28/6/14 Cairns Marina |
28 June Had dinner with Oda, Stormvogel and Michelle Black, a good friend and work colleague. Michelle has a fantastic new job, she is now a FIFI (fly in fly out) and works two weeks in Cairns and one at home on the Gold Coast. Was great to see her and catch up on all the news. Have just met Sam who flew in at midnight so will now get some much needed sleep. |
27/6/14 Our approach to Cairns – Yippeeee |
27 June |
26/6/14 Monkey on Oda |
26 June Pacific Dawn passed behind us today, we have seen her a few times on our travels so far, and this lady sure gets around. Weather deteriorated and is not comfortable cruising at all. Huge swells and up to 30k winds we are getting pushed around, it’s impossible to do much as it’s so bad. We didn’t even eat dinner. We are really tired now. |
25/6/14 Slurpee’s and trees |
25 June Stormvogel are going well and now Robbie and Peter and Per are making plans for the repair job in Cairns. Paul Grace has organised the lift out, the engineering shop and materials for a new shaft. We are hopeful the repairs or rebuild can be completed as quickly as possible so Stormvogel can continue on their journey through Indonesia with us. |
24/6/14 Secret to sailing |
24 June Per was radioing Stormvogel, who didn’t answer. So he radioed us, and I was on watch. JoJo, he says “I have a sailing secret to tell you, I am not going to tell Stormvogel now because they didn’t answer me. I am going really fast now as I have all my sails up, but the big secret is that I have Elizabeth’s breast holders up too and we are really flying”!! He just cracks me up so much. We are now over half way to Cairns! Yay what a great feeling, I just can’t wait to see land, and the kids again. This morning I saw a sea snake over a metre long on the top of the water. I wasn’t sure it was a snake but it was quite close to the boat and I could see its head. Welcome to Australian waters! Robbie had a good few hours sleep this morning which is good. It’s now 4.00pm and the wind has dropped to 12 knots, it’s just lovely for us motor cruisers but not so for our sailing companions – their speed has dropped to 4 or 5 knots. We will slow down also to keep within a mile or two of them, all the way to Cairns.
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23/6/14 Mayday Stormvogel |
23 June Peter had got a bilge working and had discovered it was broken bolts in his centreboard where the leak was. Peter had gone to bed and heard an unusual water noise. When he investigated he discovered they had water up to the floorboards, the bilges were full of water. Of course they did not know where it was coming from at first, so it must have been absolutely terrifying for them, in the middle of the Coral Sea between Vanuatu and Australia and no land anywhere near. Once they discovered where it was and got the bilge working they could make a plan of action. Peter had asked Per to initiate a mayday call and he set off their EPIRB also. Per contacted Norwegian emergency services and got things underway, which also included notification to Australian Rescue who in turn organised a container ship in the vicinity to divert to Stormvogels position, and a plane to drop off rescue equipment from Vanuatu, if needed. Once it was ascertained that the amount of water coming in was under control they were able to cancel the boat and plane and turn off the EPIRB. We all maintained a 2 hour radio sched, (a scheduled time to contact each other on the VHF radio) all night to ensure that Stormvogel was OK and that there was no change in the amount of water coming in. Around 8:00am Robbie got the duck off and went and collected Per. Because it was so dangerous Robbie and Per had formulated a plan that if Robbie fell in the water, Oda would be right beside us while he took the duck off and Oda would execute a 90 degree turn across our stern with a fender on a long rope off the stern of Oda that Robbie could grab. Per did a couple of practice runs and I have to say he handled that Yacht like it was a speed boat. Robbie went and collected Per from Oda, Per had timber and tools from Oda and Robbie had a spare new bilge pump, tools and rubber pipe for the bilge. So they boarded Stormvogel and spent some time evaluating the best way to reduce the water flow, it was decided to put more, bigger timber against the end of the shaft to load up the seal and then installing the 2nd bilge pump. Earlier Peter had asked me via VHF if we had any cement. It was suggested from his friend in Germany that he could support the centreboard by cementing it up so it could not move and allow more water in. While the boys were doing this I was getting a call every hour on the SAT phone from Australian Rescue Centre. They were