On November 25, the wind had eased and we decided to move to the prettiest anchorage in Port Stephens - Fame Cove.  We picked up one of the courtesy moorings and had a peaceful overnight stay.

November 26 – December 8, 2008

We left Port Stephens at about 0900h on November 26.  We were anxious to get to Lake Macquarie so that our ham radio friend, Bruce who is a radio communications expert, could inspect our HF radio installation.  The HF radio, which we thought was fixed by ICOM Australia while we were away in North America, only worked well for the first four days that we were back aboard.  ICOM Australia agreed to look at the radio again but we wanted to have Bruce inspect the installation first to ensure that the problems were with the radio itself.

We crossed the bar at Lake Macquarie at 1530h, after a good sail from Port Stephens.  We had a bridge opening at 1700h and then motored the 6 miles up to Marmong Point where Bruce and Thelma reside on their boat.  We enjoyed morning tea the next day with Bruce and Thelma and then Paul and Bruce got to work on the radio.

Bruce did indeed find that our radio problems were radio related, NOT installation related and so the radio was shipped back to Melbourne for the second time within a few months.  We pleaded with ICOM Australia to get it back to us within one week, as we needed to get to Pittwater for the next full moon.  Not only were we having problems with the radio, but also, Paul discovered water in the oil of our port engine’s saildrive.   For our non-sailor readership, a ‘saildrive’ looks like the leg of an outboard engine sticking out from under the bottom of each hull at the back of the boat.  It’s what links the inboard engine to the outboard propeller.  There are seals behind the propeller, which normally stop water from entering this leg where shafts and gears are lubricated by oil.

To fix this we had two choices – haul the boat out of the water at a slipway at a cost of $500 for the haul-out and another $100 for each day that the boat sits in the boat yard while repairs are made, or, beach the boat on sand and change the prop seal at low tide.  We had just paid for a haul-out in February and decided to beach the boat at a very flat spot in Pittwater that friends told us about.  But we were tide-dependant and we knew that we must get to Pittwater by Thursday, December 11 at the latest in order to be ready for the Saturday full moon, which would offer lower than usual low tides and water enough on the high tide to float off.  If we didn’t time this right, we could be stuck in the sand for a couple of months until there would be another opportunity to float off.  More about this further on.

So for the week that our radio was in Melbourne, we stayed in Lake Macquarie, enjoying the company of Bruce and Thelma.  Mary joined Thelma for her one-hour walk every morning and we enjoyed three evenings out at Workers’ Clubs and met several of Bruce and Thelma’s friends.

Our HF radio was returned to us on December 8 at mid-day and, after good-byes to Bruce and Thelma, we left immediately for a booked 1700h bridge opening.  We actually made it to the bridge just before 1500h and, upon a request on our behalf through the coastal patrol via VHF radio, the bridge operator opened up the bridge for us at 1500h.  Paul spent a few hours that evening re-installing the HF radio, which we will monitor carefully for its performance.

December 8 –11, 2008

We left Lake Macquarie at the crack of dawn and had a good sail to Broken Bay, where we sailed deep into the bay to a place called Pittwater.  This is where we intended to beach the boat.  Travelling deep into Pittwater by boat (especially a wide catamaran) can be quite intimidating as it is so heavily populated by boats on moorings.  Paul did a good job of weaving our way through several moored boats and we anchored in shallow water behind a few boats and just in front of where we hoped to dry out.  Paul then waded into the water to check out the sand, which he reported as quite flat and reasonably firm.

In the early morning, at high tide, we moved in further to the sand and slowly beached Bella Via.  Paul had found some boards that he intended to place under the keels but decided not to use them.   As the water receded, due to falling tide, we were left high and dry on the sand.  Unfortunately, the keels sank into the sand a little too far and it was difficult, although not impossible, to access the port saildrive.  Due to the proximity to the sand, it was difficult for Paul to get a proper purchase on the prop to get it off.  It took all morning but with Mary’s help we finally succeeded.

The next morning was an even higher high tide than the day before.  We learned that we were in the right place as two more catamarans arrived bright and early and were beached nearby.  Both owners told us that catamarans dry out regularly there but warned us to be careful about what work we were planning to do.  Scraping bottom paint and spilling oil were two things that would definitely bring the marine police over to levy a $700 fine.  We knew that we would not have any problems as all we were doing was changing a seal and adding some more bottom paint to the saildrives.

December 12 - 15, 2008

At 0730h on December 12, our work on the boat was finished and we were floating so we motored over to deeper water.  An hour later, we set off for our next stop south – Port Hacking.  This journey, a good sail, took us right by the Sydney heads and the furthest south that we have been yet.  We spent only one night at Port Hacking as the forecast looked good to continue south.

In the almost four years that we have been living aboard, we had the most exciting, scary, and confidence building ride from Port Hacking to Jervis Bay.

As a preamble to this next entry in our log, we would like to tell you about the “Beaufort Wind Scale”.

There is a scale on which sailors have rated wind conditions for centuries.  The scale is known as the “Beaufort Scale”.  The “Beaufort Scale” rates wind conditions on a scale from 1 to 12 - where Force 1 conditions are dead calm and Force 12 are hurricane conditions.  We have now experienced Force 11 conditions and both Bella Via and her crew handled these admirably. 

