Blog | Tahina Expedition | A sailing circumnavigation you can follow on Google Earth

Back in Bundy

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Frank Taylor

We’re are back in Bundaberg, or many folks refer to it as “Bundy”. We had a delightful sail up the east coast of Fraser Island, ending up with a downwind wing-on-wing as the sun set. And then, about 9PM, we crossed the northern spit and were on a straight line for Bundy on a beam reach under a full moon. There were just a few scattered white fluffy clouds, lit up by the moon, and the light was ahead of us in the west as we sailed magically across the calm seas of the bay. The water was glistening white, we could see almost as well as daylight, and the breeze was pleasantly cool as we ghosted along at 7-8 knots for nearly 50 miles. We reached the shore breeze about 6 miles from shore which took away our wind so we dropped sails and motored the final few miles. We finally arrived at the Bundaberg Port anchorage at 4 AM.

After a few hours of sleep at anchor, we got up and moved the boat to our slip reserved at the marina. We parked right next to our friends on s/v LeuCat. Now a busy week of finishing work on the boat and preparing for our trip to the US begins. But, at least the goal of making it to Bundy by the 7th was achieved as planned months ago. A miracle considering what happened with our spinnaker sail delivery last week, and with the way the weather has been so far here in Oz. Whew!

Posted in News, Passages, Sightseeing | Tagged Australia, Bundaberg, moon, sailing, tahina | 4 Comments

Bar Decision

Posted on April 5, 2012 by Frank Taylor

No, we weren’t trying to figure out where to have drinks this time. We had a more challenging passage decision instead. We left yesterday from Brisbane to sail north and position ourselves to cross to the Sandy Straights near Fraser Island in Australia. In order to get there, we would need to cross the infamous Wide Bay Bar (sand bar) which has claimed many boats due to the very dynamic conditions of the waters over this shallow and narrow passage. We crossed this same bar on the way south last November, and had no issue. We left Brisbane in the afternoon for an overnight passage toward Fraser Island (about 90 miles). The high tide at the bar was to be a couple of hours after daylight. The best time to cross the bar is with east or southeast winds (we had southeast), seas as flat as possible, and with the tide going in and just before high tide so there is the maximum depth possible.

We had called before we left Brisbane and got a coast guard report on the conditions at the bar. Several boats had made it across that day, the conditions were good. The weather forecast were for the same or slightly better conditions today.

We had a pleasant sail during the night, and we were a bit ahead of schedule. We pulled into an anchorage at Double Island Point – only 7 miles south of the bar. We got up and called the coast guard first thing. We found out we were going to be just a few minutes past the high tide because our tide tables were off. But, the worse news was that a coast guard boat had just checked the conditions and saw 3-4 meter swells and very “confused” conditions on the bar. That did not sound good.

We went ahead and made our way to the first waypoint to have a look. There was a sizeable 3m+ swell we could see as we made our way. Once we got to the first waypoint, we could see some breaking waves over areas of the bar. But, we decided to start to the second waypoint while the water was still deep just to have a better look. We could soon see breaking waves over the bar at the pass.

Our choice was to go for it, and risk our boat and lives, or go an extra 40 miles around Fraser Island to Bundaberg. We had already made the decision to go an extra several thousand miles around South Africa instead of the Red Sea, so this decision was actually pretty easy. We are now sailing around Fraser Island.

Posted in News, Sightseeing | Tagged Bar, Decision, Fraser, Island, Sandy, Straights, tahina | Leave a comment

Spinnaker Delayed

Posted on April 2, 2012 by Frank Taylor

We mentioned that we placed an order back in February for our new spinnaker from the company that made the original in South Africa. This was to make sure the sail would be ready for shipment when we got back north. About three weeks ago, while we were in Southport, I asked the sailmaker to send me a quote to have it shipped to either Bundaberg or Brisbane. The quote they got said it would cost about $280 to ship from South Africa to Brisbane, but the Australian delivery company wanted $1000 to ship it from Brisbane to Bundaberg! Needless to say, I told them right away “we’ll just pick it up in Brisbane, let’s ship it there.”

For now, I won’t go into the details of what happened after this, but despite my every effort the shipment was delayed multiple times until finally I was told it would arrive on Wednesday (a day later than our planned departure from Brisbane to Bundaberg). We were told the sail would be sent to for delivery last Friday. Well, today I get an E-mail that the flight they had scheduled our sail on was “full”. So, it’s been re-scheduled to arrive on Thursday! This is not good at all. Now we have to choose between taking a risk we can’t get the boat to Bundaberg on time for tasks we have scheduled there, or rent a car in Bundaberg and drive back to Brisbane to pick up the sail (an all day trip – and very expensive fuel). Let’s just say: I’m not happy (I don’t like to use other words in public).

