As Good As It Gets

Weather forecast once again bad:Actually terrible. Not just thunderstorms. Been there, done that in Queensland. Not just rain: 100m - 200m predicted. We’ve had that before too and let’s face it we are equipped for ‘wet’. We are sailors after all. The wind though is something we do try to evade. With 40kts predicted we needed to plan carefully. Where to hide?

Calm before the storm

The dawn sky, with just an overnight sprinkling of rain was,  likely the nicest view we might get for the day. The sun, once up, was not really penetrating the thick clouds. It was gloomy and the rain getting heavier and the wind, while initially comparatively light at 25kts, was forecast to reach 41kts.

Everything is relative. We’ve become accustomed to 30kts. In fact we sat in 30-40kts on anchor just last week. A westerly or northerly, or anything in between, is fine in Gunamatta Bay. It’s a long narrow inlet and a fetch not really an issue. Wind from the south impacts quite differently - a funneling gutter with the opportunity for fetch to build all the way from Bundeena. Our prospects of a happy life on anchor, or even the newly discovered courtesy mooring looked bleak.

But we did get lucky! The Cronulla Marina had 2 vacancies that came up. One for Onora and one for us. We stayed at the Cronulla Marina 3 years ago and they were kind enough to allow us to tie up our dinghy there during the preceding week. This made coming ashore for The Bloke’s #6 rated Sausage Rolls, shopping etc... all the easier. Little did we know our ‘thank you’ box of cake slice would be good karama for finding a marina berth!

  

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Taking Jim and Jeannie to sample more 'quality' sausage rolls last week.

Photos, courtesy of J. Foley

I noticed some water spray inside the salon before heading out in the rain to catch up with The Bloke for coffee at the very cultish “Grind” coffee shop. On return,  the spray had become a trickle and running towards the electrical panel! Yikes.

For now, we had bluetac, gaffer tape and disposable nappies keeping an internal flood at bay. Tomorrow we hope for finer weather (even if windy) so that the Sikkaflex Gun can come out for a more robust solution. While we waited for the tempest to deliver, we decided to watch a movie or three. ‘As Good as it Gets’ caught our eye on the menu. It was a good fit. A feel-good film and we didn’t recall it as having much rain in it!

   

Real time rain radar (l) and the wind predictions (r). The 'baby-poo' yellow always gets our attention and as for the orange and red, well you can guess?

Cronulla Marina (02) 9544 0888
Family owned and run. Well maintained floating jetties. Super friendly. All vessels well supervised. Fuel dock and pump-out. Inexpensive by Sydney standards. Only deficit is the amenities block which they are waiting for approval to rebuild. Shopping and public transport (easy airport access) immediately to hand.