Well, the storm lasted for well on 30 hours – torrential rain and wild winds. After midnight last night, the wind abated and we woke up to a sunny day this morning – the wind have shifted 180 degrees to the West. The water in the marina is a muddy brown from the run off upstream.
Today
The superyacht berths offer exclusivity, which Esprit could get used to!
I say!
Having filled up the diesel tank on Friday and being holed up all day yesterday, I had the opportunity to look at Esprit’s fuel consumption.
We have sailed and motored about 1,000km in the last 3 weeks and used 129.15l of diesel @ $1.33/l at SYC = $171.77. The 129.15l was consumed over 47.2 hours of motoring at about 2,000 rpm. This means the 54 hp Yanmar engine consumes 2.73l/h, costing us $3.63/h. We do about 6-7 knots/h so the cost per nautical mile is about 60c/nm. Eat your hearts out stinkboats!
I also pulled out the angle grinder this morning to cut the spinnaker pole down from 5.5m to 4.9m to clear the forestay. Drilled out the pop rivets and managed to line up the holes for the pole fitting, using s/s self tappers. Why didn’t you lend me your spare pop rivet gun Malcolm?
Our last post from Byron Bay showed a photo of huge Cumulus clouds rolling in from the East. This was a precursor to an East Coast low developing right here.
Clouds rolling in over Byron Bay
When the wind turned East, we realised that it was time to get to Tweed Heads or the Gold Coast Seaway to get to shelter. We sailed through a number of squalls on the way.
On with the wet weather gear.
Tweed Heads bar was a mess of breaking waves, so we pushed on to the Gold Coast, occasionally getting a view of the high rise buildings, between squalls.
Surfers Paradise skyline
After passing some of Australia’s tallest apartment buildings we motored into the manmade Gold Coast Seaway to put down an anchor in Bum’s Bay for Thursday night.
Gold Coast living
On Friday our computers delivered the following alert:
NSW Severe Weather Warning: Damaging Winds & Heavy Rain
Source: Bureau of Meteorology
for DAMAGING WINDS, HEAVY RAINFALL, ABNORMALLY HIGH TIDES and DAMAGING SURF
For people in the Northern Rivers, Mid North Coast, Hunter, Metropolitan, Illawarra, South Coast, Central Tablelands, Northern Tablelands and parts of the Southern Tablelands and North West Slopes and Plains Forecast Districts.
Issued at 12:10 pm Friday, 3 June 2016.
SEVERE WEATHER FOR EASTERN NEW SOUTH WALES
An east coast low is forecast to develop off the southern Queensland or northern New South Wales coast late Saturday, and then expected to move southward on Sunday.
DAMAGING WINDS from the NORTHEAST, averaging 60 to 65 km/h with peak gusts in excess of 90 km/h are possible from Saturday afternoon through to Sunday along much of the coast.
Winds are expected to ease and turn northwesterly in the far north early Sunday.
HEAVY RAIN which may lead to FLASH FLOODING is possible in the north Saturday afternoon and over the remainder late Saturday or early Sunday.
Weekend rainfall totals of 80 to 150 mm are likely for much of the area with localised falls between 200 to 300 mm.
ABNORMALLY HIGH TIDES which may cause sea water flooding of low lying areas are possible.
Annie made a few calls to the various marinas close to us and secured a berth at the Southport Yacht Club for two nights. Esprit looked somewhat lost in the superyacht berth allocated to her, but we made sure we she was well tied up. By 5 pm the first wind and rains hit us, just as Marty and Sue who we had invited to dinner, arrived in their dinghy. They managed to get a berth at Mariners Cove Marina next to us.
The rain and the wind was mind boggling, but we had a jolly dinner until they found a short lull in the rain at about 10 pm to motor back to their boat. At about 11 pm we became aware of a persistent cannon like sound near us. On the next marina arm was a yacht busy losing it’s jib as the self furler was unwinding and the wind flogging the sail to pieces. I was looking for a break in the sheets of rain to try and rewind the furler for the absent owner, but this was not to be. Lesson for all yachties: wind your jib sheets at least 5 times around the furled sail in severe winds.
This morning dawned with the sail in shreds and the wind still howling. In the meantime, a bleak Southport is in our stern view. The wind is expected to peak at about 4pm before a Westerly will kick in, bringing sunshine by Monday. A day for catching up with emails and reading, enjoying great coffee from our little Aldi coffee maker!
Time moves on! Since the Clarence river, we have had an excellent sail to Ballina where we have spent 3 nights. Karen visited us on Sunday evening on the boat on her way back from Brisbane where she attended a course.
