sailing north

Sorry to hear this john. Hope its not so serious and you can all push on. The nsw coast has been a bit horrible.

Select to expand quote

MorningBird said..

MorningBird said..
Looks like I'm going north too.

We will leave Pittwater on Sunday or thereabouts in my sister's Valiant 40 for a run to Southport. The plan is to go up the coast as quickly as possible with 3 of us keeping watches.

Quite excited to get to sea for a passage after a long time ashore. And as crew I have no Skipper responsibilities, just keep my watches and enjoy my sister's gourmet cooking. And a drink at sundown.

Arrived Coffs and will stay a day or two. Lost our skipper at South west Tocks with suspected appendicitis. A very efficient transfer to the local MRS team who were outstanding.
Now to go get the skipper and return her to her rightful place.

Skipper back onboard after overnight in hospital. Probably leave Coffs tomorrow for Southport where I step off and head back to Sydney.

Select to expand quote

Kankama said..

Sectorsteve said..
Sorry to hear this john. Hope its not so serious and you can all push on. The nsw coast has been a bit horrible.

Gday Steve

Keep going, it will get better. Doing the NSW coast on a small, and therefore slow mono, will be more challenging than for others. You get rolled around, fight the set and can't easily cross the bars when you might find yourself arriving. It can get slow. In fact my advice to eager sailors is to deliver the yacht up the coast with some firm friends and fly in family at the Gold Coast when you get there. Then you can hook them with the cruising life in QLD and sail back with them when they get their sea legs. NSW is not always great cruising.

But keep going. Once you get to the Gold Coast you can chill out for a while behind the Stradbrokes (get away from the GC - it can be feral with jet skis and cruisers all using up their alotted fuel in the shortest time possible). Look for Dugongs and take your time around Dunwich and Peel and if the weather is good head for Tangalooma before getting to Mooloolaba. Play the tides, they get fast.

Then you have two more big sails. To Mooloolaba and then to Wide Bay Bar. Then it is easy street and no more bars, big swells, and you have lots of new places to explore that you can't get to by car. Don't get disheartened now, you are almost at the good stuff.

cheers

Phil

Different on the northern NSW coast this year for a change.....we have westerly's blowing.... so everybody is complaining about the lack of wind but not about the flat seas

Select to expand quote

Kankama said..

Sectorsteve said..
Sorry to hear this john. Hope its not so serious and you can all push on. The nsw coast has been a bit horrible.

Gday Steve

Keep going, it will get better. Doing the NSW coast on a small, and therefore slow mono, will be more challenging than for others. You get rolled around, fight the set and can't easily cross the bars when you might find yourself arriving. It can get slow. In fact my advice to eager sailors is to deliver the yacht up the coast with some firm friends and fly in family at the Gold Coast when you get there. Then you can hook them with the cruising life in QLD and sail back with them when they get their sea legs. NSW is not always great cruising.

But keep going. Once you get to the Gold Coast you can chill out for a while behind the Stradbrokes (get away from the GC - it can be feral with jet skis and cruisers all using up their alotted fuel in the shortest time possible). Look for Dugongs and take your time around Dunwich and Peel and if the weather is good head for Tangalooma before getting to Mooloolaba. Play the tides, they get fast.

Then you have two more big sails. To Mooloolaba and then to Wide Bay Bar. Then it is easy street and no more bars, big swells, and you have lots of new places to explore that you can't get to by car. Don't get disheartened now, you are almost at the good stuff.

