Monday 4th January 2010,we set sail from Robe at 6.30am and reached Rivoli Bay (South End) at 1.30pm, after a few hours rest we then set sail again at 6.30pm for the long overnight sail to Portland. This was my Brother Bob’s first night sail. When we arrived in Portland we were met by the local customs officers who wanted to check that we were an Australian Registered Vessel (which we are) and then were advised by the local council that we couldn’t stay tied up to the town jetty as it wasn’t designed to take vessels our length or weight. We spent 3 nights anchored in the harbour at Portland before departing on Friday 8th Jan for Port Fairy.
The sail from Portland to Port Fairy took us approx 5 ½ hours sailing past Lady Julia Percy Island which has a seal colony and then up the river to the delightful town of Port Fairy. We stayed for 6 days tied up to the wharf on the ocean side of the town. We caught up with Rodger Haldane whom we first met in Port Lincoln, he owns the Shaw River Buffalo Cheese Factory and we sampled some of his products. This town is a well kept secret and one we will visit again one day.
We departed Port Fairy Thursday 14th Jan at 4.15am and arrived in Apollo Bay at 3.30pm a long day but a pleasantly smooth Southern Ocean at a 10-15 knot southerly wind, so we truly motor sailed. Whilst we were waiting for “the right weather” to cross Bass Strait Bob & Ron serviced the anchor winch and small Barlow #15 winch, did general engine maintenance, refuelled and generally got Finesse ship shape for the crossing.
We found Apollo Bay an expensive tourist town. We managed to visit the old cable station museum which we found quite interesting. Bob even had a round of golf on a course that overlooks the ocean.
After spending a week at Apollo Bay we departed on Thursday 21st January for New Year Island at 5.20am and arrived there at 3.00pm after a great run across Bass Strait or should we say “Bass Lake”. New Year Island is a small island on the North West side of King Island and is adjacent to Christmas Island and a beautifully protected anchorage. This crossing was approximately 55 nm so a great introduction to Bass Strait. We dropped anchor and the boys proceeded to go fishing and managed to catch 4 fish which we then cooked for dinner. We found this a great anchorage and were joined that night by 4 fishing boats seeking shelter for the night.
Friday 22nd January we departed at 7.30am for the motor sail around the top of King Island our destination being Grassy Harbour on the East side of the island. . At about 2.30pm after an extremely pleasant motor sail in very light winds the water pump on the main engine stopped pumping water. We were about 7 nm from Grassy when this happened and with a tide running against us we were down to a boat speed of 2kts. Whilst time was not so much a factor the fact that our low speed and the tide were pushing Finesse closer towards the land (a lee shore). Peta tried to raise the Tamar Coast Guard and the police vessel Van Diemen from Hobart who was cruising around King Island and other islands on a 6 day mission, answered our call and within 45 minutes arrived and took us in tow. (This vessel only comes this way twice a year) so how lucky were we.
They suggested taking us back up the coast to Naracoopa (about 10nm north of Grassy) as it was a better safe anchorage and when we arrived in Grassy we knew why they had made that decision. Peta managed to contact a marine diesel mechanic at 4.45pm on a Friday afternoon and he agreed to send one of his boy’s over from Currie which is about 26kms on the other side of the island. He arrived at 6pm and it was all fixed by 7.30pm.
We decided to set sail early next morning as strong winds were forecast later but turned back after an hour as we were heading into southerly 20+ kts gusting to 30kts winds and heavy seas. So we spent the day back at Naracoopa.
We departed Naracoopa t 6.30am the next morning and motored to Grassy Harbour on a reasonably calm sea arriving at 9.00am. The harbour master advised us which mooring to pick up as you can’t anchor due to the large turning circle needed for the once a week supply vessel to the island. We all agreed that the very rough seas the previous day would have made it very dangerous to enter this very tight harbour.
On our dinghy ride to shore we met a local yachty who offered to drive us the 26k’s into Currie and then took us to the King Island Cheese Factory We were able to purchase a good selection of cheeses.
Monday 25th Jan we departed King Island at 5.30am for Hunter Island and Three Hummock Island. We anchored in Shepherds Bay arriving at 2.00pm. We found Shepherds Bay a safe anchorage with a sandy bottom for good holding from the strong southerly winds but no fish..
We departed the next day at 7.30am for our final Bass Strait crossing heading to Stanley (The Nut) on the Tasmanian mainland. Again a fantastic motor sail arriving in 30 knot winds into an extremely small harbour with a very narrow (hairy) entrance around 2.30pm. We spent 2 nights in this harbour before departing on Thursday 28th Jan for Devonport.
This was a long day sail leaving Stanley at 8.00am and arriving into Devonport at 6.15pm. Friday morning we saw Bob depart on the Spirit of Tasmania ferry back to Melbourne for his connecting flight home to Perth.
