I think I'll go Today

There are no Current Marine warnings for NSW Coastal Waters or Ocean Areas according to the report Ive just listened to on my HF Radio from VMC on 8176kHz. Theres a big High centred in the Tasman Sea and winds are predicted to be predominantly from North east and North , with a southerly change expected to be brief on Friday. I've done all I can to get the boat ready and I am sick of waiting and spending money. So this morning I'll top up the diesel tanks and head out and see whats happening. My only concern is that the winds might be too light and I dont fancy wallowing around in a shipping lane for a day or two!

Now if I do keep going today I will try to keep the blog going from the Tasman using my HF Radio. They will only be text - I cant send pictures or videos because I do not have a satellite communications package like someone else we all know who sails a pink boat because I do not have Sponsors. But I did consider once approaching Bayer and offering to call my yacht Mirena for a few hundred thousand... and I wont be baking cupcakes. (Honestly...who bakes a cupcake?)

Anyhow, and THIS IS IMPORTANT the blog is not part of my safety programme so not seeing a post from me DOES NOT MEAN I AM IN TROUBLE. There are many technical reasons why there may not be a posting, such as water ruining my computer or the radio reception being poor or the radio not working or me being too busy or whatever....so just be patient and I'll eventually turn up somewhere. If I am in trouble I have two EPIRBS, three radios and a liferaft to look after me.

There is a site that I will also post my position to, and you can go there and look at a google earth map that will show where I am and carry a short message such as "All Good" - its not a "Live" site and I will try to post to it most days. Again, it is not part of my safety system and do not be surprised if some days there is nothing. The site is http://www.pangolin.co.nz/ - look on the left side and click on "Reporting Boats" then scroll down a long list of boats to vjn3327 Sapphire and click on "Track". Then you'll see the map and Sapphires position - its accurate to a mile or two - at the moment it has Sapphire parked on an intersection a few blocks away on Mary Street!

So please keep reading the blog and adding comments which I can read later, or if you want to email me directly my email at sea is vjn3327@sailmail.com. The connection is slow so send as much text as you like but not photos or videos.

If youre wondering how I am feeling right now - well its how I used to feel on the morning of a big exam - overall its an unpleasant feeling, but a mix of satisfaction that Ive done everything I could to be ready, and anxiety about what I might be tested on that I dont know too well or forgot! Occasionaly I have momentary feelings of panic but I'm eager to get going because I always found once the exam started I felt great- the contest bewteen student and the examiner is about to go another few rounds. Wish me luck!

A Big Fright

Its about 50 nautical miles from Pittwater to Newcastle and I wanted to arrive in daylight, so I got up at 4 am even though I had been up till past midnight tidying up the boat after Jason had finally finished and taken all his gear home. As soon as there was enought light I cast off and headed up Pittwater towards Broken Bay. It was a cool morning with an overcast sky and there was already a good breeze so within a few minutes of clearing the mooringsd I had both sails up and was doing over 5 knots, the Hydrovane was guiding us out into Broken Bay and I was relieved and happy to at last be on my way.

And then the headsail collapsed over the port bow into the water! The shackle holding it up to the top of the mast had given way without warning....

I turned into the wind so the sail would be blown onto the boat rather than into the sea, started the motor and then retreated into the lee of Barrenjoey to pull all the sail onto the boat. I was grateful the shackle had failed before we were well out into the ocean as it would have been much harder to control the sail on a deck that was rolling wildly and in winds gusting up to 18 knots. The bit that the sail had been attached to by the shackle was now stuck at the top of the mast so I couldnt rehoist the sail except by using the spinnaker halyard but then, becauuse the spinnaker halyard wasnt part of the roller furling sytem it wouldnt be possible to reef or furl the headsail, which I may have needed to do if the wind increased much more. I considered returning to my mooring and starting again in a few days after the halyard had been retrieved but in the end decided to continue but only with the main sail. Lying over the headsail to stop it blowing off the foredeck during heavier gusts I eventually managed to stuff it all away down the forward hatch aand set off once more. The wind was quite strong - 14 to 16 knots -but without the headsail Sapphire barely made 3 knots and I'd just lost 2 hours - at that rate i wasnt going to get to Newcastle for 16 hours! I had no choice - the motor!

So I motorsailed to Newcastle through quite chaotic seas with swell from several directions at time amalgamating into quite big waves and Sapphire buried herself into a few of them to give all our new waterproofing a serious test. Much later I was delighted to discover on arrival in Newcastle that all the leaks had dsappeared! But this incident with the failed shackle and now having to motor all the way on a cold grey day with a bit of drizzle around left me feeling rather depressed. I think I would have been even more depressed if I hadnt at least been continuing on my way to Newcastle. A yacht passsed me going south.......

The Big Fright happened as I was gloomily and grimly plodding northwards when without any warning a whale suddenly launched itself sideways out of the water 50 metres directly in front of Sapphire and slammed back down into the sea wth a huge crash, its long pectoral fin pointing at the sky. It was so unexpected that I think my heart stopped momentarily and for a second a wave of panic and terror flashed through my mind - it felt like I was about to be attacked - but the whale reappeared on the other side of the boat further away and then arched its back lifted its tail into the air and disappeared. I had been feeling tired and sleepy but now I was wide awake.

And lastly, though I am not religious, today on the forward bulkhead I mounted this charming little image of the Patron Saint of Sailors, St Nicholas. I hope at least this might help to keep Acts of God at bay, and whales from frightening me again.

