Port Lincoln, South Australia to Sydney NSW


Well, that's all she wrote - for now

Date:July 24, 2015, 12:26 p.m.

The last few days got a bit manic of course, getting Singita ready for an extended stay on the mooring over at the Gladesville bridge marina. Water maker pickled and back in storage, batteries equalised and all loose on deck equipment stored down below, out of sight. Full tanks of fuel and water and pretty much ready to go when we get back here in October. No doubt (but hope not!) there will be a fair bit of cleaning when we get back - hopefully the birds do not make them selves at home.....
The next break in August/September, we will be going to the UK to visit Jemma and the rest of the family. Very much looking forward to seeing our Jemma again, it's been few and far between the last 10 months or so.

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Day trip to Manly

Date:July 15, 2015, 10:05 a.m.

We went for a day cruise to Manly today, cruised past quarantine beach, Spring cove (lovely spot!) and then picked up a courtesy mooring at the Manley wharf. Had a nice walk through the town centre, and walked along Manley beach. Very nice day, blue skies and warm enough :)
We finished off with a quick resupply from Coles, then went to the ferry terminal where we had lunch at Hugo’s, very nice, looking over the small bay with Singita swinging on her mooring.
We left and made our way back to Blackwattle Bay (favourite anchorage so far) and settled for the night. Tomorrow, we are going to take her over to the fisher mans wharf for fish and chips for lunch. Friday, Katrina arrives, and Aaron arrives on Saturday.

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Rose Bay, Sydney

Date:July 11, 2015, 12:02 a.m.
Position:33 52.28 S, 151 15.71 E

Home of the Sydney float planes! I am going to do one of those flights while we are here, stay tuned. We had my old school mate from Hale school visit with us yesterday, great to catch up. We are (sneakily) tied up alongside the boat ramp floating dock, but not going to push our luck much longer, so we will move over to Atholl bay later today!

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Black wattle Bay - Sydney

Date:July 8, 2015, 12:17 p.m.
Position:33 52.36 S, 151 11.18 E

Well, we finally pulled away from the marina at Gladesville Bridge this morning, repairs to the generator are (almost) complete, we are just waiting on a new water lock for the exhaust which will be delivered on Friday. We had the mainsail professionally repaired and the leach reinforced and a good check over made. Good to go again.
We enjoyed a nice sail around to Hen and Chicken Bay, checked out the location of some courtesy moorings and then continued on down river to Blackwattle bay and the Fishermans wharf. The breeze nearly died off to nothing as we went passed the Gladesville bridge again, but ripples in the water were visible not far ahead so we persisted in keeping Singita moving under sail. The patience was well rewarded with 10-12 knots from the S - SE, delivering a nice 5 knots over the ground. We passed by Goat island, through the old Glebe Island swing bridge (only use the eastern channel) and then under the Anzac Bridge and into Blackwattle Bay. The anchorage was nearly full, but we managed successfully to fit ourselves in and find it to be a pleasant spot, right in amongst the city (that never sleeps!)

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Gladesville bridge marina, Sydney!

Date:June 29, 2015, 5:45 a.m.
Position:33 50.65 S, 151 8.77 E

Arrived in Sydney!! Tied up at the Gladesville Bridge Marina. We sailed in through the heads at 11:30 am, sailing conditions could not have been better, this was a very exciting moment for us both, of course never having done anything like this before! We sailed as far as possible before turning south into Port Jackson, where we rolled away the head sail as we were into the wind, plus it made it easier to manouver and make way for the ferry and shipping traffic coming out of the port.
At 12:20 pm we sailed under the Sydney Harbour Bridge, having passed Fort Denison and the Opera house. lots of photo opportunities there! We arrived at the Gladesville Bridge marina, where we took a berth at the marina for the next week, while we repair the on board generator and have the main sail serviced.
Happy Days!

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Sydney Harbour bridge, Opera house

Date:June 29, 2015, 4:15 a.m.
Position:33 51.22 S, 151 13.39 E
Speed over ground:5.1 knots

Awesome!!

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Position report

Date:June 29, 2015, 4 a.m.
Position:33 51.03 S, 151 14.93 E
Speed over ground:5.3 knots

Toronga park zoo, Rose Bay!

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Port Jackson

Date:June 29, 2015, 3:45 a.m.
Position:33 50.39 S, 151 16.06 E
Speed over ground:4.6 knots

Position report

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Middle Head

Date:June 29, 2015, 3:30 a.m.
Position:33 49.29 S, 151 16.50 E
Speed over ground:5.7 knots
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):WNW 15 knots

Position report

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Port Hacking - Sydney

Date:June 29, 2015, 3:15 a.m.
Position:33 49.97 S, 151 17.70 E
Speed over ground:5.3 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):344 degrees
Sea state:Good!
Wind speed (Knots):WNW 15 knots

Sorry for the late log entry folks, here are the trip details for our sail up to Sydney!
An easy late departure from Jibbon beach this morning at 0830, motor sailing up the coast on the way to Port Jackson, whilst running the water maker to top off the tank. At 10:30 we shut the engine down and enjoyed some wonderful sailing with a nice WNW 15 knot breeze, partly overcast sky and calm to moderate conditions. We thouroghly enjoyed the sail past Botany Bay, Coogee beach, Bondi beach and the amazing coastline along the way. Absolutely brilliant!

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Port Hacking, Jibbon beach

Date:June 28, 2015, 9:45 a.m.
Position:34 4.86 S, 151 9.83 E
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):Light, from the west

We arrived at Jibbon beach, the first little bay you come to on the southern side of Port hacking entrance. There are apparently yellow courtesy moorings, but in the dark we could not see them. We picked up a red one, a big Do Not Use sign on it, members only. Well, I am a member and it will be good enough for tonight! We plan an early departure for Sydney harbour tomorrow, so should be long gone by the time the mooring police get here :)
Well, it feels like we are in Sydney now, many city lights (could actually see the city as we came in), a busy hub, lots of aircraft taking off from Sydney's Mascot airport in Botany Bay.

