Pastime of Sydney- 2009 Adventures

We set off from Erith ISland on schedule. All the kayakers had paddled out to say good bye and we charged a mobile phone for them. The 12V charger used the day before had not worked but this time their 240volt one was okay. Not that they can get reception there but more for when they got in range of the mainland.

Yet again, we had a brief (but adequate) weather window. We were expecting about 8hrs of 30kt winds in the night. We started off with a single reef in the sail and because of the currents around these islands, we were racing towards our destination at over 9kts.

It was a beautiful sunny day with a very pleasant 15kts of wind on the beam. This is what most sailors like best.

The wind began to build (as expected) and we made excellent time. We had current both with and against us which is expected in these waters. Indeed, the for and against currents cancelled out to within 1% over the passage.

We spoke with Tamar Coastguard with position updates. Bryn is a very friendly and dedicate, hard-working volunteer who is a main contact point for yachts in these waters. We are guessing he is Welsh. When he reads the weather forecasts, his voice drops pitch at the end of each sentence. So, it is perfectly clear and legible but could be part of a Welsh hymn or Gregorian chant.

A few hours before night fall, Bryn advised us that he had received a call from Victorian Police to say that the wind situation and approaching front seemed to be much more serious than predicted.

We were still within our predicted wind range, though getting close to 30kts. So, we decided to add a further reef in the mainsail and reef the headsail a little. Just as well, because the wind rose further. We were glad not to be on the West Coast of Tasmania because the predictions were for 6-8metre seas on 6metre swells. Not nice!

Anyway, we had an excellent night with the boat performing beautifully. The three metre seas were starting to get a bit cranky as we neared Port Dalrymple. The wind had risen to 36kts and indeed was blowing hard. It had not come around to behind us which we had expected but was still on the beam. This gave us heaps of boat speed, indeed almost too much even reefed down.

The only difficulty with all this was that we were way ahead of even our most optimistic schedule having averaged 7kts the whole way. So, despite the planning, we were yet again coming in with no moon and hours until daylight. We got the sails down in the harbour and the autopilot lost its head. We only use it for taking down sails so it was very annoying that it started heading us into danger as we were tying up the sail. Perhaps the mainsheet knocked the "standby" button on the autopilot? Let's be charitable and say so because the AP has been behaving fine (last used when the paddle kept coming off the Cape Horn and we used the AP until daybreak on the way to Deal Is from Eden). As normally the case, Flinders the Cape Horn windvane had steered us perfectly from Deal Is to the Tamar.

We made our way up the river for a few miles and anchored off historic Georgetown. We set an alarm to wake us for the morning sked where we reported to Bryn that we had arrived safely. Just as well, because by then it was blowing a gale outside and indeed inside the river.

We will be here for a week or two, exploring the Tamar. It is about 64km down the river to Launceston and it looks as if daughter Tess will be visiting us one of the following two weekends. Hooray!

Best Regds, Dave & Penny