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Published: October 23rd 2017
Sailing the Coral Sea
Capt’n’s Log
A voyage of 970 nautical miles taking just over 8 days, with an average speed of 5.46 knots. The best daily run was 155 n miles at an average of 6.5 knots and the two slowest daily runs were both 106 n miles at 4.4 knots.
This is the story from October 2016 of the leaving of Australia after nearly 2 years sailing down and up its east coast. The plan was to sail from Gladstone to Noumea in New Caledonia and then have a few days off before taking on the final crossing to New Zealand. This blog covers the initial voyage.
This was the first ocean passage since arriving in Coffs Harbour, Australia, in November 2014. Whilst Hakura and I had done 6 434 n miles south then north along the east coast of Australia, the closest to an ocean passage we had done were the two crossings of Bass Strait (less than 3 days each) and the sail from Brisbane to the southern Whitsunday Islands (4 days). In general, this passage should take five to seven days, with
a strong possibility of having to sail into the southeast trade winds, which would significantly increase the time. This meant we needed to be well prepared; this included having three crew, making sure Hakura was working as well as possible and looking for a suitable weather window.
On the crew front I still had Steve d’Yank and we were to be joined by Paul, an enthusiastic sailor from Brisbane. Paul and I had been talking about this crossing since April when he responded to a notice I had placed on an Australian web page called Gumtree. Paul was keen and willing to come up from Brisbane once we had a weather window.
The weather window we wanted consisted of low SE trades or, even better, northerlies, at least at the beginning. I contacted the New Zealand sailing weather guru Bob MacDevett. Bob had done voyage weather plans for some of my earlier passages. Bob identified a potential window from the end of September that is the end of the week. This window was to give us a strong westerly to leave on, then back to the south about mid passage and finally
back to the southeast as we approached Noumea. The strong winds at the beginning would push us along and not cause any issues for us. There was a chance of stronger winds in the middle with the southerly change and again about a day out as the southeast trades re-established themselves; overall a good window. So we had our window, therefore, I notified both Paul and the Australian Customs, who both needed about 48 hours notice. The target was to leave on Friday morning. Paul would arrive Thursday and we would clear Customs on Friday morning. The officers were coming down to Hakura for the paperwork.
This gave Steve and myself a few days to stock up and do a couple of small jobs to be ready. During this time we saw a bit of central Gladstone. The mining industry in Australia was entering one of its many down turns and these have a big impact on towns like Gladstone, with many shops being empty. The best eating-place we found as the Gladstone Yacht club, which we visited on my birthday. One issue with the club was that it stopped serving food at 8 pm
sharp: more on this later.
Paul arrived on Thursday, with his family to see him off. One interesting aspect was that while he and I had been emailing over the past 6 months about the coming voyage, he told me that he had only told his wife about the specifics of the voyage 24 hours before arriving on-board (see more on this below in Paul’s section at the end). Well, she did seem to be also keen for him to do the voyage, so I take my hat off to her for both supporting Paul and her ability to deal with what needed to happen.
Thursday was our last night in Gladstone and Australia so we went out for dinner, however, we did not leave Hakura until after 7:30 pm, after having completed many of the jobs we needed to do. Thus we arrived at the Yacht club right on 8:00 pm to be told that they no longer served food. The only place we found open was a bar in a hotel, where the manager said; sure we could have food as long as it was pizza. That was ok will us.
Friday dawned with heavy rain, however, that cleared as the morning went on, as per the forecasts, so all was looking good for a late morning start. A couple of officers from Australia Board Force (formerly Customs) arrived and soon all the paper work was done and we had 48 hours to clear the port.
In passing, I asked a question I had wanted to ask for a while. It turns out that even if you declared having drugs like heron in your possession you would still be arrested as the possession of such items is an offence anywhere, even outside Australian waters. The rest of the crew got a bit upset that I should ask such a question. I don’t know why.
The last two jobs we did were to get fresh ice and the final fuel up. Both of which were completed just after 12 noon and we headed out for the open water. Now it is about a 3-hour trip from the township of Gladstone to open water through the busy port of Gladstone. One of the effects of this is that we were 3 hours behind the timing
of the weather plan for the voyage. I don’t think this had a big impact but we did seem to miss some of the westerly winds I was hoping for.
