23rd May 2012,
Anyone who has tried to follow our blog will have realised that we are very intermittent bloggers.
Since our last entry we have been from Bundaberg to Melbourne then to Hobart around Tassie, then a year Tassie, including August in the South West, Bathurst Harbour and Melaleuca Inlet, we were there when Maatsuyker Island recorded it’s second highest wind gust they recorded 94 knots we recorded 90.4 knots when we were tied to the banks of the Melaleuca Inlet behind Opal Lady.
We left Hobart in january 2010 and eventually arrived in Melb in april after having cruised around Flinders island and spent some time up the Tamar at Launceston.
We stayed in Melbourne in order to arrange the sale of our previous yacht, Trade Wind as the previous sale had fallen through.
We left melbourne on 1st July with our son Keith on board and headed north but only reached Sydney before it was realised that Duncan needed a hernia operation.
Sydney was too problematic so we moved to Newcastle and stayed at the Yacht Club’s excellent marina whilst we sorted everything out.
We finally left Newcastle with our daughter Kathleen aboard on 6th September and after a stop at Coffs harbour to let some weather pass we arrived at the Gold Coast.
Shortly after Kathleen left us our friends Martin and Judy arrived and we cruised through the Broadwater up to Manly where we picked up our new life raft.
We then cruised up the coast and through the Wide Bay Bar and enjoyed several days in the Great Sandy Straits where Duncan and Judy were eaten by midges in Gary’s Anchorage.
We had an interesting trip up the Mary River to Maryborough and arrived in Bundaberg on 28th and Martin and Judy left on 29th September.
We left Bundaberg mid October and visited Lady Musgrave Island, Pancake Creek, Cape Capricorn and then into Rosslyn Bay marina for engine repairs.
We then headed north to Port Clinton where we resisted the temptation to continue further north as we thought we would have too much trouble getting south if we left it longer. As it was we sat and waited for
some northerlies which didn’t eventuate so we finally left on 13th November and headed south.
We met our new friends Martyn and Jude on th big cat Legasea in Port Clinton and have seen then on and off since then.
We headed back to Rosslyn bay for a night and then out to Great Keppel Island for a rolly night or 2 before heading south outside Curtis Island towards Bundaberg via Pancake creek.
After several days in Bundaberg we left and headed thought the Great Sandy Straits and a bumpy ride through the Wide Bay Bar.
We headed to Mooloolaba where we left Lemaris and returned to Melbourne for a few days to celebrate Eva’s birthday and catch up with everyone.
Keith and Elizabeth joined us in Mooloolaba for Christmas and we left there on 2nd of january and headed through Morton bay to the Broadwater via the Caniapa passage.
We met up with our friends Martyn and Jude and after several days up the Coomera River we set sail for places south having decided by by then to undertake our second Van Diemen’s Land circumnavigation of Tassie withe the fleet organised by the Royal yacht Club of Tasmania.
The weather was not good and continued to deteriorate as we headed south with the forecast changing to a strong wind warning so we decided to head into the Tweed River. The bar crossing was easy as the swells were from the south and we had an incoming tide.
We found a nice anchorage in Terranora Inlet, a branch of the Tweed that has reasonable water depth, and waited for the weather to improve but as this coincided with the Brisbane floods we had to wait.
The Tweed bar was dangerous so we waited for several days but eventually made the decision that it was OK to leave, a day too early as it turns out.
The bar looked not too bad, so we decide to try it, Big mistake, we got a 3m breaking wave right at the end of the breakwater!! Deck covered in white water and as it was a steep backless wave we fell heavily into the trough with an almighty back, it must have looked impressive from the shore because the VMR wanted to know what we broke!
We didn’t admit to it but my nose was bleed ing from having hit the wheel on the way down.
As it was the boat was fine-no damage whatsoever, not even Eva’s wine glasses!
Form there we sail overnight in a good fresh breeze and arrived in Newcastle at 4.7am to be met by our good friends Gaz and Loz who were going to sail their yacht Somoya back to Hobart in company with us.
After several days of sailing we were joined in Jervis Bay by Gaz and Loz who stopped at Port Hacking whilst we kept sailing. We then continued on to Eden and anchored in East Boyd Bay for a day or so before leaving Gaz and Loz to head for Lakes Entrance whilst we left to sail to Tassie heading for Wineglass bay on the Freycinet Peninsula.
We had a good trip except for Duncan catching his finger in the main boom outhaul whist repairing the mainsheet traveler track ouch and much worst was said.
we arrived in Wineglass Bay at 6.7am on 27th jan and were joined by Martin and Judy on Archer soon after.
Unfortunately the yachts collided whist at anchor during a wind change and Lemaris suffered some damage to the stainless steel rails.
We headed towards Hobart and after overnighting in Chinaman’s Bay on Maria island and then in Blackman’s bay after finding our way through the Narrows, spent some time cleaning the barnacles from the bottom of the keel before a rising tide allowed us to continue.
