Sunday, June 23, 2013

AWAITING

By Jen
The Thermo Cooker:
Report on our dinner last night.....Well this was a beginners disaster for me and has extended my reputation as being better at just about everything else. I wished that I had watched a few youtube demonstrations first. I just didn't get the Jen and Glenn Love Stew heated to the max. and so after waiting eagerly all day the veggies were raw and the uncooked mixture was weirdly luke warm.etc. However it was all very convenient to remedy this: I just put the inner cooking pot onto the stove top and 30 mins later it was delicious. In fact that darn cooking pot managed to stay incredibly hot for ages afterwards, and I burnt two fingers. Glenn is still not convinced about it at all. Youtube says that food will never overcooked once it is actually reaches max. temperature. It will save gas too. I'll try a desert next, because I guess if it fails I can just cover with cream. It is weird having the cooking pot just sitting on the cabin's sole. (floor) I favour a position in the work shop but Glenn just doesn't like the idea. Yes ST3 has a workshop, and its all mine!
A miracle or a future washing machine?
If the Thermo Cooker doesn't work out it for us it may well be a very useful on board washing machine. It has all of the attributes: a tightly sealing lid and a convenient 12 litre size. It could swish and slosh around with the movements of ST3 and I'd only expect clean clothes at the eventual opening. Friends will know that I will be much more successful in this area of pursuit than trying culinary experimentations. I'm so glad that Glenn is developing his cooking skills.

One of yesterdays feeding troupe having a rest

Where we shelter for the night is always a very informed decision. Glenn has a life long passion (if not obsession) with weather/ meteorology. At present the forecasting of the Bureau of Meteorology is extremely changeable which causes us frustration. We have spent days reading reports of huge seas outside of Port Stephens and we keep seeking safe havens. We have been preparing for horrendous conditions and have battened down many times. The overcast skies are always a threat to our solar power intake ( yet to reach critical level) and the damp and cold conditions have sent us to our warm V berth ( our triangle shaped bed in the forward section) early each night. We set the anchor alarm or gps to check that we aren't dragging while we sleep. But weirdly at times on ST3 it feels like an alpine retreat, with chocolate drinks and wooly sox. We sure don't want snow.

It is an indoor life right now ( keeping warm and snug and dry) and I am starved of something amusing to read. The Alan Lucas book "OFF THE WATCH" is full of snippets of nautical trivia, and of no use to me at all, but I have devoured it and now have no memory of it's contents? I have never bothered to clutter my brain with bits of precise and useless detail and anyway I can't readily recall detail when I want to. But hey, if I had only read this book a few months ago before the Commodore's dinner our table would have had a chance at being the Trivia champions.( but only if the book was in my hand bag).

Useful trivia: DUNNAGE: cargo secured against shifting seas, typically by lengths of timber used to brace. Less commonly called FARDAGE.

Update on my spoon: thanks to Fiona in Cairns: George III's reign ended earlier than I knew: spoon now dated 1792, and possibly made by Wildman Smith, or William Sumner I. (presuming that the silversmith's initials were upside down.)

More exciting than most breakfast utensils

Pirates not welcome.

 

Saturday, June 22, 2013

Does anyone have any questions about Port Stephens?

By Glenn

Its our 12th day in Port Stephens so I now know quite a bit about the place and can tell you how entertaining it is. If you have anything you've ever wanted to know about the place ask away. My special subject is Fame Cove!

We are now back in Fame Cove after spending two nights at Soldiers Point Marina, and several nights at other anchorages. We needed to do some laundry, (everything seems damp) and shopping etc: We can highly recommend this marina. The facilities are superior, Eco rated top class, staff are friendly and helpful and we roamed around in the courtesy cars: a red Mercedes!

Ensuite for marina guests.
Meanwhile just outside the Soldier crabs were gathering in huge numbers...
 
