24 July 2016 | Ponta Delgada, Azores
12 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
11 July 2016 | Horta, Azores
07 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
02 July 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
26 June 2016 | Mindelo, Cabo Verde
17 June 2016 | Mindelo, Sao Vicente, Cabo Verde
13 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
09 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
07 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
04 June 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean
31 May 2016 | Mid Atlantic Ocean (precisely!)
26 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
24 May 2016 | Cabedelo, Brazil
The Far North
15 September 2014 | Thursday Island
Ian
We finally got to see some coral a few days ago, on Lizard Island which was a 26 hour trip from Cairns. Like many places around here, the name of the Island followed the initial impression given to Captain Cook on his trip up the east coast back in the 18th century, at which time the reptile population was much bigger than it is now. After running aground and making repairs he visited Lizard Island and climbed the 300m peak now named Cookâs Lookout) to try and find a route out to open sea. He did find a way out (Cookâs Passage), although found the sea conditions so unfavourable that after only two days he sought out a route back inside to where the reef calms the sea. Navigation for the likes of us is immeasurably easier. We at least know the nature and extent of the reef, and have electronic charts and GPS and so on, but nevertheless compared to what we got used to on the Pacific crossing, night passages require full attention. In the northern part of the reef there is a channel around 2-3 miles wide which we have to share with vast numbers of cargo ships, all travelling at 12-15 knots. That is one concern that Cook never had. We have been very grateful to have our AIS system installed and working, as this not only enables us to see the ships on our chartplotter, but more importantly means that the ships can see us so we can easily coordinate movements to avoid a collision.
On Lizard Island we got the sense that the trip was properly starting. Anchored in a beautiful bay, snorkelling, walking on the beach, climbing the hills and chance encounters with sailors from other places. During a snorkelling expedition across the bay a dinghy approached and we heard the words "You're a long way from the Tuamotus". It was Don and Kay, from Karinya I, who we had briefly met in Polynesia three years ago. The sailing world is a small one! And in the spirit of cruisers we had met on our last trip, it was not long before Don found himself in our engine room trying to sort out our ongoing charging problems.
The snorkelling on Lizard Island was good. The highlight was probably the giant clams, of which there were many of all colours, and plenty of fish. The coral unfortunately suffered a lot of damage from Cyclone Ida back in April, the eye of which apparently passed right over the island.
From Lizard Island we had the best sailing of the trip so far up here to Thursday Island. For the first time we did the entire three day passage without needing to use the engine. Other than the challenges of dealing with the forced course changes due to the winding channel, and the other traffic, sailing inside the reef has a lot going for it, as the sea is almost always flat, and up here the trade winds are pretty reliable. To top it all, we got our first fish, a Spanish Mackerel that fed us very well for three days.
Today is our last day in Australia. Weather and bureaucracy permitting we will leave tomorrow for Indonesia, going back into the open ocean. The winds have howled through here since we arrived yesterday morning, which has made running back and forth to the beach in the dinghy a very wet exercise. Winds are forecast to ease a little tomorrow though. We still need to do all the exit formalities, and we still have not got our cruising permit for Indonesia (although have been told to expect it in the next few days). The passage to the Kei Islands is around 650 miles, which with a reasonable wind should take 5 days or so. This will be our first foray into the open ocean, a chance to see how we get on with the new HF radio and satellite email, and the first real test of our provisioning which is quite a challenge as the kids seem to eat about 4 times as much as they did on the last trip, and so no matter how much we buy we always seem to run out.
Batteries, batteries, batteries and crocodiles
06 September 2014 | Cairns
Ian
The running saga of our last trip was batteries, and how to keep them charged, and this subject is becoming a theme of this trip as well. At Airlie Beach and on the trip to Magnetic Island it became clear that the boat's domestic batteries (those that power all the electrical systems other than the engine started motor) were not accepting charge, either from the alternator while motoring or from the battery charger while plugged into the shore. This was compounded by a windlass failure which meant raising anchor by hand; this I attributed to lack of battery power. So, faced with unfavourable winds for a trip up to Cairns, we made a short hop over to Townsville to try and sort the problem out.
Three days later, and $3000 lighter, we left Townsville with a new set of batteries, a new 240V battery charger, and a new motor for the anchor windlass. All seemed good until the wind dropped and while motoring it became apparent that the new alternator - installed just three weeks ago - is for some reason, yet unknown, failing to charge the batteries. So here we are in Cairns on a Sunday, waiting for Monday so that we can find an electrician to tell us what the problem is. Whoever it was that said a bad day's sailing beats a good day in the office might not have had such a requirement for electricity!
