Adventures on Yarramundi
27 October 2012
22 August 2012 | Trinity Inlet, Cairns
17 August 2012 | Cairns Harbour
16 August 2012 | 14 56.8653'S:148 11.3993'E, The Coral Sea
15 August 2012 | 14 14.19156'S:149 5465'E, The Coral Sea
14 August 2012 | 13 12.0330'S:150 26.6810'E, Still in PNG Waters, Coral Sea
14 August 2012 | 70 miles north east of Australian Waters, Coral Sea
13 August 2012 | N N'N:E E'E, The Coral Sea
13 August 2012 | N N'N:E E'E, Solomon Sea
12 August 2012 | N 'N:E 'E, Solomon Sea
11 August 2012 | 'N: 'E, Solomon Sea
10 August 2012 | N N'N:E E'E, Solomon Sea - South of Deep Planet
09 August 2012 | N 'N:E 'E, Solomon Sea
09 August 2012 | 'N: 'E, Solomon Sea
09 August 2012 | Blanche Bay 4 miles from Rabaul
08 August 2012 | Rabaul Yacht Club
07 August 2012 | Rabaul Yacht Club
06 August 2012
06 August 2012 | Rabaul Yacht Club
05 August 2012 | Rabaul Yacht Club
The last evening of the solo trip from Yap
16 July 2012 | 0 N'N:E E'E, St George's Channel
David
This will be a quick one. As predicted we are having to beat against the wind and current to get up St George's Channel. I am rushing to get in before 5pm so I can get cleared by customs etc and allowed off the boat - today .. and not tomorrow. Don't want to spend a night at anchor in the middle of Blanche Bay. It is now 34 miles to the Rabaul Yacht club but it is going to take all day.
Fuel is not as low as I thought it would be by this stage but it is dirty now that it is getting to the bottom of the tank. Have cleaned the water separator/filter 6 times in the last 24 hrs just to be safe. Don't want to end this 1300 mile solo sail with a stalled engine and have to request a tow in.
I worked hard last night trying to get every mile out of the sails and also to avoid traffic. It rained till 3 making the radar near useless so I spent most of the night in the cockpit getting rained on. Have had no more than a combined 2 hours sleep. When I thought it was time to get a decent nap a boat appeared beside me about 4 miles off. He got to within 3 miles so I changed course and turned off my lights - on and off at first to make it look like I was just disappearing over his the horizon. Probably being a little paranoid but don't want to take any chances with any would be opportunistic pirates given I am alone. There were a couple of other boats which kept me up so now very tired.
It was wonderful though to be woken from my longest nap - all 15 mins - by a pod of 40 to 50 dolphins at day break. It was a great scene as the mountains of New Ireland and New Britain were also visable and had a beautiful warm orange tinge to them. Unlike the dolphins in Micronesia and the Marianas these guys hung around for a good deal of time - enough to put the camera down and just enjoy watching them. It is great to sea mountains again. Micronesia was all atoll. This place looks really wild and I am now excited to be here. I kept wondering why the name Rabual sounded familiar and then dad reminded me he was here in 1960 and had talk about his travels here.
Got to go. Time to tack. Next blog after I am safely in port - and perhaps after I've had a cold beer.
David
Fuel is not as low as I thought it would be by this stage but it is dirty now that it is getting to the bottom of the tank. Have cleaned the water separator/filter 6 times in the last 24 hrs just to be safe. Don't want to end this 1300 mile solo sail with a stalled engine and have to request a tow in.
I worked hard last night trying to get every mile out of the sails and also to avoid traffic. It rained till 3 making the radar near useless so I spent most of the night in the cockpit getting rained on. Have had no more than a combined 2 hours sleep. When I thought it was time to get a decent nap a boat appeared beside me about 4 miles off. He got to within 3 miles so I changed course and turned off my lights - on and off at first to make it look like I was just disappearing over his the horizon. Probably being a little paranoid but don't want to take any chances with any would be opportunistic pirates given I am alone. There were a couple of other boats which kept me up so now very tired.