cheers

Phil

Thanks phil. Oh it's great now. Chilling out near Russell island near tipplers in caniapa passage. Very relaxed. The bars, tides and timing of these have been stressful. Caught a few tuna and living well. Was very warm yesterday. The goldy was a shock. I couldn't believe how feral it was. Went shopping at Labrador and got outta there first light on the high tide yesterday morning. Just chilling around here a few days, then going to visit a friend up the Logan river. I feel we've made it really and am no longer rushing. I'll be happy to get to keppels, Fraser and lady Musgrave. Percy's would be nice and it should happen.
Met a young guy in a beautiful timber boat called legend.
Little back story.
He was born on the boat and lived aboard with his family for 7 years cruising all over. He's 27 now and inherited her when he was 16 when his father died. It was in a bit of a state and he didn't know what to do with her he tried to sell her but couldn't , or didn't for some reason. He became a chippy and woke up one morning and decided to fix her up. She's an extremely beautiful vessel around 10 tonne nz made of kauri. He's spent the last 5 years fixing her up and was heading south after 4 months away when I met him at Coffs.
Anyway he told me of lovely places to go and also said airlies still a bit stuffed and that Debbie had changed the landscape somewhat. Boats are still in mangroves high n dry. He also said its busy with hundreds of boats which ain't really my cuppa. So I'm not fussed to go there. I'd be stoked to spend time at the reefs when weather permits. The hardest thing of this trip up the nsw coast for me has been managing fatigue. I'm not good on the longer legs and we have pushed on in bigger swells and winds when others wouldn't. The problem in the Tophat is that those winds whip the seas up and you get this 2m chop making it pretty uncomfortable. The other day on the nose as the wind swung to the north.
On the laurie to Coffs leg I was Tryna lay down off watch and the wind came up . Had full sails up. Was a meteor shower that night. Unreal. Reduced sail but decided to go into trial to rest a few hours. Great decision but prior to this I was seeing things. Actually hallucinating.
A lot of the sails have involved me making sail changes 4,5,6 times. Reefing, #1,2 and 3s and alternating between them. Hard work and really takes it out of you.
Weve sailed in company with a few people who've left us in the dust ! We've had dinner aboard some amazing boats. 1 guy with a brand new 46 foot jeannau. He only uses the jib although it has a furling main also.electronic everything, washing machine etc. massive cockpit , completely enclosed all sides except the back. Massive screen TV, screens everywhere. He basically can manage the boat from his bed.
so it made me realise how easy some have it!
I gave up the mooring in Sydney and might advertise the boat up here. If she sells for what I want, I'll take the $ and fly home after the holiday .
Not that I'm not enjoying the trip. I want to do more but in a more comfortable roomier vessel with furler etc.
living like this is really easy actually and I can see how and why people are doing it. We are totally self sufficient. Massive water supply, panels, motor charging etc. fridge, etc. all works well.
well. I'm going to get back to doing what I was doing. Which was nothing!
thanks for the encouragement.

All snug at Tincan, planning on stooging around the Great Sandy Straits for a few days, need a break from all the whales! Gotta love the weather at the moment.

Select to expand quote

BlueMoon said..
When i read last year about a lot of SB'ers going Nth this year, i was hoping to do the same, as it's heaps of fun sailing in company with other like minded people. It didn't happen unfortunately but is awesome to read of others experiences, i really appreciate it cheers.
Good post Steve, i was thinkingi would be happy to get as far as the Keppels too.
Did a small coastal hop today, sailing in company with "The bearded sailor" who also has a Top Hat, do a search on YouTube for his videos.
Really nice winters arvo sailing today, Camden Haven to Port Macquarie.

youll do it shaun! i tell ya its certainly fun but its also exhausting!
we went through some bars that many dont go through. Ballina was actually really nice with a lovely anchorage. Mobbs Bay.
We also anchored up the tweed which was nice. Could imagine the tweed getting gnarly. When we came in top of the tide we accelerated past 8 knots. had to slow down!

My very talented friends, Fiona & Sean, have put together a short video of my footage on the first 2 stages north.

Select to expand quote

shaggybaxter said..
All snug at Tincan, planning on stooging around the Great Sandy Straits for a few days, need a break from all the whales! Gotta love the weather at the moment.

Be thee visiting the Burnett River shaggy?? Would be good to catch up again.

I am missing something. Fusion is coming north for Hammo Race Week??

Don't be so sad mate. You know as well as I do that if you do not work you do not really get to play.

Fusion is the best toy I have seen to date.

OMG! What a bargain. Looks like it just needs some hard yakka for a few weeks. Probably as much as mine needed when I bought her a few years ago. For 2 people cruising, you cant go past a Cole.

I really like them. Our Tophat is much nicer inside than this one though...I'm getting tempted to sell house, go debt free, and buy something for 300k and still have cash left over. Might happen.

Select to expand quote

Toph said..

Jode5 said..
Still heading north. We are currently tucked in behind Cape Upstart and will head to Magnetic Island tomorrow. See Yellow Brick tracker blog.

my.yb.tl/jode7/

Jode5 are you planning on going as far as Hinchinbrook? If you are (or anyone else for that matter) and you plan on going up the inside be careful as you turn off the leads and run along the jetty towards Lucinda. I draw 2.1m and I touched in what was charted as 7m, and for the absolute life of me I can't figure out why.

Thanks for that as we hope to get up there. I was speaking of to a local from up there the other day and he told me the bank had extended north and The fairway had gone.

I should add Jode5 that it was absolute bottom of low tide ( we had to make an unplanned dash across from Orpheus Is (another story). Another 10 mins in the rising tide and we would never had noticed...

Gotta love that tracker system Jode5