Brisbane storm

Martin getting caught in a storm coming back across the river on Thursday the 27th November.
Here's the video

Update: 16 Dec. Just had the quote done today.  $3,300 for the bonnet and roof after we've already done $500 for a new windscreen.  Fortunately all covered by insurance but the excess hurts.

Belinda still on the boat in the same storm

End result for the boat is some fabric / vinyl needs to be replaced.  Solar panels look like someone has attacked them with a ball peen hammer and the anemometer (3 cup things that go round and tell me how fast the wind is) is a little worse for wear.
All in all it could have been a lot worse.

Nearly finished working again

Been a really busy couple of months.  Now that the G20 meeting has finished and I'm not doing shift work life can get back to normal.  I've still got another couple of weeks to go working out near the airport and then we'll head home for Christmas. Met a great bunch of people working in the events management industry which is new to me (industry not meeting great people), some technical challenges but mostly about customer service.


We've been staying at the Dockside marina which is really close to the city with the only down side being the wake created by the ferries as they go past. During the day they mostly stick to the speed limit but when they finish at midnight it seems to be a race to get back to the base for the night.  It's also nice waking up early and everything being dead calm until about 0602 when the first ferry of the day starts.

Despite the fact that Dockside is close to the city, for the last 2 weeks we've been staying in a hotel in the city which has made it easier for the late nights, early mornings and supporting different people in the hotels throughout the city.  Made a nice change to have aircon 24/7. 

No more work for this year, it's time for some boat maintenance.  I've ordered the sealant for the port side window and that'll take me a couple of days with the help of Greg. That reminds me, I need to do a post about the people on the dock here.

Anyway, time for me to start the day but I will do a catchup of the last couple of months.

Brisbane here we come

On the Canaipa Passage, staying the night at Canaipa Point riding out the southerly that just hit.

Queensland at last

Coming in to the Gold Coast

Goodbye Iluka - Yamba

Well we have left the Clarence River, tonight we will anchor in Byron Bay ETA 1700hrs.

In a couple of days we will finally be in the Gold Coast, our home for the next month :-)

!@#$% weather

Darn weather can't make up it's mind.  Yesterday we went for a walk about a quarter way along the breakwater wall.  Took a video which I'll upload later that shows how rough it was.  Forecast was for 22 knots from the south and it came in about 2pm.  With the forecast for the next week showing combinations of wind over 20 knots and swell up to 3.6 metres we have decided to come in to the marina at Yamba and stay on the dock.
We came over here at 6 this morning and the breeze has dropped right off to less than 5 knots and the water is like glass.  Anyway, we're here for a week now.

And the weather window closes ...

So the hope was to be leaving Yamba / Iluka early on Tuesday morning and staying in front of a 15 knot southerly with 2.5m swell heading up to the Gold Coast arriving Wednesday midday ish.
Anyway looks like it's coming through a bit earlier and  by the time we get to Byron Bay it will have caught up with us. We'd be running with a 3m southerly swell up to the border at least but it should have died down to 1.5m by the time we get to the Gold Coast.  I guess at least it would be behind us.  We'll still go under the Harwood bridge tomorrow just in case the forecast changes again but at this stage we'll be here another week or so. The arrows show wind strength and direction while the shaed blue shows the swell height.

And the swell direction and height

Grafton

Well, that was a disappointment.
All of the reading material we have indicated that there are overhead cables just before we get to Grafton but they are 21 metres or 19 metres above the waterline depending on which side of Elizabeth Island you go.  Not a problem, we'll fit in easily.  When we get there there are signs on both sides of Elizabeth Island saying that the maximum height of all vessels is 17 metres.
A quick check of our book and our DWL (Design Water Line) is 18.8 metres and then we would add the VHF antennae on top of that.
Very disappointing but we anchored short of the cables and took the dinghy in to Grafton.
Wow, that was a long way!  Full tank of fuel in the outboard and it took us 25 minutes to get there with the tide going our way as well.  We wandered around for a while, minimal shopping and changed my Telstra WiFi device and then came back (when the tide had changed around).
Well, we didn't even make it back to the boat before we ran out of fuel. Fortunately it wasn't too far to row but I checked afterwards. About 4 nm or 7kms round trip.

