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Position Report and other info UTC (+10 Hrs Brisbane Time)
Cut and paste the GPS location below into Google earth, you can place mark This position and follow our Progress. Satellite Phone / SMS no. +61 405 592 606
Saturday December 21, 2024, 1230 hrs
Arrived at the Queensland cruising yacht club. Final update pending after induced coma expires.
Friday, 20 December 2024, 1300 Hrs
Over Wide Bay Bar. Brisvegas here we come.
Earlier Today
Happy Birthday to Naeus
Thursday, 19 December 2024, 1200 Hrs
Tin Can Bay Marina, Glad we are not out there today. Overnight at Double Island Point it reached almost 50 Kts and here in the Marina its still gusting over 30 Kts.
The forecasts are showing Friday to be calming right off to 15-20 Kts from the SE. The seas are predicted to fall by then but with the possibility of swell and seas throwing up a 4 m wave we shall be crossing the Wide Bay Bar at high tide and slack water tomorrow around Midday.
Current ETA should be early afternoon Saturday at the Queensland Cruising Yacht Club Shorncliffe.
Wednesday, 18 December 2024
After making our way through the Straits overnight we were hoping for an improved forecast for today and tomorrow.
Unfortunately those weather updates have been upgraded to a Gail ( correction “Gale” sorry no offence intended) warning moving up the coast so even the dream of making it to Mooloolaba in time is unrealistic.
Looks now like a Friday bar crossing delaying our ETA in Brisbane to Saturday.
Will head to Tin Can Bay for one night to shower and do some washing as I think the boat anchored behind us is suffering asphyxiation.
Tuesday, 17 December 2024, 1700 Hrs
25 10 S, 152 52 E, Just entering the Great Sandy Straits. Left our Mooring in Pancake Creek at 0515 Hrs this morning. After a final fuel top up in Bundaberg at 0730 Hrs we finally have had a favourable NE change and will be travelling through the Straits tonight for this evenings high tide. May have to anchor and wait if we are too early but its going to be full on all night navigating the Narrows. Update again as soon as able tomorrow.
Monday, 16 December 2024, 1200 Hrs
24 05 S, 151 58 E, We are 6 Nm NE of the Town 1770. We started out with around 130 Nm to Boonlye Point in the Sandy Straits. This is where the tide meets from either end and are hoping to make it for high tide tomorrow afternoon. Shouldn’t be a problem on the forecasts as its supposed to lighten off by now and maybe go a bit more east. Fingers crossed as I’m getting weary of re-calculating tide times and distances. Below is our track this morning. My distance calculation isn’t looking valid anymore unfortunately.
Anyway we may have to take the next tide if we can’t be quick enough. Our ETA was for Wednesday morning in Brisbane which would be great but now I’m seeing a strong Southerly moving up the coast for Wednesday afternoon in Brisbane and moving North which could last several days.
Shall update again tomorrow sometime as it will be a busy day through at least part of the Straits.
Progress since 5 am
Sunday, 15 December 2024, 2045 Hrs
Moored in “Rodds Harbour” Pancake Creek.
1200 Hrs
23 42 S, 151 34 E, some 15 Nm NE of Gladstone, Frustratingly our slowest day in the right direction yet. Its been 20 Kts of wind from SE causing double the distance to sail and there is now a strong wind warning for this afternoon and overnight in this area meaning its only going to worsen up to 30 Kts.
We will continue to crawl SE until the early afternoon and put the anchor down whilst it blows through. Conditions should improve by late morning its been forecast, so am hoping with an early start and improving conditions we can make the tides through the Sandy Straits on Tuesday.
The good news is that we are technically out of the tropics.
Saturday, 14 December 2024, 1330 Hrs
23 17 S, 150 54 E, 25 Nm from Cape Capricorn, soon we will be out of the tropics. Currently there is no wind as a rain shower moves over us so motoring on course at the moment but have spent the first 4 hours tacking into the SE wind which will be back again this afternoon. The Autopilot is now working like a dream even since the rain started. All is well.
Friday, 13 December 2024, Friday afternoon
Keppel Bay Marina. Sorry for the late update but got in late last night and on the go since early. All fuelled again, cable replaced on the instruments so auto pilot should be fine. Found the Gremlin in the system and its been taken out of action (photo to follow)
Anyway all ready to go so it will be when the sparrow emits methane in the morning.
Shame the SE is in for a few days but will hug the coast and take the more protected Sandy Straits option.
Friday the 13th sacrafice to Murphy! How did banana’s (flavorings) get on board?
Thursday, 12 December 2024, 1630 Hrs
Unfortunately we will not make the fuel dock in time for this evening in Keppel Bay. We will need to stop and continue tomorrow as the forecasts certainly changed in the last 24 hrs and could be SE up to 25 Kts this evening. Hopefully we can convince the autopilot to behave in the meantime.