This one was not at all afraid of me
I noticed that Sydney is copping this east coast low that's expected here tonight. Fame Cove will be very protected from the easterly gale that's predicted, but right now it is so still that it feels impending.....
An eerie stillness
Our next port of call is either Foster or Camden Haven and both have sand bars to cross. It's certainly not recommended to cross bars when the swell is greater than 2 metres. Not sure if it was on the news but a yacht was rolled on the Yamba bar on Friday. Two crew members and the dog on board required rescuing. The woman and Doberman dog were thrown into the churning waters and the man was tangled up with the yacht and rolled over three times. The mast was lost. Luckily the crew only received minor injuries and the yacht was insured. We are both very happy to be in a safe port while the turbulent weather is about.
By Jen
A complete change of subject. Now that I have some head space I am doing some catching up. I have finally researched the markings on my special breakfast spoon.
The symbols indicate: Sterling Silver , London, George III is the fourth symbol and the year is indicated by the letter r = 1832 ! My muesli now tastes extra nice, but unfortunately I am missing the complete set. No more dish washer for this one ever.
I wonder what this means: M.I.R. The original owners initials are on the end of the handle on the upper side of the spoon.
We closely follow the amazing blog COASTAL DELIGHTS written by our good friend and culinary genius Gertie. (Photography by David) She has recommended this THERMO COOKING pot to us. It is a pot within an insulated clamped pot. Once the cooking process has begun in the regular way the heavy based saucepan is removed from the stove top and sealed in the outer pot. Then no further heat is required to finish the cooking process. In 6 hours dinner is ready to eat. Tonight we are trying the Jen and Glenn Love Stew with sailing variations: (just using the ingredients that we have aboard). I am sure that after long day sailing passages this Therm Cooker will be a blessing for us. Neither of us want to cook after an exhausting day, but both of us want to eat and then sleep. Interestingly it will also keep food items frozen if needed. I can seen that it will be very useful for the cruising life but Glenn it not convinced, yet.
The Aldi Thermo Cooker
 

We have just witnessed a remarkable activity by four species of birds. ( no specific photos because we were spell bound) . Four Pelicans were paddling along the shore in formation. Small darting Little Pied Cormorants were behind and fishing below the surface by bobbing up and down. Scooping and skimming all around were larger Black Cormorants and darting in and out of the cohesive flock were diving Herons. The entire group just moved past like a street parade and continued onwards into the next bay.

No need to post where we are, but here it is anyway.

http://skipr.net/where-is/boat-pages/?boatid=1122

 

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

Glockenspiel Found!

Sorry to worry you all about the lost glok. We have found it here is proof.

Tubular Glockenspiel.

 

 

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

Port Stephens once your in it won't let you out!

Here we are again still in Port Stephens and looking at the weather. It will be at least another week before we get a chance to leave and that's if the weather plays fair. The time flies when you'r having fun. I guess another week won't hurt. Have a look at Seabreeze's forecast for the next week. It's not the wind but the swell size that is a sailors worry. We wanted to stop at Camden Haven and that requires crossing a bar, dangerous in swells over 2 metres.

Its not all sipping tequila and soaking up the sun. It's bloody cold today and raining to boot. We are going in to the Soldiers Point Marina for a couple of days tomorrow, for a bit of luxury and shopping! ( Shower and laundry). They have a courtesy car that we can drive. We haven't been to the shops for over a week now and are starting to run low on supplies.

Our anchorage this morning.

Perfect weather for ducks. (Jen where is Luvaduck?)

We had a great sail around the Port yesterday in 20knot + winds with nice blue sky. That was fun, putting Sea Trek III through her paces and she seems to revel in the windy conditions.

Yesterday.

I've been playing lots of music and practising both guitar and uke. I find I prefer to play old classics from the 20's and 30's on the uke, such as "Ain't she sweet", "Has anybody seen my girl", "Devil and the Deep Blue Sea" etc: These old tunes and their great chord progressions seem to lend themselves to the uke, and are great fun to play. Plus I annoy Jen by singing them doing my best Al Jolson impersonation. I tend to enjoy playing more contemporary songs on the guitar, although its great playing "Losing My Religion" on the uke, especially the little runs at the start. Imagine Losing my religion a la Al Jolson.

My favourite guitar, both our ukes and some of our percussion. Jen where is my glockenspiel?

