PITTWATER TO SOUTHPORT

I thought I would feel nervous, but strangely I was not. Months of planning, discussing, and preparation had made me quite relaxed about the journey ahead. As it was Mother’s Day, we had lunch at Pyrenees’ home the RMYC Newport with my parents, Stu’s mum Jean and the kids so we could be at the boat straight after and be ready for the crew to arrive.

With the last things stowed away, and family all on board (my brother Brett & wife Fiona had now joined us) it seemed very strange to just be waiting, there was nothing more we could do – we tried to find something, rechecking safety lines, dinghy fastenings, fridges, navigation route but nothing had been left undone. We did though have to find a way to secure the tulips Mel had given me for Mother’s Day much to Stuart’s horror of having a plant on board – Mel decided that was her job and tied “Lucky” into the galley, which then led to knot tying practice as we sat in the saloon chatting.

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The crew started arriving Warwick (Waz)- an ex-work colleague of Stuart’s and very experienced sailor who had spent a lot of time on our first “Pyrenees” racing her and bringing her back down the Qld coast many moons ago. Tim, another ex-work colleague, who has known Stuart for over 30 years.  Tony – who was an Optus franchisee as I was, has raced regularly and is also a member of Marine Rescue and Mike, whom we have recently met through Stuart’s Monday night racing on a great little boat called “Poppyseed” Mike has had many years boating experience and was keen to get some more sailing time in, as he is loving it!  All up lots of experience and a great group. 

With all crew onboard it was time to usher all the well wishers onto the dock and as the last light fell across Pittwater, Pyrenees left her pen.  Well lit with our new LED nav lights, and all the gear on the 3-hour watches kicked in with Stuart, Tim and Tony, who would later be tagged Team L & D (Lightening and Destruction) being first up. Team Messiah, which consisted of Warwick Mike and I  headed down below; after a quick meal, to get some rest before 9pm came around.

My first watch, my first night sail and all was calm, so calm we could not put the sails up and motoring was to be the norm for the entire trip. It was a moonless night so quite dark, but visibility was surprisingly good. I was surprised how quickly the watch went; in no time it was back to bed.

3am, and PFD (personal floatation device) on, up on deck, harnessed in and we were just south of Fingal Head near Port Stephens. A few fishing vessels to keep an eye on and further out to see the ships hanging off or leaving Newcastle. The clouds had started to clear, and we watched the most amazing moon rise. A minute slither of a golden, almost orange crescent moon balancing on the horizon. It seemed sit on the horizon for ages, though it would have only been seconds. I just wish I could have snapped a shot!

Monday became a blur, sleep, eat, watch repeat.   We had reached Killick Beach (near Kempsey) by the time Tuesday had rolled around and seen some beautiful coastline, a few dolphins but surprisingly little birdlife. Everyone had settled into boat routine and Pyrenees was a happy lady.

With clear skies, and the milky way fully visible we all (well everyone but Stu) got to witness some of a meteor shower. And I got scared out of my seat as a something broke the water surface about 20 metres off our starboard quarter. First thought was a whale, as it was so silent, which that close – no thank you! Then another break, this time closer and a flash of white headed to our bow.  A lone dolphin!

Tuesday, not so much sleep as bodies got use to the rhythm of watches but we all tried when off watch to at least lay down and get some rest, failing that it was up on deck relaxing whilst the opposite watch did their stuff. Whales sighted (well Tim swears he saw one!) Seas were still calm, and we watched a beautiful sunset as we passed New Zealand Beach towards Evans Head and had our evening meal together.

6 – 9pm off watch but no sleep as the seas had started to change and Pyrenees was starting to lift through the waves. With our cabin at the bow, it was impossible to get any sleep whilst being tossed and turned involuntarily!  I did learn though, if you had a moment of silence, the fall off the wave was coming and the crash landing! Time for watch and the call from deck was to rug up and don the wet weather gear.

The radar showed storm cells intensifying, lightening in the distance things were looking grim. We were all happy that sails were not up as they would have certainly been coming down!  Strangely as we watched the worst cell at around 11pm, 6 miles out on the radar they started to dissipate.  A small gap appeared in the cell; the red started to go orange. We all congregated and had a great laugh as we watched the cell split and all but disappear. I think we got about 3 drops of rain.  Handing over the watch at midnight – nothing to report, two ships to our east, put on your wet weather gear as a precaution but storms seem to be moving to our south.

