Lake Macquarie Sail Away - Sep 2011

[Miker]

Dulcamara’s journey to Lake Macquarie – September 2, 2011
It's a bit long, but I wanted those who didn't come up to see how much fun it was, and make sure they get to the next Sailaway!

http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h318/Miker_01/Dulcamara/Lake%20Macquarie%20Sept%202011/

Before you read any further and get to the bits where you say, “Wow, this guy is a novice!” Let me set the record straight, compared to most people I know who sail, I AM a complete novice, and I’ll readily admit that there were some things I could have done way better, but I had a great time on my first solo coastal trip.
So often you set a date to go sailing and end up not going out because it’s too windy, too wet or not windy enough, or worse, the wind is just too wrong for where you want to go. In this case, about a week out from departure, the weather was looking brilliant. The research I had done to get ready for the 45nm from Pittwater to Lake Macquarie, showed that I needed a minimum of 7 hours to make the high tide at 1130, that’s providing the predicted wind and swell remained constant, I decided that an 0330 departure gave me some breathing space and if things slowed down getting there as late as 1400 would still allow an easy passage through the bar and bridge.
Gabi drove me down to Careel Bay at about 2100 Thursday night. I was travelling light, just an esky with beer and bourbon, some tins of Spam and Corned Beef, plus some stuff to cook for lunch and breakfast. I knew we’d be at the Wangi Workers Club for dinner Saturday night, so I didn’t worry too much about a proper boat cooked dinner. I also took my bedding in Space Bags. These are fantastic and not only keep your bedding dry if you get a splash through the hatch, or from condensation, but also can be rolled down to save space and keep things tidy. Sleeping on the boat for three nights was much more pleasant with fresh, dry sheets and doona!
The final weather check before hitting the bunk on Thursday was still predicting a lovely SE wind at 15 to 20 knots. This, coupled with an ESE swell meant I was definitely heading out, despite the reports of thunder storms to the north. I finally put my head down after talking to Gabi at about 2200. I guess it was due to a little anxiety, but I woke many times thinking it was time to go, or that I had forgotten something. At 0245 I figured I should forget trying to sleep any more and got dressed, stowed the bedding and readied myself to go.
I set up the iPad Navionics system, checked it all worked correctly and made sure I had a paper chart handy. I hoisted the main in a breathless dark morning with the moon holding water just over the rise near Dark Gully and at 0317 called Marine Rescue Sydney to log in. Following the log in, I did a final check before firing up the outboard and dropping the mooring at 0340, setting the Navionics to track the journey at about 0330.
Motoring out to Barrenjoey was un-eventful, it was just dark above and dark below the only light coming from the glare of the iPad in the companionway silently tracking the progress and pointing the way to the heads and the dim lights from the compass. The sky was cloudy, but no rain in sight. I rounded Barrenjoey at about 0420 and set a course with the ST800 for the tanker that seemed to be only about 3nm away. It took me until almost sun up to get to out to that tanker, it was much further than I expected. Once clear of Pittwater and moving up towards Cape Three Points, I unfurled the number 2 and killed the outboard and whilst progress was slightly slower, the south wind had started in, as had the swell. The two metre swell as predicted, was in my opinion, a minimum of two metres, some over three and the very rare four meter came through. This was coupled with a one metre easterly bump, which did nothing more than mess things up so that the old girl was doing a wonderful “Watusi” by slightly twisting to windward each time a bigger wave picked up her stern and gave her a kick. This prompted me to alter course slightly more east, just to prevent some of the more violent broaches. Indeed it got a little better, but it was still a messy morning. I also found it a little disconcerting that in the darkness, you never knew what was coming.