About 15:00 we cleared the harbour and headed to the southeast so as to pass on the southern side of the Bunker-Capricorn Group (which includes Lady Musgrove Island). We were making good speed being pushed along by a moderate westerly wind. That evening we passed Lady Musgrove and I was able to count about 20 vessels at anchor within its lagoon. It had been about 4 and a half months earlier that Hakura had been one of those vessels.
The wind was lighter and more northerly than predicted, which meant we had smoother sailing thus allowing us to find our sea legs easily. This pattern continued for the next 24 hours then the wind began to fail. Whilst light wind sailing is slow it is also very smooth so what I find frustrating in terms of speed I have to remind myself we make up for in comfort.
After midnight on 2 October, the wind dropped away to next
to nothing. We began motor sailing to make some progress. However, we had insufficient fuel to motor the whole way to New Caledonia. This is usually the case as Hakura is a sailing vessel and we plan to sail the whole passage. When there is no wind, however, you can either motor to make progress or just wait for the wind. Some of the factors that need to be considered when making such decisions included:
· If we waited for the wind, it was likely to return as the southeast trades thus being right on the nose for a trip to New Caledonia?
· If we motored how far would we get before we ran out of fuel (and then we would have no choice but to wait for the wind)?
· At what point do we head back to Australia, either to Gladstone or a more southerly port such as Brisbane (where we would loss Paul)?
· The slower we travelled the further away from the voyage weather plan we would be.
As part of the balancing of these issues, I decided to motor at 800 revolutions per
minute (rpm) rather than the usual 1000rpm. This produced a slower speed (3 knots against 5 knots) but used less fuel per hour (0.5 litres against 1 litre), which over all would get us closer to New Caledonia. So for the next 36 hours we motored along at 3 knots, however, we were moving and heading in the right direction. Overall, this was a very pleasant period with its fine weather, smooth seas and gentle motion on board.
Another advantage of light winds is that you get to see some of the marine life that is around on the surface. While we were close to the Australia coast, we saw several humpback whales and some pods of dolphins. As we moved away from the coast (about 200 plus nmiles offshore) we saw two other species of marine mammals, about an hour apart.
The first sighting was of a small pod of Risso’s dolphins. A largish dolphin of about 4 metres with a greyish brown body often covered with many scars. These animals crossed our path and did not coming to the boat. They were soon lost from sight. The second sighting was of a
largish pod of medium sized black dolphins. We watched these dolphins for several minutes as they lay on the surface and occasionally dived for short periods. I suspect that they were melon-headed whales, although another species, pygmy killer whales, are very similar. The books I have on-board indicated that the melon-headed whales were a more likely candidate as they usually occur in the subtropical and tropical waters while pygmy killer whales were more tropical. At the time, our location was just south of the tropic of Capricornia.
As our third day at sea began the wind appeared and we were able to start sailing again. Along with the quite, I also enjoyed the pleasure of having fuel left for our arrival in New Caledonia. Over the rest of the third day the wind stayed at about 10 knots allowing Hakura to make 6 to 7 knots of speed. Great sailing conditions so time to bring out the BRS (Big Red Sail). I really enjoy flying this sail.
All this time the weather was not following the voyage weather plan in terms of wind direction or strength. The Plan did predict a southerly
front arriving about midday. Guess what, the change did arrive though still with lighter winds. The voyage plan had us heading more southerly than directly towards New Caledonia, this would mean that we would be southwest of Noumea enabling us to run across the southeast trades when they came back in. So far that part of the plan was working well and we were able to run more across the wind in the last couple of days. During the whole voyage, the wind did not reach more than about 15 knots and I have not memory of rain at all.
On the final day, we all became excited about seeing land again and the watch keepers were very intent on looking forward for the first site of land. Now being the navigator and having done this before, I did have a decided advantage when it comes to seeing land first. Yep, I fully used these advantages and was the first to see the distant peaks of New Caledonia.
As we approached the main entrance on the southwestern corner of the outer reef, the light was being to fail but New Caledonia has wonderful navigation
lights and very good charts so with a combination of handheld GPS, and chart plotter on my tablet we safely motor sailed through the gap.
