| Date: | March 21, 2015, 2 p.m. |
Saturday 21 March 2015 A little more wind evident and after breakfast Rod Adams, a local with one or two nautical miles to his credit, arrived to entertain us about sailing adventures, colorful characters and some tips regarding the Albany – Port Lincoln traverse. The ladies elected to boycott this meeting and indulge in retail therapy. Further last minute preparations and the growth of vigorous opinion sharing. Mark from Southern Ocean Sailing joined us for a cuppa and further trip tips. His most valuable comment was to draw attention to, and brag about, his two highly accurate wrist watch barometers and that he was wearing one. We were delighted to find that Singita’s ship barometer was equally as accurate and gave high confidence in using the on board barometer readings for weather prediction.
The daily quiz resulted in a 13/20 achievement. Dinner, a red and final preparations saw the completion of the evening.
| Date: | March 20, 2015, 2 p.m. |
Friday 20 March 2015 A beautiful light wind morning accompanied by a leisurely breakfast. We were then whipped into action by Roger and worked at a frenetic pace to complete arrangements for the operation of the whisker pole. Vic and Jo Vickery arrived, Vic completing the four man crew and shortly after Jo commenced her trip to Perth after having come to Albany from Busselton.
Jerry cans of fuel continued to be ferried via the CRV and the jetty shopping trolley (thought to be courtesy of Woolworths via what appeared to be about two weeks under water). It was under severe duress that Scott upended the jerry can that totaled 178 litres of added diesel fuel that robbed Scott of his winning the guess the fuel usage competition. This amount established Roger as the clear winner. However this win may need to undergo an appeal because later, at sea, diesel was found to be leaking from the overfilled tank and this leak did not occur on the Hillarys – Albany leg.
To ease the tension, Sonja called beer o’clock and a very congenial pause ensued.
Dinner was at the Princess Royal Sailing Club and was a Thai night. The beef had run out early so patrons were allowed to couple butter chicken with green curry to enable greater variety. Two trips each way was the order of the night for all to attend. Another most enjoyable Albany style evening.
| Date: | March 19, 2015, 1 a.m. |
Thursday 19 March 2015 A very Albany morning and after breakfast and clean up moved Singita from PRSC to the DOT marina on the town side of Princess Royal harbor. The rest of the day progressed at a holiday pace mounting and positioning the new whisker pole and checking the practical operation. Dinner involved a short walk to the Due South Bar/Bistro, immediately to the north of us. Most enjoyable with a more than balmy wind less night.
| Date: | March 18, 2015, 1 a.m. |
Wednesday 18 March 2015 Leaving Scott and Sonja’s home at 0900 were Sonja, Julie, Glenys and Frank snuggly packed into the Honda CRV. Frank to join Singita in Albany and the ladies to embark on a pleasurable drive from Albany to meet Singita in Port Lincoln. Amazingly everything managed to fit into the CRV including 3 chart holders and a coffee dripolator.
Health break and coffee at Williams followed by lunch in a pleasant wayside restaurant in Kojonup.
Much excitement on arrival in Albany at the Princess Royal Sailing Club and the more mundane chores followed with dinner on board.
| Date: | March 17, 2015, 1:30 a.m. |
| Position: | 35 1.00 S, 117 54.00 E |
Singita had left Hillary’s Yacht Club at 0200 hours Sunday morning 15 March 2015 and arrived at Princess Royal Sailing Club, Albany at 0930 Tuesday 17 March 2015. Our route was from Hillary's out the south passage and direct to Cape Naturaliste, Cape Leeuwin and then direct to Albany. Kevin left us here and caught the bus back to Perth so he could resume work again, thanks so much Kevin for your valuable help on the trip down. Myself and Roger Wingett remained on board preparing for the Albany – Port Lincoln leg.
| Date: | March 16, 2015, 1 p.m. |
| Position: | 35 15.59 S, 116 29.61 E |
Tired, looking forward to Albany
| Date: | March 15, 2015, 10 p.m. |
| Position: | 34 32.72 S, 114 58.01 E |
Rounding one of the first great capes of the world! Passed the Cape Leeuwin lighthouse approximately 7 miles off shore at 0430 hours, in darkness. We headed south for a further 10 miles before turning for Albany. Many rain showers during the night, the swell had eased and the breeze was WSW at around 10-15 kts. Overtaken by a large ship heading south at around 2am. AIS earns its keep yet again.
| Date: | March 15, 2015, 11 a.m. |
| Position: | 33 31.59 S, 114 54.14 E |
A rough trip so far, 2-3 meter SW swell and a crossing westerly chop, very uncomfortable for all, with sea sickness felt by all but one. Roger down in the galley keeping the food supplies up!
| Date: | March 15, 2015, 12:38 a.m. |
15th of March, 0200 hours - after 6 months of preparations we finally depart aboard Singita, our Oyster 45, for a circumnavigation of Australia, The Coast Way.
