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.