Other cruisers can tell you that probably the most inconvenient hassle of our lives is the delivery of parts for our boats. It greatly effects what we do and where we have to be. It’s unfortunate that despite our greatest efforts to make sure these hassles are minimized (by ordering far in advance), that vendors and delivery companies will do things (or NOT do things) that mess up our lives in a big way by having our shipments arrive late, or go to the wrong place. And, after you finally get your package to arrive in a country, there’s always a chance that customs entry procedures will force an unknown amount of time (hours to days) of delay.

Anyway, wish us luck that we will survive this latest delivery disaster. I’m pretty upset about it at the moment.

Posted in BoatingLife, News, Preparations | Tagged delays, delivery, sail, spinnaker, tahina | Leave a comment

Tonga Dream Resort

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Frank Taylor

While we were in the Ha’apai group of islands in Tonga in 2010, we met up with a guy named Darren who was running the dive business on Foa Island. He had heard about Tahina from other cruisers and was anxious to meet me because he had heard about my kite aerial photography. He was keen to get one of the islands near him into Google Earth because it had very poor imagery. Karen and I even flew the kite and took some photos of the island (the photo here is one of them), but fortunately Google has since added some good satellite imagery that covers the island. We also did some dives with Darren and he showed me some great stuff about underwater photography. Later, we met up with Darren and some people running a resort called Matafonua Lodge Resort, and had a great evening there. The blog post about the visit can be found here, and pictures from Ha’apai were posted here.

It turns out that Darren and his wife ended up buying the Matafonua Resort and they are now running the dive and whale watching business from there as well. This place is really beautiful and I can say for sure Karen and I will gladly go visit the resort so we can see this beautiful place again. If you’re looking for an awesome small remote island resort to go to, I can recommend this one. To give you a taste of how beautiful is is, Darren produced this video:

Matafonua Lodge Resort Ha’apai Kingdom of Tonga from Liquid image Productions on Vimeo.

Darren also was inspired by my kite aerial photography, and purchased an R/C airplane and a GoPro video camera. His first flight with the plane and camera produced some awesome video, but the end came rather abruptly resulting in a broken propeller. It’s worth a watch for the awesome views of the islands and reefs, but also for the rather dramatic ending.

And, if you’re wondering where this place is located, here’s a link to a map.

Posted in News, Sightseeing | 2 Comments

Rotten Start to a Boat Project

Posted on March 29, 2012 by Frank Taylor

Today we were doing various cleaning jobs, and then decided to do basic maintenance on our two main electric winches. Which involves disassembling, cleaning, greasing, and re-assembling the parts. Karen wanted to help with this task so she was going to watch me disassemble the first one. Barely 30 seconds into the job, disaster struck. I couldn’t believe it!

The first thing you do is take off the retaining nut at the top, then you take off the feeder arm. No problem. Next I went to remove the drum (the biggest part). It lifted no problem, but the little bearing parts that normally stay on the inner cylinder were stuck on the inside of the drum by the grease – something I didn’t expect. As I lifted the drum off towards me two of the bearings and the washer at the bottom fell out. Black yucky grease went everywhere. But, that isn’t what caused Karen to shout. The washer (now behind me so I didn’t see it), proceeded to roll right off the boat onto the dock, and right into the water on the other side. Plop! Argh (and a few other four-letter words)!

After grumbling a while, I researched whether a) I had the part in my Lewmar spares kit – no. b) what spares kit has to be purchased to get that part – the drum bearing kit which includes several parts and costs over $50. Ouch!

Next I decided this would be a perfect job for our VideoRay underwater video camera. I got all the gear out and dove on the area with the camera. The water was pretty murky and I could only see about 3 feet. I finally got to the area and on the ground, but I couldn’t see much at all. Everytime I moved the camera it stirred up silt. I could only see the ground when I was a few inches away. After 45 minutes I gave up looking for the part.

I got out all my dive gear including scuba tank and went diving. I dropped a weight on a string to mark the approximate location. Down I went – to only 15 feet of depth. I couldn’t even see my hand down there – even with a bright dive light. Not only that, but the bottom was covered in a very thin silty black mud. Needless to say, the 5″ black washer I was looking for was impossible to find. I gave up after 5 minutes and called it quits.

Naturally, the winch in question was the most important winch – the one we use to lift our dinghy. We must have that one working, so we sabotaged the part off the other winch. But, first Karen began de-greasing, cleaning, re-greasing, and oiling the parts. She soon finished that job and we now at least have one of our primary winches working. Now her job as a winch wench for the day is over, so we celebrated with some beer!

Now we have to try to find the part here locally, or order it and have it shipped in. If the latter, it will probably cost more to have it shipped than the parts themselves. They call it a BOAT for a reason (Bring On Another Thousand $$$).

