Leaving the marina and sailing down the Derwent, Russ caught lunch – sashimi!!
With a nice 15-20 knot north to north westerly we were going along very nicely, then out of nowhere the winds blew up, we had reduced sail to 2 reefs in the main but suddenly a loud noise – like a gunshot – the jib sheet had broken leaving the tail flapping around madly and punching a hole through our brand new jib – we were getting rogue gusts up to 44 knots – mayhem. The sea was like a washing machine with us in the middle. This was certainly not even hinted at by the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) this morning. With very sad faces, and rather a few choice swear words, we sailed the rest of the way down to the Denison Canal with the 2 reefed main and the little storm jib.
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A land view of the cliffs on the Eastern side of Tasmania from when we walked here a couple of weeks ago
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Anchored on the other side, Claire and Joe (Storm Petrel) who had been sailing along just behind us, very kindly came over and helped us effect a pretty professional repair to the 30 cm tear in our poor new sail.
Next morning, Saturday 30th March, we hoisted our jib and, with the repair holding well, sailed off. Soon we had the screecher up, then jib and screecher “wing-on-wing”, then as the wind increased – jib and storm sail – we were having a great time. The plan was to head to Wineglass Bay for the night, but as we passed there at 1pm we decided – nah – lets go up to Bicheno – then – nah – St Helens – then – what the hell – let’s just keep on going while the going is good – mainland Australia we are on our way!!
We sailed overnight with just the jib, reducing it around midnight as the wind increased, then pulled in the jib and just sailed along with the storm sail and winds steady around 30knots for the next 24 hours. Off the NSW coast, passing Green Cape and Eden – we were having a lovely time, memories of the sometimes torrid weather now behind us, and at lunchtime Monday the 1st April the sky was blue, the sun was warming us, the screecher now was pulling us along towards Bermagui where at 7.30pm we were all enjoying a meal and a beer at the pub.
Bermagui was great, we stayed here for 3 days, walking around the town, even going for a swim in the Blue Pool – a spectacular ocean pool at the base of a dramatic cliff face. We had a bbq one night with the guys from the slipyard there, who we had met in Tasmania and on Thursday we again slipped the lines and headed north.
It was a pretty gnarly sail up the coast, having left the lovely town of ‘Bermie’ with the screecher up, by lunchtime we had changed to the main and jib, then by 4pm we had 2 reefs in the main and ½ jib for the pitch-black night and lumpy seas.
By 7am Friday April 5th we rounded Sydney Heads!!
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| Sydney!! |
Took down the sails and motored up, along with numerous ferries, under the
famous bridge to drop anchor in Blackwattle Bay, just across from the Sydney
Fish Markets. It was time for a celebratory beverage!! Then a delicious lunch was had at the fishmarket.
Two very enjoyable days later, it was time for Phil and Russ to fly back to Adelaide, and work, we had really loved having them aboard, both for the company and the huge help crossing the infamous Bass Strait.
Two very enjoyable days later, it was time for Phil and Russ to fly back to Adelaide, and work, we had really loved having them aboard, both for the company and the huge help crossing the infamous Bass Strait.
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| Another day with these great creatures playing around SOL |
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