At this point, I now realised that two bottles of water and one pack of biscuits is just not enough to sustain one for an extended period, so for the next trip I’ll be clipping a bag of goodies under the stern seat so I don’t have to go below and get more food. I had eaten the biscuits by 0600! The sea birds at that time of the morning are fantastic to watch. They spend most of their time surfing the lift they get from the wind cropping the waves and use that lift to keep moving in the direction they want to go. I wonder what they taste like. Seabird flavour I guess……
At sunrise I estimated I was about 4 – 5nm east of the coast and around The Entrance, so I thought was going quite well. I then saw a sail travelling north at what looked to be a little faster than I, but very close in-shore. I watched them off and on, but finally realised they must have been a little larger and faster than I was. The wind had picked up considerably by now, as had the swell and I felt that full main and headsail was a little overpowered. Not wanting to risk heading to wind and trying to reef single handed, I ended up furling the headsail and went under main only. This still gave me good speed and on checking my track so far, I had averaged 6.1 knots and had travelled almost a third of the distance by 0630.
Travelling under just a main settled the boat down somewhat, but I still managed to get a bruised shin when I went below to get more food. Damn that hurts! I’d hate to have to do any long distance without some form of tiller pilot or other self steering device. The sunrise had given up some great photos and I’d passed the tanker and had settled into the daylight part of the trip pretty well. I was much more comfortable being able to see what was behind me in the daylight. The occasional big (for me) wave in the dark was always a combination of thrilling and scary all at once. The seas were still building a little, but because I was just under a main, it was still easily manageable, even though I thought I might actually use the harness that was still in its container since new. Once clipped in I felt like a true yachtie. Being a smarty pants, I decided to log in to the Top Hat Forum and make a post to update where I was. 0805 just after that post was the first of the two un-intentional gybes. Wow, don’t they make a racket when you’re least expecting it! Note to self, figure out a preventer next time you’re sailing that far downwind.
From 0800 to 1030 was pretty easy, just the occasional adjustment of the course, checking the chart to make sure I was seeing what I should be seeing and then I received a call on the mobile from Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie. They asked me whether I had called them, but I said no I hadn’t, although I would be within their sights by now and was hoping to make the 1300 bridge. She said, at the speed I was travelling I would be there for the midday bridge and that she’d make a booking for me. How good is that service! These guys deserve more money, and more support from us. I’d also spoke via phone to Shaun from Blue Moon, who was waiting out the weather in Port Stephens after a 12 hour trip from Camden Haven. Plus Greg from Felicite had told me that they were already at Wangi and were probably going to stay the night there.
The sail I’d seen on the coast was still there, they’d gone down to a main as well, but were still passing me ever so slowly. By the time we’d reached Nora Head, they were quite a ways past. The wind had gradually moved around more South, which was changing the way the boat was handling the swell. A further decision was made to “pull a Granny” and sail back towards the coast, with the intention of getting a little more side on to the wind to pass up around Moon Island. This proved a fairly good decision, and as I sailed in closer to Stinky Point (love that name!) I could see the other boat sailing up past Moon Island. I’m not totally sure, but I think they were the same boat waiting at the bridge when I picked up the waiting mooring at 1130. Yes, Marine Rescue were on the money. About an hour after I spoke to them, I called them just inside the leads to log off and thanked them for their service, then dropped the main and zipped the bag. All I had to do then was tidy up a little, drop the dinghy off the foredeck into the water and wait for the green light to pass through the Swansea Bridge. The boat I thought I had seen travelling up the coast was waiting there at the moorings as well, so they weren’t any more than about 20 minutes in front of me, and had probably left not that long after I did from Pittwater. So, the old Top Hats may not be quick, but when you have a bridge to wait for, speed can be academic!