I am sure Bob has enjoyed his month with us and we thank him sincerely for his contribution to shipboard life during that time and for assisting us to cross Bass Strait.
We have been in Devonport now for 5 days awaiting the replacement of our domestic battery which is not holding its charge. We will then depart and head up the Tamar River and hopefully to Launceston all being well.
Monday, February 1, 2010
Saturday, December 26, 2009
Photo's of River Murray & Robe
PORT VINCENT/ADELAIDE/KANGAROO ISLAND/ROBE
Upon our return to Pt Vincent we discovered that our Westerbeke 240 volt genset was not generating any electricity. We also discovered that the water pump was leaking. This unfortunately led to another problem with a piece of plastic being drawn into the motor which wedged itself under an inlet valve causing it to be jammed open.
We decided after much thought to have the back end (the stator and rotor) of the genset rewound in Adelaide and use a mechanic in Pt Vincent to repair the engine. In hind site we probably should have bought a new genset!! Anyway after various road trips to Adelaide and finding that the backend was not rewound correctly we decided to sail across the gulf to Adelaide to have the rewind company use their own mechanic to save our cost and so they could establish the problem first hand. Unfortunately our auto helm decided to go crazy on the trip across, Finesse decided to do do-nuts in the middle of the gulf. So another problem had to be fixed whilst in Adelaide. It was found that our flux-gate compass had broken some internal wires.
Whilst in Adelaide we took the dinghy up the Port River to the Old Port, saw the Birkenhead Bridge open to allow a classic steam driven tug boat through. We saw the maritime museum, did a twilight race out of the Cruising Yacht Club with John Culshaw and ate in his central Adelaide “Culshaws Restaurant” in the Majestic Hotel. John also showed us much of the North Adelaide district and a number of his own property developments. We also explored Glenelg using public transport.
Mike and Maggie who worked for Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) loaned us a car for a couple of days which helped with our shopping and to see a South Australian movie “The Boys Are Back”.
One our final trip back to Adelaide me met Anne & Cran from “Lettin’Go” who are also sailing around Australia on a Cat who met up with Peter Cartens when he was in the Kimberley’s and we are sure our path’s will cross again in Tasmania.
We finally had the 240Vgenset rewound and fitted correctly, a total of 2 complete rewinds with the backend on and off 5 times. We then sailed back to Pt Vincent for the final engine adjustment. This whole saga has taken 5/6 weeks. The night before we were leaving to head back to Kangaroo Island we discovered that our holding tank in the aft cabin toilet had decided to split. So again we sailed back to Adelaide. We were getting quite accustomed to the 5 hour sail back and forth across the gulf.
The people at the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron were also getting used to us coming and going and joked about giving us membership. We found the staff and workmen at the yard very helpful. This last problem happened three weeks before Christmas and we were very fortunate to have found a tradesperson able to make a new stainless steel tank at such short notice.
Finally on Saturday 12th December we set sail down the coast to Wirrina Cove to catch up with Songlines. We were able to borrow their vehicle and Sunday we drove to Victor Harbour then to Goolwa and the mouth of the Murray River.
We set sail on Monday 14th Dec with Songlines to sail in company back to Kangaroo Island. We were able to use some moorings in Kingscote and our intention was to stay a week there before sailing further east.
Unfortunately upon arrival at Kingscote we tried our genset and it wasn’t pumping water. So the next day, after our own attempts to fix it, we tried different people on the island and no one was available to help us. So the decision was made late Tuesday afternoon to sail back to Adelaide, this being on overnight trip taking some 11/12 hours. The sail up was just beautiful, the gulf being so calm and the coastline all lit up. We arranged for a marine auto electrician to meet us once again at the Yacht Squadron. He came down at 7.30am and the problem was fixed within 2 hours. The problem being a wire caught under the control panel box of the genset that was shorting out, causing the genset to stop.
We decided to stay overnight and sail late on Thursday evening leaving at 11.30pm for another overnight sail down the coast and this time going to the eastern end of Kangaroo Island to Antechamber Bay. This sail took us approx 11 hours and we dropped anchor (using our new stockless anchor for the first time) in the bay at about 11am. After a few hours sleep we again set sail at 5pm for a night sail to Robe.
This was not a pleasant sail as the winds forecast were stronger than predicted ranging from 20 to 30 kts with 3 metre swells. It reminded Peta of the bight crossing on the 3 day and she did not travel well. We made it to Robe in 18 hours and are now safely in the Robe Marina. We have found since we arrived here that the genset stopped pumping water again so we arranged for the local diesel mechanic to have a look. Well he found a problem with the water pump and has fixed it. The problem was initiated by Ron fitting a cork gasket which was too thick and did not allow the impellor to seal behind the backing plate. The genset is now working well and hopefully we will have no more problems with it.
We spent Christmas Day on board Finesse and have a lovely meal of local crayfish/prawns/oysters and some local South Australian wines.