1200 Hrs
22 36 S, 151 03 E, Near Port Clinton, 7 Nm NE of Peak Island which we have been staring at since dawn. After a great run the first half of the last 24 hrs Murphy caught up with us and threw us a downpour which the autopilot didn’t like followed by forecast variable winds which seem more like a 15 kts southerly to me.
Anyway the plan was to do our last fuel top up in Roslyn Bay giving us enough range for the last 380 Nm or so. Plans may change as its currently touch and go if we can get there before the fuel wharf closes. Update when internet coverage
Wednesday, 11 December 2024, 1200 Hrs
21 16 S, 150 03 E, Around 45 Nm East of Mackay. The tide worked in our favour so have made great progress over the last 24 hrs. The autopilot has decided to behave itself (for now at least) so still motoring in light winds (N 10 Kts) and enjoying getting some distance behind us. All is well
Tuesday, 10 December 2024, 1930 Hrs
Hamilton Island fuel dock. Change of plans as the fuel dock is 24 hrs we have stopped to top up now and will bypass Mackay for tomorrow. Have had a great run this afternoon with the tide assisting so by using the change of tide now I hope to be sent way east around Lindeman Island where to tide will run more east-west than north-south and avoid being slowed too much
1200 Hrs
19 53 S, 148 24 E Around 12 Nm NE of Bowen. Have light easterlies lets say Variable winds so have been under engine as expected. Making reasonable progress though so all is good. The autopilot is still being on and off so hopefully will find the loose connection. At this stage we are planning top up fuel in Mackay tomorrow then continuing on south while the weather holds.
Monday, 9 December 2024, 1100 Hrs
Leaving Townsville “Breakwater Marina”
Sunday December 8, 2024 Update
Thanks to Neaus we have put Humpty back together again. Fueled, fixed, provisioned and almost ready to go.
Weather is looking great for the next week so looking forward to improved av speeds. Expecting a couple of stops for fuel as the winds are light but at least not adverse.
Planning to leave in the morning after a couple of errands first up that you can’t do on a Townsville Sunday.
Just turned “beer o’clock” and do you think I can find a pub? One more mission to conduct.
Update after departure.
Sunday Post
Sorry for the lack of updates but it’s been and will be a bit of a delay whilst we change fuel filters and re provision before getting underway to the next location.
Unfortunately one crew needed to cut short the trip so feelers are out for extra here or the Whitsundays.
Better updates pending.
Friday, 6 December 2024, 1100 Hrs
18 34 S, 14, 146 26 E, Just West of Orpheus Island in the Palm Island Group. Heading for fuel in Townsville so a more southerly course this morning is allowing some sail up and hence finally some speeds up around 5.5 kts as expected when not “on the nose”. Speaking of “on the nose” fun (not) yesterday when a hose to exit toilet waste overboard popped off spraying crap everywhere. Anyway the weather forecasts are finally showing some hope of reprieve in the next few days but another 25 kts SE tomorrow. Planning to will provision for the next leg when arrive tomorrow and leave again on Sunday when conditions start to improve.
Thursday, 5 December 2024, 1200 Hrs
17 27 S, 146 10 E, Around 30 Nm North of Dunk Island for a landmark that may be familiar. We have been making very slow progress with wind and tide against us. With only really one tide a day it has been running out for 18 hours so hopefully the incoming tide will give us back some of the lost distance. Rain, well its finally stopped for a while this morning but it basically been pouring certainly all night so things are quite damp on board. Anyway all are well on board.
Wednesday, 4 December 2024, 1200 Hrs
16 30 S, 145 30 E. Left Port Douglas about 2 hours ago and are motoring into light winds with the tide against us for now. Will update again daily.
Tuesday, 3 December 2024 2000 Hrs
About to start. Had a traidie attending to some last minute electrical work so preparations were somewhat difficult and slow but should be ready early tomorow.
Emergency Contact for this delivery
Dinah Eagle +61 (0) 475 306 555
Wednesday, 6 November 2024, 1100 Hrs, Leaving anchorage for Port Phillip Bay, ETA around 36 Hrs
40 27 S, 144 50 E, Anchored off 3 Hummocks Island in “Chimney Cove” A Pleasant motor sail down King Island and an almost circumnavigation of the Island before stopping for a while to wait for the next lot of winds to blow through. Will update again when the next plan is formulated
0645 HrsLeaving Apollo Bay and heading south “Somewhere”
November 2, 2024, 1815 HrsArrived Apollo Bay to wait around 24 Hrs for a strong Northerly to blow through. All is well
06315 Hrs
Leaving Martha Cove
Victoria coastal Passage
oppo_0
Emergency Contact for this delivery
Suzie Brown +61 0421 658 413
Apps for following on the AIS system, Marine Traffic, Findship or Vesselfinder
Registration No. AGR333N, LOA 13.67 M, Draft 2.1 M, Beam 4.38 M
MMSI No. 503598900
Sydney to The Gold Coast
Oceanis 331 “Cannonball”
Commencing Thursday October 10, 2024
Position Report and other info UTC (+11 Hrs Sydney Time)
Cut and paste the GPS location below into Google earth, you can place mark This position and follow our Progress. Satellite Phone / SMS no. +61 405 592 606
Thursday, 17 October 2024, 1500 Hrs
Arrived Bayview Harbour Marina. A huge thank you to Dinah for her assistance on this trip and lets not forget our shore contact Suzie for keeping an eye on our progress from start to finish. Much appreciated.
