3/19/2014 0 Comments Storm! It’s really never dull when you live on board a yacht – there is always something happening, a new yacht arriving, someone to meet, a new port, places to see and explore, changing weather patterns. Something different pretty much every day. Some days though things spring up which you don’t expect or really want and there are things to adapt to, things to manage and always things to learn.
Last Sunday’s weather forecast predicted a South Westerly wind change around 2pm that would bring only winds of around 10 knot. We were securely attached to a mooring that was rated to 20 ton (our weight) and 30 knot of wind, in a quiet, sheltered bay, so no alarm bells rang. We pulled our awning down and tidied up a bit on deck as a precaution, in case it was a bit stronger and carried on as usual. Around 1pm we noticed storm clouds gathering and checked that, yes, some rain was forecast – so we shut hatches and put a couple of storm boards in, still carrying on as usual. I was sitting at the little desk Peter recently constructed for me on the steps near our bed. I could hear a low rumbling sound outside and then the sudden rushing sound of a big wind. I looked up – and Peter, standing up on deck, watching, observing, said, ‘Yep there’s wind and rain on its way to us.’ I had time to move my computer over on to the bed and then the wind slammed into us! It seriously felt like someone came and shook the boat, tipping it over! The rushing sound increased massively and the boat kept shuddering. This was no 10 knot southerly! Erina was in her room, just behind me. She came out and was looking out the porthole in the bathroom, ‘Wow, Mum!’ she said, ‘You have to come and look at the water!’ I looked at what had been still and flat less than an hour, less than half an hour before – now it looked like a dark choppy washing machine – waves and white caps replacing the serenity of earlier. Erina continued on to the main cabin and I picked up my half-full tea cup to join them – just as a wave or powerful wind gust really sent us flying. I could hear the sounds of unsecured objects in the main cabin and tried to get there without spilling my tea everywhere! I walked in to the most amazing scene! The boat was lurching on its port side, and every cupboard on the starboard side was trying hard to empty itself on Peter and the kids! Peter had been hit by a container that had once had coconut in it, leaving him resembling a navy blue lamington, as he stood with glasses, and other bits of china at his feet. It was almost comical looking at him holding on to cups and other breakable items as Erina was trying to quickly shut things to stop more things falling out! I came in and tried to hand someone my tea cup, while trying to gather bits that had fallen while at the same time trying to stop other things joining them! It was – in a word – chaos! And still outside the wind howled and the boat jolted violently. Trying to gain some order down below was only the beginning – because the lurching of the boat as the wind slammed into us was certainly going to stretch the capacity of our mooring, jeopardising our safety and wellbeing in a far more significant way. Peter was across the situation in moments. He had assessed the danger while I was still trying to stash things away safely, had the fuel on and the engine started and maintained a calm that I admire him so much for in a crisis. He knew that if the mooring dragged or our line broke we would need to hold ourselves against the wind, and keep us from the other moored boats and the shore. He was at the helm, watching, waiting, being pelted by the rain, ready for any action needed. What wisdom. Moments later the boat lifted up at the bow and then bounced back down, and then again, and we all knew there was no way the mooring rope would be able to keep hold of us. We were already much closer to the boat next to us and Peter called down that the mooring had clearly moved. He had the boat doing full revs to keep us away from the next boat but we were right – at that moment the mooring snapped completely and we were bouncing free, no longer secure at all. Peter skilfully kept us under control and took us into the wind, which even by then had begun to abate. Liam was, as usual now, his right hand man and helped him with getting instruments turned on, navigation tools organised and anything else he needed. Erina and I, down below kept looking for things that could become missiles if the wind kept up, kept securing things, kept cleaning up mess and broken china and spilled coconut and checked the weather. Still nothing was forecast but we could see a massive storm on the rain radar and the area where we were was a small black patch – the strongest wind recordable – we were clearly in the worst of the weather – but thankfully it was moving across very quickly and as we kept motoring across and out of the moored boats we could already see blue sky appearing! It was over as quickly as it had begun! We motored about for a few minutes, then came back to near where we had been moored and dropped our anchor in calm waters! We did put out a lot of chain to ensure we were well held and looked across to where we had been. The mooring buoy we were on had moved well over 100 ft, and Erina and Liam came back from an inspection of the mooring rope to tell us that it had snapped clean – a 35 mm rope – snapped clean off! A little later they both, in completely calm waters now, dinghi’d over to the mooring buoy to retrieve what was left of our rope and shackle – it was bizarre to appreciate that less than an hour previously all hell had broken loose around us. We lost a boat hook overboard somewhere in the rocking, and down below a tea-pot handle broke. That was all the damage we sustained. The bow-sprit did not suffer any harm in the bouncing or snapping of the mooring rope and apart from the fright of it all we suffered no harm at all. Peter was amazing – knew what to do to keep us all safe and kept the boat from anything worse happening – what a blessing in something that literally came from nowhere. Yesterday we were on land and saw that the storm had cut a swathe through the town here – many houses lost roofs, one had all its north-facing windows smashed and trees everywhere were on their sides and being cut into pieces to clear them away. The local news informed us that we had ridden through 55 knot of wind, and 2 meter seas in our calm, peaceful bay - no wonder the mooring moved! That was definitely the biggest weather incident we have faced outside a marina and one I would gladly never face again! But we did well. And learned lots in the process – not least of which is that we can deal with most difficulties that come our way. 3/13/2014 0 Comments underway! It’s March 14, Friday, and on Monday it will be two weeks since we left Balls Head Bay!