Kazza
Mike Wiley also joined us for a drink after racing his skiff on the river. Karen treated us to dinner at the local RSL down the road. Monday was a busy day: Our printer’s wifi connection played up, so I walked 5km there and back to Big W to buy a USB printer cable. Annie did 3 loads of washing at the local laundromat. On Tuesday, Annie had her hair done (a girl has to keep up appearances!) while I did a valet on the inside of the boat, from ceilings to floors. We stocked up with provisions at Woolie’s. Karen picked us up late afternoon for a scenic drive to Lismore, stopping enroute at the Bangalow bowlo for a calming drink after her Fittipaldi driving style.
Karen, Annie and 3 of her mates.
Dinner was prepared by her and the 6 guys she shares a beautiful 1895 hospital house with. A lively discussion over much wine about their various medical disciplines followed before she dropped us off at the boat.
At 6:30 today we had to cross the bar at high tide before hoisting the sails at 7:00 for a brisk sail to Byron Bay to the North. We passed Cape Byron, the most easterly tip of Australia at around 11:00 before dropping anchor off the main beach. The clouds rolled in and we have just had a shower.
We are now in Ballina, but first a report on the time we enjoyed on the Clarence River. If you look at the Clarence river on Google Maps, you will see that it is quite a river navigable all the way up to Grafton. We entered the river at Iluka and Yamba and after spending the first night anchored in the river, we motored upstream to Harwood where the bridge operator stopped the traffic on the Pacific Highway to open the bridge for us. Quite a bit of old world engineering!
The Harwood bridge over the Clarence river
Motoring through the opened section
We passed fairly big ships on the river on our way up to MacLean, a lovely town with Scottish heritage up the river.
Vessels on the river
We tied up to the public jetty in MacLean, where we were welcomed by Peter (with a strong Scottish brogue) and invited to sign the visitors book and given brochures about the town. We stocked up with groceries and bought fresh fish caught that day in the river. A relaxing evening with Van Morrison, fresh grilled fish and wine followed.
Esprit tied to the jetty at MacLean
The following day was spent exploring this delightful town where all the lamp posts are decorated with Scottish clan tartans. A 5km walk up the hill above the town gave us good views of the area and the Clarence flowing back to the sea.
The MacLachlan tartan colours
View out to sea, some miles away
We then motored down river where an obliging Craig Knox opened the bridge for us again to allow us passage out to Iluka where we anchored in the river for the night. We were delighted to see “Now and Zen” on our AIS approaching the bar at the river mouth. Marty and Sue anchored near us and came over for drinks so that we could catch up with their travels since we last saw them in Port Macquarie.
We decided to stay in Coffs Harbour for two nights as I had to fit a replacement water level sensor to our number 1 water tank. The instrument showed half a tank (150l), but the tank was empty. Before departure in Sydney the agents replaced the number 2 tank sensor as it permanently indicated half a tank (100l). This has me a bit concerned about the accuracy of the 200l diesel tank sensor which shows 75% full.
Having learned our lesson on the passage to Coffs by arriving well after dark, we decided to make an early start to Yamba about 60 nm to the North. We left Coffs at 5:30, setting sails at 6:00 and immediately had a good N-W wind, allowing us to enjoy a beautiful, but cold sunrise, sailing past South Solitary Island. Considering this is Big Banana country we were surprised at how cold the wind was on this leg.
Here comes the sun
Good day sunshine
We continued North making good progress in a freshening N-W, sometimes a bit wet, as we ploughed through a 1.5m swell from the North.
We entered Yamba harbour at 16:00 after a 10 hour passage averaging 6 knots. We anchored in the Clarence river off the town of Iluka and had a few stiff whiskey’s! Also note, you can check our progress on skipr.net by selecting the name Esprit in the drop down menu. This will show you our route and where we are at the moment. Today we plan to motor up the Clarence river to visit the town of MacLean.
The distance from Port Macquarie to Coffs Harbour is about 68 nautical miles, so in a fair wind we can easily manage 6.8 knots which equates to a sailing time of about 10 hours.
We therefore departed Port Macquarie at 7 am on flat seas with a predicted 15 – 20 knot wind – so all good. However, when we passed Crescent Head the flat sea suddenly built up to swells of 2.5 to 3 metres as a result of the 2 – 3 knot South flowing current fighting with the S-E winds.
Working hard in the following sea.
As a result, we had to motor sail at about 2,000 rpm to counter the current and make headway. On passing Smoky Cape, the halfway mark, we realised we were running about an hour behind plan. The sea however reduced in height as we moved out of the current, but soon the wind turned N-E – on the nose, slowing us down. Back to the engine!
We arrived in darkness at 7:30pm at the Coffs Harbour Marina to tie up outside their office. We slept well after that. The next morning we climbed Muttonbird Hill which afforded excellent views of the town and surrounds.
View from Muttonbird Hill
Esprit at Coffs Harbour International Marina
We decided to stay another night at the Coffs Harbour “International” Marina (no less) because of the friendly staff and yachties. The day was spent filling the water tanks and chilling generally.
