Welcome back to the blog - lets see if I can keep it up this season?????
27th May 2023 – Departed Australia, going East…..
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| Leaving Scarborough - thanks Penny for the pic |
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| Leaving our lovely base in Australia |
Well we decided it was about time we went sailing again. It feels like a lifetime ago since we arrived in Brisbane back in November. I really wasn’t feeling good when we got here, I have been struggling with self-esteem and purpose for about a year so we had agreed I needed a break and we booked a base in Scarborough, QLD. From here I got help, did yoga, made friends and even considered getting a job and buying a suburban home. Around my finding myself again, we went on two fabulous long trips – diving in Raja Ampat and hiking in Tasssie. The Tassie trip took in lots of good friends and family along the way and we even had a go at house sitting. After a lot of soul searching we have concluded this next chapter needs to include time on land and expeditions with our beautiful Askari. Simply put we are at our best when we bring a bit more balance into our lives and not full time sea gypsies.
Australian customs have been really helpful in permitting us to have Askari in Australia, under a control permit for up to 3 years, as we are not currently resident here, despite being Australian citizens. We talked with them about potentially sailing around Australia and that would have been fine, however we are at our happiest when we are in the water and especially happy when that involves diving. So we have made the decision to put on our ‘big girl pants’ and head to Vanuatu, Solomons and PNG for ‘the season’ – an expedition of diving and cultural encounters after which we will look to take another land expedition.
So Saturday morning we rushed out for our last full strength Aussie coffee, some smashed avo on toast, hang out with all the trendy coffee shop families and their designer pooches, feel out of place then go and meet the border force officers at Askari for our clearance out of suburbia and back to the ocean. As we walked to the marina, we did agree it would be much easier to hang out here and get a dog…. Ho hum, off we go sailing to windward on the back of a cold front; as that’s the time to make east. One last set of hugs from our marina family and we glide out into Moreton Bay – it’s 1230 glorious, bright blue sky, south west winds and the bay is empty and calm.
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| Last breakfast |
The whole afternoon we are sailing in the protected waters of Moreton Bay and on sunset we gingerly round the inner freeman passage, it’s calm and the tide is running out not too strong. We have not used this pass before but it was beautiful, with a minimum depth of just over 3 metres you could see the bottom. We sailed along the white sandy beach at the north end of the island, while 4wds burned up and down the beach – see yous later bogans!!
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| Sailing in the bay |
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| Top of Moreton Island |
The swell picked up as we passed the lighthouse and approached the drop off – actually a really quite confused sea, making these land lovers both feel a bit queasy. Perfectly on time the coast guard announced the cancellation of the strong wind warning on the radio as we exited – it was like they knew we were wondering how it would be out there. But there was a nice 15 knots of wind from the south and Askari stiffened up and ploughed through it. After a few hours the sea got a little more regular and as the evening progressed we even picked up a very helpful current.
Our first night at sea was uneventful but oh so cold. We even dug out our dubarry boots we haven’t worn since Europe; yeah they didn’t fit but they looked pretty cool and we felt like salty sailors trying them on. I reverted to purple socks with yellow sailing sandals – particularly stylish… We even had the full king size down duvet out in the sea berth – super snuggly though.
We will sail east for as long as we can even though we want to go North East, we are expecting after this high pressure moves off that some reinforced winds will mean it’s harder to make the easting, so we will run a kind of L shape course, east then north. If the winds are not too strong and the sea doesn’t get too uncomfortable, we will carry on to Vanuatu, otherwise we will make a stop in Noumea for a bit of French cheese and patisserie.
Position 1200 AEST 28 May 2023 – 26 degrees 51 minutes south and 156 degrees 04 minutes ease. Speed 7.2 knots, COG 060 degrees magnetic, 617nm to Noumea.
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| So good to see the sunset in the ocean again |
29th May 2023 – Still making East
After the cold front moved off the wind dropped out, so we motor sailed and then there wasn’t enough wind for the genoa so we cruised along under engine and main for a few hours of very confused sea. The good news was it was so much warmer, although the second night at sea still had us tucked up in the duvet but no socks or hats were required.