Anyway, we decided that we'd head back to Ulmarra this morning and then catch the bus in to Grafton to do enough shopping for 5 days which hopefully will get us to the Gold Coast. Plan at this stage is to leave very early Tuesday morning, stay for 12 hours or so at Byron Bay and then up to the Gold Coast very early Wednesday morning.
Bus trip was pretty expensive, $25.60 for the two of us return to Grafton.  I'm sure we were the only two full paying passengers and it was probably the same price regardless of if you went from Yamba or Ulmarra which is the last stop.  By road it's only 14kms to Grafton so it probably would have been just as cheap to take a taxi.
Overall the trip up the river has been a nice diversion from the usual on the coast.

On the public pontoon at Cowper

Stumbled on this by accident. Apparently a joint funded initiative by NSW maritime and Clarence Valley Council they have one here, another in Grafton (on the other side of the bridge and power lines so we can't get to it), one at Ulmarra and another at Harwood. Very nice and this evening we'll walk across the bridge and have dinner at the pub.

Clarence River

Tried to get a photo to show how wide some of the river can get, but I had to take 2, photos really don't show it well.

Dad these photos I took after I talked to you, as promised. Love you Belinda

Picking a weather window

A few factors that we consider when working out when we're leaving a place and going to the next.

• Wind
• Swell
• Tide
• at the leaving location
• How far it is
• How fast do I think we'll be able to go
• Wind
• Swell
• Tide
• At the arriving location

For example when we're going to leave Yamba and go up to the Gold Coast seaway I'll be looking mainly at these pages.

Yamba Wind

Yamba Swell

Yamba Tides

Byron Bay Wind

Byron Bay Swell

Gold Coast Wind

Gold Coast Swell

Gold Coast Tides

BothYamba and the Gold Coast have a bar that we need to cross and so does then ideally we'll go across the bar during the third hour of the rising tide.  In this way the swell coming in and the tide coming in are both going in the same direction and the water should be flatter.
What I'm looking for when we leave here is ALL of the following:

1. A Yamba tide going from low to high and leave 3 hours after the low
2. Swell less than 1.5 meters and ideally from the south or south east and dropping lower still
3. Wind anywhere from the west through to the south east but less than 15 knots
4. Swell in Byron Bay later that day / night (about 10 hours later) to be roughly south and down around 1.2 metres
5. Byron Bay wind to be less than 10 knots overnight (so we can get 6 - 12 hours rest)
6. Gold Coast wind to be less than 15 knots (about 8 - 10 hours after we leave Byron Bay)
7. Gold Coast swell to be less than 1.5 metres
8. Gold Coast tide to be going from low to high and we need to arrive 3 hours after the low

Yamba to Byron Bay is about 50 nautical miles so that'll take us about 10 hours and Byron Bay to the Gold Coast is about 40 nautical miles so that will take about 8 hours.  The good part of stopping over at Byron Bay is that it's what they call 'open roadstead' which means that it's open to the ocean.  No bars to cross and therefore no tides to worry about but it does mean we need better weather.

Maclean

Anchored near Maclean, we'll have a look around town tomorrow or on our way back down the river.

Harwood Bridge

Going up the Clarence River, First a 11.00 bridge opening to catch. We made it with an hour to spare, so we anchored and had a cuppa.

I've found the grey nomads

and they're all here at the Iluka caravan park.

Bar Crossing at Iluka and Yamba

Some crossings are harder than others, can't wait to get into Qld waters, there aren't as many Bar Crossings to cross to get into a nice place to stay.

Left Coffs Harbour this morning at 3.30am, after saying goodbye to Peter, Jakehan and Christie. Early morning for all of us, but it was good to see them all.