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Botany bay and Qantas

Date:June 28, 2015, 8:28 a.m.
Position:34 11.84 S, 151 7.31 E
Speed over ground:6.2 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):012 degrees
Sea state:Calm to moderate, 1 - 1.5 metre swell
Wind speed (Knots):5 knots true, from the east

Getting close to Sydney now! There is a constant procession of Qantas aircraft coming out of Botany Bay, heading south over us.

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Humpback Whales!

Date:June 28, 2015, 6:55 a.m.
Position:34 20.16 S, 151 3.02 E
Speed over ground:5.4 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):006 degrees
Sea state:Calm, 1 meter swell
Wind speed (Knots):Variable, 5 knots

We passed by two large humpback whales, leisurely making their way north. We must have separated them, as the large one cut across our bow (about 30-50 metres ahead) to go and join up with his (or hers) mate. Some patient work with the GoPro saw some video captured and Sonja managed some good photos from her IPhone. So good!

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Shoalhaven - Port Hacking

Date:June 28, 2015, 5:03 a.m.
Position:34 29.44 S, 150 59.25 E
Speed over ground:5.1 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):008 degrees
Sea state:Calm, 1 meter swell
Wind speed (Knots):5 knots true, from the south west

Position report, off Port Kembla NSW

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The Gennaker

Date:June 28, 2015, 12:45 a.m.
Position:34 47.60 S, 150 50.71 E
Speed over ground:7.2 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):020 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):W 10-15 knots

A nice westerly breeze of 10-12 knots this morning, good conditions for the gennaker, so up she went! Lovely sailing at 7 knots plus :)

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Jervis Bay - Greenwell Point (Shoalhaven)

Date:June 26, 2015, 3:55 p.m.
Position:34 54.05 S, 150 43.80 E

After almost spending another day in Jervis Bay (Hole in the wall beach), we decided we would start to make our way slowly up towards Sydney. Sailing out of the heads at Jervis Bay was rather lumpy, not that the swell was that big, it's just that the swell returns to seaward off the high cliffs along this coast, making Singita do a fair amount of rolling from side to side. This condition persisted for about an hour, until we were further north along the coast up from Point Perpendicular.
As we left the heads, there were two whale spotting charter boats about 2-3 miles off Point Perpendicular, we could hear radio chatter between the two of them, reporting whale sightings. Sure enough, within 1-2 hours of us departing, Humpback whales graced us with their presence for our short sail to Shoalhaven.
Wind conditions were again very light, requiring us to motor sail. The sea conditions became quite flat after clearing Beecroft head, and there was a slight breeze from the west at about 5 knots true.
As we were motor sailing, we were making our own apparent wind at around 10 knots at around 30-40 degrees on the port tack, giving us a good turn of speed in the calm conditions with only a modest power setting.
Our arrival at and into the Crookhaven river mouth went without a hitch, high tide was only 1/2 hour away and the shallowest we saw on the way in was 3.8 metres. Sea rescue told us that there is plenty of depth available, just that the channel is very narrow, so respect the leads and the channel markers. They kindly made a courtesy mooring available for us at the mouth of Shaws creek, a lovely spot.
While we were here, we met a couple from a another yacht also moored in the river, Guy and Alison, the yachts name was Kraken, a 50 foot John Sayer design. They spent about 7-8 years building it themselves, and the standard of finish was very high. They invited us over for dinner and a lovely evening was had.

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Position report

Date:June 26, 2015, 7 a.m.
Position:34 53.65 S, 150 46.20 E
Speed over ground:4.5 knots
Sea state:Calm

Entrance to the Crookhaven river

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Position report

Date:June 26, 2015, 4:24 a.m.
Position:35 0.81 S, 150 51.54 E
Speed over ground:6.7 knots

Beecrroft Head

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Position report

Date:June 26, 2015, 3:21 a.m.
Position:35 5.94 S, 150 48.54 E
Speed over ground:5.2 knots
Sea state:Rolling with the swell, 1-2 metres
Wind speed (Knots):5 knots true, from the south west

Point Perpendicular

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Useless facts and figures

Date:June 25, 2015, 10:53 a.m.

Here are some useful (or useless, depending on how you look at it!) facts for the sailing trip so far, from Hillarys to Jervis Bay.

Total trip time - 420 hours
Engine hours run (including diesel generator, 6 hours) 348.25
Actual sailing hours (no engine) 78

Percentage of sailing time 19%
Percentage of motoring (main engine only) time 81%
0.428 litres per nautical mile

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Hare Bay, Callala (Jervis Bay)

Date:June 22, 2015, 9:07 a.m.
Position:34 59.94 S, 150 43.67 E

With a northerly breeze springing up, we decided to move to the northern part of the bay, to Hare Bay. Very sheltered and calm, with a large NSW pink courtesy mooring to pick up, thank you very much!
Here we completed the stitching repairs to the main sail, and also went for a nice walk through this small town, along the foreshore and then on to the local IGA for a few provisions.

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The main sail, damaged

Date:June 21, 2015, 8:45 a.m.

When we came into Jervis bay, I noted some difficulty in furling away the main, so once we were settled at Hole in the wall beach, we rolled out the main for a look. Aghast, we saw there were two tears in the sail, at the leach about 200mm each rip. One was in an L shape, the other was a straight tear from the leach. We think this is a long term fatigue issue, perhaps the final straw was unseen fluttering of the leach during the nights sail up from Bermagui. I went up the mast in the bosuns chair to see if it could be repaired in situ, but no, it had to come down for repairs. It is quite a challenge getting down such a large sail, with the only storage room being the side deck.
Thankfully we had a reasonable amount of sail repair tape and the stitch it awl. Not as fast as having a sewing machine, but effective none the less. We will be getting the sail inspected whilst in Sydney, for the required repairs (or replacement!)