The sea calmed off late afternoon, so we decided to add some of the spare diesel we were carrying; one of the lids is a bit dodgy so we thought it would be better in the tank than our lazarette and you never know when you might get a chance to add fuel on a trip like this. All was going well with the jiggly pipe but we hadn’t used as much as we thought and even in vitually no wind the boat was healed a bit…. Andrew saw the fuel coming up the pipe so put his hand over the cap, I grabbed the lid (which isn’t attached anymore thanks to a fuel pump attendant somewhere back down the track) – omg the pressure not to drop this thing and then woosh a column of diesel shoots towards my face. I have no idea how my nerves held and I didn’t get a face full of diesel but I got the thing on and we only ditched a little fuel. Yes learnings in even the smallest of tasks after all these years.
The night was oh so calm as we motored across the high, we both got heaps of sleep, maybe I got more than my fair share ;-) but Andrew binge watching Ted Lasso, so I think he was happy enough and was now over his first days sea sickness.
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| Sailing into the night |
This morning, we had bacon and egg muffins for breakfast and spotted a huge pod of pilot whales – oh so lovely and just perfect with the now blue sea and clear skies we have been blessed with so far. A light northerly was starting to build as we approached the other side of the high and we set the sails again. We are expecting this wind for the rest of the day before a pulse of energy from another weaker cold front, reaches us, that has just come off the Australian coast. That should give us some westerly winds again later tonight and then after that moves off we expect the trades to fill again from the South East. That is when we will turn for New Calendonia – that’s the current plan…
Andrew also had a play with our starlink during the calm this morning, just checking if it connects at sea (we haven’t got the sea package, as this one is for the cabin). It did connect and he was very excited. That was until he packed it away and realised his Garmin app had connected to the internet and updated now requiring him to accept the T&Cs - this app is one of our comms and weather tools so out came the starlink again. It’s pretty amazing to think we can do fast internet out here if we need to. For now we prefer to stay offline as its one of the joys of ocean sailing; that and long naps ;-)
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| Starlink in place |
Position 1200 AEST 29 May 2023 29 degrees 19 minutes South and 159 degrees 01 minutes east. SOG 6 kts, COG 061 degrees mag, wind 11 knots from the north. 461 to Noumea.
30th May 2023 – Over half way to Noumea
The last 24 hours have been motoring and motor sailing through glassy seas with surreal sunset and sunrise. The sunrise this morning being one of the most crazy beautiful weird I have ever seen; a mirror ocean and a bank of cloud with strange shapes on the horizon but appearing as if it was just a few miles ahead due to the atmospherics. It looked so like land that I double checked the chart and put the radar on to be sure.
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| What an amazing sunrise |
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| Surreal sea |
Last night we stuck to a strict watch system and that works much better. We often get drawn to let the person asleep stay sleeping – who wants to wake their loved one just so they can sleep?? But what ends up happening is that the system doesn’t work and one gets short changed on sleep.
Its been such an amazing day, we have been working on our tans…. Yes I know, what are we thinking? But we are honestly paler than we have ever been and I hate not having a slow base level tan so just a little bit on sun baking on the back deck was quite a luxury.
Our mates on Isis- Dave and Trace have closed in on us today; they left from the Gold Coast a bit before us on Saturday and following a more direct route so tonight we have them on AIS – it will be cool if we both arrive in New Cal at the same time. We have decided we are stopping at New Calendonia – Andrew did some detailed weather work today and we will wait for a better forecast to sail on to Vanuatu. As a result I have been cooking and preserving anything I can today as the biosecurity in Noumea will take fruit and veg, etc.
Position 1200 AEST 30 May 2023 25 degrees 35 minutes South 161 degrees 52 minutes East, SOG 7.3, COG 060 magnetic, wind 4 knots westish. 309 nm to Noumea.