We arrived in Hobart and received a really warm welcome from the people around the Royal Yacht Club of Tas.
After provisioning and repairs we left to circumnavigate Tassie on the cruise in company on 16th february.
had a great time and saw many more different things than on our first cruise 2 years before.
On our return to Hobart we had to wait for the delivery of a new mini washing machine from Europe which took much longer than expected.
We finally left Hobart in the middle of winter, 22 June in company with Jeremy and Penny on Rosinante and after spending 2 nights in Triabunna we moved to Bryan’s corner and from there to Wineglass Bay to wait for and improvement in the conditions east of Bass Strait.
We left Wineglass on an improving forecast at 3.30 pm and headed north light and variable winds for several hours before it settled for a westerly of 45 knots gusting to 50 as we heading out to the east of banks Strait on our rhumb line for Eden.
Lemaris was handling the conditions really well sailing with 1/3 headsail and 1/3 mizzen and fully furled main and making 9-10 knot of boat speed.
The sea conditions moderated as we came into the lee of Flinders Island and the wind dropped to 40 to 45 Knots but as we got further north the seas became bigger and were sometime depositing some water in the cockpit.As usual the weather moderated rapidly as soo as we were north of Gabo Island so we had a peaceful sail to our anchorage in East Boyd Bay where we arrived at 0730.
We rested for the day and listened for Rosinante’s progress. They finally arrived at 2200 after having slowed down to ease the conditions on the boat.
We left Eden at 0730 the next morning after shouted farewells to Rosinante and headed north determined to make it further than Port Clinton this year and after some hard going during which we realised that it really is necessary to stay in very close to get out of the East Australia Current and that it will cost at least 2 knots in speed over ground and an over night sail we decided that we would over night at Port hacking.
Picked up a public mooring and had a fantastic relaxing quiet night before continuing on the next day with the intention of sailing through to the Gold Coast but Stockton Bight proved too hard in the dark so we gave in and went into Port Stephens.
We spent the next days or so in Port Stephens and piked up a mooring in Fame Cove before we headed north again.
We left there at 10.10am and sailed overnight to Coff’s Harbour where we refueled and spent 2 nights.
We departed on the 7th of July and anchored at Illuka in the Clarence River for the night.
We departed the next day and sailed through past the Gold Coast and morton island and arrived in Mooloolaba at 1030 on Saturday 9th July.
Our arrival was notable because of the entertainment provided by falling into the water during our to up in the pen at the Mooloolaba Marina.
To be continued
Anyone who has tried to follow our blog will have realised that we are very intermittent bloggers.
Since our last entry we have been from Bundaberg to Melbourne then to Hobart around Tassie, then a year Tassie, including August in the South West, Bathurst Harbour and Melaleuca Inlet, we were there when Maatsuyker Island recorded it’s second highest wind gust they recorded 94 knots we recorded 90.4 knots when we were tied to the banks of the Melaleuca Inlet behind Opal Lady.
We left Hobart in january 2010 and eventually arrived in Melb in april after having cruised around Flinders island and spent some time up the Tamar at Launceston.
We stayed in Melbourne in order to arrange the sale of our previous yacht, Trade Wind as the previous sale had fallen through.
We left melbourne on 1st July with our son Keith on board and headed north but only reached Sydney before it was realised that Duncan needed a hernia operation.
Sydney was too problematic so we moved to Newcastle and stayed at the Yacht Club’s excellent marina whilst we sorted everything out.
We finally left Newcastle with our daughter Kathleen aboard on 6th September and after a stop at Coffs harbour to let some weather pass we arrived at the Gold Coast.
Shortly after Kathleen left us our friends Martin and Judy arrived and we cruised through the Broadwater up to Manly where we picked up our new life raft.
We then cruised up the coast and through the Wide Bay Bar and enjoyed several days in the Great Sandy Straits where Duncan and Judy were eaten by midges in Gary’s Anchorage.
We had an interesting trip up the Mary River to Maryborough and arrived in Bundaberg on 28th and Martin and Judy left on 29th September.
We left Bundaberg mid October and visited Lady Musgrave Island, Pancake Creek, Cape Capricorn and then into Rosslyn Bay marina for engine repairs.
We then headed north to Port Clinton where we resisted the temptation to continue further north as we thought we would have too much trouble getting south if we left it longer. As it was we sat and waited for
some northerlies which didn’t eventuate so we finally left on 13th November and headed south.
We met our new friends Martyn and Jude on th big cat Legasea in Port Clinton and have seen then on and off since then.
We headed back to Rosslyn bay for a night and then out to Great Keppel Island for a rolly night or 2 before heading south outside Curtis Island towards Bundaberg via Pancake creek.
After several days in Bundaberg we left and headed thought the Great Sandy Straits and a bumpy ride through the Wide Bay Bar.
We headed to Mooloolaba where we left Lemaris and returned to Melbourne for a few days to celebrate Eva’s birthday and catch up with everyone.