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Bermagui - Jervis Bay

Date:June 21, 2015, 1:02 a.m.
Position:35 8.06 S, 150 44.74 E
Speed over ground:0 knots
Sea state:Calm

It was a relatively quiet, uncomfortable (due to two different swell directions, east and south at around 1.5-2 metres) and cold overnight sail to Jervis Bay, entering the heads at Point Perpendicular. The wind overnight was very light, anywhere from 5-10 knots from the WSW. We picked up a mooring at hole in the wall beach at 8:15am. The moorings here are provided as courtesy moorings, pink in colour and are rated for 40 tonnes at 40 knots. Very good condition and there are 5 of them here at this beach.

1 Comments:

Scott Fleming: Point Perpendicular, Jervis Bay June 25, 2015, 9 a.m.

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Point Perpendicular

Date:June 20, 2015, 11:30 p.m.
Position:35 6.77 S, 150 47.39 E
Speed over ground:4.5 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):026 degrees
Sea state:Moderate
Wind speed (Knots):11 knots

Arrived off Point Perpendicular at around 7:30am, with the HMAS Adelaide in fronton us, making her way into Jervis Bay. We plan to stay at Hole in the wall beach.

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Bermagui - Jervis Bay

Date:June 20, 2015, 7:47 a.m.
Position:36 19.87 S, 150 8.22 E
Speed over ground:3.1
Course over ground (magnetic):345 degrees
Sea state:1-2 meter swell
Wind speed (Knots):10 knots

We departed Bermagui at high tide in preparation for another overnight sail, on to Eden. We made slow progress out to Montague island, goose winged and running down wind, no engine for a change. The going was slow, the wind could have been stronger, but at least the whisker pole and a forward run preventer on the boom stabilised the sails and made life comfortable and safe. By the time we reached abeam of Montague island, the wind had become quite light again, variable direction and around 5 knots. So, on with the engine yet again....

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Eden - Bermagui

Date:June 17, 2015, 11:26 a.m.
Position:36 25.56 S, 150 4.31 E

We woke at 615 am this morning and started preparations to again throw off the lines and move further north up the coast. There was a south easterly blowing us onto the wharf, which presented yet another challenge just to get off without any damage. So far so good!
After setting course, we noted again, that the east Australian current was trying to push us back south again. We followed the advice of an experienced yacht who suggested staying close to the coast at around the 40-50 meter contour. This way we may pick up on the eddies of turbulence that swirl around closer to the coast. This did seem to work, because as much as we had current against us, we also picked up a little speed also.
The wind initially was relatively light from the south and south west at about 10 knots true. More motoring. As the morning passed, the wind picked up, and we began to get up to 20 knots from the south (True), so up went the whisker pole and we set up a goose wing configuration (head sail poled out and main sail set on the opposite side with a preventer).
Rain, rain and more rain drenched us for most of the afternoon, so we were glad to arrive at the river mouth of Bermagui. This spot was well sheltered, so there was no notorious bar crossing here!
The marina/wharf area is protected from all weather and close to town for provisioning and as tonight is the state of origin match, the harbour master and his staff all knocked off early. One guy stayed behind so that he could show us what fishing boat to raft up against, so here we are, all comfortable for another night.

1 Comments:

David Lonsdale: Looks like a petty place on Google images Scotty ,must be exciting when you dock into these ports and go and have a look around , never quite know what to expect. Sail on and beyond , that's my new catch phrase Scotty . (Toy Story and Buzz light year) Big Dave June 21, 2015, 6:13 a.m.

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Eden

Date:June 17, 2015, 10:52 a.m.
Position:37 4.30 S, 149 54.46 E

We arrived at approximately 10 am at Snug Cove. There were a few sporadic cray pots around the heads at Eden, and on our arrival at Snug Cove, we had a chat with a local about the mooring situation. He said all the moorings were private, but he pointed one out that said that is a good one, and the owner would not be on it for some time. So, we picked up this mooring for the day and night, then the next morning dropped the mooring and made our way over to the visitors wharf.
There was plenty of wildlife to be seen, dolphins, seals, pelicans and many sea birds, which made for a very relaxing afternoon sitting in the sun (and lying in the hammock!).
Tuesday, rain rain and more rain. Together with the very low tide (1.8 meter tide) which made it very difficult to get off the boat, and impossible for Sonja.
Wednesday morning saw high tide at 8 am, so we departed the boat (in the rain!) and went shopping for various supplies in town ($5 for a taxi), then made our way to the Eden killer Whale museum.
The main attraction at the museum, was a locally famous killer, 'Old Tom'
'Old Tom' and his pack of killer whales worked with the local whalebone of Twofold Bay for decades during the late 1800's and early 1900's.
Toms body was found floating in Twofold bay on 17th September 1930. His remains were kept and his skeleton was mounted to become the first item in the collection of the Eden Killer Whale museum.

We paid $25 per night to be on the wharf, includes power and water. A fuel delivery truck came onto the wharf and gave us fuel at $1.70/litre. We took 218 litres of diesel, this worked out to be an average fuel consumption of 3.25 litres per hour, and this was since leaving Western Port marina, Melbourne.

You need to watch the weather carefully while on the wharf, surge is a major issue. Have lots of fenders to prevent damage. Personally, next time, I would anchor out and take the tender into the wharf area to go into town.

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Crossing the Victorian/NSW border

Date:June 13, 2015, 7:49 p.m.
Position:37 31.75 S, 150 2.93 E
Speed over ground:4.2 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):357 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):NE 2 knots

Crossed the border today! Should slowly get warmer from now!