Now tonight’s problem is serious – actually we are both a bit cross about the 5 huge birds on the top of our mast – two on our very expensive raymarine wind instrument, that was only replaced a few months back. We have tried everything to get them off but I guess they’re tired and want to spend the night destroying our instruments, pooping on our sails and down our mast.
31 May 2023 Wind – Yay!
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| Sailing into the wind - whoosh! |
The wind slowly arrived last night, filling in from the west and then by 7am this morning we had a lovely south wind about 14 knots, perfect conditions in a flat calm sea and so wonderful to turn off the engine. We haven’t been running it hard as we have mostly had some wind in the sails but it still makes a difference to the feel of the boat and the mood aboard. With this light southerly we have continued our easting and enjoyed some great sailing. We made some adjustments to our sail tension, as this was the first time we have really pushed the boat since we changed all the running rigging and had the sails off for inspection. So Andrew did a detailed inspection and also checked over the engine and steering – all good. This boat amazes us; we have hardly done any sailing while in Australia and we just pull out on the wind into the Pacific and she’s ready – yes we have done a lot of maintenance in Australia but still – we are so happy with her.
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| Happy place at the nav station checking weather |
Position 1200 AEST 31May 2023 24 degrees 14 minutes South 164 degrees 31minutes East, SOG 7knots, COG 045 magnetic, wind 14 knots at 135 degrees mag. 147.73 nm to Noumea.
I spent some time cooking up a curry with all our left over ingredients before we arrive in New Calendonia, unfortunately after it cooled I went to stow it in the fridge for the next day as a wave caught us and the curry complete with turmeric and lots of crushed whole spices and lamb oil ended up all over me and the galley flooring, floor, shadow gaps, and walls – what a complete nightmare. We then spent the next hour cleaning up, including cotton buds throughout the shadow gaps and floor gaps and askari has a wonderful new smell that would be more akin to a London Indian restaurant. I have never done that in all these years of sailing, I can’t have had my sea legs after all. I am also sporting a broken finger so perhaps I can blame that….
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| Yuck - fast and furious |
The wind was up to 18 gusting 22 by early evening, we turned a little toward Noumea but kept pressing east of our course as we were expecting the wind to become more easterly overnight and possibly strengthen.
1 June 2023 Arrived Noumea New Caledonia
Overnight was pretty sporty but super fast and Askari was in the groove. The wind came about to the East South East around 20 knots gusting a little more and we were pretty hard on the wind with a full genoa and heavily reefed main sail. As I came on watch at 2330 Andrew said to me that she’s fast (8-10 knots) but balanced and not over pressed but the washboard was in place – hmmm! Apparently a wave had actually broken into the cockpit – omg seriously we never get waves in our cockpit, it had even splashed inside so he got a bit sploshed on the couch.
By 5am we were starting to get a bit of protection from the reefs that extend south of New Calendonia but we were still sailing fast, maybe even faster in the calmer ocean. Andrew had a sleep in and I edged us round to line us up for the Boulari pass just south east of Noumea. We had made it faster than planned so the tide was running out, but whilst we saw huge waves breaking on the reef the pass looked calm so we entered at 9am, we did have a knot and half against us but by 10.30 we were inside an by Amedee island where we took a "quick" break before proceeding to the marina at Noumea for clearance.
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| Amedee Island |
We pulled up alongside Katoosh, who we had given our old genoa to in Fiji – they were happy to see us again. We connected the starlink and received a message to say that Uhuru was waiting for us and was arranging a welcome party on Friday night – how amazing to not just be back ocean sailing but back in our cruising community of wonderful friends.
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| Katoosh we met in Fiji - came by to say hi |
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| We will definitely come back to this spectacular anchorage |
We docked at Port Moselle, Andrew cleared us in and I tidied up, then he came back to say we were expected at the bar, pre-party drinks with Isis, Uhuru and El Gaucho. Perfect end to a great passage – well planned by Andrew, executed by Askari and sustained all along the way by Carolyn's cooking.
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| Selfie at the bar thanks to Jin's long arms - what a welcome! |
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