Topic: Australia
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Late 2013. I'm chatting at the dog park with my mate, while the boys are chasing balls. Wanna do a bit of sailing? Steven owns a yacht which has been in Queensland for twenty years. That's why I'm lined up at Melbourne airport on boxing day headed to Maroochydore. A bit of back history here. Stephen is a serious sailor. For years he was a regular starter in the Sydney to Hobart. He even built his own yacht "AGGRO". The Adams 44 is a tough little boat. Built for racing, it's a bit short on creature comforts for my liking. But its probably not going to sink.
First stop in Qld the supermarket. Pies, Savs, tomato sauce, and white bread. i knew I should have bought my yacht chef Thommo. Provisions on board we cast off past the canal houses and head out through the Mooloolaba heads. The plan is to sail south, pulling in when the wind is blowing the wrong way, and wait for it to change. Only being two of us we work four hour shifts. I generally go to bed at midnight, get up at four, go back to bed at eight. If I get six hours sleep I'm doing well. I haven't done a lot of sailing, so the first job is a quick lesson. Set the autohelm steering thingy, then adjust the sails. Stephen being a racer, is a hard task master. The sail should be set so the edge is not flapping, and the little tell tail strings are pushed straight out to signify clean airflow over the sail. Every now and again you have to switch direction. Sometimes you have to avoid another boat. I'm not that good at it but with practice I slowly improve, and stop panicking every time we get a decent gust of wind.
The nice thing about sailing and four hour shifts is you get to see all the coast line. Go to bed and the headland up front is just behind you as you get up. I have driven up and down the coast lots of times, but seeing it all from the ocean is magic. Life settles into a rhythm. Ten cups of tea a day. Wheat bix for breaky. Pies heated in the little oven for lunch, Savs and white bread, butter, and sauce for dinner. I'd forgotten how good they were.
After a couple of days we hit Ballina NSW. According to our multitude of weather apps the wind is changing. We roll in to the river through the surf, and pull up at the wharf right beside the RSL. That's dinner sorted. A quick lesson on yachts here, every time you stop you spend at least $ 1000 on bits. Aggro has been a bit short on maintenance for the last couple of years. Two big new expensive battery's are purchased, and I make a trip to the giant prawn (Bunnings) to get some other stuff. The next evening we are off. We sail past Byron, and I can see people partying at the pub. A bit further down and two huge lines of coal carriers are at anchor waiting to loaded at Newcastle. At midnight I can see the fireworks going off all along the coast for new years eve.
When we get to Sydney we head to the Cruising Yacht Club early morning to wait out the weather. It's only $300 a day to park here, and we get a visit from the marine electrician, and a new alternator. Also some more batteries. My mate Shane turns up, and we spend the day at the bar with one of the best views in the world watching the cricket. Shanes a bit worse for wear by stumps, so I have to help him on to the yacht, and into the bunk for the night.
A couple of days later we sail out and head south. The weather is good and we cruse down the coast past Wollongong towards Bega. My sail adjustment is getting better, which is handy as it's about to be put to the test. We are about fifteen minutes out when we get an extreme wind change. The little manoeuvring motor on the boat is not strong enough to push the boat into any wind past about 3 knots. We tack but cant sail high enough to get into the heads. This is where all those years of sailing across bass straight come into play. We tack back the other way, and are very slowly making our way south. I'm passing out cuppas to Stephen while we bounce up and down. After a couple of hours he starts to get hypothermia. I kit up, and clip on to stop from being thrown overboard. For five and a half hours we belt our way into the wind while I stand at the helm getting covered in cold spray. Finally we tack and half an hour later we are tied up at the Bega wharf. If the wind hadn't changed we would have been here by six but its now midnight. I sleep well even though the boats jumping up and down in the swell.
Bega, a new part needs to get machined for the fuel pump, and we spend a couple of hundred dollars on fenders, replacing the ones that got destroyed against the wharf the night before. The sun comes out and dinner is at the fishing club. Next day the pump is fixed, and we are back on the move.
We cut the corner towards Wilsons Prom, and sail through the brightly lit oil rigs in Bass Straight. On one side of the Prom the wind is blowing south, on the other North. This causes another shortening of the sails, while hiding behind an island. That night Stephen is asleep and the wind drops right out. So much for getting home next morning. At daylight we sail through the Port Phillip heads. Back into the wind, past all the seals at the south light. By 4 o'clock we are back at the St Kilda yacht club, in the bar. It only took three and a half weeks.
My mate Steven died recently, I was going to write this in 2014 but it got lost along the way. RIP mate . May you have fair winds and a following sea, with Albatrosses hovering above.
Posted by bondrj
at 12:01 AM NZT
Updated: Sunday, 2 July 2023 2:58 PM NZT
