The down times of cruising ........ I was going to sit out the wet season in Cairns and sail to Darwin at the end of April after the Cyclone season finished, But i thought why not sail to the Gold coast and go kitesurfing and surfing for a couple of months instead of getting rained on everyday?? well i got about 70 nautical miles south of Cairns and a forecast 30 knot south easterly hit hard over night . Luckily enough ive got Telstra wireless internet on board which allows me to check seabreeze whenever i like (its gotta be the best navigating device invented) and knew the front was coming! Even worse, Its blowing hard for a week from the direction i want to go! Oh well good thing i decided to shelter at Dunk island outside the resort!!!! Im off to the pub now to buy overpriced beer and hopefully get taken back to her room by a rich Cougar on holidays!
No luck with the Cougar, They're all married. the boat is sitting pretty and its blowin 40 bastards with mad gusts bulleting offf the mountain, new forecast is worse than the last one aaaarrrggghh!!!
Thanks for the tips Cisco. Im still in Drunk island with nuclear winds from the southeast Hopefully I'll get going tommorrow, Its only a short hop to the protection of Hinchinbrook Island in open water but my Catamaran has the worst case of "I DONT LKE TO BASH TO WEATHER" than any cat has ever had so im stuck here. When i came up i went slow enough to smell the roses and saw the sights of the Palm/Hinchinbrook Islands even Hang gliding off Orpheous Island much to the protest of the caretaker who seemed to be a spikey haired man hating Lesbian. My Mission is to get to SE QLD ASAP and the weather is just starting to look good, Thanks for the offer of a watchfull eye but ive got a daily contact, and ive not logged onto VMR's for 3 years as Ive had some silly adventures with em in the past which I'll tell you over a beer someday. Cheers
Well the arrival at Lucinda was a nighttime one and i thought i'd take the easy anchorage as marked on Alan Lucas's Cruising the coral coast rather than the prefered anchorage in the creek. I nearly hit a moored barge when i arrived it was so dark and he didnt have an anchor light and the thing was huge about 120 foot long. Rolly night then in the morning i moved around to the Dungeness creek where all available mooring spots are taken with local boats, glad i didnt try this at night. Took my Pushbike to shore and went for a ride around, Said hello to a couple of locals who seemed to do nothing but stare and i got a grunt in reply. Not really a pretty town with an ugly sugar holding facility leading to a 5km, yes thats 5 km jetty to load ships with the local produce. It was funny though as i rode past all the houses it seemed that all the members of the secret venetian blind society were on the phone to each other warning of the stranger in town on his bicycle, The blinds were slightly opening and closing as i i went past. It was like a domino effect! Cant reccomend the place Cisco, Dont want to sound negative but thats the way i saw it. bashed all day to windward and made it to Magnetic island last night, Will stay for a few days und wait for the forecast northerlies (hopefully) and start doing spinnaker runs south . My boat loves to run with 12 knot averages under kite only, as opposed to bashing with 5 knot averages wind on the nose due to excessive hobby horsing which im gonna address by puting sugar scoop transoms on the back adding 1 metre to the waterline. No camera on board , i keep getting sand in em. Will keep you updated.
G'day badinfluence. the cat ive got is a Crother SP40 that i bought the plans for and built myself. Its a great boat but it does hobbyhorse a bit more than the average cat. There is a big difference though when it comes to pointing, She will point as high as a production Benetau of the same length but its the motion that upsets her as pointing means going into head seas and thats the bit that she dont like. As mentioned before adding length to the waterline addresses the problem and the Eureka would benefit here too. One other problem is that it was designed to carry weight and i have kept her light for speed so there is a displacement imbalance in the design waterline. Still in Magnetic island and will be for a couple of days . The seabreeze graph shows a couple of Northerlies in a couple of days time and im hoping the forecast doesnt change as ive got my hopes up! Enough of this bashing bull****! 2 days should see me in the Whitsundays. Picked up a traveling partner Mike. Hes got a similar boat (43 ft) and is sailing south so the race is on!