It seems my glockenspiel is missing mmmm, I think that Jen may have got a little tired of my hammering on it. Perhaps she threw it overboard somewhere between Sydney and Port Stephens. Anyway thats a quick update for today.

Still working on "Death of the Oldsmobile" but I think it will have some "adult themes" in it, and now I know that sister "bub" is reading my blog to mum I'm a little hesitant to continue!

 

Monday, June 17, 2013

WAITING IN ONE PLACE FOR FAVOURABLE WEATHER


Port Stephens is lovely. It is doing a great job at keeping the faithful crew of Sea Trek III safe while the huge seas roar outside of the entrance. According to the literature Port Stephens's size (surface area) is greater than Sydney Harbour's. So we are holed up.

                                     
                                               
THE VIEW OUTSIDE THE GALLEY

Apart from watching the territorial habits of the two barely visible birds on the shoreline, what else do we do while waiting and waiting?. For a start we are learning to recalibrate ourselves and are trying not to look at the clock. This is hard for Glenn who becomes restless without a routine. For a while he was a very regular watcher of our solar panel amp meter reporting on the current level of charge. Now he is beginning to be more relaxed and useful and is self initiating fixing and organising things. There is a cruising theory called the " black box". Sailors need to contribute to their yacht's box by doing the hundreds of little tasks needed to stay afloat, and thus avoid the "domino effect" situations developing. (ie: inconveniently sinking). For me this means keeping healthy by defeating black mould within the interior. This is a continual battle in the moist sea environment.

                            

                        THIS AREA IS UNINSULATED AND INSIDE A GALLEY CUPBOARD

Glenn came down after adjusting some flapping halyards and heard me humming loudly. I do this unconsciously when I am happy but I am embarrassed to realise that this sort of cleaning job brings me so much joy. Out comes my trusty spray bottle: 500 mls of white vinegar and quarter of a teaspoon of Oil of Cloves (about 1 or 2 mls). Before long the growth has received a vigorous and savage scrub. And yes the cupboard now looks happy. ....and I start to sing like Doris Day in a movie scene.

                             

                                                A HAPPY SMILING CUPBOARD

At Newcastle we swapped our Cruising Helmsman magazines for some really old versions. Glenn was very impressed with the food storage ideas. It just so happens that I have been secretly carting around a 2,500 mtr roll of canvas makers waxed thread that I bought years ago at a bargain price. It didn't fit into the needles of my sewing machine and has been totally useless. It has also sailed with us to Tasmania and back and has found itself onboard yet again. It has finally proved it's worth.

       

                                                    USING UP BITS AND PIECES

This is our new vegetable and fruit hammock. It has taken me three days of fiddling and adjusting to achieve The end result. I have seen these hammocks in all of the real circumnavigations publications, but have never actually seen one of them at Whitworths. Mine is of course mould resistant.

                                

                                              AIRY POSITION AND JUST SO NAUTICAL

   
                                       
 

Oldsmobile Story:

Glenn wishes to thank everyone for their positive feed back, emails and texts about the Newcastle Oldsmobile Safari. He will shortly be publishing the sequel to this: entitled THE DEATH OF THE 1948 OLDSMOBILE.

Where we are.

http://skipr.net/where-is/boat-pages/?boatid=1122

Saturday, June 15, 2013

Memories of Newcastle 1969 and the 1948 Oldsmobile.

Warning: this story has nothing to do with sailing.

Here's a story that needs to be told. We have been in Newcastle for the last few days and many amusing memories are flooding back. I have purposely left out the names of my five accomplices on this journey from the past. I don't have their permission and I don't think it will detract from the tale.

Picture the autumn of 1969 and we had just surived the summer of love. We were six apprentices from AIS Port Kembla (pre BHP) ranging in ages from sixteen to seventeen and a half. Only one of us had a car licence. We were all mad keen surfers obsessed with finding the perfect wave. When not surfing we spent our time looking for a laugh and adventure. All we lacked was a set of wheels. The only car we had access to was a mate's 1957 VW Beetle. We had loads of laughs fitting ourselves into it, not to mention six surfboards on the roof.

