.

First week out – living on a small boat

April 17, 2020 / fiandadrian

Our first week cruising around Pittwater enabled us to really get to know “Addictive” even better, plus experience how we can change from living in a nice sized house to a small boat. We were able to get more comfortable with our battery consumption, water consumption and food consumption.

We discovered we don’t eat as much as we thought we would (always good to overcater), but that the fresh food we were able to store served us well and there was no wastage. We used about 50 litres of water, which tells me we likely weren’t drinking enough! The batteries can support us easily on sunny days, but a few days of cloud will mean we would need to have run the motor, which we likely will anyways as you can’t sail all the time.

We tried fishing, and discovered we’re not at all that good, although we had success with our crab pot and got a fantastic sized blue swimmer crab which was great with a lemon soy dressing, shallots and some rice noodles. We bent a few forks trying to get the meat out so we’ve since purchased some proper crab eating implements with the hope we can catch some more. Adrian also had some oysters we shucked off the rocks in a little bay which were fresh and delicious! Given he survived, I’m planning to try them next time.

Bernie is settling in really well and having no toilet issues at all, and getting some good swimming exercise. He adores the water, but I don’t so adore salty wet dog inside much to his dismay. We need to keep absolutely on top of this as he’ll bring a tonne of salt and dirt into our small living area which won’t be nice, so he gets rinsed off, made to sit outside until dry, then groomed a little before I’ll let him inside. He’s handling it fine. I’d have to do a whole separate post about doing his business. Its been a journey.

So in conclusion, things are going well and all our preparations have paid off. We definitely need some more guidance on fishing techniques, locations and lures and fortunately have a wealth of knowledge available in my step dad who has since given us two tackle boxes of his fishing gear, and some much needed words of advice. So here’s to the coming weeks and catching some actual fish! Fishing challenge to be continued…

We left the dock!

April 7, 2020 / fiandadrian

We left the marina in Pittwater late Sunday afternoon as the weekend boats were heading back home. It felt good to finally be those live aboard people and not the weekend sailors.

We had a wonderfull sail up Pittwater and the Hawkesbury was deserted. We tacked up the Hawkesbury in a warm evening breeze not worried about arriving after dark as we know this area well.

The wind stayed with us all the way to Refuge Bay.

Just in time for sundowners at Sunset.

We are itching to head North but waking up to a perfect morning reminded us that self isolation in Pittwater is not all bad.

Rigging complete…

April 1, 2020 / fiandadrian

The rigging work is finished and we are back onboard. This was one of the bolts holding up the mast. It was an expensive exercise but the alternative of a rigging failure at sea would be quite distracting.

We replaced some stays, updated the furler and replaced all the chainplates. The furler was broken and could have damaged the sails. Also old enough that parts are difficult to come by.

New shiny chainplates. These are the anchors for the rigging. They are made from stainless steel and eventually suffer from metal fatigue.

It also looks like there was some water ingress around the chainplates at some stage (stain at base of chainplate). This was due to the original installation not allowing for any movement.

Anyhow, no need to install that mirror in the bathroom now…

We are almost ready to leave. There will always be more jobs, but none of them are major safety concerns. Only issue is that the world has closed. We are thinking to stay in a marina for a few days and then to self isolate in the sheltered nooks of Pittwater.

Waiting…

March 27, 2020 / fiandadrian

The world is shrinking every day. First there was doubt about getting into WA, then Queensland shut down and it now seems even NSW may not welcome travelling sailors.

We get Addictive back from the riggers on Monday when the mast goes back up. New chain plates, rigging and an aerial on top of the mast. Sounds expensive. It is, but better than worrying about it failing at the worst moment.

Our current plan is to stay around Pittwater and do some coastal trips as weather and lockdowns allow until the picture becomes clearer. Improving our fishing and blogging skills are high on the priority list.