It wasn't all bad - Townsville is a nice city. We made good use of something you see very little of in the UK - a 50m swimming pool which we found right next door to the marina. The Tobruk Pool had something of a history as a training pool for Australian Olympians of the past, but was not exactly a hive of activity when we were there - we generally had a lane to ourselves for a bit of exercise to fight off the atrophying effect of life at sea. On the electrical front, I did also manage finally to install our new hydrogenerator which was quite productive yesterday when the wind got up. This is basically a propellor which sits on the end of a leg attached to the back of the boat, and spins as the boat moves through the water, generating power as we go.
Time is running out, if we want to avoid re-applying for Indonesian visas, and we still have 450 miles to go to get to the top of Australia, and we would like to fit in something of the barrier reef along the way, having cruised up the inside of it. Alternator permitting we hope to be on our way tomorrow, with a stop at Lizard Island for some snorkeling.
But today is Sunday, so nothing could be done to the alternator, so we took a rental car up to the Daintree forest for some crocodile spotting. It was a spectacular ride up there along the coast, and we saw a few crocs on the river, which itself is beautiful.
Moving north
31 August 2014 | Magnetic Island
Ian
We have made some northward progress in the last days, after so much time spent waiting in various marinas. As I have alluded to in previous posts the delays - largely a result of technical issues with the boat and the refit - mean that we are now on a whistle-stop tour of northern Queensland.
Our stay in Bundaberg had the sole objective of getting the anchor chain regalvanised, which we did. It was impressive to see how a clump of rusty iron could be transformed into a shiny object that could even be mistaken for new. They even recognised me at the place that did the work as the guy with the especially rusty chain! Anyway, I hope the chain still retains enough if its steel strength to match the shiny newness of it.
We sailed directly from Bundaberg to the Whitsunday Islands, a trip of 380 miles that took us three days and three nights ending on beautiful Whitehaven Beach, with the squeakiest white sand I have ever walked upon. We saw a little more of the stunning Whitsundays as we sailed into Airlie Beach the following day, for a working session in the marina there.
The conditions on the passage were not unlike those we have experienced for the rest of the trip up the Australian coast - varied. We had times when things were ideal, with 15 knots on the beam in a flat sea, times when the waves built and the 15 knots gusted over 25, times when the beam winds shifted to the nose, and times with the monotony of the engine running for hours on end, in sloppy seas with no wind. The sea state is generally fairly flat; being now inside the barrier reef means that there is little swell, but the variable winds still produce some short choppy seas, which are not always comfortable.
Back on Fraser Island, and Bundaberg
24 August 2014 | Bundaberg
Ian
Before continuing our passage north we found some time for a walk on Fraser Island, next to our anchorage. No dingos this time, but we did find hundreds of little soldier crabs scurrying across the beach. It was a lovely spot, I suspect the first of many we will leave on our way northwards wishing we had more time to explore. But winds and Indonesian visas wait for nobody...
So after the morning ashore we continued our passage through the Great Sandy Strait, and entered Hervey Bay shortly after sunset. The wind was from the west so the sea was flat, there was no moon or clouds and so there were a million stars out and the boat sailed across the bay like a dream doing an easy 7 knots. This was the kind of night passage we all yearn for when conditions are not so good. So idyllic was it that even Paula was keen to do her night watch after we had sent Raul to bed following his first stint under the stars.
We arrived in Bundaberg at around 2am and anchored outside the marina and installed ourselves on a berth after breakfast. Anchoring here is not an option as the reason for this stop is to get our rusty anchor chain regalvanised. I have no knowledge as to the availability of galvanising facilities in other parts of the world, but the one here does have a certain fame amongst sailors. The first recommendation I got was from Uwe half a world away in the Caribbean - "If you need your chain done, Bundaberg is your place" - and it crops up on various websites and forums. Who are we to question, so I bashed the rusty lumps with a hammer to get the less used parts of the chain out of the locker, put all 200kgs of it into the back of a pickup, and delivered it to the places with steaming acid baths for the treatment. Hopefully we get it back tomorrow and we can be on our way.
