Time to say: Au revoir to New Caledonia

Thank God for Dennis, Anita and Glenn. They
ruled the galley when I was seasick -again!

We have had a great time in New Caledonia – especially in the Loyalty Islands and Ile des Pins. The Bay of Prony was lovely as well. And of course, we like Noumea as it is the first real city we have seen since leaving Auckland last April. Sometimes it is nice to have a healthy dose of restaurants, supermarkets and some of the amenities of life!

Our friends from Norway and Sweden arrived as planned but our departure from Noumea was delayed a week waiting for a package with a part for the Watt & Sea water generator. Since the Watt & Sea provides a lot of electricity while we are sailing, we wanted it functioning for the 1100 nm crossing to Australia.



Anita at the helm. She took my watch. It was the first
time I was too sick to do my watch. I was disappointed
with my inability to get the mal de mare under control.

Even though the package was sent the “fastest” way on FedEx, it took over 10 days for it to arrive in New Caledonia. It made a number of stops before arriving here, but then there is customs, etc.

It sat somewhere for a few days and since the FedEx tracking did not give us notice, we did not have any idea of where it was. Then, of course, there was the weekend!

We finally hired someone to search for it. She found it and arranged to have it delivered. After waiting for nearly two days for the delivery, she finally drove Dennis to where he could put his hands on it!  
 

Dennis loved eating "European style!" Cheese, sausage,
rye breads, sardines, and more yummies!

So late on a Friday, with package in hand, we finally sailed out of Noumea! Since it was too late in the day to maneuver through the numerous islands and reefs inside the barrier reef, we took a mooring ball for the night at Ilot Maitre in preparation for an early morning departure though the Amedee Pass southwest of the Amedee Lighthouse. From there on, it was a straight shot on the rhumb line to Newcastle, AU – 1088 nm as the crow flies.

Fixing the Watt & Sea before leaving New Caledonia

Our goal was to arrive in Newcastle, which is about 60 nm north of Sydney, Thursday or Friday (6-7 days). The winds were favorable at the start and we sailed along nicely. Anita and Glenn were great crew so we took three hour watches twice a day which made the watch schedule easy.

There were a few days with little wind so we motor sailed some; there were a few days with a lot of wind, so we flew. And there were days when the wind clocked around 360⁰ and back again. At one point and at night, of course, the wind turned the boat around 180⁰ in less than 30 seconds! Anita was alone at the wheel and didn’t know what hit her! It had happened to Dennis twice before. And it always seems to happen at night.

I hate it when Dennis stands on the stern platform at sea!

On Wednesday night, we had finished a lovely cockpit dinner in nice conditions when there was a big change in the wind. I started my watch at 2000 hours (8 PM) and the wind was a steady 19 knots – nice sailing. Within minutes it jumped to a steady 30 knots so I called Dennis to tell him what was happening. We discussed a strategy and he went below to prepare for his sleep time, but said to call him if it when any higher. I don’t think he even had time to brush his teeth when I yelled: It is 35 knots!



Anita, this is NOT how you keep your day watch!

That was the beginning of a very long 36 hours! Earlier in the day, we were only going 2.5-3 knots under sail so we made a decision not to motor since we couldn’t make it into port during daylight hours so we would have a relaxing day to let us arrive on Friday without having to stand off shore overnight.

It was a good day until my watch began! The wind was ranging between 35-48 knots! Now we are moving along at 8-12 knots which is too fast as our hull speed is 7.5. And the waves are crashing over the top and we can’t see anything in the dark night. We can only feel the size and direction based on what they were doing to the boat!

Most of the passage was beautiful sailing.

These conditions continued throughout the day on Thursday making galley work challenging. It was impossible to sleep as we were being thrown around in our berths even with lea cloths to hold us in. No one got any real sleep and our muscles were tired from trying to stabilize our bodies.

At least during the day we could see the size of the swells: 3-4 meters! No wondered we were being tossed about all night. Our weather report showed no indication of these conditions. In fact, it was predicted that we would have a nice sail with some motoring on the rhumb line all of the way. Right!




At times there was no wind.

When nightfall came again and I went on watch at 2000 hours, it kicked up again in to the high 30’s and low 40’s. I knew what to do so I just went with the plan and held on! Actually, we had gotten closer to Australia than we wanted to be at that time so we turned south to stay further off shore. And once we got over the continental shelf that runs along the coast, the waves settled down somewhat. There is a dramatic change where the depth goes from 3000-4000 meters deep to 150 meters once you make it onto the shelf. That brought some relief.



 

Glenn is a great sailor - and a 747 Captain!

The next challenge: the southbound current! There is a strong southbound current that runs down the east coast of Australia at the rate of 3-5 knots depending on where you are and local conditions. We hit the current just after arriving on the shelf. So now I am trying to keep us on the shelf and off shore with the wind behind us. We had out less than 20 % sail just to stabilize the boat and balance it for the autopilot. So here I am: little sail, strong wind, fast current and cargo ships!

This is what the saloon looked like during the passage.
I guess we didn't stow very well - or was it the wild ride?

Newcastle is a huge coal mining area and there are numerous cargo ships coming in and out in addition to the regular cargo traffic up and down the coast. Much of the coal goes to China and Japan so they come out of Newcastle and turn left to go up the coastline. I had to maneuver through a field of moving targets for several hours as there were seven ships moving in the area. I like to stay at least a couple of miles out of their path, but that was impossible so several times I was within less than a mile of them. Thanks to AIS (Automatic Identification System), I could see their speed and course over ground. It also told me our closet point of contact and when it would occur. It made for a very interesting watch!


This is what it was like at 8:30 PM of the coast of Oz.
 

At about 2230 hours (10:30 PM), I passed the entrance to Newcastle. We were headed south and the current and wind had us going up to 12 knots at times. There was no way to slow down so I figured I should just keep steering through the traffic and we will deal with our position when the guys come up for their watches. I knew we should turn back to the north, but that required waking people up and putting us back into the cargo traffic.




At the beginning of the passage, we had moonlight.
During the last two nights it was blacker than coal and
you could not see anything except the waves hitting!

During Dennis’ watch following mine, he awoke Glenn and they turned us around to head back north toward Newcastle. The trigger for this was when he saw a huge black cloud down by Sydney and lots of lightening. No sailor wants to deal with lightening! So once we were headed north in the current, our boat speed dropped to 3 knots with the engine running! It was that north wind and the southbound current working against us. We finally approached the entrance to the Newcastle Harbour about 9:30 AM and were happy to see a sunny day with light winds – AND LAND AHOY!

The black cloud over Sydney was described as a “tsunami cloud” and it was in the BBC news. I posted tis on my Facebook page right after we read about it. The result is that we had a fun and exciting passage with the best crew ever – so much fun with Anita and Glenn! – and we made it there safely with a bit of excitement.



Happy to be at the dock. Sundowners for some - not me!

I was happy to be on land again. The “Passage Diet” kicked in again on the first day right after lunch. This time the mal de mare was the worst ever and I was not able to do my watch for the first 36 hours. Just when I thought I had mastered the problem … Delta, Alpha, Mike, November!