Peta’s brother Robert is joining us on the 31st December to sail to Portland/Port Fairy/Apollo Bay then to King Island before reaching Tasmania. We intend to depart on Saturday 2nd January weather permitting.
We decided after much thought to have the back end (the stator and rotor) of the genset rewound in Adelaide and use a mechanic in Pt Vincent to repair the engine. In hind site we probably should have bought a new genset!! Anyway after various road trips to Adelaide and finding that the backend was not rewound correctly we decided to sail across the gulf to Adelaide to have the rewind company use their own mechanic to save our cost and so they could establish the problem first hand. Unfortunately our auto helm decided to go crazy on the trip across, Finesse decided to do do-nuts in the middle of the gulf. So another problem had to be fixed whilst in Adelaide. It was found that our flux-gate compass had broken some internal wires.
Whilst in Adelaide we took the dinghy up the Port River to the Old Port, saw the Birkenhead Bridge open to allow a classic steam driven tug boat through. We saw the maritime museum, did a twilight race out of the Cruising Yacht Club with John Culshaw and ate in his central Adelaide “Culshaws Restaurant” in the Majestic Hotel. John also showed us much of the North Adelaide district and a number of his own property developments. We also explored Glenelg using public transport.
Mike and Maggie who worked for Australian Submarine Corporation (ASC) loaned us a car for a couple of days which helped with our shopping and to see a South Australian movie “The Boys Are Back”.
One our final trip back to Adelaide me met Anne & Cran from “Lettin’Go” who are also sailing around Australia on a Cat who met up with Peter Cartens when he was in the Kimberley’s and we are sure our path’s will cross again in Tasmania.
We finally had the 240Vgenset rewound and fitted correctly, a total of 2 complete rewinds with the backend on and off 5 times. We then sailed back to Pt Vincent for the final engine adjustment. This whole saga has taken 5/6 weeks. The night before we were leaving to head back to Kangaroo Island we discovered that our holding tank in the aft cabin toilet had decided to split. So again we sailed back to Adelaide. We were getting quite accustomed to the 5 hour sail back and forth across the gulf.
The people at the Royal South Australian Yacht Squadron were also getting used to us coming and going and joked about giving us membership. We found the staff and workmen at the yard very helpful. This last problem happened three weeks before Christmas and we were very fortunate to have found a tradesperson able to make a new stainless steel tank at such short notice.
Finally on Saturday 12th December we set sail down the coast to Wirrina Cove to catch up with Songlines. We were able to borrow their vehicle and Sunday we drove to Victor Harbour then to Goolwa and the mouth of the Murray River.
We set sail on Monday 14th Dec with Songlines to sail in company back to Kangaroo Island. We were able to use some moorings in Kingscote and our intention was to stay a week there before sailing further east.
Unfortunately upon arrival at Kingscote we tried our genset and it wasn’t pumping water. So the next day, after our own attempts to fix it, we tried different people on the island and no one was available to help us. So the decision was made late Tuesday afternoon to sail back to Adelaide, this being on overnight trip taking some 11/12 hours. The sail up was just beautiful, the gulf being so calm and the coastline all lit up. We arranged for a marine auto electrician to meet us once again at the Yacht Squadron. He came down at 7.30am and the problem was fixed within 2 hours. The problem being a wire caught under the control panel box of the genset that was shorting out, causing the genset to stop.
We decided to stay overnight and sail late on Thursday evening leaving at 11.30pm for another overnight sail down the coast and this time going to the eastern end of Kangaroo Island to Antechamber Bay. This sail took us approx 11 hours and we dropped anchor (using our new stockless anchor for the first time) in the bay at about 11am. After a few hours sleep we again set sail at 5pm for a night sail to Robe.
This was not a pleasant sail as the winds forecast were stronger than predicted ranging from 20 to 30 kts with 3 metre swells. It reminded Peta of the bight crossing on the 3 day and she did not travel well. We made it to Robe in 18 hours and are now safely in the Robe Marina. We have found since we arrived here that the genset stopped pumping water again so we arranged for the local diesel mechanic to have a look. Well he found a problem with the water pump and has fixed it. The problem was initiated by Ron fitting a cork gasket which was too thick and did not allow the impellor to seal behind the backing plate. The genset is now working well and hopefully we will have no more problems with it.
We spent Christmas Day on board Finesse and have a lovely meal of local crayfish/prawns/oysters and some local South Australian wines.
Peta’s brother Robert is joining us on the 31st December to sail to Portland/Port Fairy/Apollo Bay then to King Island before reaching Tasmania. We intend to depart on Saturday 2nd January weather permitting.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Wallaroo/Pt Vincent/Kangaroo Island - Pictures
Finesse under sail on route to Kangaroo Island
Cape Du Couedic SW corner of Kangaroo Island - Admirals arch.