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Night Dolphins

Date:June 13, 2015, 3:39 p.m.
Position:37 45.47 S, 149 42.04 E
Speed over ground:4.8 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):040 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):Variable, 2 knots

Tonight we were treated to a fantastic display of dolphins chasing alongside and around the boat. The dolphins themselves were just visible powering through the water, while phosphorescent plankton glowed in their wake, with only the occasional breath for air to be heard on the surface.
They leave ribbons of bright green light. It was magical.....Sonja. And so set the scene for our second night at sea on passage to Eden NSW.

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Position report

Date:June 13, 2015, 8:28 a.m.
Position:37 51.68 S, 149 8.83 E
Speed over ground:5.6 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):073 degrees
Sea state:Calm, 1 metre swell
Wind speed (Knots):6 knots, variable

All OK this evening, wind light and variable, clear sky, so I can see some stars.

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Orbost and the Snowy River

Date:June 13, 2015, 3:24 a.m.
Position:37 53.36 S, 148 35.35 E
Speed over ground:5.1 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):072 degrees
Sea state:Calm like a mirror
Wind speed (Knots):Zero

We are now 5 miles off the coast (near Orbost) where the Snowy river meets Lake Corringle, before spilling into the sea.
Wind? What wind? Gently motoring along, so very peaceful and still. Not bad at all (at least until I get the diesel bill :)

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Lakes Entrance and oil rigs

Date:June 13, 2015, 12:54 a.m.
Position:37 54.70 S, 148 6.10 E
Speed over ground:5.3 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):074 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):Light and variable

After an uneventful overnight passage from Refuge Cove, we passed Lakes Entrance at 8 am this morning. We stayed pretty much coastal to lakes entrance, about 3-5 miles off and saw 3 platforms on the radar, the closest (Barracoutta A) was 7 miles from us. Interestingly, we noted that these platforms did not have AIS. Very surprising, as the rig I work on does have AIS. We experienced fog overnight, I was second guessing myself as it was a completely black night but a flash of my torch into the inky black of night confirmed it was indeed fog.
In these conditions you are heavily reliant on the radar, if that stopped working, we would have to stop. It took until around 730am for the fog to lift with the rising of the sun. Right on cue for the passing of lakes entrance, where there were plenty of small fishing boats coming out to sea via the bar.
Conditions are fine, swell less than one metre and wind is light and variable. Main sail only up and motoring. I tried on a couple of occasions to get the genoa out, but each time within 1/2 an hour it would loosely begin to flap. Maybe I will try again later!

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Where is the wind?

Date:June 12, 2015, 9:48 a.m.
Position:38 47.09 S, 146 46.76 E
Speed over ground:5.3 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):036 degrees
Sea state:Oily calm!
Wind speed (Knots):1-2 knots

On the plus side, it's oily calm out here this evening, barely a breath, and what there is, it's right on the nose! Magnificent sunset tonight, many shades of orange and pink to look at before retreating to the relative warmth of the saloon.

Chicken soup for dinner, warms the soul! The engine is doing a fine job, purring along at 2200 Rpm, propelling us ever eastwards.

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Refuge Cove - Eden

Date:June 12, 2015, 7:45 a.m.
Position:38 53.97 S, 146 37.45 E
Speed over ground:5.5 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):026 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):Variable, 1-3 knots

Alas, all good things must come to an end. The anchorage here was magnificent, so glad we came here! We visited the cruisers wall, a makeshift wooden wall of plaques left by various visiting boats over the years, some pretty old! We found Steel Sapphires plaque, left by Mike and Jan Drury of Hillarys Yacht Club in 2014 when they sailed their yacht from the east coast around to Perth.
We fashioned a plaque of our own from a heavy piece of tree bark and attached it to the wall, recording our passing.
Refuge cove is an all weather anchorage, we were the only boat there. Spoilt! When we arrived, a helicopter had landed on a rock near the navigation light. A technician was there servicing or repairing the unit. Skilful, flying by the pilot!
True to the adage of sailing to exotic destinations to fix the boat, the radar refused to start, so up the mast I went. Touch wood, all seems OK with it now.
Time to move on, up comes the anchor, setting course for Eden at 1345hrs

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Southern most point reached

Date:June 10, 2015, 11:36 p.m.
Position:39 12.26 S, 146 21.90 E
Speed over ground:5.7 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):025 degrees
Sea state:Moderate
Wind speed (Knots):14 knots, WSW true

Wilson's Promontory is in sight, having to had go a bit further south than I wanted due to having to avoid some shipping, we reached 39 degrees 13 minutes south before turning back on course for Refuge Cove, some localised rain showers are about and the sea state is still moderate.

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Position report (Cold!)

Date:June 10, 2015, 7:46 p.m.
Position:39 3.04 S, 146 1.11 E
Speed over ground:6.2 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):108 degrees
Sea state:Moderate
Wind speed (Knots):12 knots, 220 degrees true

Very cold at the moment, the chill has permeated the cabin, regardless of the heat being created by the engine! All going well, current position 18 miles NW of Wilson's Promontory, the southern most part of the Australian main land.

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Position report

Date:June 10, 2015, 4:41 p.m.
Position:38 52.54 S, 145 41.92 E
Speed over ground:5.4 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):126 degrees
Sea state:Moderate, 2 meter swell
Wind speed (Knots):Variable direction at 5 knots

Swell has calmed down, still a bit of a roll, though not to bad. We are 13 miles south of Venus bay and 35 miles WNW of Wilson's Promontory. Shipping is light, currently have the vessel 'Homebank' passing us heading west to starboard at 6.5 miles, her destination is Melbourne.