1948 Oldsmobile

I guess its time to introduce the main player into this tale. I was with my dad one day when he dropped into a service station at Dapto to buy some fuel. There I saw the surf wagon of my dreams! I didn't know what type of car it was but it looked great! My head was filled with images of perfect surfing surfari's that could be had in this beautiful two tone green beast. And remarkeably it was For Sale! For only $120.00. I couldn't beleive the price: thats right $120.00! In 1969 five of us were first year apprentices bringing home the princely sum of $36.00 per fortnight. My older friend was a second year apprentice and he was earning at least $48.00 per fortnight!

The wonders of Google, an exact replica!

I told my Dad that I was gonna buy the car. He called me a bloody idiot and laughed about it all the way home. Funny how dads are eventually right about such things. But the thought of the 1948 Oldsmobile would not leave me alone. It bounced around my head all week. The following Saturday morning down the beach I excitedly mentioned the car to my mates. We decided right there and then to drive out west to Dapto to see the Beast! When the other five saw her it was all over, red rover! We quickly came up with a brilliant plan. Put in $20.00 each and have joint ownership. I won't go into the pains and subsquent problems of joint ownership here. I won't elaborate on the fact that none of our parents would let us park the Beast at anywhere near their houses. Luckily one guy lived in a large block of flats and we were able to park it close to there.

So the green Oldsmobile became a regular sight around the beaches of Wollongong and the Illawarra area. Every Friday and Saturday night we would park in the Main Street of Wollongong. If there was a sand dance at the Port Kembla surf club, thats where we'd be. Needless to say it was the Beast that was the chick magnet and not the young clowns inside it. Things always looked promising until the girls got a good look at the scraggly assortment of skinny, sun bleached, sweaty palmed,pimply youths inside.

In desperation it dawned on us that we needed a real plan. Surely there must be a town somewhere where the girls won't care what we look like? It was Friday night in the car park at the Open Hearth Hotel in Warrawong. We had just consumed our one long neck beer each. We were under aged and had to get someone else to buy the six beers for us. Out of the blue one of the mates mentioned Newcastle, because it was just like Wollongong only north. Giddy with excitement of the great unknown we set north for Newcastle immediately!

The surf wagon of my dreams was also to become the Beast of my mechanical nightmares. It was very temperamental when it came to starting, and really only start when it felt like it. It had an intermittent electrical issue with "the battery". The unique design of this Oldsmobile positioned the battery not in the usual position in the engine compartment, but on the front passenger floor. It was skillfully covered with a half inch rubber mat. Two great cables came through the firewall to connect to the engine. This was a really good arrangement for the front passenger who used it as a foot rest. Not many other cars could boast of this feature. The great disadvantage for the front passenger was that he was the one that had to fiddle with the connections, pull on the cables, jump up and down on the battery till it kicked over. Failng this the only other method to start the Beast was the tried and true method, the clutch start. Five scraggly skinny sun bleached sweaty palmed pimply youths trying and to push start a 20 tonne car.....

The second problem with the Beast was rain. The engine was called (from memory ) a flat six. This meant that the spark plugs were sitting on the top of the engine, unlike today with the plugs out to the side. The problem was that everytime we drove through a decent puddle the water it would splash into the engine compartment and pool on the plug sockets, immediately stopping the engine. We could quickly remedied this by doing a complete towelling down of the engine and a thorough spraying with RP7. In about two hours we were operational again.

Its was around 10pm when we left the W'gong that Friday night. It took us around two hours to get to Sydney. We pulled into the first service station we saw. (A real service station were they came out and did everything. Petrol was around 20 cents per gallon) "Fill her up with oil and check the petrol" our seventeen year old driver told the attendant, with authority in his voice. The Beast sure could burn oil!

We continued on into the night. After a while we discovered that no one knew how to get from one side of Sydney to the other. Three and half hours later we emerged at Hornsby, and felt proud of our progress. We had also had two more oil and fuel stops during that time.