Posted in Boat Maintenance, BoatingLife, News | Tagged Boat, Diving, job, Lewmar, part, tahina, water, winches | 5 Comments

First Days in Brisbane Area

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Frank Taylor

After successfully negotiating the curvy route up the intracoastal waters between Southport and Brisbane, and the power line that was just barely high enough for us go under (actually we had at least 16 feet of clearance), we arrived in Manly which is just south of Brisbane. Manly is home to a protected boat harbor with 4 marinas and a LOT of boats (even more slips were added than shown in the photo below):

View Larger Map

We had heard our friends Mark and Dana of s/v Northfork had just arrived back to Brisbane after spending several months back in the US. They not only brought a ton of suitcases back with them, but also a 2 month-old son. We were hoping to visit with them, but they had a trip planned to Melbourne the next day. Fortunately, with jet lag they woke up really early the next day, and had time to come visit with us. We ended up going to town for brunch and getting to see them and the baby. It was good catching up as we had only seen them a little in Fiji and Vanuatu, the last real time together was in Christchurch before the earthquake.

Since we were already in town, we jumped on the train and went to the big city of Brisbane. We had been in touch with s/v Totem and s/v Callisto who are at the marina downtown on the river. After walking a bit at Streets Beach, we caught the city ferry and arrived at the marina. We spent most of the afternoon hanging out with Totem and Callisto. It was great catching up with them as well. A very busy day for us socially. It’s unusual if we visit one boat in a week, and we did THREE in one day! We reversed our course as the sun was setting and took the ferry, train, and then had to walk 1.5 miles back to our boat. Whew!

Since then, we’ve been spending a lot of time doing cleaning and other maintenance projects on the boat. A big one for me was cleaning off the dinghy. It got some serious yucky build-up on the bottom – especially while we were in Sydney. It took me two half-days of scrubbing to get most of the cleaning done, but the dinghy looks much better now.

We are trying to get the boat as prepared as possible before we leave for the US, so we have less work to do when we return. We need to quickly provision and move the boat up to the Whitsundays when we return. There won’t be time to do maintenance, or a lot of cleaning beyond maybe a boat wash-down.

We still have a long list of jobs to do in the next three weeks. It’s not going to be a lot of fun, but we hope to sneak off and do some sightseeing in Brisbane. We know of at least three crews coming here that we hope to see before we leave: Boree, Oso Blanco, and Kilkea (coming from New Zealand). That will help add to the fun as well.

Posted in Boat Maintenance, BoatingLife, News, Sightseeing | Tagged Australia, baby, Brisbane, Callisto, Manly, Northfork, tahina, Totem | Leave a comment

Continuing North From Southport

Posted on March 22, 2012 by Frank Taylor

We have had an enjoyable stay this week in Southport. We did some shopping at the nearby mall. We went to dinner with an Aussie family – the father has been following Tahina for a while and has given us tips during our visit here (thanks Tony!). We even managed to go to two movies at the movie theater – including yesterday when we went to see the first showing of “Hunger Games” earlier than the rest of the world thanks to our location near the dateline (it was good by the way!).

Today we are leaving Southport to head north to the Brisbane area. We found a slip in a marina in the town we stayed at last time called Manly (the one in Queensland, not the more famous one near Sydney). This time we are going to go the inter-coastal route. We didn’t go this route before because there is an overhead wire on the charts that says it is too low for our mast to clear. But, we’ve been told by some locals, and cruisers who have gone that way, that we should clear it thanks to one side being up on a hill. Going this route means we only travel 41 nautical miles. The other way, around Moreton Island, means the distance is 93 nautical miles, and we are in the open seas open to some weather that isn’t great today.

We expect to be in the Brisbane area at least a week to two weeks. I’ve uploaded a couple of photos to the previous post showing that glorious scene of the clouds and sunlight, and a shot of Tahina at sail downwind with sails on either side.

Posted in News, Passages, Sightseeing | 4 Comments

Nice Sail to Southport

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Frank Taylor

We are anchored in Southport, QLD after an uneventful and mostly pleasant sail from Yamba yesterday. We had good winds most of the day and managed to maintain an 8 knot average. The only problem was the rather bumpy seas for the first half, but they gradually eased during the course of the day as the winds dropped below 20kts. We had an awesome wing-on-wing downwind run towards Southport as the sun was casting rays around a squall of rain over the mountains. We ended up motoring the last 5 miles or so in order to insure we would arrive before dark. We crossed the bar at just past 6PM local (7 PM Sydney time).

I hope to upload a picture later, but we are cleaning up and then going ashore to do some shopping.