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Position report

Date:June 10, 2015, 3:10 p.m.
Position:38 47.85 S, 145 33.26 E
Speed over ground:5.0 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):127 degrees
Sea state:Moderate, 2 meter swell
Wind speed (Knots):Variable direction, 2-3 knots

All OK, wind light and variable. 6 1/2 miles SSW of Cape Paterson (due south of Wonthaggi)

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Swell not as advertised

Date:June 10, 2015, 8:11 a.m.
Position:38 31.86 S, 145 4.50 E
Speed over ground:3.8 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):173 degrees
Sea state:Swell, feels like 4 meters
Wind speed (Knots):10 knots, southerly

The swell is greater than advertised, a little uncomfortable coming out of the western channel into the Bass Straight. Never mind, just have to get on with it. Just about to set course for Wilsons Promontory. All going well.

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Western Port - Refuge Cove

Date:June 10, 2015, 5:56 a.m.
Position:38 26.47 S, 145 11.56 E
Speed over ground:2.7 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):232 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):5 knots true, from the south

After a nice week of catching up with family in Melbourne, it is time to again throw off the lines and make our way further east. An approaching high pressure system looks sure to give us a good passage to Refuge Cove, where we plan to spend the day/night before continuing on to Eden. Today, we departed Hastings Marina at 12:30 pm after topping off the diesel tank and are now at present slowly making our way out of the western channel, against the tide, and making about 3-4 knots over the ground. Slow going, but we will get there! The main sail is up and we are presently using the stay sail as it is much easier to tack than the genoa, as we are doing it quite often to make our way out!

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The Eagle has landed (Melbourne)

Date:June 3, 2015, 5:15 a.m.
Position:38 19.47 S, 145 13.09 E
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):2-3 knots

Or, at least in this case, Singita has landed. Pulled into our berth at Hastings (western Port) Marina, pen A38 at 1315 hours after a passage from Portland of 33 hours. Our average speed was 5.75 knots over a distance of 190 nautical miles. This was all done under motor due to the very light winds encountered, regardless, the sails were also used to their full potential to ease the load (and the fuel consumption) on the engine.
The arrival into Western Port was magnificent, calm glassy seas, minimal wind and an incoming tide to speed us to our destination. We even shut the engine off for 30 minutes, to enjoy what little zephyrs of breeze there was, with every bit of sail we had. With the incoming tide, we managed up to 5 knots over the ground, but most of this was tide induced. Eventually we had to give it up, as the flukey wind caused the sails to back and attempt to turn us the other way, so that was that, engine back on.

More later, off to the local pub for lunch!

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West head gunnery range

Date:June 3, 2015, 2:05 a.m.
Position:38 31.61 S, 145 5.09 E
Speed over ground:6.3 kts
Course over ground (magnetic):005 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):3-4 knots

We are about to enter the western channel, just on the west end of Phillip Island. Plenty to write about later when I have more time, but the lunar rainbow is just one of them. Will do a full update soon.

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Position Report, on passage to Western Port, Hastings (Melbourne)

Date:June 2, 2015, 4:34 p.m.
Position:38 47.87 S, 144 0.22 E
Speed over ground:5.3 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):070 degrees
Sea state:Calm to moderate
Wind speed (Knots):5-10 knots

As darkness fell upon the land, the midnight hour is close at hand! Ah, the things you do to occupy yourself in the wee hours. Going well, variable wind direction, strength about 5-10 knots

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Position report, on passage to Western Port, Hastings (Melbourne)

Date:June 2, 2015, 12:45 p.m.
Position:38 51.48 S, 143 12.72 E
Speed over ground:6.1 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):072 degrees
Sea state:Calm, a little rolly from the swell
Wind speed (Knots):Variable from the south at 5 knots

Rounded Cape Otway, set course for Western Port (Phillip Island). At our current speed we should be at the entrance at 9am tomorrow morning.

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Position report, on passage to Western Port, Hastings (Melbourne)

Date:June 2, 2015, 8:13 a.m.
Position:38 51.48 S, 143 12.72 E
Speed over ground:6.1 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):102 degrees
Sea state:Moderate to calm
Wind speed (Knots):Variable from south at 10 knots

Just before last light, the main was reefed, head sail furled up and the stay sail shall remain up for the night. The faithful engine purrs away into the evening. We will be off Cape Otway around 2100 hours, then will alter course for Phillip Island and the entrance to Western Port. There is a good full moon tonight, enough light for it not to appear so gloomy.

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Position report, on passage to Western Port, Hastings (Melbourne)

Date:June 2, 2015, 5:56 a.m.
Position:38 46.16 S, 142 54.15 E
Speed over ground:6.8 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):126 degrees
Sea state:Moderate

We are pushing for an arrival into Melbourne early tomorrow afternoon. Position 38 46.16 S, 142 54.15 E SOG 6.8 kts COG 126degrees

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Singita, good to go!

Date:June 1, 2015, 6:41 a.m.

Fuel and water tanks full, weather looking good for a 4 am departure tomorrow morning. With 190 nautical miles to cover (350 Kilometres), all going well, we should be in the Hastings marina, Western Port in Melbourne on Wednesday afternoon. The Yellow brick tracker will be activated again later tonight, the link in case anyone has forgotten is as follows
http://my.yb.tl/singita/

1 Comments:

Grant Pitman: Enjoy the passage and stay warm. 30cm of snow at Thredbo overnight. We're back in cool Sydney. Back to Perth next Monday. June 1, 2015, 9:08 p.m.

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Port Fairy and the hire car

Date:May 30, 2015, 7:59 a.m.

Today we took our newly acquired hire car for a drive to Port Fairy. The weather was not bad with a bit of everything (typical Victoria!), from rain, wind to sunshine.
We loved Port Fairy, a quaint little port town on the Moyne River, very obviously a tourist mecca (at least in the summer!), with plenty of holiday accommodation on the water front. The days activities included checking out the boat berths, types of boats (which ranged from old Couta boats, through to classic wooden fishing and cray fishing boats and of course, the usual collection of yachts and a few power boats.
We explored some of the trails around Eastern beach as well as the Port Battery, a collection of old 19th century canon from England. The government had set up a garrison of artillery officers in most of the Victorian ports, against a perceived threat from the Russians!
Other activities today included fish and chips on the wharf, and on the way home exploring various lookouts, such as the Crags and Henty beach (just before Portland)

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Tourists

Date:May 27, 2015, 9:01 a.m.