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I decided to sleep in the saloon, as the seas were still making our berth uncomfortable. Totally exhausted I was sound asleep when the inside of the boat lit up as though someone had just turned on a huge floodlight inside – no clap, no thunder. I waited but all sounded good so went back to sleep, to be broken by a rogue swell or lightening glow.  3am came way to soon!  Team L & D called out for us to stay below and stay dry!

Not taking up the exceedingly kind offer (they really needed a break) we ushered them down below amongst snippets of how bad things had been, warnings of watching the storm cells, and being prepared to put all the backup nav gear and sat phone into the oven (it acts like a Faraday cage). Stuart kept popping his head up offering tea, coffee etc – he was still wired from the watch and had to be firmly told to lay down, even if he did not sleep (he crashed quickly!) We were off Cudgen Creek at this stage and the NSW Queensland border was soon to be crossed.  Well, it rained a bit as we went up on deck, and we thought it would stay that way, but the Messiah’s were on duty!  We watched the Tempest fall away to the south, have few failed attempts to the West and welcomed daylight with heavy cloud on the horizon and approx. 7nm south of the Gold Coast Seaway.

Clockwise: The Gold Coast putting on a show as we arrived; the morning after the Tempest: Surfers entering the seaway; Volunteer Marine Rescue at Gold Coast Seaway

An hour’s sleep (in our cabin!) and I joined Team L & D for the crossing of the Southport Seaway. The gold Coast was glowing in the morning sun as we waited our turn amongst the fishing trawlers. We got the green light from Volunteer Marine Rescue in Seaway Tower and as we entered the last thing, we expected was to have to keep an eye on surfers who use the seaway as a short cut from the Gold Coast spit to get over to the northern beach break!

A short run down past the spit, Sea World and Marina Mirage, our pen greeted us in Southport Yacht Club.  A quick tidy up and out for a well-earned breakfast and many a story…….

Stuart…..

The voyage was a great introduction to overnight ocean passages for several of our crew with mild winds and seas which unfortunately meant no sailing. However, on our last night as we approached our destination, several storm cells loomed ominously and most slipped around us with the exception being an exceptionally large and active beast near Brunswick Heads. Lightning was both in the clouds and striking the ocean for what seemed like an hour with one so close it made the hairs on my arms stand on end.

It is always great fun to try and interpret the navigation lights on fishing trawlers and we encountered many as we made our passage north. It still baffles me why they don’t use AIS as most yachts do and all ships are required to. AIS does give you a good deal of confidence transiting through shipping areas like Newcastle and combined with our radar gave us a good picture of vessels and coastline around us on what were 3 moonless nights particularly in some periods of limited visibility.

Overall Pyrenees and her crew performed well in a 61-hour passage from Pittwater to Southport. Fuel consumption was spot on the Yanmar curves and at 1800rpm we made between 4 and 7 knots depending on how badly we were affected by the Australian East Coast Current… the worst of which was between Port Macquarie and Smoky Cape. This was remarkably close with predictions from the Windy app. Wind forecasts also from Windy were perfectly accurate particularly with the ECMWF model which I have found to be particularly good. Pyrenees as usual was up to the job and many months of preparation paid dividends with the only repairs needed in Southport being to the crew’s head …. in fairness to them, both were jobs we knew about in Sydney though they may never know that 😀

So, shorts and T-shirts are now in order having arrived in Queensland after several firsts for a number of the crew …. overnight ocean passages, bar crossings, using radar and AIS and sailing through a lightning storm which was worse than any I had been through in South East Asia (and we certainly saw a few there!).  Thanks to the team for spending almost 3 days with Lianne and I in a confined 15m space.

And from the crew…..

Mike – Leaving Pittwater at 6pm Sunday on schedule like a well-oiled machine, we headed off into the darkness not knowing what lay ahead. Thankfully, Stuart put together a great mix of deck hands which made the trip the memorable event that it was. Possible whale sightings, many dolphins at different stages of the journey, near miss lightning strikes “how close was that lightning” helped fill the many stories that we will continue to talk about and remember for years to come. A huge thankyou to our wonderful hosts Lianne and Stuart, safe sailing for your journey ahead.