Once in the channel through the bridge and over the drop off, all I had to do was check in with Mark’s Point Marina for a mooring. Two weeks ago, she said to call when I arrived and they’d arrange something. Well, they got busy and had nothing. They promised to try and find something, but had nothing at this point, so I went over to Wangi and found Greg on Felicite, Bear and Thomas his son on Egret II and Wayne on Marinka. Marinka was sitting pretty low in the water and it was soon discovered that the water filler neck on the foredeck wasn’t actually connected to anything inside, so the half hours’ worth of water that was hosed in had done nothing but start filling the bilge, the cabin floor and eventually the berth! Yes, funny, but also a scary prospect when you look into your boat and find it full of water. Thankfully the quarter berth was still dry, so there was somewhere for Wayne to sleep. Bear had apparently sailed over and been shunted into place by Greg, because Egret II’s engine is kaput. At least I assume he sailed over. The only time I saw Egret II move was when it moved from the jetty into a pen…………….
Wangi Workers Club is a great venue for a sailing weekend; they have a fantastic jetty that is protected from all but the NE winds. There is water, power and about 20 metres to the bar and bistro. $10 a night to stay on the jetty is cheap in anyone’s language, just don’t try and hang off in a strong nor-Easter! The rest of the afternoon was spent either on the boats rafted to the jetty or sitting in the bar. The only thing missing was the girls! No Curly, no Sea Lady and no Gabi (that’s my wife, but she comes into the story later. Still, it was only Friday night and we knew that Shaun was at least half way and we might be seeing John with Oberon II sometime Saturday afternoon.
The club itself started to fill to capacity on the Friday night which, as it turned out was for the raffle draw. I wanted a ticket, but wasn’t sure how I would get a 7 x 4 high side box trailer home on a Top Hat, along with a Honda lawnmower and a Stihl chainsaw! The pathway around the lake to the Wangi RSL was a pleasant diversion, and one that gave us a bit more of an appetite. The food at the RSL was as good as the Workers, but it was much quieter and had a guy there singing both kinds of music, Country AND Western. The RSL also have a jetty that you can stay on cheaply overnight. After a great meal and yet more chat about sailing, Top Hats and anything else that came to mind, we retired to the Workers jetty to bed. I was pretty pooped to say the least, having been up since 0245 and with very little sleep beforehand.
Saturday morning dawned clear and windless. The lake shone like a mirror in the early morning mist. The others had already started their breakfast, so I joined them with Macaroni cheese and tea, I needed lots of carbs for the day ahead, or so I thought.
After breakfast Greg had to go over to the yacht club and pick up his son Adam, so I tagged along and we motored over together, leaving Bear at Wangi waiting for Thomas who had gone home the night before. The trip over by motor is about an hour and it was still a breathless morning. We picked up Adam and met Ingrid, Greg’s wife, and then I managed to secure a mooring for Dulcamara for a few weeks. Greg wanted to show me around the top end of the lake, so we set of North West from the club and rolled out the headsail, into nothing. Our sails were hanging like dish rags, but the sun was out, the lake was calm, so I just lay back and enjoyed some music and a cuppa while Greg motored back to see what Bear was up to. In the end the wind freshened up and I had a great sail under just a headsail up as far as the northern end of Croudace Bay, turning around a little way ahead of another Top Hat “Ashanti”, who didn’t seem to want to chat, he was just out for a sail. “Ashanti” had both main and headsail up, and really sailing side by side with very little difference in speed all the way down to the Swansea West Cardinal, just south of the “Drop Off”. He never said a word, and when I turned west to head back to Wangi, he reversed course back to where he came from.