Our crew for this part of the journey was as follows;
Roger - (owner of Clawdette, a 50 foot sailing catamaran) is a retired electrical engineer, with many years of racing and cruising experience.
Kevin - (owner of a UFO34 called Bunch) is a fire fighter, and has summited over 50 of the worlds highest peaks, including two successful summits of Mt Everest.
Scott, Skipper.
Weather - A low pressure system to the south of Cape Leeuwin was giving us in Perth, westerly winds at 20 knots, this coupled with another approaching cold front across the lower part of the state late on Tuesday with forecast winds of up to 40 knots, prompted the early morning departure to ensure we arrived in Albany before the front came through.
Route followed - Hillarys marina, south to the Centaur south cardinal mark then out via the South Passage (south of Rottnest Island), where we set course for Cape Naturaliste. The weather for our departure was overcast with isolated rain showers and a WSW wind of 20 Knots and a temperature of 20 degrees Celsius.
The sea conditions for our trip down the coast and across Geographe Bay to Cape Naturaliste were quite rough, a south westerly swell of up to 2.5 meters and a westerly wind wave chop gave us quite hard sailing conditions, so we kept the engine running and motor sailed to keep up a reasonable speed. The wind for the run down to Cape Naturaliste became throughout the day, more from the SW@20-25 knots. Sea sickness struck both myself and Kevin, with a few deposits made at various positions outside of the cockpit! Grim..... Roger however, was unaffected and continued to keep the food up to us in the cockpit. An extremely talented galley slave! Myself and Kevin copped several splashes of sea water due to our exposed position in the aft cockpit. Consequently when we took a green wave over the bows and up the deck, resulting in a heavy waterfall of water flowing in between the dodger and the bimini and into the cockpit, myself and Kevin were pleased to see Roger finally cop his first drenching in his supposed safe position! Most satisfying, ho ho ho :)
Sunday, 15th of March, 1930 hours - We sailed passed Cape Naturaliste in the fading daylight and we set ourselves up for the run down to Cape Leeuwin, to give an offing of 10 Nm to the west and continue south a further 10 miles before turning east. The run down the coast was an improvement over the earlier conditions experienced down to Cape Naturaliste, with the wind (still from the SW) easing to about 10-15 knots. The milky way was a sight to behold when the cloud cover allowed, and we experienced 2 or 3 rain showers throughout the night.
Monday, 16th of March - The loom of the lighthouse at Cape Leeuwin was visible for a long time and we made our rounding of this great cape in the hours of darkness at 430am with no untoward rough conditions noted. At 10 Nm south of the cape, we made our turn ESE for Albany.
17th of March, 0500 hours - arrived off Eclipse Island and commenced the approach into King George Sound with a North Westerly wind at about 15 knots. During Monday we noted that the engine was beginning to run a bit warm, so to keep the coolant temperature within normal limits, the power setting had to be reduced to 1500 Rpm (from the 2000 Rpm we had been using). So, a tacking approach was required against the NW wind to get us into the Princess Royal Harbour. It was very spectacular sailing into King George Sound, we made one of our tacks to the SW very close to Breaksea Island into the south channel. The lighthouse and keepers cottage on the top of the island stirred feelings of wanting to be a lighthouse keeper!
Tuesday, 17th March, 2015 - arrived at the Princess Royal Sailing Club at 0930 and tied up alongside in our assigned pen for a well deserved rest.
Wednesday, 18th March - Investigated the cause of the engine overheating, noted limited flow of sea water through the engine sea cock. We found that a marine creature of some description, had grown and obstructed the intake just below the valve. A dive in the water under the boat to clear the intake holes and a rod through the sea cock cleared the obstruction. The engine was tested and now the operating temperature was normal under full load. This afternoon, the support crew (Sonja, Julie and Glenys) along with Frank, our new crew member for the onwards leg to Port Lincoln, arrived.
Thanks to Kevin for assisting us get around to Albany, he leaves us here to carry on with preparations for his own upcoming adventure!
Trip facts -
Distance sailed 356Nm
Average speed 6.3 Kts (Motor sailing)
Fuel consumption 3.1 litres/hour
Fuel used 176 liters
| Date: | March 14, 2015, 6 p.m. |
| Position: | 31 49.43 S, 115 44.22 E |
After a very long day of preperations and about 1 hours sleep! we finally departed at 2am, we had westerly winds at 15-20 knots. Crew in good spirits, the adventure begins!