It was beginning to feel as if we had moved into Sydney, we had been there so long! But like most unexpected delays it was finally over and we were thrilled to be on our way again! That first morning when we pulled up the anchor after more than a month working and fixing and holding our breaths was quite a challenge! We had every expectation of things being okay but you just never do know do you! But there wasn’t even the slightest hic-cup and we were delighted to not only have a functioning engine but one that has really never sounded so good! We motored over to Manly, our pre-planned exit point from the harbour and re-stocked the boat, ready for the wind to take us further north. Manly it turns out is an excellent place! We wished we had visited it sooner! There are five courtesy mooring buoys (rated to 20 ton and 20 knot of wind) there as well (when we arrived) as several boats comfortably anchored, though the mooring buoys do indicate it to be a no-anchoring spot due to sea-grass. We moored near the ferry terminus but had minimal wash from the ferries as they seemed to glide slowly into the jetty. There is an Aldi store right on the ferry jetty and nearby, only a few meters up on The Corso, a Coles store. This is the easiest shopping point we have had the entire time we have been in Sydney – we were able to wheel the trolley right up to the jetty and carry the bags on board! It was excellent – which was great because we wanted to ensure we were well-stocked for the weeks ahead! There was also a service station an easy walk up Pittwater road where we were able to refill our fuel jerry cans for the generator. After doing this big shop we waited. Not long – just a couple of days and then the weather report indicated suitable wind for us to head north. We have found the wind pattern at this time of year to really favour sailing south, with only the occasional southerly wind kicking in, but our observations are that the wind follows a simple pattern most days. When coming from the NE it is low in the mornings, gradually picking up in the early afternoon and then coming back down in the evening. As we cannot sail directly into the NE wind and we must get further north we have decided to try and travel in the mornings and or overnight trips – this means we are not really able to sail, but at least getting further north. We have no problem in doing this, we are not that wedded to always going with the wind, its simply not practical for us, but also we really wanted to give the engine a good work out and test to ensure that the problems that saw us remain in Sydney so long were really sorted out. As we get further north the wind pattern will change and we may be able to get some more sailing done, and of course if there is some reasonable south wind we will also use that. So far we had done one night ‘sail’ and three mornings. On our first day out we went to Pittwater. What a playground this is for Sydney boaters! A joy and a delight and we thoroughly enjoyed our few days there! We found the best little beach side café and enjoyed relaxing over a coffee - once with some old friends, once while Erina and Liam had their first go at SUP’ing and then all together on the day before we left – what a life! We enjoyed latte’s, chai tea’s and scrumptious treats while waiting again for the right wind direction/speed combination to get us a bit further north. A couple of days later and we were heading out again towards Newcastle. This would be our first night/day sail and also the first time Erina and Liam have done night watches. It’s always a bit funny the first night at sea. Everything sounds strange and the boat movements seem more vivid and dramatic than during the day but it’s also incredibly peaceful. Both the kids did excellent jobs and it’s great to see how much they have developed in responsibility and capacity over the past few months. We hadn’t really planned a stop in Newcatle but a yachtie we met in Pittwater told us of an excellent spot to tie up right in the town for only $25 a night. We didn’t think we’d be lucky enough to find any room there but as we came in we were told that there was plenty of room and which berth would we prefer! We headed for the berths feeling very pleased with ourselves! As we came in to them though we soon saw that it would be no simple task to get in to what was a tricky and fairly tight spot. The main problem was that we couldn’t come in forwards – there wouldn’t have been room for the bow sprit before getting to the wharf wall – we slowed right down and looked at the berths, talked through the options and decided to reverse in, something we have never actually done before. As always Peter did an amazing job of negotiating a tricky manoeuvre and got us close enough for Erina to be able to deftly jump off onto the jetty and then Liam and I threw her a rope and as we drifted around, she pulled us in. We did a perfect job! I thought back to all those times we made such a mess of coming in to jetties at first and thought what a very long way we had come! We ended up right in the heart of the cafe and restaurant area of town just to the west of the main street and really, who could ask for anything more! Close by we also found a bunch of shops and even a place to buy the bow and arrows Liam has been looking for for months! We enjoyed a couple of lovely days, refilled the water, replenished all our supplies and got our batteries totally recharged and then off we set for Port Stephens a couple of days later. We arrived in Port Stephens yesterday mid-day, after a lovely sail up with some variable south east wind. We had the main sail, the stay jib and the fore sail up and made some pretty good time. We rounded the corner into Port Stephens just on mid-day and sailed over towards Nelson Bay where we were able to pick up one of the three courtesy moorings that we had read about. These, like most of the others we’ve made use of in NSW are rated to 20 ton and 20 knot of wind. We plan to stay here now until Monday when a wind shift is forecast to bring some calm seas and easy conditions to head up towards Forster and the mid-north coast. It truly is wonderful to be underway. Properly underway. Our primary destination at this stage is Brisbane where we hope to spend a bit of time before heading up into the Whitsundays for the winter. And so far it’s definitely so good! |
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September 2017
Our life aboard Argos has been seriously challenged this year with the surprise departure of our skipper. As a writer, diesel mechanics and the complexities of many aspects of Argos’ on-going maintenance are way beyond me! We would like to see Argos continue to sail and eventually hope to use her to offer support, encouragement and a break to people who are struggling in their lives. Any on-going help towards maintaining Argos would be greatly appreciated and enable us to achieve this goal.
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