I spoke to Gabi who was driving up and she was a little lost, so had to heave to whilst I checked out the maps for her. She was to meet me at the yacht club at about 1400, but was running about an hour late, so I joined Greg, Bear, Thomas and Adam to head back to the channel to meet Shaun who had come in through the channel at about 1400. So Shaun had made it, 12 hours from Port Stephens into a southerly swell with little wind. They headed back to Wangi, to get dressed for dinner at the club, while I waited a little longer for Gabi to arrive. Thankfully the race fleet were still out so there was plenty of space on the yacht club wharf to tie up. While I was waiting for Gabi, I spoke to a guy, who looked to be in his 30s, on an un-named Top Hat Mark II. I asked him what he was up to and whether he was joining our Sailaway, but he just said, “Nah, I didn’t know about it eh, and I’m leaving to go to Cairns and the Whitsundays tomorrow and that……” I wished him well, and within minutes Gabi was aboard and we were on our way to Wangi. Not before having a quick G’Day to John on Oberon II who had decided that the Nor-Easter was going to make it uncomfortable at Wangi and he was staying put.
As it turned out, he was dead right. When we got there, the wind chop was enough to cause considerable tossing so Blue Moon and I ended up hanging off behind one finger. Wayne had left on Marinka because he had to work the following morning, but Egrett II was in a pen and Felicite was alongside the jetty looking like a fly trapped in a web. We all watched and waited for a bit in the biting wind, thinking it might abate a little, and after a while it did, but it still meant having to continually check and hope things were holding. I foolishly left my anchor sitting next to the bow roller and it ended up under the wharf at one stage, which resulted in cracking the toe rail back about two feet. I don’t think there is any worse damage, but I haven’t looked closely yet. Interestingly, had I left well enough alone, it all would have been OK, because my original set wasn’t letting her come up under the wharf at all. It was Shaun who copped the worst of it!
Shaun was worried that Blue Moon was also creeping under the wharf and his short bowsprit was quite new and could have been caught under, so he ended up running a stern anchor out. This worked really well, but it did mean he needed his dinghy to get to the boat. It’s a cute little dinghy really, but while I was busy with Dulcamara and tying off a little better, I heard a little splash, then a bit of grunting, similar to someone who’s half fallen into the water and is trying to practice his surfing on the hull of an upturned dinghy. As it turns out, this is what had actually happened and I turned around to see Shaun hanging on to his bow rail, with his feet on the upside down dinghy trying desperately to get back on to Blue Moon. Greg eventually managed to get a hook under the dinghy, right it and drag it up onto the jetty, whilst Shaun went below to change.
Once Shaun had dried out, he joined the rest of us for a meal at the Wangi Workers. Again, the food is pretty good for a club bistro, with the choice of Australian or Asian dishes. We sat talking and having a few drinks for an hour or so after dinner until moving back to the boats. Because it was still very bumpy and Gabi and I had an early start, we decide to be a little precious and left them to chat the night away, while we motored over to the Lake Macquarie Yacht Club mooring. It was much more peaceful there, and I was glad of a good night’s sleep again, with only one or two checks during the night due to too much liquid intake earlier!
The morning dawned fresh and clear again, but because we had to go back to Sydney for Father’s Day, we packed up our gear and closed her up for a couple of weeks. I had another look at the damage, and whilst it looks ugly and will be a pain to repair I think it will be OK, just another job to do.
At this stage the plan is to return to the lake in a few weeks and sail back to Pittwater, weather permitting of course. I’m also hoping to have another day on the lake, but time will tell I guess.
I spoke finally to Greg after I’d got back to work and he said that he and Shaun had pottered around most of Sunday, moved down to the Southern end of the lake and were planning to spend another day or so out. Oh to be retired, or at least on holidays!
Thanks Greg and Bear for not organising anything and for the help and encouragement to make a solo coastal for the first time. Top Hat Yachts, the only choice for sailors on a budget the world over!

