Coffs Harbour
Fleck
Wed 7 Oct 2009 03:17
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7th October 2009
Position 30:18.5S 153:09E
First, to deal with criticsm, these position points
are intended to be approximate only, but I hope that todays position will place
us somewhere in Coffs Harbour. Just not sure how to deal with 09 degrees: would
the computer prefer 9 or 09? Does he take sugar? Oh, well!
The criticism (you know who you are) was that a
previous position put us in the Elizabeth Street Post Office in Brisbane, and
not on the water at all. You lot expect me to power up the GPS everytime I write
home? I get the positions from our pilot book sketch charts, which rather
confirms that these should not indeed be used for navigation!
"Awesome" said Charlie's friends as she announced
her final travel plan to sail down the East Australian Coast on a yacht. A
sadly debased and dumbed word in the current vernacular. So, here is what
awesome means in practice, and don't forget that whilst this is all going on,
you can't fix your make up, wash your hair, or go to the loo because
it makes you feel even sicker!!
The Gold Coast Inland Sea: the Broadwater, seduces
the would be sailor with its gentle winds and flat (bar the speedboat
wakes) surface. And so it was when we cast
off from the $60 per night Southport Yacht Club Marina, fuelled up, and set off
down the Gold Coast Seaway: the dregged channel leading to the Open Pacific.
Notices warned us of strong tides and breaking seas, but we veterans of the
Mad Mile on the Wide Bay Bar took it all in our stride, fortified as we
were by antiseasick pills to keep the early tea in place, and with the bonus of
lots of dolphins to view as a distraction. The visual landmarks were good,
and we were soon out safely into deep in not entirely restful water. As feared
the wind was south, where we were headed, but a comfortable 14 kts, and we made
good progress beating into it, and towards the big swells off Point Danger. Such
comforting terminology. Having left on the late afternoon flood tide, it was
soon dark. Apart from an episode in which the wind did a maddening 360 degree
turn in an hour, we did well; reaching the point at 02.00 on Monday morning. The
wind then died away and we motored uncomfortably into the swell until 06.00 when
a wind sprang up from the south west, sufficient to enable us to sail close
hauled in a generally south south east direction, and with much more
comfort as the boat healed constantly, and pitched less into the short
swell. Dawn was an overcast affair: leaden skies, and some spits of rain. This
did little to encourage a breakfast spirit amongst the crew, but we were now
making good progress with the additional East Coast Current under us, and by mid
morning the sun had put his hat on, and all was well with the
world.
At lunchtime another 'calm': the horrid
clatter of slatting sails and rig on the rolling sea: not conducive for
lunch either! But then an excellent easterly
set in and we were quickly bowling along, soon passing Yamba, our backup
destination on the Clarence River. Progress in the evening sunshine was again
good, but heavy clouds were developing around us at dusk, with lightning all
over the place. Once again the wind abated. Charlie was foolish enough to ask if
ships were ever struck by lightning, and what would happen, and I was
foolish enough to give a truthful answer. At least his put the crew in a 'last
supper' frame of mind, and we agreed that bread and a tin of tomato soup would
be possible. Its a good job no one suggested the macedonia nut cookies as
dessert: I'd wolfed these down the previous night! The soup session was
interrupted by a thundersquall with a max of 30 kts of wind. Fortunately it
didn't last long, but we were then left with a 9 knot south westerly: hopeless
for serious windward sailing, and I decided on the engine. We were all tired,
and there were shoals and inslands to be avoided in the long approach to Coffs
Harbour. The entire trawler fleet as well, as it turned out. Just for 30 mins
did the wind blow with sufficient force in a reasonable direction: just long
enough for me to raise and set the sails, and then take them all down yet
again!
The previous day we had contacted Coffs Harbour to
arrange an accessible berth, and this turned out to have been a good idea,
as we came on to the Harbour leading lights (they are all a lovely blue fluoro
colour) in the dead of night, and nudged over the shallows of the inner harbour
(we have done a lot of this!) at 05.00. Berthing was pretty slick, by our
standards, but we didn't spend much time admiring our warps and springs, and we
were all asleep as the sun rose over the sea wall.
160 miles in 36 hours. Not bad, really, but hardly
awesome.
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