Maiden Voyage Qld Bound

With the help of friends Gyng and John we headed out of Pittwater on a cool June night. A few short weeks earlier there had been a major container spill off Newcastle. The thought of 80 shipping container bobbing around just off the NSW coast meant a rethink on plans. We pushed the trip back a few weeks, to buy some time for things to unfold. NSW waterways and AMSA were very helpful and provided good insights to assist. It wasn’t long until containers started beaching from Pittwater to Port Stephen’s and wide spread debris was washing up as far north as Coffs so the dangers were very real.

Slipping the mooring at Church Point around midnight on June 25th 2018, Penzance pushed out into the coastal swell with a solid Westerly blowing. The plan was to hit the Newcastle area around dawn and transit the debris zone in daylight hours. All went to plan and with much relief we pushed north with hints of blue skies and kind seas.

The run up the coast was dominated by following sees and hand steering, Ted Turner failed on the way out of Newcastle, the simrad auto pilot display filled with water and that was the end of easy night watches. 

Having never had a boat with a heater, the webasto diesel heater was gold plated. Keeping the guys warm and dry meant a more comfortable trip, we ran the heater every night “luxury”.

Our game plan for the trip was to sail by day and run the motor each night from dusk to dawn to combat the lull in breezes each evening. 

With 90 liters in the tank we had enough fuel to make the Goldie and backup fuel in the locker if needed. The nav went to plan and day three we had dropped the sails and were on approach into the Gold Coast Seaway. Earlier that morning I did a double check on engine hours and fuel burn, I new we had less than 10 liters in the tank so not a lot of room for error. On approach into the seaway the wind was building and I had this uncomfortable feeling. I recall saying to the guys, could they prep the headsail so we could roll it out short notice as a backup. As we approached the seawall the swell lifted and I applied throttle for some extra drive, rather than the sound of building revs I got a splutter and near stall. Idling back while still in gear I tried again and the same result. By now we were committed and the swell was pushing us toward the starboard rock wall.

With the team on auto pilot the heady was unfurled and with a touch of luck the breeze was right on our beam and gave a much needed drive forward. With the rollers pushing us onto the starboard rocks, between sets I steered to port then got knocked again back toward the rock wall. It seems to take forever to enter the smooth waters of the broadwater and my nerves were shot. Once the motion settled the engine revs recovered and we idled toward the marina and a well deserved shower and eggs Benny.

The tank on Penzance is 90 liters, that day we pumped 89.7 liters into the tank, a situation I’m sure we will never repeat. With some time to replay the days events what hadn’t entered my thinking was the impact of running the diesel heater for 35-40 hours which I know now pushed us beyond the margin for error I had allowed.

Pittwater Exploring

Unemployed and buying yachts, can’t think of a better way to spend my redundancy payment. 

Having sold our Catalina 387 it was time for a new toy, something a little smaller with a setup Jen and I could handle together. Everyone says the best days of boat ownership are the day you purchase and the day you sell :-) certainly exciting to be doing the buying.

With the help of Peter and the team at Yoti we were soon the new owners of Penzance a 2011 Hanse 355. Penzance was moored just off Scotland Island and once the cash changed hands we moved her to the Quays marina. Jen and I packed our worldly boat possessions into the car and headed on a road trip down the coast road to Sydney to get Penzance setup for the trip home to Tin Can Bay. The plan also involved a short holiday floating around Cowan Creek.

It was May and the summer crowds had thinned, we headed out of the marina eager to get to know our new yacht. Our plan was to head up Cowan creek for the popular Refuse Bay and the controversial rock shower which national parks had just capped off, much to the boating communities disgust.

The waters around Pittwater are very deep so limited options to anchor, NSW waterways have installed mooring buoys in many of the bays so easy options if it’s not too crowded.

The area is surrounded by Ku-ring-gai Chase national park so an incredibly beautiful part of Aussie and hard to imagine you are just over an hour from the Sydney CBD. The area like much of Sydney is dominated by sandstone rock formations. During WWll the crew of Krait the commando vessel which raided Singapore after the Japanese invasion trained in secrecy up here in Cowan creek before their daring raid on Singapore Harbour in September 1943.

We spent our second night anchored in Lords Bay, the Berowara walking track followed the fringe of this secluded bay so Jen and I decided to go bush walking. We took the new tender ashore and walked part of this track, great to stretch our legs and take in some of this rugged countryside.

With our gas bottle ran out we decided to motor up the the end of Cowan Creek which is called Bobbin Head, there is a marina there so we hoped they could fill the gas. We were pleasantly surprised and rewarded with a nice coffee at the marina cafe along with a replenished gas bottle.

Heading back down Cowan Creek we decided to explore Smith Creek one off the tributaries, we discovered the very beautiful Castle Bay, with just four mooring buoys it was a stunning secluded bay surrounded by lush bush much like an amphitheater. I hadn’t dropped the anchor yet so this seemed like a perfect spot, “note to self .. never drop the anchor near mooring buoys”. On the retrieval the pick caught the scope of one of the large mooring lines and the fluke jammed in a lose strand. She was stuck hard and no amount of up and down would budge things. After some effort I managed to get the anchor within a few meters of the surface and could see the issue. Armed with a sailing knife I decided to follow the chain down and cut the anchor free. I hadn’t anticipated the tension on the mooring line and when the strand was cut I was very lucky to not get pulled down with it.

Last stop on our Cowan Creek adventure was Jerusalem Bay, once at anchor we decided to do a spot more bush walking. With Jen at the helm and the sweet smell of a 2 stroke at full throttle off we went in the tender, like her driving she only had one speed.  At the head of Jerusalem Bay there was access to the Great North walk, Jerusalem Bay gets very shallow so a little wading required to walk the tinny shore. We were rewarded with a spectacular walk with views across Kur-ing-gy