Pittwater to Newcastle

Yes we finally stopped fixing and went sailing. I got started at 4 this morning so now I'm stuffed! Eventful trip: details next time.

Winners and whatever..

This is the oldest and smallest yacht that sailed in the Gosford-Lord Howe Island Race. (51 years old and 30 feet long) Its Skipper was Ian Kiernan - a well known sailor and even more well known as the force behind a movement called "Clean Up Australia" - and its reported he had a crew of kiwis - and they won the race! (On Handicap) And they won it last year as well. They took just over three days, though the Line Honours winner, Ocean Affinity a 49 footer, took 2 days and 8 hours
Speaking of clean up Australia, this was how the interior of my boat looked this afternoon - clearly work is still being done! As usual, every job takes longer than we plan and we keep finding other things that need to be done. And then today my Radio/CD player died, so that had to be replaced as well. And so I wont be sailing tomorrow but I WILL be going on Friday. The weather looks good for tomorrow and should be OK on Friday as well. Hopefully no more surprises....:)

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Not quite ready to Leave Church Point

On Saturday I went for a cruise around Pittwater to get the batteries charged up a bit. Theyve been getting a lot of use lately with Jasons Power Tools, and the Xantrex had the House batteries drawn down to minus 125Ah. The two house batteries are rated as 80 Amps and experts tell me you get better life out of your batteries if you dont draw them down to more than 60% of their capacity - ie in this case minus 96. But it was nice to be doing something on the boat other than maintenance and cleaning up the dust and mess we are making - even motoring was better than being stuck on the mooring! As I motored along I noticed some absolutely picture perfect homes on the edge of the water around Scotland Island and the adjacent bays of Pittwater, and I also saw two yachts like mine - Eastcoast 31's. I went round to Refuge Bay which has dozens of beautifully sheltered moorings you can use, and after morning tea I went out into Broken Bay to watch the start of the 36th Gosford to Lord Howe Island Yacht Race. Apparently the winner of the very first LHI race was an Eastcoast 31 , but that was - well 36 years ago! Yacht design and materials have made yachts these days so much lighter, faster and stronger that I am sure Sapphire would be left way behind, as the winner typically takes not much more than two days to get there. When I leave for LHI in a week or so I am giving myself a week!

It was frustrating not to be able to do some sailing on Saturday because the wind was strong but we were in the midst of resealing the mast boot and the deck fittings at the base of the mast had all been removed. I had spent several hours scraping off all the old silicone from the base of the mast and surrounds, and also from the hatch which has also been resealed. Jason ususally finds menial tasks like that to keep me busy while he gets on and does the important stuff - today I got to scrape rust out of the heavy steel fitting that the mast sits in, and tomorrow I am going to paint it. Today I also cut out some new sound proofing material for the engine box and after it was all in place I started the motor and was pleased that the noise was definitely less. The list of things to do is quite short now and probably will be finished tomorrow, Tuesday when we will fit the Firdell Blipper, which is a passive radar reflector that goes up near the top of the mast - its purpose is to make Sapphire more visible to the radar of ships in the vicinity. It looks like a giant Capsule about 2 feet tall. Also tomorrow I am getting a visit from Marc Robinson the Radio guru. Ive asked him to come back and explain it all to me one more time because I realised the other day I can hardly remember how to make the HF radio work or how to use the Pactor Modem to do email.

After that its just a matter of waiting for some reasonable weather for the sail to Newcastle. You can see on the chart a nasty little low coming across and they are forecasting winds to 30 knots from the South and South east on Wednesday but easing to 15 to 25 knots on Thursday as the High approaches so that should be a good day to go North.

Lights, Liferaft Leaks and Luggage

The Photos are views from Sapphire at her mooring near Church Point. Jason from Mainsail Marine is putting in long hours to get everything done, and Ive been trying not to get in his way. Actually hes been teaching me all sorts of useful shipwright stuff, so the boat is a shambles at present. In the evenings I clear away the tools and the dust to find my galley and then my bunk. But I said to him today, a glorious day for sailing, this beats working for a living.

I remember reading in a journal some time ago, an article in which seaasoned yachtsmen were asked for their single best piece of advice for cruising sailors. All had excellent tips to give, summarised in a paragraph, complicated opinions about the type of something or other and depending on the conditions and not forgetting whatever else and so forth. Only one stuck in my mind though, and it seemed so sensible and was so succinct : the wise old sea dog said "Keep the water out" And that was it. And that has been one of the jobs we've been tackling this week on Sapphire. The heavy rain which kept me trapped on the boat for 36 hours provided a perfect opportunity for me to see where all the leaks were - mainly around the mast but also from the chainplates and possibly from under the track for the headsail sheets, and around the hatches - all small leaks but can make life damp and miserable as well as corrode and rot.

The other jobs include fitting the liferaft, replacing the cockpit drains, replacing as many bulbs as possible with LED's - its amazing how little power they consune compared to ordinary bulbs- getting the engine service ( oil change and change of diesel and oil filters), replacing the Impeller in the water pump, fitting a couple of extra harness attachments in the cockpit, getting the fridge to work, fixing the Toughbook docking bay to the Nav Station bulkhead, fitting some rails to shelving to stop stuff from falling out.... I could stay here and find jobs for ever but in a few days , probably early next week weather permitting I'll be sailing up to Newcastle.