Airlie Beach in one day! I left magnetic island yesterday morning at 6am and after 3 hours of motoring the wind came up from the North east and up went the sails, Wind strength built during the afternoon and i ended up with 2 reefs in the main and the magic numbers------ 12 knots on the speedo!was gonna sleep the nightt inside Glouster passage but ended up continuing on the outside and made Airlie at 9pm. this was an awesome days run and i would have been in earlier but i reduced sail to make it easy on the autopilot. If i hand steered it would have been 16 knots boatspeed for hours which is wildly exciting but you get a bit lazy when cruising and theres a good feeling when you hit the "AUTO" button and relax reading a book. Kicked ass with my sailing companion and his bigger boat by about 10 nautical miles. Caught 4 big Spanish Mackerals on the way and because they were so big you've gotta throw em back due to Cigatuera poisoning and excessive Mercury, caught a small one of about 600mm and then stowed the lure as this is the right size to keep. Mackeral steaks for lunch and dinner. Stuck in Airlie for a few days due to more southeasterlies! Might go out to Whitehaven beach and do some kitesurfing or hanggliding while waiting for the wind to go north or get blown away by this threatening cyclone !?
I wouldnt be worried about mercury in any fish unless you are eating them more than about 4-6 times a week. Cant talk about the likelihood of Cigutera but having copped a fair dose of it from a Grouper while cruising Langkawi I can say that its a great weight loss program.
Sounds like your having a ball. I am reading your posts green with envy.
Cisco youve sailed that coast several times, Do you enjoy it still? Right now im sitting in 30 knots of south wind on anchor at Airlie beach and theres a week of strong southeasterlies to wait out, Ha typical story. Good thing im in no hurry. Went out to hill inlet for a couple of days with Lara a fellow traveller, Scouted a good spot to launch my hang glider on the south facing hill on the northern side of Hill inlet which is the top end of Whitehaven beach. As soon as i set up the wind died and i stood there for 30 mins like a dummy. In my harness and ready to launch as soon as the wind picked up again, Frustration set in and i launched in wind that was probably 2 knots less than i needed to stay in the air, I tried to stay up but it was just too light! A french guy was taking photos of his beautiful drop dead gorgeous girlfreind in a leopard skin bikini when he looked up and there was a bright green flying monster about to land on his head! Instead of getting out of the way he just stood and took photos, Real close photos! I changed course a little and landed in the shallow water. All good and i made a new freind, He was pretty excited and said he would send me the pics. Ill post em here if he emails them. Sure enough the wind picked up after i packed up the glider! A cyclone (Olga) is bearing down on Cairns expected to cross the coast in 2 days. I made a lot of yachty freinds while there and i hope theyre all safe, Its a pretty safe Cyclone bolt hole up the trinity inlet and there will be some crazy cyclone partys goin on. I sussed out Hill inlet for Cyclone protection while up there and it looks pretty safe as there aint much protection from a Big blow around here with a huge charter fleet to stow away there'll be chaos if one hits here, Only thing with Hill inlet is no keel will get up there, Its cats and shallow draft monos only. Will stay here at Airlie until a nth blow comes along , Maybe go Kitesurfing on the tail of a cyclone if it comes south
Whoa!! Was anchored at Airlie Beach and yesterday i was tossing up whether to go around to Shute Harbour for protection from the forecast 20-30 knot north easter that was forecast, Airlie is protected from the constant southeasterlies but anything from the north chops up the bay and its not real nice! Beautiful nice calm waters in Shute Harbour made me feel good about my decision so i catch the bus to Airlie to see whether i made a the right choice? And holy sheeit! was i glad i went to Shute!!!!!!! The highest tide for 10 years was smashing the bay with 40 knot gusts from the north, SURFERS riding waves on the main beach at Airlie, Sadly i watched 2 boats break free from their moorings and break into little bits on the rocks while about 30 boats still on their moorings were getting the wildest ride possible, It was absolutely amazing to watch! At the sailing club i was told another 4 boats had gone onto the rocks around the corner at Cannonvale . so sad for the owners!. i stood watching a corsair (i think) doing waterski speeds across the bay and wishing i had bought my kitesurfing gear as it was epic kiting conditions. is there anyone reading this that was there and can write thier opinions of this storm?
