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.

Picking the weather

So this is what makes a nice smooth and safe trip.  I’m looking for the swell to be less than 1.5 metres and in a favourable direction.  The bar at Swansea is open to the North East so really the only bad direction is a North East swell.  Anything from the South or South East is protected by Moon Island.  Ideally a cross wind from the West would allow us to sail down there but hey sometimes you have to take what you get, if the head wind is less than 10 knots then it’s not too bad. 
The other thing we need to take in to account is that the water is still coming out of the lake 3 hours after the low tide so we’ll leave the marina at Newcastle at 0600, be rounding Nobbys head on the way out of Newcastle at 0700 and then be down to Swansea in time for the bridge opening at 1000.  By that time the water should have finished coming out of the lake and be just about to change round to going in. Means a minimum of current in the channel.  And you thought it was easy .

Mooring in Lake Macquarie

This morning we had breakfast at

Toronto before catching up with Glenn from NSW maritime.  We went out with him on the maritime boat so we could pick a spot for a mooring where we’ll leave the  boat semi permanently.  About half an hour while we toured up and down the foreshore and then we’d picked the spot.  We’ll get in contact with a mooring company tomorrow and by the time we’re ready to leave Newcastle it’ll be in.
The spot we’ve picked will give us a reasonable amount of protection from the winter South Easterlies but not much from the summer North Easterlies.

Easy run from the F3 freeway and we’re only 100m or so from the shore so it will be a pretty easy commute from Canberra.

And the alternator needs fixing as well

So the starboard (on the right if you’re standing at the back of the boat facing forwards) tacho has not worked for ages and I finally got around to looking at that last weekend.  The tacho reads the slight changes in voltage from the alternator and the needle moves based on how fast the alternator is spinning.  That is of course assuming that the alternator is putting the right output on the wire going to the tacho.
You’d think that the alternator is working fine if you’re able to get 50 Amps out to charge the batteries but all indications were that the alternator was the problem.  Unfortunately there were no markings visible so I had no idea what type of alternator I have other than 12 volts.  Anyway, cutting a long story short I've now removed the alternator and found that it is a 90 Amp alternator (which explains why one of the three phases is not working and I can still get almost 60 Amps).
On Tuesday it’s off to the shop for that to be repaired so that the tacho will work again but probably more importantly we’ll be able to get 90 Amps in to the batteries when we need it.

Woohoo! Newcastle at last

Yesterday we finally managed to leave Lake Macquarie and get up to Newcastle.  Mel arrived just after 0800 and we left the dock at Marmong Point at 0900 so that we would make the 1100 bridge opening at Swansea.  I was hoping that by then the low tide (0837 at Swansea Heads) would mean  that any current would be pushing me back in to the lake away from the bridge. 
This is the channel that I needed to get through before crossing the bar.

As it turns out there was still about 2 knots of current going out of the lake.  Not unmanageable but still more than I would of liked. Anyway, timed the run to the bridge to perfection and we went straight through. Concentrating on getting through the channel.

And the bridge we’re about to go through with a green light for me.

Uneventful crossing of the bar and a very pleasant 3 hour motor sail up the coast and we get to Newcastle.  And then to finish off a very good day we get welcomed into Newcastle harbour by these guys.

(Wasn't that nice, a whole post with nothing about engines )

The other engine while we're here

While we’re here I figured we might as well do another couple of jobs on the other engine.  Changed the water pump impeller which was pretty easy.  Still had six out of six vanes on the pump but the rubber was starting to harden so I decided to change it anyway.  Pulled of the exhaust elbow because if it’s blocked it can drastically reduce power.
No prize for guessing that this shouldn't look like this.  Its the exhaust elbow and this bit bolts onto the exhaust manifold and gets sea water injected into it to cool the exhaust.  Instead of 35 mm diameter we've probably only got 10 mm.