[admin]

Thanks michael!

[Shaun]

Well done Michael, & great read.

It wouldn't be a proper Top Hat sailaway unless someone went for a refreshing dip from their dinghy, would it!, I wonder who's turn it is next time?
Have a good sail back to Broken Bay & let us know how it goes,
cheers
Shaun

[Miker]

Part II – The return leg. (or, what it’s like to drive a motor cruiser)

I had been missing my Dulcamara for a couple of weeks. The memories of the sail up to Lake Macquarie and the fantastic weekend Gabi and I spent there were still very fresh, however I really did need to get her home to do some more maintenance work before Summer set in properly. You know how it is; you really need to get some work done, but it’s nothing really that important that it stops you from sailing, so you put it off a bit longer, just so you can enjoy sitting on a mooring with your family and friends.
The weather reports were changing daily on the few days leading up to the planned departure on the Saturday, so Gabi and I decided to just drive up on the Friday night and see what it looked like. We’d just bought a new (to us) car, so it was a good chance to get really familiar with it. We left Sydney around 7pm, thinking we’d get a meal at LMYC or somewhere nice. I had a couple of text messages from Greg (Felicite) who said there were some nice enough places in Belmont, but the LMYC kitchen closed at 9pm. Swansea was completely shut down as was most of Belmont, but we found an old fashioned Chinese place, run by Malaysians and they were really happy for the business. After eating rather too much, we went down to the LMYC to see what the weather was doing, and it didn’t look that inviting to pack up the dinghy and row out, so we decided to stay in a Motel. I know, “chicken”, “softie” and all kinds of other less than savoury terms could be applied, but it’s all about balance and I needed a good nights’ sleep in case the day to come turned into a day nighter. The nearest Motel to the LMYC was the Aquarius Motel. Yes, it was clean, so clean it smelled a little like the local indoor pool, but at $95 per night and the last room they had it was a better prospect than rowing out to the boat in the rain and wind at 10:00pm.
By morning, the weather hadn’t improved, and although it was still raining, the SE wind looked like it was going to hang on for a while. The LMYC is a great place to launch a small dinghy, with a ramp either side of the car park, so with a kiss and a hug for my bride, I was on my way for the second coastal solo of my belated sailing career. Gabi was going to hang around to make sure everything was good with the boat and then wait near the bridge and take a photo of Dulcamara going through. I boarded the boat at 0810, and immediately called Marine Rescue to see if there was a bridge scheduled for 0900, hoping I might snag a booking with another boat. As it turned out, they said there was, and they could let me through if I was there in time. Alas, by the time I’d got moving it was 0825 and I ended up missing the bridge by less than 5 minutes. On the way over the Drop Off, I didn’t see anything less than 2.0 metres depth. It was about 3.5 hours after the ocean high tide, so the lake tide had started back out again, but there still wasn’t enough current to help me make the bridge though.
Missing the bridge was OK in the end. It gave me a chance to cook some breakfast, have a cuppa and stow the cooler with drinks and snacks under the pushpit seat so I didn’t have to go below too often. I also set the preferred course back down the coast on the iPad, leaving some sea room because of the easterly wind. Last thing was to don the inflatable life jacket and ready the harness. When the bridge went up at 1000 I went through without a hitch and Gabi was watching from the RSL Club wharf on the South side and took a couple of photos. Sadly, because of a glitch in the camera, only one was in focus. Because it was hard to hear the VHF from the cockpit with the engine running, I phoned Marine rescue to log in. They logged me in at 1010 hours with an ETA inside Barrenjoey of 1900. Once I was on the first lead, the wind was dead ahead, so it was perfect to hoist the main before getting to the bar proper.
The bar was described my Marine Rescue as “moderate” because there was an ENE bump coming in. Dulcamara handled it well, pushing through at about 4 knots at ¾ throttle on the outboard. Yes, there was the occasional cavitation, but the prop never actually cleared the water and I didn’t feel like there was any danger. The depth sounder alarm sounded at 1 metre once, but I think that was due to the steepness of the chop. Once through the bar, the seas didn’t really settle down much at all. To me, it seemed like about a 2 metre ground swell coming due south, and a 1.5 meter easterly wind swell. This just made things a little weird, but because the wind was pushing nicely from the ESE, I had a reasonably comfortable run making great time at an average 5.4 knots for the first four hours.
I was visited twice by what appeared to be Pacific White Side Dolphins. The first time there were about five or six, including a baby who popped up on the port side a few times. They swam around me for about 20 minutes and let me take a couple of photos, then disappeared as quickly as they’d arrived. I had another visit from a lone dolphin about an hour later, but it didn’t surface. I just saw it beneath the surface fleetingly swimming by. The only other wildlife I saw were the Shearwaters and the occasional Albatross, some young Shearwaters were sitting in the waves being taught by the adults how to take off by using the lift from the wind on the waves.

