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| Wizard sailing in Marquesas! Seems sooo long ago.... |
11/8 Friday
Seven days passage from New Caledonia to Australia
The vastness of the ocean is hard to explain to one who has not seen it and been on it for days on end. The ocean goes on for miles and miles the sameness, the blueness…it’s like a desert…it’s unimaginable until you experience it. It’s lonely and barren and the chances of seeing another boat are rare…so, when we came upon S/V “Stork” floating on the horizon we were surprised. We thought we’d left them at the dock in New Caledonia? We hailed on the VHF to find they were having engine problems, so we “stood by” as is mariner’s custom until they got it sorted out and waved us off. We both motor/sail into the sunset, each of us laying for Brisbane, but on slightly different headings.
The weather window we chose to leave on had a few days of calm in the forecast. We have been motor-sailing for two days solid. I for one am enjoying the motion of no motion. John wants more wind to sail as we can “tic off the miles” faster under full sail.
11/9 Saturday
Only 120 miles left to the 763-mile passage! Yahoo! | I just can’t wait for the end! To tell the truth, this seven-day passage has been almost boring. No it is boring. I’ve read all the books I brought. I’m tired of our music choices and I don’t want to cook or clean anymore. I’m re-reading old Latitude 38 magazines because I’ve nothing else to read! In fact, I’m just staring out at the “big blue” with no thoughts and nothing to think about. Crazy.
Watching the clouds, now…look up the different formations to learn that the flat blanket -white-across-the-sky is Cirrus Stratus. If the shapes start to get holes, turn into puffy white shapes, then evaporation is happening and a change to fair weather is coming…these are the things we study and think about on passage.
We’ve been motoring for two whole days…not enough wind to push the sails.
4:00pm
See a sailboat on the horizon…it’s S/V “Stork” dead in the water with engine failure…we “stand by” ready to assist if needed…what are we going to do? Luckily, after 15 minutes, the engine fires back up…away they sail headed like us to Brisbane. Makes me thankful that our engine is super and never failed (well, one time crossing to Marquesas) and if it did, what a LONG passage it would make while waiting for wind!
8:00pm
Clear skies, winds start to freshen up… 20knots… were sailing again! But with beam swells hitting us, it’s a bumpy, lumpy ride!
-See a tanker on the horizon…. using our AIS locator we learn the name of vessel; it’s speed, destination and hour of impact if it were to cross our path! I hail the vessel on VHF radio…”Do you see the sailboat on your port side?”…again, I must be waking these Captains up…No , he does not SEE us on his instruments until I ask him to look …Yes, and he sees us. Luckily, I have 3 miles to get this acknowledgement. Again we have plenty of ocean room for passing. This happened three times this night! Three more tankers need to be called! Later we learned we were crossing the shipping lanes out of Brisbane, Australia, a major exporting port!
1:30pm
John is hand steering and we are both up on watch, me calling freighters and he trying to hold a course. There is too much “weather-helm” for the Monitor wind vane to hold a course.
11/10 Sunday
6:00am
Land Ho! We see shapes of land -Australia in the distance! Rough choppy seas heading for North West entrance to Moreton Bay….20 miles to go!
I’m excited to land in Australia! Never did I think I would sail here! Amazing. The entrance to the Brisbane Harbor through Moreton Bay sounds intimidating. It’s just a big shallow bay spilling out from Brisbane River with many shoal areas. There are many past wrecks marked on the charts!
We are navigating by an app from Navionics loaded on my ipad! The electronic charts we bought for the South Pacific have ENDED at Australia! Just a big brown blob of land with no details. Apparently, Australia is not part of the South Pacific! We knew we were going in minus paper charts, so we are very happy to report the Navionics App on ipad is very detailed and awesome!
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| Docked at Rivergate Marina, Brisbane, Australia |
5:00pm
Docked at Rivergate Marina for Customs and Immigration. We are on a locked, gated dock unable to go ashore until the custom officers inspect the vessel. This will be in the morning as we arrived late Sunday evening. We are five miles up muddy Brisbane River, passing the industrial port, riding the tidal flow upstream with cement factories, gas terminals, loading freighters, billowing smoke stacks pouring brown gases over the booming city of Brisbane.
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| New and modern Rivergate Marina is the Customs and port of entry. |
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| Our night-scape at Rivergate Marina under the freeway bridge! |
Reflections:
Have I enjoyed this sailing adventure? Yes! I’m glad I did it. It has satisfied my dreams of visiting far off places. We've met so many interesting people, experienced so many new customs and cultures while "pushing my comfort zone" many times! Would I do this again? No, I’m done for now. At least, with sailing adventure. We both have had our “fill” of the unknowns…and maybe even traveling. I’m ready for home and routine and yes, maybe it will be boring, but I'm ready for that now…
John and I have been talking about what we’ll do when we get home. This really is the end of a long adventure and we both really want a break. The sailing part of our lives is over. What we’ll do next? Let’s wait to see…
Australia is really the "Land of Plenty"! Our first stop is to re-supply at Kmart!
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| Back to the land of plenty...Australia is much like the US in abundance and quality! |
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| It's Christmas time in the land down under! |
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| Christmas decorations on Wizard! |
Congratulations you two! What an awesome experience you guys have had. Can't wait to keep reading about your adventures in Australia! All is well in the Midwest < 2 months before we meet Baby PK. Hugs! Elizabeth & Brian
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