05Jan2010, Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron
Sydney has had one the dreariest summers for sailing that we can recall. The weather has been really unco-operative, drizzly and humid with little full sun and no useful breeze. So our half-plan to spend a week in Broken Bay and the Hawkesbury gave way to time on the harbour and also alongside at the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron chipping away at "The List". We are getting slicker at completing tasks at the top of "The List" but unfortunately equally adept at adding new jobs to the bottom end.
A sad note was a terrible injury suffered by one of the shipwrights at the RSYS, who chopped off four fingers on one hand while using the bench saw. He had emergency micro-surgery but the eventual functional outcome is still very uncertain. A timely warning to all of us on the importance of recognising the dangers involved in using power tools around boats!
Prior to Christmas we had a get-together with our two sons, their girlfriends, our niece Sarah and her beau, as well as Mike and Lynn from "Wombat". It was a great night, with numerous return visits to the buffet counter and no perceptible hunger for several days after.
The Sydney New Year fireworks were brilliant as usual, seen from a vantage point in full view of two of the fireworks barges and the Harbour Bridge. The 2100 hours "Kids' show" was terrific but the midnight show was absolutely spectacular, especially seen from water level. During the afternoon leading up to the fireworks, as the various bays and anchorages filled, we took a dinghy ride over to Athol Bay to have a cup of tea and a pleasant hour with David and Helen on "Obelia" who anchored early to have a good vantage point; this was followed by a gargantuan South Carolinian BBQ on-board "Wombat" while we waited for dark and the light show.
We wish all our friends on the oceans and ashore the very best for the next year - may all have fair winds, following seas and sunny skies, and may your anchorages be calm and welcoming. We look forward to seeing many of you again this coming year.
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06Dec2009, Sydney
Since arriving home, we have found ourselves sucked feet-first into the vortex of shoreside life: both of us working part-time, John instructing IRB at the Surf Club, both of us doing patrols, hauling out and anti-fouling, repairing bits and pieces that have needed it on-board, catching up with our sons, our niece and the families..........
Can't wait to get away again, it is so much simpler out there!
Our haulout went smoothly, and hopefully the job will last us through until we return next year. We are so very pleased with "Destiny" as a fine liveaboard cruising yacht: she is seakindly and comfortable and has not come near letting us down in heavy weather - Joe Adams was a great designer of cruising hulls.
We have been fortunate to have a string of visitors this last two months - cruising folk we have met in the islands who have been passing this way - Mike and Lynn on "Wombat", Bernie from "First Light lll", Dave and Helen on "Obelia" and Andrew and Margaret from "Mollycoddle"; spending time with these lovely people has kept our adventures fresh in our minds.
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05Oct2009, Sydney Harbour - best port in the world!
Having given up our foodstuffs at Coffs Harbour, we went out and bought more, then were surprised (polite term!!!) when the staff at the Outreach Clinic called John on his mobile to fill in for a colleague who had missed
his flight from Sydney. That will teach us not to call in and say hello! But it was only a morning's work and hardly dented John's thick layer of accreted calm and relaxation.
Subsequently there was a period of light SE breezes to be followed by a prolonged bout of SW to S winds of up to 50 knots - so we set off from Coffs for Sydney in light airs, intending to motor-sail as needed to get to Sydney (or at worst Newcastle) before this strong change. That was no problem and we came through the Heads two days later on a fine sunny morning. Trying to maintain our blissful island-time outlook on life was a bit difficult as we headed up the harbour against commuter ferries, fishing trawlers, fuel barges and two outgoing warships. Helped by our friends Ivan and Chris at Cabarita we tied up, and set about the task of taking off perishables, shore clothes and other things we will need at home. John thoroughly washed "Destiny" and she looked great until the next morning when the change arrived and with it a huge dust storm which dropped red-brown iron-tinged dust from the Outback over everything - sails were turned red-brown, decks soiled and all the fabrics topsides were discoloured. It was a remarkable and eerie sight to wake and find that the dust was so thick in the sky that it seemed like dusk all day - ferries and aircraft were delayed and many asthma sufferers were made unwell.
John starts doing some part-time work at the Foundation next week and we are about to haul out, antifouling and doing some engine maintenance.
As we did last summer, we'll put up a post from time to time and stay in touch. Then, when the plans for next year's cruise solidify we'll let you know what we have in store.
Cheers from us for now.
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Kind regards, John Maddox
16Sep2009, Coffs Harbour Marina
The name Pacific means "peaceful" and while this is not always accurate, the Pacific lived up to its name over the last few days of our trip home. The balmy conditions and low swell that pertained when we last wrote continued, and we had a terrific last few days at sea - aft of the beam, 10 to 15 knots and swells less than 1.5 metres. We left Noumea allowing for the possibility of having to motor for the last day or so, but the breeze just hung on and shepherded us in at 10:30 Tuesday - 6 days and 23 hours after leaving Port Moselle.