Made good time, arrived at Iluka - Yamba  Bar Crossing at 1.45pm, we were Anchored and beer in hand by 2.30.

As you tell from the video Martin and I are still working well together, even when it looks a bit dicey.

Hope I downloaded this video properly and it works. I was using my photo camera, touched the button to change from photo to video without knowing. When I looked later I found 3 videos, this one shows how close we have to get to the rock wall at the Bar crossing.

Sunrise at Coffs Harbour

I took these three photos from the breakwall less than an hour ago.  From first to last there is just over a minute.

06:26:16

06:28:35

06:29:34

According to the weather forecasts when we leave tomorrow morning to go up to Yamba it should like pretty much like this or even flatter.

Coffs Harbor

View from the top of Mutton Bird island back over the marina in Coffs Harbour.  If you zoom in we're about dead centre of the marina (side on with a burgundy sail bag covering the mail sail.)

 

 

Cleaning the days catch

Klauss cleaning the fish and his very captive audience.

Good morning

Early start, left Trail Bay 3.00am

We have 4 more hours before we get into Coffs Harbor.

Trial Bay

Dropped anchor in Trail Bay at 1530. Great day motor sailing from Port Macquarie, we've done 37 miles in 7 hours. Swell was being is and we also had a south westerly of about 6 knots as well in the morning.
We'll eat early and get up before dawn to go to Coffs Harbour.

Last night in Port Macquarie

Heading off in the morning with the rising tide. Probably stay overnight in Trial Bay and then do an early start on Tuesday to Coffs Harbour.

Sydney Boat Show

Last week we looked at the weather we've been having up here in Port Macquarie and it hasn't been bad and we probably could've kept going up the coast last week but we decided we'd go to the boat show instead.
It's always nice to see what new things are available and we want a new VHF radio that has AIS built in so we took the train down to Sydney on Thursday and came back yesterday.
Stayed with Dave and Nat on Thursday and Friday night and spent the whole day walking around the boat show on Friday.  They're rebuilding the Sydney Convention Centre so they had the boats outside in Darling Harbour as per normal but we had to take a ferry to Glebe Island where they had all of the inside stuff in marquees.
As usual we saw things fitted to boats that look pretty good and this is an example that might make it's way on to our boat. So simple.

Didn't get the fixed VHF radio that I want but we now know where to get it from and which one to get.  We did however buy a handheld VHF which has a 10km range.  Always good to have  spare and most of the time we'll be within 10km from the coast anyway.

Coming in to Port Macquarie

Apparently they removed the old triangle leads a while ago and now they have a light that shows green if you are too far right, red if you are too far left and white if you are spot on.
Roughly speaking, the correct transit is a heading of 224 248 degrees which will see you on the white light.
The light is at the bottom left. The yellow line is our track across the bar.

(Needed to edit that, when we left on Monday the 4th August I took much better notice with Belinda watching out the back and calling out when I was in line with the white light. The white light shows when the bottom of the three dotted lines is in line. It really feels like you're going way too close to the northern wall but there you go.)

The best weather we've had for weeks

Went for a walk into town to see what's there. Found a pub for a light lunch and a beer overlooking the Hastings river. About 20 degrees, blue sky, no clouds, just a breath of wind.  What more can you ask for?

Port Macquarie

It's a beautiful morning in Port Macquarie, Martin is cleaning EverRest's port side, removing the black marks she received from our overnight stay at Crowdy Head. Today we are going ashore and have a look around town, hopefully find a place to buy white pigment to change the colour of our epoxy to match our gelcoat.

Crowdy Head

So last night we stayed at Crowdy Head on the old fuel dock but for ages we've either been on a mooring, anchored or tied up to a floating dock.
When we tied up at the old fuel dock last night we didn't even give the tide a thought.  We were just so knackered after the 14 hours that we tied up, had a beer, dinner and then bed.
We woke up at midnight with a loud crack (just happened to be low tide) and then saw this.

Problem was we'd tied up completely wrong for the conditions / position and when the tide dropped (about 1 metre) the rope had just got way too tight and pulled the bolt through and broke the cleat.