[Miker]

Part III

By the time I’d reached The Entrance, the wind had backed off to less than 10 knots, and because of the confusion of the swells, I needed to tie a preventer. In doing so, I managed to unbalance myself and fell hard against the cockpit combing, causing a golf ball swelling to come up and bring tears to my eyes. Ouch! I only fell sideways, not off anything, because my feet were still in the cockpit! Damn that hurts. In disgust, I tried a slightly more easterly heading to see if I could get any headway with what wind was left and keep the boom from swinging on the swell, but there was nothing left. After 20 minutes of trying, I’d gone backwards about a mile, so felt there was nothing for it but to fire up the trusty Tohatsu. I centred the main, but left it up and furled the headsail and sat back and let George the ST800 do his thing, with a course of 180. This went on for about two hours when the wind came back, a lovely stiff Easterly that lasted all of 20 minutes and petered out to nothing again. Of course, once the wind stopped, the rain started. I had seen squalls on the horizon and could see nothing of the coast south of Terrigal, so I motored, adjusting my course to about 210, a direct line for the Barrenjoey light. Because of the tedious nature of motor sailing, and not being able to read a book in the rain, I dozed off a little curled up on my pushpit seat listening to the drone of the motor and the occasional white cap breaking behind me.
At 1730 I received a call on the radio from Marine Rescue Sydney. Apparently Marine Rescue Lake Macquarie had given them an ETA of 1700, not 1900 the time I’d originally estimated. At that stage I was off Copacabana with about 8 nm to go before being inside Barrenjoey. They revised the ETA to 1900 and I continued on, by this stage soaked. I’d not been able to find my wet weather pants, so whilst my top end was dry and reasonably warm, the bottom end was cold and wet and starting to ache from the bruise coming up on my thigh. The good thing was, the wind was coming up again, and by the time I’d got within sight of the Barrenjoey light, it was a good 15-20 knots or so, but being tired, wet and uncertain how long the wind would last, I left the genoa furled and played the main to augment the engine. This increased my speed from 4.5 knots up to almost 6 and meant I would reach my log off position about 20 minutes early.
I waited until I was well inside Barrenjoey and could see the lights of Stokes’ Point through the drizzle, which hadn’t stopped since The Entrance, and then logged off with Marine Rescue Sydney at 18.40. Those men and women do a fantastic job, and I recommend regular donations are well worth it. I then called Gabi and told her that I’d be at the Careel Bay Wharf at 2000, and to bring some towels!
It’s strange when you’re tired. Things you do automatically and mechanically sometimes just don’t work. I hardly ever miss my mooring; even in the worst conditions it takes only one or at most two goes. So here I am at 1930, puttering around in circles having missed the mooring FOUR times! On the last attempt I gave myself a stern talking too, hit myself over the head with the hook and picked it up in the usual fashion, lashed it on and threw the dinghy in the water. All that was left was to make sure the batteries were off, the door closed, covers on and bags in the dinghy before I climbed in and rowed to the jetty. I had been on the boat for just on 12 hours although the elapse time of the track for the GPS was 8 hrs and 17 minutes. The rest of the time was spent waiting at bridges and sitting on the mooring packing up or packing down.
So, here are some observations. Top Hats are great boats; they’re sea worthy even if they may not look it. Ours certainly doesn’t look it at first glance, and I’d not like to experience really severe weather in her, but for what I intend to do, they are brilliant boats. Top Hat owners are really great people too. The people I’ve met from Sydney, Lake Macquarie, Broken Bay and Brisbane Water are all top notch. They’re all from different walks of life, including builders, maintenance technicians, nuclear accelerator technicians, computer software sales and teachers. I even have one who’s a neighbour! You couldn’t get a wider bunch, but they all have one thing in common, their love of sailing these great boats and the adventure you can experience by simply packing an esky, a camera and a change of undies and just dropping the mooring and heading off in no particular direction at all. Just whatever way the wind is blowing.
Next time we “don’t” organise anything, make sure you get sorted and come along, bring your friends and family and make a day or a weekend of it, you’ll not regret it. The Lake Macquarie weekend was my third of these casually arranged gatherings and it won’t be the last.
There are some more photos on my photobucket site, and Shaun, Bear and Greg have uploaded as well, so check it out and see what you missed!

Michael.
http://s67.photobucket.com/albums/h318/ ... pt%202011/