At Remarkable Rocks on Kangaroo Island
Tree lined road at Kangaroo Island
Port Vincent - Wharf & town.
Sailing around Cape Spencer - Yorke Peninsula
Cormorant's hitching a ride at Galway Bay.WALLAROO/PT VINCENT/KANGAROO ISLAND
Saturday 8th August we departed Wallaroo for Wardang Island which is 40 nm heading south This location is about 10 NM from Port Victoria where the last of the great grain race schooners departed for their voyages back to the United Kingdom. We picked up one of the moorings put down by the authorities over various ship wrecks for charter/dive boats to use. There are about 8 shipwrecks around this Island. Here we caught fish and Ron’s first ever squid.
Monday 10th August we set sail for Galway Bay to a spot behind a light beacon marking a sandspit for protection against 13-18kt SW winds. This is between Point Turton and Corney Point. We found it to be a great spot and the holding was excellent.
We anchored there overnight and in the morning set off at 3am for our long journey around Corney Point down to Cape Spencer and then to our destination for that day Davenport Shoals (Stuart Bay) on the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula being 75 nm away.
The early start in the dark saw us punching into headwinds and seas of around 1-2 metres and picking our way around shallow shoals of 3-4 metres so as to stay in 10 metre depths. As we worked our way south the winds were less of a problem but the seas were now a definite southern ocean swell so it was not the most comfortable leg and it was cold. We had been advised to sail around the capes in daylight because of dangerous reefs and islands many being unlit around Cape Spencer. It was a smart move to sail this section in the daylight as the coast around here is awesome to see and you are quite close to towering cliffs. This trip took us 12 hours. We decided to stay another day in Stuart Bay as the anchorage was very protected and we could sleep easy. This allowed us to just relax and catch more squid. We even had a BBQ on the back deck our first outdoor meal for some time as the weather had been too cold.
Thursday 13th August we departed this delightful anchorage at 9.00am to head around Troubridge Point and up Sultana Passage headed for Edithburg. We found that Sultana Passage has moving sandspits and had to very careful as we navigated our way through these shallow waters. Unfortunately Finesse touched bottom between two starboard markers but we managed to reverse off and find our way out of these shallow waters. Upon reaching Edithburg we dropped anchor and went ashore to explore this small town.
Friday 14th August we set sail for Pt Vincent, we pounded into 15-20kt headwinds all the way with rather nasty wind waves. This trip took us 6 hours. We had arranged to use a pontoon within the Pt Vincent Marina complex owned by John Culshaw who we first met in Pt Lincoln.
Pt Vincent is a small country seaside holiday town with friendly locals many of whom we have met as they have come down to the marina to inspect Finesse. A very lovely couple Ted & Elizabeth lent us a 4WD vehicle for some of the time we have been here. We took advantage of this and headed out for two days to the Innes National Park down at Stenhouse Bay and Cape Spencer starting at Corney Point and worked our way down the coast which we had sailed past either in the dark or saw only from the sea. Although many of the bays we saw were listed by James Cowell in his cruising book as anchorages I would prefer to only consider them as summertime locations as the swell and winds were causing very difficult looking conditions in most of the bays .Some of these are Cable Hut Bay, West Cape Bay and Pondalowie Bay.
Our time in Pt Vincent has been spent doing some minor repairs and generally relaxing in this pleasant environment. One of the more difficult of the repairs was to clear the blocked toilet outlet pipe which would not respond to treatment with vinegar (to remove the calcium buildup) nor to the long stainless probing rod we used to try to breakdown the blockage. Whilst these methods had some small impact they did not reach the root of the problem. Finally in desperation we removed the whole length of pipe which meant disconnecting all the other pipes and pulling out the toilet. The offending length of pipe was beat on the jetty and finally the offending blockage was cleared. Thankyou author Nigel Calder for your recommendation we spotted in your Cruising Handbook written for sailors like us. We also arranged to refuel at the town wharf on a high tide at 7.30am. The local garage owner came down to the wharf with a tank on a trailer and we gravity fed the fuel into Finesse’s tanks.
On Monday 31st August we depart at 7am for our trip to Kangaroo Island via Wirrina Cove which is approx 70 kms south of Adelaide, this taking us 8 hours. Here we met up with our friends Rob & Lorraine from Songlines who were planning to cruise in company with us to Kangaroo Island. We also invited Ted & Elizabeth, who had previous sailing experience, to join us for the week at KI and whilst there we hired a vehicle for 3 days to explore this wonderful island.
At KI we anchored at American River, a delightful small settlement with its own small wharf and boating jetty. Here we manage again to catch the local fisherman coming in with the haul of oysters and were able to purchase large oversized “fresh from the sea” oysters at a very low price. We used a mooring here and probably just as well as the tidal race was 3-4 knots and with an opposing wind saw Finesse dancing around in circles on the mooring.