We still have a long way to go to get to Indonesia, and time is running out - if we want to avoid having to reapply for visas - not helped by each stop along the way taking longer than planned. The weekend meant that this stop was lengthened by two days waiting for the chain. The time is not exactly wasted, as the refit and the other preparations continue, but we'd rather be moving at the same time. I think the kids have found these days a little frustrating, as we are somewhat out on a limb here in the port (17km from town, with no beach). Even when you get into town, Bundaberg is very much a working town rather than a tourist mecca. Sugar is the thing here, with little other than cane fields for as far as the eye can see. Production is substantial, as evidenced by the length of the cane train for which we had to stop on our way into town (one of apparently 20+ each day). In common with other sugar producing areas around the world, they have found a good use for all that surplus produce, and produce Australia's main (only?) rum as well as a good line in fermented soft drinks which have been very popular with the kids.
We have managed to time our stay here to coincide with some strong winds, and hope to find some calmer conditions for the next leg, up to the Whitsunday Islands, with a brief stop, weather permitting, at Lady Musgrave Island - one of the first offshore islands at the south end of the barrier reef. Until then.....
Fraser Island
18 August 2014 | Fraser Island, QLD
Ian
Today we tackled the famed Wide Bay Bar, which is the shallow entrance to the Great Sandy Strait, the body of water that separates Fraser Island from the mainland. Bars (of the sand-type rather than the wine-type) are a feature of navigation in this part of Australia – many of the harbours on the east coast are located on rivers, and the combination of the river and seas currents often makes for shifting shallows at the entrance, which can produce breaking waves off a relatively modest swell. Wide Bay Bar seems to have a particularly fearsome reputation, possibly due to the experience of some who have crossed in relatively extreme conditions (and posted the results on youtube!). It was therefore not without trepidation that we approached the entrance this afternoon, in stronger winds than forecast, although mercifully these were off- rather than on-shore which tends to calm the conditions in the shallows. The sea was kind to us though, and we passed without drama and motored the 15 miles or so up the strait to what is known as Garry’s Anchorage to spend our first night on anchor, a stone’s throw from the Fraser Island shore. We shall explore in the morning....
This was another overnight passage – that’s four already – as we left Mooloolaba at around 1am to catch the high tide to exit the river mouth there. The distances between ports here, and the shortness of the winter days, mean that in many cases day sailing is not really an option. When the tide is a factor the possibility of civilised timekeeping is right out of the window.
We visited Fraser Island by more conventional means last week, when we took a day tour by 4WD bus. The weather was pretty wild – so much so that the kids couldn’t even be persuaded to go for a swim in one of the lakes on the island – and the crashing waves on the 75 mile beach highway were quite impressive. The island is only sand, so despite being covered in rainforest, has no topsoil, and so no mud in the rain, which was just as well. It is quite amazing that trees up to 80m tall can actually grow in sand, but there they were.
As we go along, we are still working on preparing the boat and her crew for the voyages to come. As is always the case, it is two steps forward one step back in lots of ways as we find more and more that needs doing. Today in our first anchor stop I found that the windlass doesn’t work; a job for our next port and until then, hauling up the chain by hand. The boys have enjoyed preparing themselves emulating the captain with head shaves (the clippers had to work much harder with them though than they ever do with my hair!).
Next stop Bundaberg....
Sunshine Coast - off the boat
14 August 2014 | Mooloolaba
Ian
After a day on the Gold Coast we concluded that we still hadn't reached the balmy warmth of northern Australia. We kept going, sailing overnight to Mooloolaba, around 90 miles further north. This was the windiest of our passages so far, so much that we started off deliberately slowing the boat in order to avoid arriving before daybreak.
We have spent the last few days off the boat, enjoying the hospitality and company of our friends from the last trip - now land lubbers after 6 years sailing on Casulo - in their place in Peregian Beach, half an hour north of Mooloolaba. The house backs onto the beach, which at this time of year, and in the weather we are experiencing, is a wild a beautiful place. The wind and the cool water doesn't deter the kids, who are impervious, but I still haven't found my the water to my liking. we'll get there soon though!
It has been great remembering times shared on the previous trip, adding to our inspiration for the current one, and also enjoying a break from the ongoing re-fitting and preparation of the boat.
Out next move is to pass through the Great Sandy Strait behind Fraser Island, which requires calm weather, by the looks of which is a few more days away yet. So tomorrow we remain land tourists and are taking a 4WD tour onto the island.