As is usual around coral reefs, the ocean swell disappears as you pass through the outer reef and life settles down the to gentle smooth seas, though in this case the traffic did increase massively. Since we had not seen another vessel since Australia, this was not surprising.
The next issue was, were to spend the night. There were several outer islands where we could enjoy the first full night’s sleep. Now Paul noticed he had cell phone coverage and began calling and texting his family. I’m not entirely clear about what happened in these calls but Paul began talking about flying back to Australia the next day. Normally not an issue except we arrived on Friday night.
Many people ask me do we need to pass through Customs and Immigration. Too bloody right we do. The people on board go through the same process as if we arrived by plane. There are additional forms for Hakura. Not all countries run these processes for
vessels every day of the week, or more importantly every day of the weekend. Paul had found out that Customs was working on Saturday morning and if we got into Port Moselle, we could get clearance. So he went ahead and organised a booking on a flight out during the afternoon.
So next morning we headed into the Port Moselle Marina and their office organised Customs clearance. As I was about to head back to Hakura, I just asked whether or not this included Immigration? It turns out, no. But after a quick call to the Immigration office they had an officer who would call and give us our entry, thus Paul could leave later that day.
Thus on Saturday 8 October we had officially arrived in New Caledonia.
Overall a very enjoyable voyage with only a little concern about the lack of wind, but once that arrived it was smooth sailing, as they say. The crew were great and really enjoyable, hard workers, doing their shifts without compliant (that I heard anyway and that is all the matters). I would have both of them back any time (which
was really good as Steve was staying on to New Zealand).
Comments from Paul from Brisbane
I had been researching the possibility of sailing to Noumea ever since visiting there in 2009, and came across the idea of being a crewmember on a boat when the opportunity arose. Fast-forward to 2016 and we now have 4 young kids (4, 5, 6 and 8) and are busy running a family business plus being involved in community events in Sandgate, a suburb of Brisbane where we lived.
Since April 2016 I had been exchanging messages, via Gumtree, with Doug about the possibility of such a passage. I had also been speaking with Wendy about the idea of sailing on Hakura. Wendy was concerned about the idea of sailing overseas with a complete stranger (she doubted the integrity of Gumtree more than anything, and is an avid watcher of the TV Shows "Banged Up Abroad" and "Border Patrol"). With her concerns noted, I continued the conversations off and on until September when it began to seem like there was a possibility of my dream becoming a reality.
The dates and times were a little bit sketchy, but if all went to plan it looked as if a window was opening up in early October. We were in the middle of a very busy period with a forthcoming Men's Health Program Event and Wellness Expo planned for the middle of October. Whilst there was a chance of returning in time, it seemed doubtful, so I ended up asking Wendy for permission to leave her with the 4 kids to take care of them, the business and to run the event in my absence. Wendy, understanding that this was probably a once in a lifetime opportunity for me, she agreed and I was able to step aboard Hakura with Doug and Steve and say goodbye to my young family. It was well worth it, and the trip was a real highlight for me personally.
After a week at sea, and no communication at all with my family we picked up communications as we arrived to Noumea late on the Friday evening. I was looking forward to a few days touring around the island and enjoying some relaxed time (without the 3 hour shifts at
the helm) but it became immediately clear that if at all possible, I needed to be at home for the following evening to take care of my responsibilities at home and in the business.
My trip ended with a scramble to get through customs, immigration and a hasty goodbye to Doug and Steve, before boarding the flight home. Looking down through the plane window gave me a chance to reflect on the many contrasts from a week's sailing with life at a slower pace compared to the reality of me jetting back to the busy life I had created in a capital city.
It was been now a year since the trip and looking back it was life changing. It is probably a cliché, but the trip allowed me to appreciate how vast our world is and the pleasures of slowing down and getting into a simple routine. We saw no dolphins, whales, birds, flying fish or sunset "green flashes" from the Jet. Since returning, we have chosen to move our family to the country, being a small town just north of Bundaberg and we live by the ocean. Our life is slower, our
life is simpler and every time I look out over those waves I picture the moment that the island of New Caledonia emerged into our view and I think about the next trip. One thing is for sure; I will make certain I have the time to enjoy the destination with my fellow crew.
Thanks Paul for the great words, Doug.
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