We have left the dock!

We've taken what some cruisers regard to be the greatest hurdle in achieving a cruising goal like ours. We have thrown of the dock lines and actually departed our home port of Sydney. We departed at 10pm on the 17th April 2014 bound for Manly Boat Harbour, Brisbane. The crew for this passage consisted of Tony Wulff, Peta (aka dulux) West, Adam (aka Manuel) Tucker, Liz, myself and Doug the Autopilot.

Leading up to the process of actually leaving I felt so many conflicting thoughts and emotions. Are we ready? Have I thought of all the possible scenarios? Do we have enough medical and safety gear? Is this the right thing to do with the family? Once underway all these thoughts disappeared as my focus was directed at the passage and ensuring a  safe voyage. Tony was a fantastic help with this, our past sailing experiences together and my absolute trust in him meant that I could sleep well when off watch and hopefully some of Tony's knowledge would rub off on Liz.  We had paired Liz up with Tony to avoid the inherent risks of partners teaching each other the ropes especially considering this was to be Liz's first overnight passage using a watch system. We had chosen to use a 2 watch system of 3 hr on and 3 hr off, to work with the relative experience of the crew. Tony had Liz and Peta and I had Adam as our watch crew.

We made good progress for the first 24 hours. The breeze remained from the South West and peaked at 26 knots as we passed Port Stephens after ten hours and we were maintaining a good nine knots of boat speed with a reef in the mainsail and jib.

During our 9pm to midnight watch on the night of the 18th the autopilot began playing up and would not engage so we were left to hand steer the boat till morning so that we could inspect the cause. This gave both Liz and Adam an opportunity to steer at night and get a good feel for the boat. But it did make the 3 hour watches just that little longer to bear. They both did a great job. Morning saw the opportunity to pull in at Coffs Harbour to sort out "Doug". This ended up a simple task and Tony had it sorted within 15 minutes with the aid of Adam as tool and parts runner. So we headed to the marina complex for iced coffees and bacon and egg rolls. There was also a quick trip to the bottle shop to top up on supplies and the fish co-op for a kilo of fresh cooked prawns. Yum!

We all enjoyed a platter of cheese, dips and the prawns for lunch followed by a brief bar service from Manuel the bartender extraordinaire. The remainder of the trip was uneventful with light breeze and the continuos hum of the motor as we motor sailed to maintain a steady 6.5 knots.

The following morning we were greeted with the site of tweed heads and the Gold Coast on the horizon. As we passed the tweed river entrance the wind turned off and it was a total glass out.




A glass out from tweed heads all the way up South Stradbroke island.

The breeze very slowly filled in from the east in the afternoon to 7 knots and we were able to motor sail at a respectable 7.5 knots to be rounding the northern tip of Moreton island just as the sun was dipping below the horizon. This made for an exciting entry into Moreton Bay and making our way down to Lucinda Bay for a night at Anchor and a full, well almost full nights sleep. All in all a successful first passage.




Playful dolphin of Stradbroke Island




Rounding the top of Moreton Island

We are now tied up at the Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club completing our final prep before our planned 1st May departure for Vanuatu. Liz will not be with us for the next leg but will be joining us in port villa for the Vanuatu to Fiji passage. The kids will join us in Fiji.

Voyage stats:

Distance sailed - 516 nm
Highest wind strength - 26 knots
Time underway - 72 hours
Average speed - 7.17 

Queens birthday weekend

We took advantage of the long weekend and headed north up to Pittwater. 

Leaving Saturday morning there was a reasonable SE swell left over from the stormy week past. As a precaution Liz and the kids took their sea sickness tablets and the results were great with no one suffering. One side effect is that they get very drowsy and within 30 minutes I was the only person onboard awake. First the kids jumped on their beanbags in the cockpit and fell asleep. This was shortly followed by Liz dozing off as well. Leaving me to look after the boat.  We've found the beanbags to be perfect for the kids to find a comfortable spot in all conditions. Below is a photo I snuck while everyone one was asleep. Olivia in the foreground and William firmly packed in between the cockpit table and seat. 

All this sleep happening while the boat was motor sailing along at 8.3 knots. Very relaxing. 

 We spend Saturday night at the Basin and then Sunday night around at refuge bay. Two of the highlights were

1. Teaching Olivia and William to make mud castles as a change from the regular sand castles. here Olivia is shoing off her tower made from sand / water droplets.

2. Teaching the kids how to catch nippers (yabbies) with the nipper pump. William was a natural at holding the sieve and Olivia was a great spotter. No one but me was game to pick them up for the transfer into the bucket.

The sunset on Sunday night was fantastic and I have to share it.

We all had a great time.

Now for some technical information

The solar panels are working great but with the overcast weather only provided 30 amps per day. We were using 60 to 100 amps per day. The alternator was playing up again and we couldn't charge the house batteries. The regulator is the cause this time. We came home with the batteries at 40% having used about 260 amps for the weekend. So sorting out the alternator regulator and adding the extra 400watts of solar angels should be able to cover our power needs.

A Bimini and Dodger are a must after sitting out in the rain on our return trip to Sydney harbour. It wasn't fun standing out there watching Liz and the kids being so warm inside. Having shelter from the rain would have made it a little more bearable. I must be getting soft!

Water consumption is a problem for our family. We are averaging 90 litres per day so with our 660 litres we will be filling up every 7 or so days. Not so good if you want to visit remote locations in the South Pacific. We need to work on reducing this or I need to get a water maker.