KI is approx 160 km long with a great deal of farmland and large quantities of native vegetation. We were delighted to find many of the road verges covered with carpets of freesias. We saw caves and koala’s (estimated population 30,000), seals and many kangaroo’s.
The south west coast was an outstanding highlight with gigantic cliffs and rock faces against which the southern ocean swell was crashing. There were many beautiful bays and quiet coves to explore.
We hope to get back and spend more time both in American River and the capital Kingscote where there is a good anchorage protected from SW/SE winds.
Saturday 5th Sept due to the poor weather outlook we decided to set sail to Wirrina Cove. When planning legs of voyages we calculate an average speed at 6 kts, we were delighted to have exceed this speed significantly on the return trip from KI to Pt Vincent.
We stayed Sunday at Wirrina Cove and were take out by John Culshaw to visit a winery and also to see his country residence at Mt Magnificent.
Monday 7th Sept with the weather outlook modified and good winds from the SW we were able to sail in our NW direction back to Pt Vincent again at good speeds.
We will be leaving Finesse here in Pt Vincent for the coming month as we are returning home to Perth to visit family including a new granddaughter “Lillian” and friends.
Monday 10th August we set sail for Galway Bay to a spot behind a light beacon marking a sandspit for protection against 13-18kt SW winds. This is between Point Turton and Corney Point. We found it to be a great spot and the holding was excellent.
We anchored there overnight and in the morning set off at 3am for our long journey around Corney Point down to Cape Spencer and then to our destination for that day Davenport Shoals (Stuart Bay) on the bottom of the Yorke Peninsula being 75 nm away.
The early start in the dark saw us punching into headwinds and seas of around 1-2 metres and picking our way around shallow shoals of 3-4 metres so as to stay in 10 metre depths. As we worked our way south the winds were less of a problem but the seas were now a definite southern ocean swell so it was not the most comfortable leg and it was cold. We had been advised to sail around the capes in daylight because of dangerous reefs and islands many being unlit around Cape Spencer. It was a smart move to sail this section in the daylight as the coast around here is awesome to see and you are quite close to towering cliffs. This trip took us 12 hours. We decided to stay another day in Stuart Bay as the anchorage was very protected and we could sleep easy. This allowed us to just relax and catch more squid. We even had a BBQ on the back deck our first outdoor meal for some time as the weather had been too cold.
Thursday 13th August we departed this delightful anchorage at 9.00am to head around Troubridge Point and up Sultana Passage headed for Edithburg. We found that Sultana Passage has moving sandspits and had to very careful as we navigated our way through these shallow waters. Unfortunately Finesse touched bottom between two starboard markers but we managed to reverse off and find our way out of these shallow waters. Upon reaching Edithburg we dropped anchor and went ashore to explore this small town.
Friday 14th August we set sail for Pt Vincent, we pounded into 15-20kt headwinds all the way with rather nasty wind waves. This trip took us 6 hours. We had arranged to use a pontoon within the Pt Vincent Marina complex owned by John Culshaw who we first met in Pt Lincoln.
Pt Vincent is a small country seaside holiday town with friendly locals many of whom we have met as they have come down to the marina to inspect Finesse. A very lovely couple Ted & Elizabeth lent us a 4WD vehicle for some of the time we have been here. We took advantage of this and headed out for two days to the Innes National Park down at Stenhouse Bay and Cape Spencer starting at Corney Point and worked our way down the coast which we had sailed past either in the dark or saw only from the sea. Although many of the bays we saw were listed by James Cowell in his cruising book as anchorages I would prefer to only consider them as summertime locations as the swell and winds were causing very difficult looking conditions in most of the bays .Some of these are Cable Hut Bay, West Cape Bay and Pondalowie Bay.
Our time in Pt Vincent has been spent doing some minor repairs and generally relaxing in this pleasant environment. One of the more difficult of the repairs was to clear the blocked toilet outlet pipe which would not respond to treatment with vinegar (to remove the calcium buildup) nor to the long stainless probing rod we used to try to breakdown the blockage. Whilst these methods had some small impact they did not reach the root of the problem. Finally in desperation we removed the whole length of pipe which meant disconnecting all the other pipes and pulling out the toilet. The offending length of pipe was beat on the jetty and finally the offending blockage was cleared. Thankyou author Nigel Calder for your recommendation we spotted in your Cruising Handbook written for sailors like us. We also arranged to refuel at the town wharf on a high tide at 7.30am. The local garage owner came down to the wharf with a tank on a trailer and we gravity fed the fuel into Finesse’s tanks.
On Monday 31st August we depart at 7am for our trip to Kangaroo Island via Wirrina Cove which is approx 70 kms south of Adelaide, this taking us 8 hours. Here we met up with our friends Rob & Lorraine from Songlines who were planning to cruise in company with us to Kangaroo Island. We also invited Ted & Elizabeth, who had previous sailing experience, to join us for the week at KI and whilst there we hired a vehicle for 3 days to explore this wonderful island.