We decided to play tourists today, it was a very nice day! Todays highlights were the cable tram ride around town, jumping on and off and visiting the following spots.
We started at the Maritime Discovery Centre. What a great spot! Portland is the birthplace of Victoria, whalers and sealers were the first European visitors. The highlight was a video showing early whalers in their longboats. Tough men!
Then we went to the local water tower which at first was going to be demolished, has been turned into a world war 2 museum, for the Army, Navy and Air Force. The museum is run by the local RSL and its many displays have been donated by local families of ex WW2 servicemen and women. We found it a very interesting museum that has been put together extremely well and we both found it very enjoyable. The top of the water tower has a 360 degree viewing platform that affords excellent views of the harbour, beaches and of the town.
The next stop was the powerhouse motor and car museum, this was run by the Portland car club. We met a local chap, Ian, who is also a member of the car club. His own car, a Triumph 2500, was on display there and Ian proudly showed us his pride and joy. The car was in excellent, all original condition. We had a full hour to explore the museum and we found it a very interesting collection of old cars, stationary engines, tractors and various tools and engineering displays. Returning to the boat we met a Norwegian family on a 3 week driving holiday. They were based in Singapore for 3 years, working for the Norwegian Seamans Mission as a musician. Lovely family. Will look them up when next in Singapore
A bit of rain started to come in and
We returned to the boat and rounded the day out with some local fish and chips (very nice) and a couple of glasses of wine.

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Portland

Date:May 26, 2015, 8:30 a.m.
Position:38 20.76 S, 141 36.65 E

Arrived at 3:30pm and tied up alongside the visitors berth and after tying up, settled down in the cockpit for a celebratory beer and a Scotch. Nice to be here, the passage from Robe was a very good one as far as overnighters go.

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Fishermans cove

Date:May 26, 2015, 3:12 a.m.
Position:38 25.33 S, 141 26.22 E
Speed over ground:6.2
Course over ground (magnetic):099 degrees
Sea state:Slight, very little swell
Wind speed (Knots):11 knots ENE

All going very nicely, in the lee of Cape Duquesne (also known as Cape Bridgewater), sea reasonably flat and giving good speed under sail only.

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Crossed the border!

Date:May 26, 2015, 1:29 a.m.
Position:38 21.43 S, 141 14.57 E
Speed over ground:5.3 Knots
Course over ground (magnetic):105 degrees
Sea state:Moderate
Wind speed (Knots):13 knots

Welcome to Victoria, as we sailed over the 141st meridian. Sailing on a reach, with the wind on the port bow at 12-15 knots. Cape Nelson in sight, Portland around the corner.

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Position report 0340 hours

Date:May 25, 2015, 7:40 p.m.
Position:38 4.20 S, 140 34.09 E
Speed over ground:7.5 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):109 degrees
Sea state:Slight
Wind speed (Knots):8 Knots NE

All going well, the breeze has picked up a little and we are motor sailing along nicely at 7.5 knots. Currently 6 miles WSW from Port MacDonald

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Position Report, 0100 hours

Date:May 25, 2015, 5 p.m.
Position:37 51.67 S, 140 16.57 E
Speed over ground:6.5 Knots
Course over ground (magnetic):129 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):3-4 Knots ESE

All is going well into the wee hours, two AIS targets, cargo vessels heading for Devonport Tasmania. No issues with getting too close, 10 Nm is the closest CPA (closest point of approach) as calculated via the AIS. Sonja was on watch from 11pm - 1am, now she is having a nap. Course change for abeam Port MacDonald in about 25 minutes

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Position report, 2000 hours

Date:May 25, 2015, 10:36 a.m.
Position:37 28.41 S, 139 53.61 E
Speed over ground:5.2 knots
Course over ground (magnetic):144 degrees
Sea state:Calm
Wind speed (Knots):3 knots (on the nose!)

6 miles WNW of Rivoli Bay (Beachport). All quiet on Radar and AIS. Tonights forecast, winds variable at 10 knots. Presently have seen a maximum of only 3!

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A surreal evening

Date:May 25, 2015, 8:38 a.m.
Position:37 20.62 S, 139 48.88 E

Oily calm sea tonight, for our sail (read motoring) to Portland. The radar and AIS is on, storm boards in and hatch closed to keep in some engine heat so Sonja does not freeze to death!
It was a great day in Robe today, barely any breeze and blue skies all day. The place certainly lived up to it's reputation, as told by Mark from Southern Ocean Sailing in Albany before we left. A very historic town, rich with the history of the expeditions of Flinders and Baudin, with their chance encounter at 'Encounter Bay'. Also, many Chinese immigrants landed at Robe in the early 1800's as a starting point for their 4-500 Klm walk to the Victorian gold fields.

Just before high tide this afternoon, we pulled alongside the fuel jetty to top up the tank with diesel for our onwards trip to Portland. Fuel was cheap at a $1.35 and we took on 57 litres to fill the tank. After 24 hours of engine running time, this gave us an average fuel consumption of 2.4 litres per hour since we last filled up.

Yesterday afternoon, just after we arrived, we met a couple from a trailer sailer next door, Mick and Verity Quinlan-Wilson, a lovely local couple who are farmers of cattle and sheep, as well as vine growers who also make their own wine. We shared a story or two as wel as a nice bottle of red. We sourced a bottle of theirs today from the Attic store in the main street, a shiraz called Governor Robe Shiraz, 2013. Looking forward to trying it. We missed out on his Cabernet Merlot, as they had only just recently shipped all their stocks off to China.
As we were refuelling, a couple came over for a chat, it turned out they were from Fremantle and have now settled in Robe after 10 years of sailing their catamaran through south east Asia.
There were no issues getting out past the marina heads this afternoon, we definitely had the correct track out this time after touching bottom twice coming in. We cleared through with at least .8 of a meter under keel, no worries!