Our favorite album at the time was Cream's "Wheels of Fire". We would enjoy the music by assigning instruments to each other, while someone took lead vocals. You had to do the instrument imitations with various mouth movements. This is a bit like the hip hop guys today that make all the noises with their mouths.

One of our favourite tracks was "Pressed Rat and Worthog". That song had duel french horns so I hope you can imagine how good we all sounded. "Selling atonal apples and amplified heat, and pressed rats collection of dog legs and feet". (Deep and meaningful).

Nobby's Beach: then

On we drove singing and instrumenting. As luck would have it the rain started falling on the Pacific Hwy halfway to Newcastle. It rained and it rained and the road got wetter by the minute. We began to start thinking that it might be a good time to slow down in case we encountered a puddle. Too late! Splash , swoosh and stalled again! I won't bore you with the details but we managed to drive into the Nobby's beach car park at 6.30am on Saturday morning. Eight and a half bloody hours after leaving Wollongong.

All was not lost, for at the end of the rainbow was a perfect surf with hardly another soul in sight. A Four foot north east swell, brushed clean by a moderate westerly breeze. Heaven! Tired as we were from our epic journey we surfed ourselves silly for the next 3 hours. We all eventually staggered out from the surf and commenced the surf's post mortem "hey did you see the third wave I got?" or "what about the tube I got on my fith wave" and on it went.

Very tired and worn out as we were it was time to get some nourishment! In those days the traditional after surf meal was the tried and tested can of creamed rice. It was not uncommon to find a cartoon of creamed rice cans in the boot of the Oldsmobile and turned out to be a lifesaver once. We snuck Meggsy into the drive-in, locked in the boot, so that he didnt have to pay. Unfortunately we forgot about him. When someone eventually remembered three days later, we rushed to open the boot and found him happily eating his way through the rations of creamed rice. So there we were at Nobby's Beach, feeding ourselves and discussing with excitement what a great idea it was to come to Newcastle. Nothing could go wrong now could it? Well yes,it could and it did! We failed to notice a dark blue Falcon Panel Van with a blue and white police sign on the top. We all turned our heads at the sound of two doors slamming, almost simultaneously but not quite. It was kinda like a ricochet effect. Two bloody great big coppers with beer bellies and ruddy complexions were headed our way. They looked like two T V extra's out of Division Four. It's not a pretty sight seeing six scraggly, sun bleached, sweaty palmed, pimply youths trembling with fear, but those two bastards seem to enjoy it. "RIGHT . Who owns this heap of shit?" yelled the biggest cop. Relief swam over our faces, because he couldn't be talking about the Oldsmobile , the greatest surf wagon ever to ride the Pacific Hwy. We all turned to see what car was behind us, secretly laughing inside thinking that some poor bugger's gonna cop it. Imagine our horror when there was no other vehicle in sight. "I'm talking to you lot, you long haired gits". Well that did it for us, not only did he insult our car, he insulted our hair. We answered in unison. "WE DO!". Now in 1969 you didn't need a university degree to get into the police force. This answer seemed to stump our trusty law enforcement officers. They turned away and spoke amongst themselves. When they turned back the mouthpiece said, "Today is your lucky day. We're gonna drive around the block, and if you're still here when we get back, we will run the lot of you in!"

Easy we thought, got out of that one easy! We scrambled into action quickly tying the boards to the roof racks, and piling our gear into the car. In we hopped, ready, quick lets get out of here. Key in, turned on, kick over... But NOTHING! Bloody thing wouldn't start! A quick fiddle with the battery connections should do it. Unfortunately I was in the front passanger seat, wondering if sweating and electricity mix. Lots of fizzing and popping coming off the battery terminals, lots of sweat pouring of my body and I'm gonna die I thought. The cops will be back any minute, and it looks like its another clutch start. There we were pushing the bloody Oldsmobile out of the carpark and down the street when the coppers came around the corner. We just kept pushing past them, and our combined fear generated a surge of herculean strength. The Oldsmobile was doing thirty klms without the motor running. I remembered that I managed to glean a look at the coppers and I swear that they nearly ran off the road watching us.

