Mine's Bigger Than Yours

With Australia Day just a day away, dressing up the boat for the big day is front of mind. It requires some preparation and dedication. Now on anchor in Salamander Bay, Port Stephens, we are near several like minded boats and it's completely animated The Bloke. It appears that there is some friendly completion among a pair of local catamarans on moorings closer to shore. Each is trying to outdo the other. Australian Flag bunting is appearing, Boxing Kangaroos, Eureka flags, sports club flags and of course Australian Flags and Ensigns are being hoisted in preparation for whatever festivities are planned for the morning. The bloke is rubbing his hands. So far we only have a few club burgees, modest sized Australian and West Australian flags on our burgee halyards. The skippers of the other boats keep diving into lockers to produce yet another flag to outdo the other. From the remoteness of the back of the anchorage The Bloke has risen to the challenge and added our Boxing Kangaroo, Bundy Rum and Jeanneau Flags just to announce he's in the game too.

 

Tomorrow is showdown time. The 'real deal' has been prepared - our string of State flags is ready. There will be no contest in the end. With the exception of the ACT (the only Territory we didn't think we'd visit) we have a full set and they are the size of shower curtains! Why? Well that's another whole story, Just ask B1.

Australia Day Postscript

 Our flag display on Australia Day


We voted this boat the winner

Leg 57 - Popping up to Port Stephens from Newcastle.

Accomplishing more jobs in a week than we'd normally knock off in a month, we thoroughly enjoyed our week in Newcastle. Although we'd promised our son to be in Newcastle for the week he'd be there with his work, we needed fill in a week, to escape and do some 'cruising'. Port Stephens, just 25nm away and the oft spoken of birthplace of Captain Paul's catamaran 'Wendera' beckoned. A week of floating about and escaping the 'big smoke' seemed very appealing.

Leaving it all behind.

Busted!

The Port marker at the harbour entry was coming apart 
so we asked the VMR to inform the Port Authority.


 Nobby's Head.

Yes, truly.

While 'noserlies' were not forecast, we found the wind a bit fluky as we progressed through the Stockton Bight. We also seemed to encounter a number of eddies in the current, so progress was a bit stop-start, stop-start and the sea state a little strange. Our cutter rig makes tacking annoying as the headsail has to be almost completely furled to get it to cross over during a tack. Our rum ration was earned for the day and eventually we said 'bugger it' and motored in.

Dramatic land forms on the way in.

Although the entrance to Port Stephens isn't actually a bar crossing, there is quite a tidal current (rip) and towards low tide, some of this stuff really stands up on the sand banks.

 

After all the hustle, we were happy to stay our first night in Shoal Bay despite it being quite rolly. (Rolly Shoaly they call it). We started off on one of the 4 public moorings but due to the full moon and extremely low tide (plus the rolling) we decided against floating on a wet lawn and flirting with trouble, anchoring instead, in some deeper water on the other side of the jetty. It gave us a better view back through the entrance, the better to enjoy the full moon rise over the foot of Mt Tomaree.

Newcastle Rocks

 

On a pedestal - A block of coal, I think. 

After visiting by road last year, we were already prepared to fall in love with Newcastle. The revised plans to move a bit further up the coast rapidly meant skipping Lake Macquarie (for now anyway) and we've taken a pen for a week at Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club. The facilities are quite an upgrade on our last Marina home and everything we need is in walking distance, so for now, we can put away our bus passes and get a bit fitter. The Bloke is on notice. Boot camp 2016 is operational!

 Roped in.

The rock face along the ocean walk.

It's near the site of Newcastle's earliest coal extraction. 

Is that a coal seam

 Newcastle town beach and ocean pools.

  

Gorgeous turn of the century (20th) rotunda and flower garden arranged like a boat.

Soon to be completed Court Building

Coffee time anyone?

 

More civic space.

Next stop Town Hall.

Ocean pool for the kiddies. It supposedly once had a map of the world on the bottom. WOW.

Lots of beaches.

Artwork commemorating the grounding of a coal tanker.

    

 

There are kilometres of walkways and bike paths around the Hunter River and beaches, magnificent Victorian stone buildings, public open spaces and all that on top of breathtaking natural assets. Sure, there are docks, shipping and industry. More coal is shipped from Newcastle than any other single location on the planet but Newie is more than just that. It's vibrant, friendly and interesting. This will not be our only stop here. Sure, we'll need to clean the scum line after we leave and wash down the decks when we get to Port Stephens but we do like the energy here.

Leg 56 - A Line on a Map

Executing Plan C, began with the usual preparation - closely studying the weather predictions. At this time of year there is little with an 'S' in it and when it's evident it is for a brief period. It's a southerly change and often quite brief and violent unless it's a low lurking in the Tasman and that too is generally pretty potent. A cracking opportunity was presenting at the tail end of the cool change we'd witnessed the arrival of a few days previously. Sunday, 10-15 knots S - SE. Monday, lighter and variable but mostly southerly before swinging through to the North again; the predominant pattern. Cancel everything! Time to head out to sea again. After months of inaction we could hardly wait.

 Being led out of Broken Bay at dawn by a handsome wooden yacht named 'Seawife'.