so helpful and he asked me what he could do. I said a couple of bags of cement would be good, not even dreaming that he could produce this. However, he rang me back half an hour later and said there’s a container ship the “Kweilin”, on the way coming to drop two bags of cement off, it is 44 miles away and will be there in about 3 hours. Wow, I was blown away with this. So I informed the skippers and they continued securing the bilges, running wires and pipes for the bilge pump. After discussion it was agreed that Robbie and Per would go alongside the container ship in the duck to collect the cement, then they would drop off the cement to Stormvogel, then drop Per back to Oda and then try and get Robbie and the duck back on Southern Star. The captain of the ship agreed that he would wait and we could complete these manoeuvres on the leeward side of the ship, so we had some protection from the wind and waves. First of all, Robbie and Per went alongside the ship in the duck to collect the cement, which was roped down to them in hessian sacks. Then Stormvogel manoeuvred into the calm spot (which wasn’t that calm) and Robbie and Per delivered the two 60kg cement bags. Then Oda, being skippered by Elizabeth had to manoeuvre into the calm spot to allow Per to board. Elizabeth handled this like a true professional skipper. It took only a few seconds and Per was safely on board. Then it was my turn. I had to drive up to the container ship, go alongside and hold her there in the leeward side for Robbie to get the duck on and secured. This normally takes 10-15 minutes in calm conditions! It was terrifying, the ship was drifting towards me, it was still windy and the duck was flying about on the crane out of control in the wind it was so dangerous. Then the ship drifted so close to me I had to break off and go around and do it all again. We eventually got it on although we did some damage to the duck and the boat but Robbie didn’t care too much so long as everyone was safe. It was terrifying to watch Robbie try and control a 500+kilos of duck flying around on the winch and spinning wildly around, hitting our boat and Robbie. I was trying to keep Southern Star in position and not hit the ship. Eventually Peter said put it on autopilot and go and help him. So I put her to a 90degree angle to the ship and went to help. It was horrific and we couldn’t get the duck to sit on the 3 cradle chocks. In the end we got the front on and the back of the duck sitting on the deck, it was the best we could do. The whole time there was about 20 people standing on the deck of the ship, taking photos. Once Robbie was back in the pilothouse I burst into tears (you all know I am a big sook) I was shaking like a leaf. This had really tested my nerves, and my boat driving skills. I consider this comes under technical, and I warned Robbie when we very first met that “I don’t do technical”! We all radioed the Captain of “Kweilin” to thank him and his crew for their fantastic service. (Peter and Heidi had put a bottle of scotch and some Euro’s in a bag and sent it back up on the rope for them.) It was a huge relief to get underway again towards Cairns. Although, the whole time this was going down, we were underway, slowly heading in the direction of Cairns, albeit very slowly. Peter had found that the water leak was minimal if the boat was underway and on an even keel. Poor Peter and Heidi then spent a few hours mixing the cement and getting it into place, and then having to clean up. They must have been absolutely exhausted and worn down. We are so very impressed with how they handled this disaster.
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22/6/14 Ships in the night |
22 June Most of the day today was big, messy swells again and the wind picked up again to 19 knots. There were also rain squalls around, not good for Oda and Stormvogel, they are now 24 miles behind us. We are in radio contact with SSB only now, at 6.30am, and 6.30pm each day. I am sending a position report each morning via email through our SAT phone to Maritime NZ, John Martin the ICA organiser, Paul & Tracey and our close family. About 3.30pm the swell subsided so we did a few jobs and I put the roast lamb on, for a belated birthday dinner. There’s a nice cool breeze, it’s been hell having all the windows and doors shut with the rough seas. Tomorrow we will be nearly half way. We are hoping to hit Cairns on the 28th. We picked up a hitchhiker around sunset. A young chick, but quite a big bird sat on our bow sprit for a few hours. Once we got the call to turn around to Stormvogel it was too windy for him and off he flew. |
21/6/14 Robbie’s birthday |
21 June |
20/6/14 Let’s go surfing |
20 June |
19/6/14 Departure from Vanuatu |
19 June |