The rest of the day was eneventful and our tiredness made sure of that. We spent the rest of the day lolling around Newcastle beach taking turns sleeping in the car or lying around the beach. All was not lost because it was Saturday and we were convinced that tonight would finally be our big night out.

Some locals told us that there was a dance on at some hall at the western end of Hunter St. The headline act was The Dave Miller Set. We were already big fans of this band and they had a hit song called Mr Guy Fawkes (anyone remember that one?). We had seen them perform in Wollongong several times. Not only that but their lead guitarist was John Robinson, who was Australia's answer to Eric Clapton at the time. They did a great cover of Cream's "Crossroads" which happened to be off the live version of the Wheels of Fire Album. We couldn't wait.

The Dave Miller Set.

We arrived at the dance hall at about 6.45pm full to the brim with a dinner of hambugers with egg and bacon, and our rationed one longneck beer each ready for action. There were people everywhere lining up to get in and we managed to get a parking spot in Hunter St about a half a klm from the hall. In we walked at around 7pm, fashionable late, to make the greatest impact. Its hard to explain to the younger generation today what these dances were like. There was no alcohol allowed, there were tables and chairs down the back end of the hall and a dance floor up near the stage area. It all finished at 11pm so you could be home in bed by midnight. But we were so fashionably late that there was nowhere for us to sit. We took to casually slouching against the side wall, scanning the room for some spare seats. Then one of my mates yelled out that there were six girls sitting by themselves and spare chairs at the table. This mate was smart, because he could still count to six whilst being under the influence of one longneck. "Go on Lovey, you do it. Go and ask if we can sit there!". I never thought of myself as a group spokesperson, but having two sisters I was qualified to talk to girls. I immediately began to sweat, fearing rejection and ridicule, but I wanted to look like a hero to my mates. I strode over in my most confident stride, while trembling inside. How to break the ice?

"Hi" I said. I was met with six blank disdainful stares. On I pressed because I could feel the glares of my five mates burning into my back. "My name's Glenn, and my mates and I have driven all the way from Wollongong to come to this dance!" They all looked at each other in disbelief and then their spokesperson said "Wollongong? what's Wollongong?" I quickly retorted "You know Wollongong, its just like Newcastle only down south." The girls all burst out laughing, and I started to turn away. I would have to walk the "walk of shame and ridicule" back to my mates. Then I heard, "Did yous drive here?" "yea" I replied, thankful for the reprieve. " So you got a car?" "yea" I said, having used up most of my vocabulary in the introduction. "Ok then yous can sit here". I quickly planted myself in a chair before they changed their minds, at the same time waving my dumbstruck mates over to join me. How can this be? No girls have ever let us sit down with them before. Maybe, just maybe this trip to Newcastle was a great idea after all!!!

We had a great night in that dance hall, dancing, singing, sipping on our cola's and amusing the girls with our quick wit and repartee. They even danced with us. It was a great success even though we were still wearing the same clothes that we left the Gong in on Friday. The girls turned out to be trainee nurses from the Newcastle hospital and they were great. They actually seemed to be enjoying our company. At 11pm it all came crashing to a sudden halt and it was time to go! The hall quickly emptied,and we all started piling out onto Hunter St. Someone grabbed my hand. It was the girl's spokesperson. She whispered to me "Let's go look at this car of yours". My palms started sweating at this intrusion. Girls don't usually want to hold my hand. I felt out of my depth. Unbeknown to me the other five had paired off as well, so that there were all twelve of us romantically strolling down Hunter St towards the waiting Oldsmobile. As we walked down the street the girls started playing guess which car the boys own. We went past some mean looking EH Holdens which I think they wished were ours. Finally we reached the Beast, the world's greatest surf wagon in all her glory. She had 6 boards still on the roof. We were worried they might have been stolen by now. The girls squealed with delight when they laid eyes on the two toned green Beast. Infact the girl I was with suddenly dropped my hand and pulled me in close to whisper to me "You guys are so cool!" I saw this as a quick opportunity to wipe my sweaty hands on my Lee Cooper jeans. Oh wow, some girl just called me cool! Another oportunity lost! In we piled, all dozen of us. Beleive it or not there was room for another six with a push. The plan was to drive to Newcastle beach but the girls lived at the Nurses Home at the hospital.