We had radioed ahead and arranged a marina berth so when we called Customs they met us on the dock and set about the "de-lousing" process. Australian Customs have a reputation amongst some cruisers as being harsh, officious and capricious but we have found them, both here and in Bundaberg, to be courteous, co-operative and friendly. They took the foodstuffs that we knew they would, but were very understanding with our souvenirs and other mementos from Vanuatu. Although our hull was pretty clean, they brought out the underwater camera to show us how it works - this is used to make sure no noxious shellfish are imported unbeknown to yachties.
As usual, our good friend Pete Walduck was here to meet us and he took us to the Mall to pick up some food and a newspaper (why did we bother? Same politicians gouging each others eyes out, sleeping with the wrong people and debasing the democratic process...)
We collapsed into bed about 7:30 and slept 12 hours, then spent the day tidying the boat and doing some small maintenance tasks. It's great to be back, but we really miss the charming, straightforward and disarmingly friendly Ni-Vans, for whom life is so happy, so uncomplicated and so joyful.
Anyway, we'll be off to Sydney when Aeolus allows and will put up some more photos and chat as time permits.
Cheers from us!
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13Sep2009, Coral Sea
It's Saturday night at sea, ten o'clock. Shauna is asleep, off-watch, down below, and John is up in the cockpit with a laptop tapping away at a sailblog entry. We left Noumea on Tuesday morning, along with David and Melinda on "Sassoon". They are also returning to Australia, but are making for Gladstone to do some work on the boat before coming south. We did a pretty reasonable job of timing with this passage - we are riding over the top of a high pressure system and haven't had any troubles other than having to sail close-hauled for about 24 hours. And the flying fish!!! Anyone who has been following the blog will remember that about this neck of the woods on our way over to the islands in May we were boarded by an inordinate number of flying fish, one of whom inserted himself about a metre down our scupper drain and we couldn't remove him until we reached New Caledonia some days later, by which time he was fully ripened. Well the flying fish have had us in their sights again - a large boarding party had to be removed from the side decks last night. John, the night before that, had one of the wet, smelly, oily little critters fly into the back of his neck as he sat quietly dozing while on watch. Some wake-up call. The message is that the flying fish of the Coral Sea are not to be trusted. Oh, and the other problem is that we have vast quantities of that beautiful Vanuatu beef in the freezer which will certainly be confiscated by Customs on return to Australia - so we are gamely trying to eat our way through it all over the next few days - rump for breakfast, rissoles for lunch, beef curry for dinner..... Tonight there will be a moon, in the last quarter at present, but it isn't rising until 2300. Meanwhile there is nothing to dim the stars - out here with no background light sources, one sees a REAL Milky Way - a seemingly solid mass of trillions of stars, and down at the southern edge of all that the Southern Cross lies lazily on its side, with the two Pointers appearing to show the way home should the GPS fail (the sextant is rusty from neglect). Every now and then a little cluster of shooting stars burn up in a spectacular show. We spoke on the HF radio earlier this evening to Sassoon, Waterwynch and Muscat - all four of us are under way tonight and are separated by hundreds of miles of water, but all reported good sailing conditions, and all reported being convinced that this is the life! The next blog entry may well be from not too far from Oz. Cheers from us.
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02Sep2009, New Caledonia Lagoon
We were surprised to find the marina in Port Moselle not full at all on our return from Vanuatu. Overall there are less yachts cruising this year, and almost no large superyachts. We presume the world economic situation accounts for the relative dearth of itinerant yachts. The upshot of this is that there is no pressure on us to vacate our berth, and we have busied ourselves with both boat jobs and fun since arriving. We spent a couple of days out at Ilot Maitre - a few miles from Noumea, but totally isolated and a very quiet anchorage. Maitre is a small island with a relatively large fringing reef, and a small resort tucked in on the lee side of the island. There are some courtesy moorings put down by the authorities to protect the reef. The anchorage is quite shallow - we were in 3.8 metres at low tide, with our 2.8 metre draught. The reef is extensive and well-preserved, with lots of interesting fish, crays, nudibranchs and stars. Our primary reason for going to Miatre was to catch up with David and Melinda on "Sassoon", and we also met up with Paul and Sue on "Riona", an Adams 13.
Then back to Port Moselle to spend some time with other friends. We renewed our acquaintance with Phil, Stephanie and Nalouan, our French friends here, and spent a fascinating morning at the New Caledonia Aquarium, which showcases the life of the lagoon and reef in a very tasteful and well-executed series of displays.
Tomorrow we are off to the Tjibaou Cultural Centre with Rod and Darlene from Saw Lee Ah to look at the special exhibition on the Wallis and Futuna Islands (our friend Aloi Pilioko the artist is a Wallisien by birth).
So all is well with us and "Destiny", but we have been looking at the weather charts and see no way of setting off for East Coast Australia yet, at least for the next few days. Ah well, there are worse places to be waiting for weather!
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Looking forward to your return :)
xxx
Looks like you'll miss the party.
see you when ???????????
Bob.
