Coffs Harbour => Townsville.

[jjvvss]

Ahoy!
I have moved to Townsville and am looking to sail my Top Hat MkII north to the tropics. Departing around 22/4/13
I am looking for one crew to help. Or (wishful thinking) to sail in tandem.
If interested drop me a line.
Cheers
jjvvss

[RodM]

Hi jjvvss,
I've got time off till end June and am mixing a bit of desert travel, remote area nursing and sailing - but not locked into any schedule yet. I've sailed part of your trip before, Townsville - Airlie Beach, and round Brisbne / Morton Bay. I'll pm contact details.
Cheers, RodM

[Troppo]

Hi jjvvss, I'm in Rocky and not planning on going anywhere but have done from Gold Coast to Rockhampton so can give you some local info if you need it. If you are short of time I can't recommend coming up the Fitzroy River to Rockhampton as the 60 Nm round trip is made difficult by swift tidal flow, muddy water and plenty of shallows that are invisible due to dirty water. With this latest flood, sand and mud bars have moved again and there are few navigation aids. On the positive side, the river is interesting, the people at the boat club are very helpful and friendly and it's close to major shops.

If you stay overnight at the marina at Rosslyn Bay on the coast, (or if conditions permit, free anchorage Statue Bay) then I might be able to visit ya and do a run down to the shops. The marina does supply a courtesy car, so I believe, so boaties can slip into Yeppoon for shopping, but if I am around I might be able to lend a hand.

cheers

Louis

edit: Just looked at ya pic with that big sail and the speed. I am not sure if you sailed with another boat whether they could keep up : ).

[jjvvss]

Hi Louis,

Apologies for taking a month to get back to you. The plan is to sail straight through with a couple of stops. Thanks for the info. I will definitely get in touch as we get close. Looks like RodM is coming for the duration which is great. Haven't heard from him for a couplke of weeks now as he is bush without signal.

Anyone else interested in jumping on at some point for a few days let me know.

Cheers,

jjvvss

[jjvvss]

Arrived safe and sound in Townsville yesterday. We departed Coffs on Wed April 24th.
Stats
Duration 18 days 20hrs
Lay over days due to weather/exhaustion 7
Sailed through big winds and waves from Mooloolaba to Wide Bar Bar, Lady Musgrave to Rosslyn Bay, Rosslyn Bay to Hamilton Island. Big winds meaning gusts up to 40kts. Big waves meaning 4mtrs. Mostly sailed with just the No 3 jib.
Average speed 4.9kts.
Fastest speed 12.8kts surfing between Scawfell and Hamilton. 12.4kts surfing Wide Bay Bar. Otherwise many hits into the 10's and 11's during the big blows. Fast fun and at times scary. Pooped three times. Not fun at all.
Refuge Bay in Scawfell Is is not much of a refuge in a big SE blow. Bullets coming off the hills hit the boat with incredible power and we dragged anchor 5 times using three different anchors. We used a Danforth dragged twice. We used a Fortress FX16 dragged twice. Used a CQR and it held for 4 hours until it too dragged and we had had enough and got underway again.
We stopped at Lady Musgrave and I misheard the weather and thought we had 12 hrs until the big blow hit. Secured the Danforth well in hard sand. Had a swim, something to eat and lay down for a sleep at 1630 knowing that the blow wouldn't arrive until morning. We were going to up anchor at 0000. The big blow hit at 1800. Terrifying. Big waves in the lagoon. Dinghy torn off and lost. Anchor held. Got out at first light.
Had some incredible sails with the assym. Consistent speeds of 6-7kts and lots of 8's and 9's.
All in all very very impressed with my Top Hat. She handled everything thrown at her.
All done with two of us hand steering the whole way.

[Troppo]

Wow! That is certainly one amazing trip. Well done.

[jjvvss]

Thanks Troppo.
Some more stats
Used Transas iSailor on the mini iPad and iPhone. Brilliant app. Much cleaner interface than Navionics. Plus you can import and export routes. I exported and then loaded into my Garmin eTrax which I used as back up. Garmin shows an arrow to next waypoint, time and distance to next waypoint. Great to use when raining as water resistant. Plus plotted GPS position on paper charts every six hours.
Did a bit of motoring. She has a 10hp Sole single cylinder diesel. At half throttle she sits on 4.5kts. At 3/4 throttle she rattles like crazy for no gain in speed. At full throttle she gets up to 5.5kt and is settled again. Best at half throttle. 20ltr tank. Uses 2/3 ltr per hour.
We originally were to depart on Wed April 24th. Then we thought we were ready and could get going on Tues April 23rd. Started the engine to check if all all right and the engine was shaking itself like crazy. Discovered broken engine mount. Took a couple of hours but managed to get a replacement. Motored out of Coffs into anticipated SE breeze. Raised sails. Headed north. One hour later breeze went to NE and then died. Started engine. Over heating light went on after 20 mins. Decided to get back to Coffs for repairs. Wed April 25th got up early and went through the cooling system until we found the problem. The impeller shaft had worn down and did not fit into key hole. Lucky for me my crew Anton is a boiler maker and Coffs Marina has a welding unit. 3pm we were under way. As we were putting the impeller parts back together Anton noticed that the wire was not even connected to the thermostat. It was dangling loose against engine and that was making the light come on and off.
Lost top batten
Broke the washboard grooves on both sides
Need to repair assym and No 3 as stitching has come un done.

[Phillip]

Well done Justin and Anton,

That is one gutsy sail and all hand steered!!

[jjvvss]

Thanks Phillip.

[rob.lovelace]

18 days, geez this should be in the racing section. It takes me 18 days to make 100NM lately. Hardcore dude