"Everyone aboard" called out our driver. "Yes" the rousing chorus greeted him in reply. " Lets go!" Click, click,,click nothing! The bloody car wouldn't start again! I must admit those girls were good sports. Out they hopped in all of their Saturday night best , along with the boys to push the Oldsmobile up and down Hunter St for a clutch start. I realised that this car had a mind of its own. It took over a half an hour to start. So the moment was indeed lost and we drove the girls back to the hospital. They only just made it for their midnight curfew.

With car still running we decided to get a jump on and drive back to Wollongong that night. We made it as far as Norah Head, before exhaustion caught up with our designated driver. We laughed and joked the whole way about the girls who let us sit with them, and danced with us and how they had to help us push start Oldsmobile.

One scraggly sun bleached sweaty palmed pimply youth.

 

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Newcastle to Port Stephens

One of those memorable days.

After spending four relaxing nights in Newcastle marina, we decided that it was time to continue heading north and set off for Port Stephens. Newcastle is such a changed city. Its hard to believe the transformation, especially if you remember what it was like when the steelworks were here.

Sky Aquarium Newcastle Marina

The forecast was for a light westerly early on then dropping out later in the day. We decided to chance it and go. We hoped that the westerly would carry us all the way. Newcastle Harbour is one of the worlds busiest coal ports. It was all very interesting when we encountered this beast when we were leaving.

Sail giving way to power

When these vessels are fully laden they only have 1.5 metres under their keel in this harbour channel. Recreational vessels like Sea Trek III must give way. No argument from me on that one.

Now thats a rudder.

We had a great sail for about 2.5 hours. When the wind stopped we motored the rest of the way. Once again there was no seasickness onboard. Jen tried out her wrist bands with varying success. I had some great help from a sailing forum about lashing the dinghy to stop it swaying on the davitts.

Jen happy with the dinghy lashings

We saw so many whales on the way to Port Stephens but unfortunately they were too far away to get a decent photo. The two that popped up in front of us were as shocked as we were and dived away as quick as they had surfaced. The dolphins were different. Here's a video that Jen took while she sang to them from the bow.

Dolphin Video.

Almost at Port Stephens

Such still water in greeted us at Port Stephens.

At Anchor: "moon in the water" : a most restful night.

That was yesterday. Today it's been raining. I continually study the weather and wonder how bad this low pressure system is going to be.

Where we are today.?

http://skipr.net/where-is/boat-pages/?boatid=1122


 

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

SURPRISING NEWCASTLE AND MAINTENANCE

BY JEN

Glenn is being creative. He is busy composing his " EPIC TRIBUTE TO NEWCASTLE 1969". Our visit has triggered a wave of nostalgia for his first car and surfing safaris. It is very funny if only he can finish it. ....I can't wait any longer and have barged in with my own blog.

What do we do with our selves when waiting for good sailing conditions to help us travel up north? We always have jobs to do to keep Sea Trek III afloat and ship shape. I have told most people that I felt that we left Sydney's electricity supply far too soon: I had lots of projects that required a power cord/source, and had no time to complete them. Newcastle Marina made me very happy: ST3 now has line bags, my own design of course, but with practical and simple features.

LINE BAGS THAT WON'T SNAG A SAILORS FOOT

AND The most amazing thing has happened to Glenn. He willingly attempted the traditional craft of sail mending, and I think he did really well. The stitches may not be pretty but they are very strong. This loop holds a cringle for the main sail.

BELIEVE IT OR NOT THIS REQUIRED A LOT OF MUSCLE

We finally started to clean the "out of sight, out of mind things". The photo below shows something that surprised us both. It is not a poor excuse for a flower arrangement. It 's our speed log that protrudes from the boat's hull and calculates our speed through the water. Could this explain a few of our miscalculations???

AND IT HAD SOMETHING LIVING IN IT

Lots of things have changed for us. We no longer have a car to help us gather food. We are getting used to the trolley, but sometimes Glenn forgets and as we walked past this popular fast food outlet...