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On the move, Robe to Portland

Date:May 25, 2015, 7:07 a.m.
Position:37 12.41 S, 139 44.00 E

Leaving Robe for Portland, the water is oily smooth, barely a breath of breeze and minimal swell. An easy night of motoring ahead, forecast says variable winds around 10 knots. Barometer 1023 Hpa, and the sun is out, lovely!

SOG 5.3 knots
COG 148 degrees M.

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Cape Jaffa - Robe (and the odd sand bar)

Date:May 24, 2015, 11:05 a.m.
Position:37 9.67 S, 139 45.01 E

Well, a very nice sail was had down to Robe this afternoon. We had a NNE wind at about 10-12 knots that gave us a lovely sail on a broad reach on a port tack. The boat was pretty much level and running at 5-6 knots, just great. And no engine needed, even better.
We sailed past Baudin Rocks, which Matthew Flinders named after Nicolas Baudin, after the chance encounter at Encounter bay between the Investigator and the Geographe. Baudin told Flinders of the rocks and their position, however Flinders (being an excellent navigator) was unable to find them. The problem turned out to be that Baudin was using the prime meridian (zero degrees longitude) as it went through Paris, NOT Greenwich!

Well, speaking of excellent navigators, Singita touched bottom while entering the heads of the Robe marina (at high tide) and saw us stuck fast on a sand bar for about five minutes. Thankfully, conditions were good and there was no swell.
After a generous serving of reverse power and shifting our weight fore and aft and side to side, we managed to get off and come around for another ginger attempt. This time we came through about 4 meters to port of the said sand bar and slipped through with .7 of a meter under the keel. We were in, with a sigh of relief!

There is a saying, there are those that have touched bottom, and those that will! We now find ourselves in the former group. What other sayings will we discover on this journey?

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American River - Cape Jaffa

Date:May 24, 2015, 1:13 a.m.
Position:36 56.57 S, 139 41.97 E

After an overnight sail from KI we arrived at Cape Jaffa at 4:30pm, glass off conditions, an easy arrival for sure. Stark contrast to the sail through Backstairs passage at KI, rough conditions with the outgoing tide and a south easterly wind straight on the nose and against the tide. There were some pretty steep swells of a fair size and coupled with it being dark and tacking to get out of there, we were both glad to be clear of it and set heading for Cape Jaffa.
Conditions after that became reasonably light by comparison, the wind was quite flukey throughout the night and I seemed to spend most of my time accepting the wind shift alarm on the auto pilot (wind vane mode), I suppose it helped me to keep awake though. Sonja suffered sea sickness during the night, so with the cold as well, she was not feeling to happy! So, we ended up motor sailing for the entire leg to Cape Jaffa, with the engine being off for only one hour.
Cape Jaffa, nothing much going on here, it is a development that did not quite take of, due to the crash in 2008. Plenty of vacant lots and some unfinished properties around the marina. We only stayed the one night, next stop, Robe.

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Scratch, Seals and Generators

Date:May 21, 2015, 8:59 a.m.

Well, we are still here on American River, KI, waiting for more favourable weather conditions to continue our journey eastwards. We met up with (another!) distant relation of Frank and Glenys's, Scratch. Scratch was a professional fisherman in these waters for many years and until recently was also carrying out fishing charters for the KI tourism industry. He is now retired, but still has his little boat to take mates fishing in. Scratch and his wife Lyn, very kindly lent us their car for a couple of days, so we could do some touring of the island.
While we were here, we visited Penneshaw, South Australia's first lighthouse, at Cape Willoughby , Clifford's Honey farm, where we enjoyed Jenny's Honey ice cream, yum, and Seal Bay. The Honey farm is unique in that they have the only pure strain of Ligurian bees in the world, here on Kangaroo island. We also had lunch at Dudley wines, Penneshaw. There were spectacular views from the cliff top cellar door, overlooking backstairs passage.

Yesterday, we took a drive to Seal Bay, where there is a very large colony of Australian sea lions and with it being breeding season, we saw plenty of seal pups amongst the sand dunes, which we could see from the boardwalk that the relevant government agency so kindly built. The entry cost was $15 per person, initially I thought this a bit pricey for just a walk (self guided) on the boardwalk, however, we were not disappointed due to the amount of seals we saw, along with their pups. There were also the remains of a juvenile humpback whale skeleton among the sand dunes, this poor fellow had met his demise in the bay just to the east in the 1980's. The ranger of the day, then relocated his (or her) bones to the dunes of Seal bay. It was a thoroughly enjoyable experience, to see these animals in this pristine, but wild bay. The southern ocean punishes this coastline, with huge seas crashing into the shore, nothing between here and Antarctica.
Mount Prospect was also ascended, via 428 steps. Matthew Flinders climbed this very dune in 1802 on his voyage of discovery. Amazing that he was in command of this expedition whilst in his 20's, a very talented young man.