Tony – Some learnings about our friends this week…

1. Pyrenees, whilst a beautiful vessel, is really a synonym for huge lightning rod.

2. Lianne & Stu, of the A watch are candidates for lifesavers of the year with their magical powers to conquer the oceans, divide & conquer wild storms & whip up feasts fit for kings in the dark of night & morn.

We new friends, Waz, Mike, Tim & I were the motley fools who sought seatime & had no idea how much we would enjoy & learn from a quick non-stop 60-hour sail from Pittwater to the Gold Coast.

We conquered the acronym soup of AIS, Radar range rings, split MFD display, VHF, Skeds, LED headlamps & are the wiser seamen for it. Who knew we could learn to tell the difference between a 330m container ship & a 10m prawn trawler coming right at us 9 miles out?

We saw sunrises, sunsets & wildlife up close that others pay a king’s ransom to glimpse from afar.

We tested our stamina & ingenuity to problem solve as a team & triumphed over hurdles like Seahawk (Marine rescue tracking system), fuel range calculations, random total system resets & competition between crew for the most number of phantom throttle adjustments.

But the main takeaway for me besides all the fun was the feeling of achievement for having transited a vast portion of the east coast of the country in the absolute best & worst of conditions with some special people... Tony

Waz – Getting to the boat a little early as I tend to do, Lianne and Stu cheerfully ushered me on to the boat which was crowded with family and well-wishers.  Stu was prowling the boat double checking (and as Stu is known to do, triple and quadruple checking) the preparations.  The remaining crew began to arrive until we were all ready for departure well before the 6:00 deadline.  The well-wishers were slowly farewelled and with a final check to make sure Mark (another sailing mate who came to see us off) was not stowed away somewhere we departed 5 mins before the deadline.  

From that point the well thought out plan was put into motion.The AIS and Radar were switched on.  The proximity alarms started to blare, and we were on our way. After several ear shattering minutes, we managed to turn off the alarms and a quiet energy remained with the crew in anticipation of the trip to come.  

Stu had set up a track on the chart plotter which we were told to keep to one side of (we are sure Stu was silently monitoring this on his phone even while he slept!).

As to be expected Lianne’s provisioning was par excellent.  Savoury mince the first night, pesto chicken pasta the next and Grandmas secret recipe beef curry the third.  An assortment of cereals, yoghurt, coffee, tea, juice for breakfast, gourmet rolls for lunch.  While the three hours on three hours off watches 24 hrs a day seemed gruelling, we all (well most of us!) got accustomed to it over the trip and meant that we had plenty of people available to manage sails (if we ever needed them).  

The seas were small, and the winds were light (except for one watch!) and other traffic was mostly sparse.  The only thing that was not well organised was the wind direction which was generally close to the nose the whole trip.  This precluded the use of sails.  

The watches consisted of Stu, Tim and Tony (team lightning and destruction (L&D)) and Lianne, Mike and Waz (team Messiah).All was well and the trip was calm until the last night.  Team Messiah had safely handed the boat to team L&D.  The wind was light the sea was calm.  As sleep took team Messiah, the engine revved randomly as it had a tendency to do when team L&D were at the helm. Then what seemed like seconds later (though it could have been hours) there was a blinding light and a simultaneous bang, which awakened the dead.  

Team L&D had insulted the gods and summoned a tempest.  The heavens opened and lightning was all around, Stu swears the lightning was so close it made his hair stand on end.  At the end of the watch team L&D were round eyed in delight and had to be prised from the helm. As team Messiah took control the clouds parted the rain stopped and the wind dropped.  Several times the tempest attempted to return but dissipated just before reaching Pyrenees.  

At the end of the watch, we were close to the end of the adventure and Stu and team L&D brought Pyrenees safely through the bar at Southport and into the marina.

Thanks for the adventure and enjoy the rest of your amazing trip!

Tim’s account – well he left this adventure to head straight off on another so we may be waiting a while!

A huge thanks to the “boys” for making the time to make the passage with us. Stuart & I greatly appreciate all that you did for us, the experience you bought and the banter, but mostly for making Lianne’s first night passages mostly uneventful!

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