GLENN TRYING TO DRIVE-THROUGH MacDonalds FOR A QUICK SNACK

I think that he may not have been the first sailor to have make this mistake. Newcastle is full of basic instructions on how to walk.

WHY WALK SMART?

Newcastle has been renovated since I last visited. It's extensive foreshores are now paved and the lights have beautiful black granite bases. The secure marina is really well presented and a walk to the bathrooms with my towel and shampoo involved passing several restaurants etc.

LIGHTING THE WAY TO THE UNISEX FACILITIES
FORESHORE RESTAURANT STRIP

Just to let you know that when in port I drink REAL COFFEE and there really is no substitute when at sea.

A HAPPY BREAKFAST FOR JEN on ST3
 

A big thank you to the winner of the "name the pesky duck" contest. I know that the Prince of Whales has been trying to find a way to use Glenn's surname for one of our vessels. LUV-A-DUCK for our inflatable dinghy /rubber duckie. Thanks. It's a gem.

Our latest location

http://skipr.net/where-is/boat-pages/?boatid=1122


 

Friday, June 7, 2013

GENTLEMEN DON'T SAIL TO WINDWARD

BY JEN

Gentlemen don't sail to windward.

This is a "nautical wisdom" perpetuated by the retired gentlemen in the Yacht Club bars.....A fresh take on this is the practice view point of a female sailor. My reasons are very different.

 

DEAD CLOSE HAUL. SAILING TO WINDWARD

Heading to Newcastle from Pittwater:

I sat in the cockpit clutching at anything stable. The lean made sitting or standing difficult. I was happy not to be overwhelmed by nausea, and tried hard to enjoy the experience. The blue ET pills were working for both of us. We were making really good speed under sail. Glenn was ecstatic, finally being able to experiment with the unique sailing abilities of Sea Trek III. We had longed to do this, and the day had finally come.

WASHING THE DECKS

I watched the decks awashed with water and worried about the free swinging of the dinghy. Would it be damaged by the frantic swaying and how best could I secure it to the davits in the future. Happy sailing continued, until I decided to go below decks.....

 

I saw a pond of water on the floor, and noticed that the lounge cushions were wet. One horrible moment ensued while I tried to make sense of the growing water quantity. There was no water coming in from the submerged sides of Sea Trek III, and the bilge pumps weren't activated. The cabinet under the navigation table was awash. I grabbed all of the boat documents and threw them elsewhere. Then I lifted up the lounge/lee berth cushions to find them heavy with water. The beautiful upholstery that I made!..Swearing and a flood to tears briefly drew Glenn's attention to our drama. I couldn't find enough towels on board to soak up the mess. ( I did put two aside for our hot showers In Newcastle Marina). We were still angled over as I started throwing dripping towels out into the cockpit and in Glenn's general direction. He looked a little surprised and tried to trim the sails without loosing momentum.

 

JUST PART OF THE FLOOD

What I observed when ST3 levelled again was that the starboard water tank was still leaking out of the inspection ports. This shouldn't happen at all because when refilling we always leave a few cms gap. We have two tanks under the saloon seating each holding 500 ltrs. My guess is that a connecting tap between the two tanks is open and gravity created a pressure force or syphoning? I'm now wondering if I close the air vents to each tanks in future if this will stop the flow? Obviously we will be closing the adjoining tap between the tanks as well.

 

Newcastle Marina has good facilities, including electricity. Glenn says that it has six ensuites: toilets with bathrooms, unisex. We have had the fan heater going to dry things out. I have inserted 500 sheets of toilet paper into the Land Rover engine manual to keep the pages apart while it dries out. Such exotic things to do while in port. Glenn is out looking for some Sourdough bread, and has been gone for ages. Could it be that Newcastle closes down for the June long week end?

THE PAGES OF THE MANUAL ARE SUPER ABSORBENT

Footnote:

Ah Jen you make it sound all so dramatic, I never once swore or burst into tears. Here's a brief video I took before the wind picked up.