Oh, and here is a picture of our wing-on-wing sailing towards the skyscrapers of Southport (click for larger):

Posted in News, Passages, Sightseeing | Tagged Australia, Southport, tahina | Leave a comment

Wild Ride North

Posted on March 18, 2012 by Frank Taylor

We left on Saturday morning to head north. There was a strong southerly system moving through, but we decided since the winds and seas would be following, that we could handle a less than idea set of conditions. It was certainly a wild ride! By Sunday morning the winds worked themselves up to 25-30 knots and by the afternoon they were 30-35. We had seas of 4-5 meters all afternoon. Here’s the GPS track map of our route:

View Passage to Yamba Going North in a larger map

During the night, we were very bummed because we ran into the East Australia Current. It hit us for 4 knots of current for most of the night. We were only making as little as 3.2 knots of progress over ground for several hours! This meant we were unlikely to get very far north on this system before the winds got less pleasant. Fortunately, by first light, we started to get out of the current and things got much better.

We decided to continue north past Coffs Harbor, which was the last “easy” entrance technically until North Moreton Island in the Brisbane area. It got to be sunny then, and although it was getting rough we decided to at least go for Yamba. By the afternoon, we had decided we had had enough excitement and we would try for the port of Yamba. They have a sand bar entrance there which can get pretty dicey at times. We were not at all sure it would be possible, so we set our expectation we’d have to sail an additional 24 hours if it wasn’t passable.

Here’s a taste of what it was like in the middle of the afternoon (taken with my cell phone). CAUTION: May induce motion sickness! Notice we were only using a small amount of sail and were making 9+ knots through the water.

About an hour before us, a small mono-hull sailboat successfully went in the Yamba bar entrance. So, that was encouraging. As we approached, the waves were still quite large, but the sand bar outside the entrance helped reduce the waves for the most part. But, we saw some big breaking waves occasionally over the bar. We came in parallel to the waves and I timed it to avoid the big breaking waves. Two big ones broke just ahead of us as we entered, but things we were lucky and we came in without any major issue right after them. There are a bunch of photos of the entrance into Yamba in this album:

View full-sized slideshow

To reward ourselves we went to dinner at the mexican restaurant we had discovered last December when we stopped here. What a treat!

Posted in News, Passages, Sightseeing, Weather | Tagged Australia, rough, sailing, seas, tahina, weather, wild, Yamba | 1 Comment

Yucky Boat Work and Heading North

Posted on March 16, 2012 by Frank Taylor

We moved out of Soldiers Point on Thursday and took a short trip to Fame Cove just to the north. It’s a quiet little anchorage with a few moorings. We found the only one available near the shore and got situated. On the way, our speed was a clear indication that the props were fouled. It was a nice sunny afternoon, so I got the wet suit and snorkel gear out and checked the props. Despite having cleaned the props just a month earlier when we left Broken Bay, the props were indeed covered in about an inch of barnacles. And, there was a thin film of rough slime all over the hulls as well. We also already knew there was quite a lot of slime on the waterline. Ugh! I only spent an hour in the water trying to clean before I was too tired and cold to continue. This needs to be done because we hope to leave to head north towards Brisbane over the weekend.

A couple of days earlier, I changed out one of the macerator pumps because it had gone bad, this is a pump that empties the holding tanks. Yuck! That pump was particularly hard because it is in a very awkward position to work on. But, at least I managed to keep the yucky parts to a minimum. I also diagnosed another head problem and think I may have to buy a new pump for that one. That’s the problem with having four heads, all with electric toilets, too many parts that can go wrong. Not only that, but yesterday as we were preparing to depart, we realized the other macerator pump had a leak. This happened because the bolts on these pumps break on a regular basis. Oh joy! The other pump would be an even nastier job.

We had been watching the weather all week. A front was going to be moving through that would shift the winds from the north to the south. The trick was whether it would be too strong to use to head north. Fortunately, it looks to be getting better, so we decided to leave yesterday and head out of Port Stephens up a few miles north to Broughton Island. We had to motor the whole way, but at least the weather was beautiful! Very sunny and light NE winds.

But, first I had to work on cleaning the bottoms. I spent another 90 minutes in the water and finished cleaning the props the rudders, the waterline (on all four sides of the two hulls), and cleaned parts of the hulls. But, I ran out of energy and warmth before getting it all. Our speed improved, but is still about 15% off our normal clean hull speed.

We motored out and arrived to Broughton Island early afternoon. We were visited by some dolphin just before we arrived. The island was very pretty, but I had to immediately work on the other pump. It took over two hours to first disassemble the old pump and get at its bolts, then remove the other pump and take it apart, break out a maintenance kit with new washers and gaskets, re-assemble, re-install the now repaired pump, clean out the very nasty bilge, and clean all the tools and work area with disinfectant. This was the nastiest of jobs on a boat – and I don’t love it at all.

We are planning to leave first thing Sunday morning (today) and start heading north. With our slower speed, plus the current working against us, we will make slower than normal progress on this trip. The weather may allow us to make it all the way to Brisbane, but we may stop in Yamba or Southport depending on how comfortable we are with the trip. Awesome sunrise as we departed!