At KI we anchored at American River, a delightful small settlement with its own small wharf and boating jetty. Here we manage again to catch the local fisherman coming in with the haul of oysters and were able to purchase large oversized “fresh from the sea” oysters at a very low price. We used a mooring here and probably just as well as the tidal race was 3-4 knots and with an opposing wind saw Finesse dancing around in circles on the mooring.
KI is approx 160 km long with a great deal of farmland and large quantities of native vegetation. We were delighted to find many of the road verges covered with carpets of freesias. We saw caves and koala’s (estimated population 30,000), seals and many kangaroo’s.
The south west coast was an outstanding highlight with gigantic cliffs and rock faces against which the southern ocean swell was crashing. There were many beautiful bays and quiet coves to explore.
We hope to get back and spend more time both in American River and the capital Kingscote where there is a good anchorage protected from SW/SE winds.
Saturday 5th Sept due to the poor weather outlook we decided to set sail to Wirrina Cove. When planning legs of voyages we calculate an average speed at 6 kts, we were delighted to have exceed this speed significantly on the return trip from KI to Pt Vincent.
We stayed Sunday at Wirrina Cove and were take out by John Culshaw to visit a winery and also to see his country residence at Mt Magnificent.
Monday 7th Sept with the weather outlook modified and good winds from the SW we were able to sail in our NW direction back to Pt Vincent again at good speeds.
We will be leaving Finesse here in Pt Vincent for the coming month as we are returning home to Perth to visit family including a new granddaughter “Lillian” and friends.
Thursday, August 6, 2009
PORT LINCOLN TO WALLAROO - Pictures
On Songlines at the Sir Joseph Bank Group of Islands
Sunrise at Plank Point
Port Augusta Wharf
Flight over Lake Eyre
The Maree Man
Port Pirie WharfPORT LINCOLN TO WALLAROO
We have now been away from home for 4 months.
Saturday 4th July. Today we finally set sail from Port Lincoln and headed out to the Sir Joseph Banks group of Islands, a 4 hr sail from Pt Lincoln. We spent 4 days anchored off Reevesby Island which has an old abandoned homestead dating back to around 1911 . We saw lots of Cape Barron Geese and a large lovely old white owl living in the barn.
Our friends Rob & Lorraine from Songlines, sailed back to Reevesby Is. from Pt Augusta and joined us for what was to be a lovely day catching up on each others sailing plans, going ashore and with an evening meal on Songlines , before they departed for Pt Lincoln the next morning.
We set sail to Tumby Bay on the 8th July timing our entry into the channel to reach the marina on a high tide. We needed at least 1m under Finesse We spent 6 days in Tumby Bay, met lots of locals who also took us on interesting drives in the area. . Naturally we also had to exit on a high tide so we come out and of the marina into the bay and hooked onto a mooring with the owner’s approval on 12 July.
Monday 13th July. We set sail at 7.30am bound for Arno Bay, and because of good winds of 15-20 kts we reached Arno Bay mid morning but decided to keep sailing up to Cowell, a much safer harbour, otherwise know as Franklin Harbour where we tied up to the local jetty.
Cowell is famous for its oyster production and whilst there we sampled plenty of cheap oysters and also their famous oyster pies. After 3 days of exploring the town we decided to head further north towards Whyalla.
Thursday 16th July. We departed Franklin Harbour which took us about 1 hour, as you have to navigate your way out through a long entry channel on high tide before reaching open seas. We decided to only go as far as Plank Point (Murininnie), which is a long sand spit. It was like anchoring in wide open waters, but in 3m at low tide, you are protected from seas because of the spit.
This was our first every anchorage of this type and even though we anchored securely with both anchor alarms on, neither of us slept very well.
We weighed anchor at 8am, and motored into northerly headwinds all the way to Whyalla, which took us about 4 hours. We kept out of the shipping channel as there were some very large vessels anchored in the gulf and loading from a huge barge, as they were too big to get into Whyalla.
We spent 6 days in Whyalla at the local marina, next to the Yacht Club. We again met lots of locals who came down to inspect Finesse. We did quite a lot of walking in Whyalla exploring this “red dust” town. In fairness the red dust is now under control and a wash- off grey soot has replaced the indelible red. Their maritime museum houses on land, the first steel vessel produced in the Whyalla shipbuilding yards. This was a Corvette warship used as a minesweeper in WWII called HMAS Whyalla. We had a very interesting guided tour through this vessel.
We did the usual pub lunches and caught the local bus to the other side of town, as it is split in two and too far to walk. We had dinner with a local couple Andrew and Leanne one evening which gave us an opportunity to see Whyalla at night from the local lookout at Hummock Hill plus the lights of Port Pirie across the other side of the gulf. We even had the local paper come down and do an interview with us about our travels, calling us “Gypsies of the Sea”.