It was wonderful though to be woken from my longest nap - all 15 mins - by a pod of 40 to 50 dolphins at day break. It was a great scene as the mountains of New Ireland and New Britain were also visable and had a beautiful warm orange tinge to them. Unlike the dolphins in Micronesia and the Marianas these guys hung around for a good deal of time - enough to put the camera down and just enjoy watching them. It is great to sea mountains again. Micronesia was all atoll. This place looks really wild and I am now excited to be here. I kept wondering why the name Rabual sounded familiar and then dad reminded me he was here in 1960 and had talk about his travels here.
Got to go. Time to tack. Next blog after I am safely in port - and perhaps after I've had a cold beer.
David
Comments
| Vessel Name: | Yarramundi |
| Vessel Make/Model: | Jeanneau Espace 990 33 feet |
| Hailing Port: | Sydney |
| Crew: | David Devlin |
| Extra: | Yarramundi now lies in Mooloolaba and is occasionally sailed with my son. I do plan to evenutally get her to Sydney. |
Yarramundi's Photos - Main
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Andrew and I don’t think he is human – probably some Viking god who has came back to earth for a visit. He setup a vodka distribution business in 22 countries and sold it to Diageo retiring at the age of 32. He spent the following 2 years designing and building his 56 foot $6 million boat and has been sailing it for the last 6 years. He sails alone and has been everywhere – including Antarctica. Neither of us have seen anything like the boat – The interior is like an upmarket modern Scandinavian apartment, it has every convenience imaginable (both domestic and maritime), and the outside with it’s teak and stainless steel looks like it just came out of a show room. We certainly did not see Bart cleaning it so are convinced it has been blessed. Or he has some little helpers stowed away somewhere and they come out at night and clean it. In fact we did not see Bart do anything else accept hang around and be cool until he left. He does not use a motor. Despite being in the corner of the harbour he untied his huge floating bachelor pad himself and used only the wind to turn the corner and sail out. We motored out to wave him off and even at full throttle could not keep up. He is off to Kyushu and then Hokkaido where he plans to stay for about a year skiing and photographing the wildlife. He had a coffee table book on board. It was of his boat and it’s Antarctic adventures. Of course he would. Very cool guy - we were privileged to meet him in Chichijima, have dinner with him a couple of times and tour his boat.
David
7 Photos
Created 6 April 2012
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Yarramundi is now provisioned with 400 litres of water, 350 litres of diesel, 60kgs of rice and pasta, hundreds of cans of soup, spam, sauces etc to make up more than 800 meals. She is leaning a bit to port side so we will have to do some rearrangement of the contents before taking off on Sunday March 25.
1 Photo
Created 21 March 2012
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Weather permitting Yarramundi will depart Shimoda, Japan on March 25 for Saipan on her first leg to Sydney. Following that we will sail to Chuuk (Truk) via Guam, then Honiara, Cairns and onto Sydney visiting many of the remote atolls of the Caroline and Solomon Islands.
1 Photo
Created 5 March 2012
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I've been lucky to have my sister Maria and cousins Holly, Adam, Liam and his wife Zoe visit Japan and sail on Yarramundi
6 Photos
Created 24 February 2012
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Why is it that every winter I've seem have had to dive below the boat to fix or retrieve something?
4 Photos
Created 22 February 2012
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Yarramundi has been taken to Seabornia Marina on the west side of the Muira Penninsula for some major work. We made it in record time within one day thanks to the 30knot wind from the north but little thanks to George who fell asleep at the helm.
5 Photos
Created 22 February 2012
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A few friends visited Yarramundi on Seijin no Hi (coming of age day) while she was in Tokyo Bay. A brief sail was followed by a turkey lunch.
10 Photos
Created 20 January 2012
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People who have helped fit-out and maintain Yarramundi
7 Photos
Created 26 December 2011
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From Shimoda to Wakayama and Mie Prefectures - a 12 day trip with 3 other yachts from TSPS.
24 Photos
Created 2 December 2011
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Who: David Devlin
Port: Sydney
