Trip North - Kareela - Ivor & Debbie
Written by Geoff
Saturday, 31 January 2009 02:54
C29 Kareela Sydney - Barrier Reef return
DEBBIE AND IVOR’S TRIP NORTH
More than six months and over 2000 nautical miles later the great trip north to the Barrier Reef, a trip that we first planned six years ago when we started sailing lessons is over. To be honest we’re pretty proud of this achievement and obviously we’re much better sailors. Our trepidation about relatively simple things like night sailing has been replaced by a confidence in our ability to handle just about anything likely to be encountered coastal sailing. We are now, also, very clear what we want from and need for future sailing adventures. Overall it was a very interesting experience full of both highs and lows, an experience difficult to capture in a short article but maybe the following list of ‘records’ will give you an idea.
Furthest Position North: Gloucester Passage near Bowen (20 o S). A stunningly beautiful spot out of the hype of the Whitsundays.
Best Fishing Crabbing: I’m no fisherman but anywhere north of the Great Sandy Strait I couldn’t stop them jumping on the line. Get yourself a mackerel line for trawling as you sail, a hand line and some crab pots. The Narrows near Gladstone is particularly good for crabbing.
Pan Pans Heard: One - our own!! For those of you that didn’t hear the story – We were holed up in Butterfly Bay a particularly beautiful spot in the northern part of the Whitsundays, sheltering from strong winds and rain. Debbie had caught a really nasty flu virus and couldn't get out of bed for days. On the 6th day she had some sort of seizure and was slurring her words and lost control of her left side. It was pretty terrifying for both of us. We were both convinced it was a stroke. I got on the radio and the response was fantastic. A nurse from a neighboring boat was there within a few minutes and within an hour a fast boat had arrived from nearby Hayman Island. Debbie was taken to Hayman where the rescue helicopter was waiting to take her to Mackay Base Hospital. I was left to get back in atrocious windy, cold, rainy/foggy conditions to Airlie Beach on my own. I finally got to the hospital at eleven o’clock that night. Fortunately it had not been a stroke. It took weeks to get to the final diagnosis but it would appear that the virus she had caught caused encephalitis- inflamed meningee of the brain-which caused the seizure and subsequent breathing difficulties and dizzy spells. It took her about six weeks to recover properly.
Groundings: One. After a twenty four hour trip from Yamba we were almost at the marina on the Gold Coast Seaway going up a channel which we had used the previous year, following an out of date version of Beacon to Beacon, beep beep beep from the depth sounder and bang we were instantly aground on a sand bank. Fortunately there was quite a strong wind and we managed to manoeuvre the boat into a position where the sails tilted the boat enough to free the keel and we reversed off.
Strongest Winds: 50 knots sheltering behind Great Kepple. It’s in conditions like this that you are so pleased that you have plenty of chain and the best anchor, not a cheap imitation. You also make sure your not near people who don’t know what they are doing. We didn’t budge an inch and were much more confident about anchoring after this!
Funniest Situation: Still laughing at Debbie’s dinghy beach-landing technique on steeply sloping beaches: cut the motor, jump over the side, and end up neck-deep in water. Great to watch.
Most Dangerous Situation: The closest we came to actually losing the boat was near Thirsty Sound. The sound has 8 metre tides and as a result huge tidal streams. We didn’t want to continue sailing on through the night and thought it would be OK to anchor off a beach in this area as long as we dropped anchor shortly after slack tide. We arrived one hour after slack tide and had to negotiate a gap between a rock, at the end of a sandbank, and the beach. We headed towards the gap in a direction at right angles to the tidal stream knowing that it would push us towards the rock. We could not believe the strength of the current and how quickly it was taking us towards the rock, depth sounder beeping continuously. We turned the boat up into the tidal stream and fortunately we could motor sail with about 15 knots of wind essentially in the direction of the tidal stream. For an agonising minute or so we did not know whether we would escape the tidal stream. Our little 10 hp Bukh would not have been strong enough on its own to get us out. It took us an hour and a half to go1 nautical mile and escape the tidal black hole and this was one hour after turn of tide!
Worst Conditions Encountered: An overnighter Gold Coast to Yamba. Buoy weather got it wrong bom was right this time. Never believe the most optimistic forecast even if you have been stuck for a couple of weeks. 30 + knots and 4m seas. OK on a short trip and during the day but best avoided otherwise. It was a downwind sail but boy do you have to concentrate in these conditions. Certainly a fast trip – we averaged 8 ½ knots!
Best Locations: The Whitsudays really do live up to their reputation. It is a fabulous place to sail with great walks on many of the islands and if you want to visit a resort on the cheap South Mole is the go ($11 each allows you to anchor off the resort with full access to all facilities including their fabulous golf course). But for us the stand out location is anywhere on the outer reef. There is good info on the reefs out from the Whitsundays but elsewhere talk to the locals particularly the local VMR’s – go and visit them. You need the local knowledge – charts are just not good enough in these areas.
Most Enjoyable Times: The company of fellow yachties. Cruising is just such a friendly, sociable scene. It gives you the chance to meet such a huge range of people, some of whom you’re happy to meet briefly others that you end up travelling with, but quite seriously all good to meet. We met 70 year olds that had sailed to Alaska, up the Amazon and around the horn, wild life photographers who had wintered in Antarctica, fabulous warm hearted families exploring the world with their kids, etc, etc, all the stuff in the sailing books we used to devour.
I hope this gives you some idea of our trip but if you want to know more, particularly anyone contemplating the trip for the first time we’re always happy to talk to you. D & I.
Last Updated on Saturday, 31 January 2009 04:20