Keith and Elizabeth joined us in Mooloolaba for Christmas and we left there on 2nd of january and headed through Morton bay to the Broadwater via the Caniapa passage.
We met up with our friends Martyn and Jude and after several days up the Coomera River we set sail for places south having decided by by then to undertake our second Van Diemen’s Land circumnavigation of Tassie withe the fleet organised by the Royal yacht Club of Tasmania.
The weather was not good and continued to deteriorate as we headed south with the forecast changing to a strong wind warning so we decided to head into the Tweed River. The bar crossing was easy as the swells were from the south and we had an incoming tide.
We found a nice anchorage in Terranora Inlet, a branch of the Tweed that has reasonable water depth, and waited for the weather to improve but as this coincided with the Brisbane floods we had to wait.
The Tweed bar was dangerous so we waited for several days but eventually made the decision that it was OK to leave, a day too early as it turns out.
The bar looked not too bad, so we decide to try it, Big mistake, we got a 3m breaking wave right at the end of the breakwater!! Deck covered in white water and as it was a steep backless wave we fell heavily into the trough with an almighty back, it must have looked impressive from the shore because the VMR wanted to know what we broke!
We didn’t admit to it but my nose was bleed ing from having hit the wheel on the way down.
As it was the boat was fine-no damage whatsoever, not even Eva’s wine glasses!
Form there we sail overnight in a good fresh breeze and arrived in Newcastle at 4.7am to be met by our good friends Gaz and Loz who were going to sail their yacht Somoya back to Hobart in company with us.
After several days of sailing we were joined in Jervis Bay by Gaz and Loz who stopped at Port Hacking whilst we kept sailing. We then continued on to Eden and anchored in East Boyd Bay for a day or so before leaving Gaz and Loz to head for Lakes Entrance whilst we left to sail to Tassie heading for Wineglass bay on the Freycinet Peninsula.
We had a good trip except for Duncan catching his finger in the main boom outhaul whist repairing the mainsheet traveler track ouch and much worst was said.
we arrived in Wineglass Bay at 6.7am on 27th jan and were joined by Martin and Judy on Archer soon after.
Unfortunately the yachts collided whist at anchor during a wind change and Lemaris suffered some damage to the stainless steel rails.
We headed towards Hobart and after overnighting in Chinaman’s Bay on Maria island and then in Blackman’s bay after finding our way through the Narrows, spent some time cleaning the barnacles from the bottom of the keel before a rising tide allowed us to continue.
We arrived in Hobart and received a really warm welcome from the people around the Royal Yacht Club of Tas.
After provisioning and repairs we left to circumnavigate Tassie on the cruise in company on 16th february.
had a great time and saw many more different things than on our first cruise 2 years before.
On our return to Hobart we had to wait for the delivery of a new mini washing machine from Europe which took much longer than expected.
We finally left Hobart in the middle of winter, 22 June in company with Jeremy and Penny on Rosinante and after spending 2 nights in Triabunna we moved to Bryan’s corner and from there to Wineglass Bay to wait for and improvement in the conditions east of Bass Strait.
We left Wineglass on an improving forecast at 3.30 pm and headed north light and variable winds for several hours before it settled for a westerly of 45 knots gusting to 50 as we heading out to the east of banks Strait on our rhumb line for Eden.
Lemaris was handling the conditions really well sailing with 1/3 headsail and 1/3 mizzen and fully furled main and making 9-10 knot of boat speed.
The sea conditions moderated as we came into the lee of Flinders Island and the wind dropped to 40 to 45 Knots but as we got further north the seas became bigger and were sometime depositing some water in the cockpit.As usual the weather moderated rapidly as soo as we were north of Gabo Island so we had a peaceful sail to our anchorage in East Boyd Bay where we arrived at 0730.
We rested for the day and listened for Rosinante’s progress. They finally arrived at 2200 after having slowed down to ease the conditions on the boat.
We left Eden at 0730 the next morning after shouted farewells to Rosinante and headed north determined to make it further than Port Clinton this year and after some hard going during which we realised that it really is necessary to stay in very close to get out of the East Australia Current and that it will cost at least 2 knots in speed over ground and an over night sail we decided that we would over night at Port hacking.
Picked up a public mooring and had a fantastic relaxing quiet night before continuing on the next day with the intention of sailing through to the Gold Coast but Stockton Bight proved too hard in the dark so we gave in and went into Port Stephens.
We spent the next days or so in Port Stephens and piked up a mooring in Fame Cove before we headed north again.
We left there at 10.10am and sailed overnight to Coff’s Harbour where we refueled and spent 2 nights.
We departed on the 7th of July and anchored at Illuka in the Clarence River for the night.
We departed the next day and sailed through past the Gold Coast and morton island and arrived in Mooloolaba at 1030 on Saturday 9th July.
Our arrival was notable because of the entertainment provided by falling into the water during our to up in the pen at the Mooloolaba Marina.
To be continued