And now to the generator. Whilst running the diesel generator one morning, doing the usual battery charging and keeping the cabin warm, unbeknownst to us, the sea water intake for the cooling water blocked with ribbon weed (sea grass) and blocked off the flow of cooling water to the generator. The engine began to overheat and to add insult to injury, the high temperature alarm did not work. The engine continued to run until it boiled off all it's coolant. Just before we left for the days touring, I switched off the generator and then while I was on deck, Sonja called up to say there was a burning smell coming from the aft cabin. The aforementioned calamity was discovered and as there was nothing to be done until it cooled down some, we left for the days activities. On return later that afternoon, I checked the coolant (what coolant, there was none!) and filled it up before giving it a test run.
Not good, within two minutes, there was coolant and steam being emitted from the header tank overflow pipe, so she was toasted. Well, no more waffling on, other than to borrow a saying from a good friend and fellow sailor, (Thanks Grant for this one, I have a feeling I will be using it more than once on this journey), 'Cruising, the art of sailing ones boat to exotic destinations so repairs can be carried out'

Many thanks to Scratch for being an excellent host during our stay here in American River, he makes a most excellent home brew hooch, a lovely scotch whiskey, of which we partook a few nips. Cheers!

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American River, KI

Date:May 17, 2015, 9:16 a.m.
Position:35 47.29 S, 137 46.42 E

After a sleepless night on the anchor (the anchor dragged a little - where was that Marsh anchor that most boats in South Australia use :) in the anchorage at Althorpe Island, we decided to make an early get away at 0215 and make for American River. After clearing the small bay, we set reefed sails and motor sailed with a NNE/17-20 knots until first light and then turned that infernal engine off and then enjoyed some great sailing.

There were some nervous moments in the dark due to having seen cray pots in the area the evening before, on our approach to Althorpe Island, but as luck would have it, we had no problems. From dawn onwards, as mentioned earlier, the sailing was the best encountered so far. The NNE wind gave us on our course to KI, 60 degrees apparent on a starboard tack with the wind easing slightly, 12-16 knots, just perfect for an exhilarating sail, giving consistent speeds of 6.2 - 7 knots over the ground. The final turn to run down to American river only got better as we were now on a beam reach, fantastic sailing, loved it.
We contacted American River coast guard on channel 21 and got some advice for the best time to enter the river channel, that was just before the top of high tide at 1530 hrs, so we anchored over at Rocky Point to wait and have some lunch.
We pulled anchor just after 1400 hrs to make our way over to the channel and had an uneventful entry into the channel and river and picked up the mooring that was recommended for us. What a great place is American River, the sun was shinning, water so still it was like a mirror. We spent the afternoon relaxing, broke out Sailor Jerry from the bond store and enjoyed a nice drink, while sending our friend Janine some video we took of the dolphins that welcomed us to Kangaroo Island. Then began some hilarious dialog via text when she accused us of sending the same video we had sent some time earlier! How very dare she! Classic.

2 Comments:

JanMike Drury: Thanks for the blog invite, now following with great interest :) May 18, 2015, 1:39 a.m.


Grant Pitman: Hi from sunny Vancouver. Just accessed your site after 10 days in the beautiful cruising grounds of Alaska. Will keenly follow your journey from now on and hope all is well on board. Krgds Grant and Anne May 19, 2015, 8:04 p.m.

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The Althorpe Albatross

Date:May 16, 2015, 9:40 a.m.
Position:35 22.12 S, 136 51.76 E

A warmer, though still cloudy day with some sun peeking its way through the cloud cover, to warm us a little. Sonja saw her first southern ocean Albatross today, this one was the closest I had seen even compared to our passage across the bight. The NE breeze eventually came around more from the east and that was the end of our motor sailing.
We had been clocking speeds regularly over 7 knots at the modest power setting of 1900 Rpm, but then our speed dropped to 4.5-5 knots. To ensure a daylight arrival, the power had to be pushed up some, to 2200 Rpm.
After dodging several lots of the dreaded cray pot floats, we just sneaked in to the anchorage with enough daylight to get the anchor deployed and set. A few quick photos of the spectacular cliffs and it was time to retire below and keep a close eye on the anchor watch feature of the AIS!
There is an old jetty here that has a winch house that hauls supplies up the cliff via a flying fox, an elevation of 91 meters. This is no longer operational, as the lighthouse is now automated and no longer permanently manned.

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Departed Thistle island

Date:May 16, 2015, 12:20 a.m.
Position:34 59.19 S, 136 7.95 E

Departed Thistle Island this morning at 0930, the wind was easterly at 10-15 knots. Managed to have the engine off for an hour and were getting great sailing speeds, up to over 7 knots. Alas, it did not last and the iron spinnaker was on again. Motor sailing was the order of the day again as we wanted to make the Althorpe island anchorage by nightfall.

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Departing Port Lincoln

Date:May 15, 2015, 9:13 a.m.
Position:34 56.15 S, 136 5.58 E

Awoke this morning at the crack of 8. Final preparations were made for departure from Port Lincoln and just before we cast off the mooring lines, Phil and Donna flew past overhead in the Cub, on they’re way to Albury NSW. At 1037 am, we were finally on our way into a light southeasterly breeze. Motor sailing was the order of the day, a small pod of dolphins escorting us past Cape Donnington, before setting course for Thistle Island. An easy day was planned to get us in the rhythm before doing longer distances.

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Business class! Thanks Jemma :)

Date:May 14, 2015, 9:10 a.m.

Today we (Sonja and I) flew out of Perth for South Australia on Qantas (Business class if you don’t mind, thank you Jemma!) We arrived in Port Lincoln that afternoon and were met by Captain Phil Jones, who took us on a grand tour of his aircraft hanger to view his Piper Cub as well as his new project, another Piper Cub. This one will have more power and carrying capacity and is currently as an airframe only at this stage. An approximate 1000 hours of build time remains!
Phil kindly lent us his ute, so off we went madly provisioning and refueling so that Singita would be ready to leave in the morning. We rounded the day out with a couple of quiet drinks with Phil and Donna at the marina hotel, before calling it a day.

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Qantas

Date:May 12, 2015, 2:54 p.m.

Tickets booked! 0830 departure on QF586 and will be arriving in Adelaide at 1255 hours, then QF2271@ 1430 hrs to arrive Port Lincoln at 1520 hours.

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