Now that we're here in Port Macquarie we'll get that fixed before we move on and remember to not do that again.

The old fuel dock.

Selfie at the Crowdy Head lighthouse

Belinda on the phone to her dad

Moving forwards part 2

10am still a bit chilly, the good news the sun is trying to come out.

Moving forwards now

Finally heading north, early start this morning 2.30am. photo of Martin taking a nap from his 6.30am shift at the helm.

Adjusting the output voltage on the alternator

When we came up from Newcastle with the brand new batteries I noticed that at one point the voltage had got up to 14.8 volts.  The alternators are supposed to put out 14.4 volts and the batteries are ok with this.  As soon as the engine turns off it settles back down to 13.6 volts and then as the batteries are used it will drop down to about 12.5 volts and then we charge again.
That's how it's supposed to work.
Anyway, I've just spent some time with both alternators out and like a lot of other things on this boat we find that things are not exactly the same on both sides and not the same as the original manual says they should be either.
On the starboard side the alternator was putting out too many volts and I've discovered that on that side I have an externally adjustable voltage regulator.  Looks very much like this.

Anyway, some very careful adjusting with a jewelers screwdriver and the voltage is back down to 14.4 volts.  Very happy now.

Two in the cave

And there's room for two in the cave

The plastic cave

Now that Belinda has finished with making the plastic cover at the helm I stay warm and dry when it's raining and windy.  Difficult to sail with it all up because the winch handle hits the plastic on the way round but usually if the weather is that bad we need to charge the batteries anyway.

Leaving Newcastle

These guys are a lot bigger up close.  This is in the channel leaving Newcastle harbour.

Heading North again

Driving with no hands and talking on his phone, what am I  to do with him. Any way we are back in Port Stephens, heading in the right direction again. We will stay here until Sunday for the weather to clear.

Tough day.

Finished work and now it's time for cheese and bickies.

New Batteries

Out with the old and in with the new.

The old batteries were just truck batteries (wet cell, lead acid) that are not deep cycle.  At three and a half years they had done all the work they were going to do.  Lots of research led me to Peter at www.batteryvalue.com.au and we ordered and paid for 3 x 125AH deep cycle AGM batteries on Tuesday and had them delivered to Newcastle marina by lunch time on Thursday.

The new batteries are smaller, lighter and more efficient. Oh yeah, cheapest price I could find anywhere as well.  I toyed with the idea of putting in lithium ion batteries but although they are great technically there were just not cost effective yet.  Next time.

Engine fixed?

So this is the timing case cover that caused the oil leak.  The previous owner (or the ratbag that sold us the engine) had severe corrosion and bogged over the holes and then painted it 'Volvo' green.  First picture doesn't look too bad apart from the bolt hole does it?

How about this then?

All that stuff that I'm touching is bog and the two bolt holes have been completely corroded.  In one spot there is a whole about 3mm in diameter that went straight through.

Rain proofing - Part 1

This is the first and most important part of making the boat rain proof.

And we have the money shot

The beauty of digital photography. We have about a dozen shots around this one that were not quite right.

Hauling out

1st of April we hauled the boat out for some much needed maintenance.

I have a bunch of photos so I'll work out how to create an album and then link to that.

 

In addition to the clean and anti foul we needed some fibreglass work at the front, and down the back. While we were cleaning I looked at one of the propellers and noticed that it definitely wasn't working as it should.  

And we have also had a slow (but getting worse) oil leak on the second hand engine that we had fitted last year.