Thursday 23rd July. We departed at 7am for Port Augusta. Had a glorious run but no winds only tides up to the top end of the gulf. It was beautiful scenery with the channel narrowing and the Flinders ranges on one side and another range the other side. We reached Port Augusta, after navigating our way through 50 spit posts and tied up to the “city” pontoon at 2pm. This was adjacent to the very long and tall wharf where old sailing schooners used to tie up.
Port Augusta is a very tidy and clean city, and again we met lots of locals. Did the usual Friday night drinks at the yacht club where we were also able to use their facilities for showering and storage of our dinghy. We put Finesse onto a mooring for two days, when we took a trip up to Maree for a flight over Lake Eyre. This was a local tour run by Gulf Tours which incorporated visits to local towns and ruins along the way up and back to Maree. A fun evening was spent around a large “sleeper” camp fire, including a roast dinner with singing and dancing into the night.
We were scheduled the next morning for a 7.30am flight over Lake Eyre in a 6 seater Cessna, which would take 1 hour 30 minutes, flying up to 4000ft before dropping down to 500 ft for most of the flight over the lake. It was fascinating to see the vast expanse of water even though it was quite shallow and wide areas of salt and mineral deposits giving both colour and patterns over the lake. We also saw the Maree Man a 4km long outline of a native person etched into the ground by a cultivator, illegally done back in 1998.
The long drive back to Pt Augusta was uneventful apart from historic towns and ruins. We rowed back to the boat on the mooring in the dark, after being dropped off around 5.30pm.
We took Finesse back to the pontoon in the morning so we could do local chores, washing/shopping etc, before our departure from Pt Augusta. One of the fond memories is the valued time we spent with John & Marina, whom we shared a few dinners with and also gave us a lot of local information in relation to safe anchorages.
Thursday 30th July. Departed Pt Augusta at 7.00am for the long trip back down the channel, our destination was Port Pirie on the top end of the Yorke Peninsula. Again we had little wind so motored all the way with just one sail up. Port Pirie also had about 50 spits posts to navigate through taking us past the lead smelter before coming to the long wharf and jetty area where we tied up at 5pm. We had to be careful of tide movement with regard to our ropes tension and we noted that there was not much water under Finesse.
The next morning we explored Port Pirie on foot and saw some really beautiful old buildings, but without a vehicle the surrounding country side was out of our reach.
Met a few locals at the usual Friday night drinks at the Yacht Club and by this time had decided to set sail the next morning at 5.30am as we expected it to be a 10 hr trip down the Gulf to Wallaroo.
We rang ahead and organized a marina berth. On this leg we were able to put up sails and we tied up around 4 pm in the designated berth which was about ½ the size of Finesse.
Whilst in Wallaroo we met a local yachtie/car dealership owner who lent us a vehicle for the duration of our stay. We took advantage of this and drove to the 3 towns that make up the copper coast triangle. i.e.Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo. We also drove up the coast to Port Broughton. We met a lovely couple Bob & Denise who welcomed us into their beautiful canal home and a fun night was had by all.
We have been in Wallaroo now for nearly a week because of weather the outlook. We intend to depart on Saturday 7th August for our trip down and around the bottom of the York Peninsula. We are heading to Port Vincent in the Gulf of St Vincent and will take our time by calling in at various places.
Saturday 4th July. Today we finally set sail from Port Lincoln and headed out to the Sir Joseph Banks group of Islands, a 4 hr sail from Pt Lincoln. We spent 4 days anchored off Reevesby Island which has an old abandoned homestead dating back to around 1911 . We saw lots of Cape Barron Geese and a large lovely old white owl living in the barn.
Our friends Rob & Lorraine from Songlines, sailed back to Reevesby Is. from Pt Augusta and joined us for what was to be a lovely day catching up on each others sailing plans, going ashore and with an evening meal on Songlines , before they departed for Pt Lincoln the next morning.
We set sail to Tumby Bay on the 8th July timing our entry into the channel to reach the marina on a high tide. We needed at least 1m under Finesse We spent 6 days in Tumby Bay, met lots of locals who also took us on interesting drives in the area. . Naturally we also had to exit on a high tide so we come out and of the marina into the bay and hooked onto a mooring with the owner’s approval on 12 July.
Monday 13th July. We set sail at 7.30am bound for Arno Bay, and because of good winds of 15-20 kts we reached Arno Bay mid morning but decided to keep sailing up to Cowell, a much safer harbour, otherwise know as Franklin Harbour where we tied up to the local jetty.
Cowell is famous for its oyster production and whilst there we sampled plenty of cheap oysters and also their famous oyster pies. After 3 days of exploring the town we decided to head further north towards Whyalla.
