Just googled it Steve. Ring Antonia (Wollongong Fish Co-op) on 0431 174 777.

Bellambi is a boat ramp, not really a harbour. Stick with Wollongong. Small but sheltered. Note the shallow water near the Eastern side of the entrance. Recommend "Cruising the NSW Coast" and paper chart.

Sailing: www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLg66rLdvzluACX8WVwjugvo3bs9qVS2qO

Niiice. Wind picked up for me near gare. So been under sail since. Almost at wollongong harbour.

True about the doof doof! Pretty noisy but that's ok. Got some more fuel and resting.
Just on a courtesy mooring in 6 feet of.water. joys of shallow draft!
Have a great.trip back to tassie.

Hi japie. It was gnarly from about 12pm. When i left wollongong and about 2nm off i went to raise the main and couldnt. found there was a lug stuck, broken off in the mast track just before the low spreader. Was a bit bumpy out there but i had to climb on top of the boom and hammer and punch the broken lug out , of course without losing it in the track or any tools, lugs etc.managed to drop nothing actually(except my watch which decided to come off!) Didnt actually have a spare lug and the broken one was from the very top of the sail , so i pulled it all out and swapped it with the lowest slug. I figured id reef the main now knowing the wind would come up later. I did this but then found i need the full main so i took the reef out and we were all good. Had really nice sailing for 4 hours. magic. Watching the wind slowly increase more and more til it got to just above 20 and the waves were forming quite steep and short, some breaking. Time to pull main down i thought.
Heaved to for a bit to take down main. Was very happy to realise that in 25kn i could heave to , stow main and still be heaving to with jib only. flew into greenwell point under jib .surfing breaking waves. Wrong time of the tide but all ok. I was really tired having only 6 hours kip over 2 nights and had a dyslexic moment. Turned left when i should of turned right once past the bar and ran hard into a sand bar. Quickly pulled down jib. Downhaul assisted. Wind pushing boat right over. Within a few moments a cray boat took a line and heaved me backwards and i popped off the sand and was on my way. Was only a 5 min mishap but could have been worse.
On the drive home i thought about the importance of studying EVERYTHING beforehand.
I made two mistakes that concerned me over this passage from sydney over the last few days. I missed wollongong harbour by 2.7m and had to back track. No biggie but still. I also should of prepped hard to know exactly where to go once in past bar of crookhaven.
for crookhaven i looked at lucas book about an hour before and was studying navionics from my phone screen. Tired. Hard to see screen. 30kn breaking waves total concentration needed to control boat.
Passage time was 12 hours from woodford bay to wollongong(motored to Gare, sailed from there)
5 hours from Wollongong to Greenwell point.
A big thanks to ramona for guiding me. He gave me the right info but i made a wrong turn and wham on the sand!!
A big thanks to shoalhaven marine and port kembla marine. These guys were watching me closely i guess knowing what conditions were getting like. Shoalhaven were watching me cross bar and when i logged off they said "great sailing surfing the bar"
I guess i been around, running aground but boating is floating otherwise theyd have wheels....!

Well done Steve, now you have been aground you can really claim to be "cruising ".

Happy Xmas????

Ramona said...

Sectorsteve said..
im very happy with the systems on the boat finally. using a downhaul on the jib which i can also use for reefing that jib and having all lines back meant i never had to go forward at all. I also installed some bow netting to keep things organised up there.
THe rig seems to be sturdy and tight considering DIY and the boat was very stable and not so hard to control.
I was reading all those Steve Dashew books recently and really took note of the "weight above waterline " and "keep weight from the ends of the boat" thing.
I stowed as much as i could below water line, anchors, inflatable kayaks, tools etc. nothing on deck at all.

I'm off to Canberra for a couple of days but when I get back I will show you a decent navigation set up. That yacht next to the mooring you are on that was resting with the keel on the sandbar yesterday sank this morning! Hopefully it has not rested on a mooring block and damaged a plank. One of the perils of employing a professional mooring contractor!

Geeez. I was wondering about that boat. So the contractor put a mooring there in water not deep enough???
Im slightly concerned about my boat being away from her nice sheltered mooring but she aint meant to stay in the harbour. I wonder if i should come down and deploy the anchor also. Crossed my mind but theni forgot while packing up...thanks again Graham. Have a great xmas.

Thanks so much graham. I feel a bit emotional! ! I really appreciate your help.

Hi andrew. I stayed in that blue mooring behind the cat. Quite close to shore.

I am sure there was an aspect of Steve's need for the mooring that was related to an emergency.

I did see the Sydney to Hobart yacht Dare Devil on an emergency blue mooring at Port Kembla. I guess as she had lost her rudder there was a legitimate emergency. Port Kembla, just a few miles south seems like a much better harbour to head for in a real emergency with good shelter and services. Poor thing (Dare Devil) second time they have had to pull out due to rudder problems.

I don't think there is anywhere for cruisers to berth at Port Kembla.


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