2014 Haulout album

Fame Cove in Port Stephens

Sunday morning in Fame Cove

Lake Macquarie to Port Stephens

Last week the weather looked good enough for us to head on up to Port Stephens.
Getting out of the lake meant we needed to wait for the bridge to open which they do every hour between 6 AM and 7 PM except during peak hour so 8 AM and 5 PM miss out. When we go through the channel there is a couple of knots of current going one way or the other depending on an incoming or outgoing tide and we need to cross the bar on an incoming tide.
Once we've got that bit sorted we need to make sure that the weather in the ocean between Swansea and Port Stephens is good. We’re looking for minimal swell, hopefully behind us and either a cross wind or following wind and nothing nasty on the forecast.
Wednesday, 19^th March fit all of the criteria and when we talked to Marine Rescue at Lake Macquarie they confirmed that it was ok to sit on one of the moorings overnight. (They have 2 moorings on the inside of the bridge for people waiting to go out and 3 on the outside waiting for people to go in).
On the Tuesday night we took the last bridge out which was about 10 minutes before last light and stayed on the mooring overnight.
We had an early start on Wednesday morning between first light and sunrise and had crossed the bar by 7 AM. It was supposed to be light northerly early in the morning followed by a light southerly in the afternoon.

https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/114886658647201208021/albums/5993742890153555361

End result was the northerly died early and the southerly was late so although we had the sails up all day we hardly got any assistance and we motored all the way up. By 3.30 PM we were turning left into Port Stephens and that was where we met the southerly. Had a good sail inside Port Stephens and we finished the day at 5.30 PM in Salamander Bay with a beer.

And we're off

So this morning Stephen dropped us off in the centre of Canberra and we took the bus to Sydney central station and then a train up to the boat. No more car for us.
We've got friends coming up this weekend and we’re kind of hanging around waiting for good weather and then we’ll go up to Port Stephens. There is a boat yard at Oyster Cove where we can haul the boat out and have it cleaned and anti fouled for a reasonable price. We’ll get that done and then look at moving further north.

Going up the mast

One of the jobs I've had in mind for a while is to replace the anchor light so that instead of using 2 Amps for the 12 hours overnight we’ll only use about a tenth of that when I put in an LED light.
The 22 amp hours that I’ll save in battery life every day will probably run the fridge for three to four hours.
Belinda got me a bosuns chair for my birthday and so while I was up there changing the light I took a couple of photos.
Belindas view

And my view from 15 metres up

Boiling water

So we’ve got gas on the boat and we can boil the jug like anyone else but a 3.8kg ‘Swap-n-go’ bottle costs around $30 and the last one seemed to last about 6 weeks. (We’re timing this one and so far we’re up to 18 days, although I think that person days may be a better measure in which case we’re at 38 person days)
Anyway, when we use the gas we also need to turn on a safety switch first which uses about 1.5 Amps from the battery while it’s on.

So, boiling water in the jug has a double hit from a consumption perspective, power from the batteries to hold the safety solenoid open and gas from the bottle.
Last time we were at the caravan and camping show in Canberra we found one of these

That’s a glass tube with two cups of water inside and the sides fold out as reflectors and in about an hour of full sunlight we get two cups of boiling water, no gas, no electricity J

Time for a quick catchup

So, it’s February now and a lot has happened.
After finishing the course and going back to Canberra things just didn't seem the same. I gave it a couple of weeks and then decided that it was time to bite the bullet and hand in my notice. In the end I finished on 1 Nov and we came back up to the lake the following week.
We played around in the lake for a couple of weeks checking out different spots (mainly checking where their public moorings are) and starting on the job list for the boat.
At the end of November we went on a cruise with Royal Caribbean to Vanuatu and New Caledonia for 12 days. (Don’t ask for the photos, we used to have a waterproof phone that had a good camera). When we finished the cruise in mid December we went back to Canberra for a couple of weeks until just after Xmas.
Back up to the boat on the 29th Dec and had the fridge fixed early in the new year. Did a couple of quick trips back and forth to Canberra early in January and then spent the last 3 weeks of Jan redoing the bathroom at Amandas place.
We've been up here for a couple of weeks early in Feb and then went back to Canberra to be with Belinda’s mum and nephew and his partner went they visited Amanda. (Their first visit to see Lacey.)
Stephen came back with us on the Friday to spend the weekend and then he went back to Canberra again on the Sunday (16th).
Whew, all caught up.