Lying bastards dot com sucked us in again with an attractive forecast but the weather was having none of it and we finished up with 5-8 knots of breeze that visited us from every direction possible. The sea state was just as disorganised and made for a disgusting motor-sail up the coast with only the headsail up. We became very excited for about 20 minutes and deployed the mainsail. The wind had chirped up to 12knots and the sea state immediately improved but alas that died off as quickly as it came and we were back to switching tacks to accommodate the fluky wind directions. Only the 7 or 8 tankers anchored at 1nm intervals from the entrance to Lake Macquarie upwards to Newcastle, were pointing in the forecast direction. The Winch Bitch (me) got a proper workout, but to be fair, The Bloke helped out too. It became very evident that we are not 'match fit', so our 8 hour shift became a bit of a slog. We did however, put a new line on our map.

  

Nobby's Head at the entrance to the Hunter River.

Hello Newcastle!

A port channel marker almost like a Mum, hands on hips, wondering when you'll come in for tea.

   

Approach to Newcastle up the river. Apartments, hotels, alfresco dinning, paths and civic art.

A welcoming sight.

 Goody! There's a pen in there somewhere that's going to be 'home' for the week!

Adding to the Fleet

For almost 2 years I've had the idea that I fancied a kayak to enable a bit more exercise and exploration when at anchor. The Bloke? Well, not so much. This is why it's taken 2 years to expand our fleet from 1 yacht + 1 inflatable dinghy (i.e Marilyn) to 1 yacht + 1 dinghy +1 kayak.

Our friends Debbie and Peter, after buying their catamaran Novae, discovered that they had acquired a bigger fleet than they'd imagined and were happy to trim it and sell us one of their surplus craft.

Peter supervising his fleet reduction.

The Bloke has agreed to this purchase on the proviso that I sew a cover for Tweete Pie. Done deal!

 

Introducing Tweetie Pie.

When it Storms

Hooly dooly, the sky did say we were going to 'cop it'. A change had been forecast which is why we'd elected to head for Coasters rather than Towlers Bay after arriving back in the Pittwater. We decided that we'd put up with any roll delivered by the North Easterly for one night, knowing that we'd have to move bays within 24 hours anyway. We're so glad of our decision. The change came early and way harder than expected.

Quite a number of skippers (but not all) were paying attention and took off back to their marinas while they had a chance. One yacht had barely rounded the Barrenjoey lighthouse and crested the headland straight into a seething body of white water.  It was hardly the shelter that they were racing to reach.

 

 Early rain. The campers are dashing for cover too.

 A telling cloud and the rain intensifying.

Not liking the look of things, we shortened the dinghy painter and attached an extra line.

 Properly squalling.

 White out!

40-50knot gusts and the boat was heeling. Even though we were on a sturdy mooring, The Bloke had us in our life jackets and the motor on in case we broke free. When it was all over a couple of nearby boats had flipped dinghies. The Water Police spent half the next day retrieving 'escaped' dinghies and small runabouts from all over the Pittwater. Once the wind had swung and settled to the south, it was 'Happy Days'.

Slipping Away

Mindful of the need to start moving again and certainly reaching Brisbane in 6 weeks, we decided that despite the existence of still more social engagements, that there would always be something to hold us in Sydney. Eventually one has to break free. A brief southerly weather window might make our 'break out' sail a pleasant prospect and so long as we could solve the problem of the leaking exhaust muffler gasket, all the fuel, water and food supplies were already on board.

We are very grateful to the Clontarf Marina mechanics who knew what we were looking for and cut a new gasket of the correct thickness for us at no charge! Yes, for free! Seeing as we'd had a few attempts to fix this already and were in a total funk over it, The Bloke might have been prepared to pay almost anything for a replacement part. At least we finally knew what it was that we were looking for. It wasn't the manifold, it was a part of the Venturi (sic) elbow box of the engine exhaust muffler and not actually a Yanmar or Jeanneau part.

 

Checking if the bilges were still dry after the 'fix'.

Praying? Maybe just a little bit.

Our departure time was governed by when the Spit Bridge is raised. Midweek, the first lift is at 10:15 so we were off the marina jetty smartly at 10:00 to join the queue and then hopefully pick up what was left of the southerly to push us along to Pittwater before it petered out. There had been a nasty accident earlier on the traffic pinch-point created by the bridge approach. Some poor people had their day suddenly and radically wrecked. The traffic jam didn't ease and it became evident that something very serious had occurred when a helicopter landed to perform the medivac. The Bridge controllers announced to the circling vessels that there would be a 20 minute delay to assist with the congestion. Boat ballet followed. The delay ended up being 40 minutes and we expected that 'our wind' would be missed but on the scale of what had caused the delay, it was small fry!

Our patience was rewarded with a fabulous cruise up the coast and we can't complain about that!

 The Bloke's pleasure at a lovely sail is evident.

 

False Head.

We were sailing close in-shore - because we could.

Clues as to how the land was made.

Always fascinating.

Gap Years

We are often asked how long we will be taking to circumnavigate Australia and if we are retired. Well we think 5-6 years and not retired. We are just taking a gap year or three.

In the process of visiting different Australian locations we have not only made lots of new friends and new acquaintances but we have also had the chance to reacquaint our selves with interstate friends we've not seen for some years.... actually, a lot of years. In fact, in some instances 30!

Happy Days from our time in Canberra recalled!

 Eva with Angela Thomas.

 Roz and Andreas Dubs