For the trip from Port Hacking to Jervis Bay, the winds were predicted to be out of the northwest and only up to 30 knots (Force 7).  We have been in these conditions quite often, and with the wind coming from behind us, makes for good sailing.  The winds had been very light all morning and it wasn’t until 1100h that we put up a spinnaker.  Fortunately we put up the smaller, heavy-air spinnaker based on the forecast.  By 1300h the wind was gusting to 30 knots (56 km/hr) out of the west (our least comfortable point of sail - a beam reach).  Just as we were in the motions of dousing the spinnaker, the wind started to build even more, now gusting to 40 knots (74 km/hr, Force 8).  It wasn’t long before we were down to the jib and a double-reefed main, surfing along at 10-12 knots.  Unfortunately the seas were quite confused and high from the recent southerlies.  We had two metre seas and two metre swells, and these seas would have been significantly worse if we hadn’t been so very close to the shore from which the winds were blowing.  Nothing broke but things that normally don’t move in coastal hopping were flying around in the boat.  When the wind instrument hit 50 knots (93 km/hr, Force 10) we completely doused the mainsail and furled most of the jib leaving only a patch of it out and still we were moving 10 to 12 knots.  All this time the wind was on our starboard beam.  However, once we arrived at Jervis Bay we had to turn the boat due west, heading directly into the wind, to travel another 8 miles to windward to get to a sheltered anchorage.  For this, we furled the patch of jib and started both engines. 

The reader must now understand that we almost never run both engines.  That’s because we can move at 5 knots with only one engine consuming as little as 2 and a half litres of fuel per hour.  Running the second engine only increases our speed to 7 knots at the cost of double the fuel consumption.  Normally, the cost of the extra fuel isn’t worth the additional 2 knots of speed.  However, as we rounded the headland to enter Jervis Bay the wind began gusting to a whopping 57 knots (106 km/hr, Force 11).  Two metre waves were regularly washing over the deck and into the cockpit as the wind had blown our sturdy plastic windshield inwards and we were getting regularly doused with cold, salty seawater.  The world around us was turning white, as the crests of the waves were being blown off the top by the tremendous force of the wind.  There were times when the boat’s forward motion was brought almost to a stop by the combined forces of the wind and waves, despite the power of both engines running at near full throttle.

Finally, two hours after we entered Jervis Bay, we were in sheltered water and picked up a courtesy mooring.  By now, it was 2000h and we were tired and hungry.  We had dinner, watched a movie to unwind and went to bed and slept well.  In the end, we feel that the boat handled it all very well and we were glad for the experience. 

We moved to the south end of Jervis Bay (near the entrance) the next day at 1600h because the wind shifted and was coming out of the south, which was creating a lumpy anchorage.  We motored across, and this time it only took 70 minutes to get to the other side.  Again, we picked up a courtesy mooring and spent two comfortable nights there.

December 16 – 19, 2008

We headed off for our next stop, Eden, at 0630h on December 16.  The other three boats on moorings left at relatively the same time.  We were hoping that the journey of 120 miles would only take about 19 hours with an arrival time of 0100h on the 17th.  Unfortunately, the wind strength was not great, nor was it consistent, and we had to motor sail.

When we were about four hours away from Eden, we heard one of the other boats that had been at Jervis Bay calling the Eden coastal patrol.  Paul got on the VHF radio to chat with the boat and we learned that they had just reported a sighting of a red flare, which usually means that someone is in distress.  Mary was on watch and had not noticed the flare.  From the other boat’s position, we determined that the flare would have been behind us and off of our starboard side.  We watched for a while and, sure enough, we saw a red flare.  By then, the other boat had turned around and was heading back to offer assistance and we turned around as well.  We had our radar on but no boat was showing up on the screen.  When we got closer to the shore and we could still see flares being set off, Paul got on the VHF radio again and made a Securite notice to All Ships.  He gave our position and asked that the vessel setting off the flares contact us.  A man’s voice came back immediately and he announced that he was from a vessel that was holding a training session and that he had cleared this with the appropriate authorities.  We, and the other boat, turned around again and continued on our way to Eden.  We felt that it was weird that the coastal patrol that the other boat had spoken with had no knowledge of any training session.  Paul made notes in our log about the event (and the next day, when we checked in with Customs as per our cruising permit requirements, we told the officer about the event and she was keen to record this unusual information).

We arrived at Twofold Bay in Eden at 0330h (after 21 hours at sea), worked our way into the anchorage around a large pier, in the dark, and dropped anchor.   We had three hours of sleep and got up at our usual time to get weather faxes, check in with our ham radio net, and have breakfast.  Needless to say, we didn’t have a lot of energy that day.  We did manage to go ashore (two miles by dinghy to the other end of the bay) to have lunch at a restaurant and do some much needed provisioning. 

By now, this late in December, we know that we will definitely not be in Hobart, Tasmania, by Christmas.  It is 320 miles from Eden to Wineglass Bay on the east coast of Tasmania and then three or four day hops to Hobart at the southeast end of the island.  Getting to Tasmania means that we need to cross the infamous Bass Strait.  If you don’t time your passage right, meaning with a good weather window, it can be a horrible passage.  Boats usually sit and wait in Eden until the weather is right to cross the Bass Strait.  Paul continues to actively study the weather, collecting all of the information that he can get and analyzing it.

The wind is out of the southwest at present and blowing hard for the next day.  The wind should ease by Saturday evening.  It is still undecided if we will cross Bass Strait anytime soon as we need a 48-hour weather window (at least) to make the crossing.  We will enjoy Christmas wherever we are.  We will get to Hobart eventually.  As Dorothy said in The Wizard of Oz (with some help from us), “Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore… we’re near the Southern Ocean!”

 

We want to wish everyone a very peaceful, happy, and
healthy Christmas and holiday season!  May you make every visit with
a loved one a memorable one.