Thursday 16th July. We departed Franklin Harbour which took us about 1 hour, as you have to navigate your way out through a long entry channel on high tide before reaching open seas. We decided to only go as far as Plank Point (Murininnie), which is a long sand spit. It was like anchoring in wide open waters, but in 3m at low tide, you are protected from seas because of the spit.
This was our first every anchorage of this type and even though we anchored securely with both anchor alarms on, neither of us slept very well.
We weighed anchor at 8am, and motored into northerly headwinds all the way to Whyalla, which took us about 4 hours. We kept out of the shipping channel as there were some very large vessels anchored in the gulf and loading from a huge barge, as they were too big to get into Whyalla.
We spent 6 days in Whyalla at the local marina, next to the Yacht Club. We again met lots of locals who came down to inspect Finesse. We did quite a lot of walking in Whyalla exploring this “red dust” town. In fairness the red dust is now under control and a wash- off grey soot has replaced the indelible red. Their maritime museum houses on land, the first steel vessel produced in the Whyalla shipbuilding yards. This was a Corvette warship used as a minesweeper in WWII called HMAS Whyalla. We had a very interesting guided tour through this vessel.
We did the usual pub lunches and caught the local bus to the other side of town, as it is split in two and too far to walk. We had dinner with a local couple Andrew and Leanne one evening which gave us an opportunity to see Whyalla at night from the local lookout at Hummock Hill plus the lights of Port Pirie across the other side of the gulf. We even had the local paper come down and do an interview with us about our travels, calling us “Gypsies of the Sea”.
Thursday 23rd July. We departed at 7am for Port Augusta. Had a glorious run but no winds only tides up to the top end of the gulf. It was beautiful scenery with the channel narrowing and the Flinders ranges on one side and another range the other side. We reached Port Augusta, after navigating our way through 50 spit posts and tied up to the “city” pontoon at 2pm. This was adjacent to the very long and tall wharf where old sailing schooners used to tie up.
Port Augusta is a very tidy and clean city, and again we met lots of locals. Did the usual Friday night drinks at the yacht club where we were also able to use their facilities for showering and storage of our dinghy. We put Finesse onto a mooring for two days, when we took a trip up to Maree for a flight over Lake Eyre. This was a local tour run by Gulf Tours which incorporated visits to local towns and ruins along the way up and back to Maree. A fun evening was spent around a large “sleeper” camp fire, including a roast dinner with singing and dancing into the night.
We were scheduled the next morning for a 7.30am flight over Lake Eyre in a 6 seater Cessna, which would take 1 hour 30 minutes, flying up to 4000ft before dropping down to 500 ft for most of the flight over the lake. It was fascinating to see the vast expanse of water even though it was quite shallow and wide areas of salt and mineral deposits giving both colour and patterns over the lake. We also saw the Maree Man a 4km long outline of a native person etched into the ground by a cultivator, illegally done back in 1998.
The long drive back to Pt Augusta was uneventful apart from historic towns and ruins. We rowed back to the boat on the mooring in the dark, after being dropped off around 5.30pm.
We took Finesse back to the pontoon in the morning so we could do local chores, washing/shopping etc, before our departure from Pt Augusta. One of the fond memories is the valued time we spent with John & Marina, whom we shared a few dinners with and also gave us a lot of local information in relation to safe anchorages.
Thursday 30th July. Departed Pt Augusta at 7.00am for the long trip back down the channel, our destination was Port Pirie on the top end of the Yorke Peninsula. Again we had little wind so motored all the way with just one sail up. Port Pirie also had about 50 spits posts to navigate through taking us past the lead smelter before coming to the long wharf and jetty area where we tied up at 5pm. We had to be careful of tide movement with regard to our ropes tension and we noted that there was not much water under Finesse.
The next morning we explored Port Pirie on foot and saw some really beautiful old buildings, but without a vehicle the surrounding country side was out of our reach.
Met a few locals at the usual Friday night drinks at the Yacht Club and by this time had decided to set sail the next morning at 5.30am as we expected it to be a 10 hr trip down the Gulf to Wallaroo.
We rang ahead and organized a marina berth. On this leg we were able to put up sails and we tied up around 4 pm in the designated berth which was about ½ the size of Finesse.
Whilst in Wallaroo we met a local yachtie/car dealership owner who lent us a vehicle for the duration of our stay. We took advantage of this and drove to the 3 towns that make up the copper coast triangle. i.e.Kadina, Moonta and Wallaroo. We also drove up the coast to Port Broughton. We met a lovely couple Bob & Denise who welcomed us into their beautiful canal home and a fun night was had by all.
We have been in Wallaroo now for nearly a week because of weather the outlook. We intend to depart on Saturday 7th August for our trip down and around the bottom of the York Peninsula. We are heading to Port Vincent in the Gulf of St Vincent and will take our time by calling in at various places.
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