1100 Hrs
28 11 S, 153 36 E, We have just pased Danger Reefs about 2 Nm East of the Tweed River. Looks like it will be bang on low tide for the Southport Bar. Dead flat out here and a very shallow keel on “Cannonball” so no problems there. Expecting to be tying up at around 3pm Sydney time. Update again after arrival.
Wednesday, 16 October 2024‘ 1100 Hrs.
29 56 S, 153 29 E. That”s around 10 Nm SE of Yamba. Currently under engine which looks like it will be the case until arrival in the Gold Coast.Now in variable winds but had a good afternoon until early morning of a southerly. There is a bit of current against us but hope to be in Southport in the early afternoon of tomorrow all going well. Unfortunately with big tides currently that will be on a very low tide but will deal with that on arrival. The seas are going to be below one meter so the Seaway should be no problems on crossing. Update again tomorrow.
Tuesday, 15 October 2024, 1100 Hrs
31 15 S, 153 02 E, Currently 10 Nm South of Korogoro Pt (near Crowdy Head, Trial Bay) The Southerly started to build from around 2am this morning and is now around 15 Kts making pleasant sailing. The sea state is building so its back to hand steering as the autopilot starts to struggle as with the first night. This wind is expected to start dying off around sunset so the plan is to top up fuel in Coffs Harbour briefly as the remainder of the trip could be quite light.Sorry for the lack of an update yesterday but motored around Sugarloaf Pt (Seal Rocks) and most of the way until the early hour of today. Update again around lunchtime tomorrow. All is well.
Monday, 14 October 2024, 0730 Hrs
Leaving the mooring, Shoal Bay.
Sunday, 13 October 2024, 1300 Hrs
A good meal and caught up on sleep. A NE wind is building for today but should be moving more to the North overnight and dropping off close to the coast early Monday morning. Anyway the plan is for another early start in the morning, motoring close to the coast until the next southerly starts to come in be Tuesday. Hoping this Southerly does hold all the way up the coast like the last one was initially forecast to but didn’t. Will update on leaving.
Much nicer weather today
Saturday, 12 October 2024,1600 Hrs
Moored in Shoal Bay Port Stephens, will update tomorrow, food and sleep time!
1230 Hrs
32 51 S, 152 06 E, 9 Nm South of Port Stephens. Everything going to plan until a few minutes ago whilst I was checking weather updates Dinah was hit by one of those Very Significant waves which came in beam on. All is fine on-board however with the updated forecast showing this current southerly will not be abating until Sunday we figure its not worth meeting another rouge like that overnight. So port Stephens for a night, possibly longer whilst this wind and sea blows through. Update when moored this afternoon.
Friday, 11 October 2024, 1300 Hrs
Moored in Coasters Retreat, Pittwater for a couple of hours only. A twenty knot NE is currently blowing offshore but that is expected to blow through by 2200 Hrs tonight with a southerly following coming through early morning. We are expecting to drop the mooring tonight and hopefully shoot up the coast before anything strong builds from the North again.
0800 Hrs
Left the Fuel dock in Rushcutters Bay.
Thursday, 10 October 2024, 1700 Hrs
All Provisioned and prepared, planning an early start to Pittwater tomorrow morning before the NE winds come in in the early afternoon. Forecast looks good for a southerly early Saturday Morning to resume again.
Emergency Contact for this delivery
Suzy Brown +61 (0) 421 658 413
The DeliverymanIt takes a spine to be a professional yacht delivery skipper. Sometimes it requires sailing at its toughest, the stuff you’re forced to do when the ‘iron spinnaker’ lets out a gasp and breaks down two days into a nine-day stretch at sea. It’s sailing to test your tenacity, with wave trains roaring past as half your crew heaves over the stern.Peter Neaves is among a handful of full-time professional delivery skippers in Australia. The Sydney-based Neaves, 44, has worked as a sailor for about a decade, but he’s been on the water since he was 10, sailing dinghies around Botany Bay.
In recent years, the rugged former sailing instructor has skippered everything from trimarans to powerboats around countries including the Seychelles, Thailand and Tahiti. Neaves once sailed a classic timber ketch and Newport-Bermuda race winner, Holger Danske, from Tahiti to Sydney. He’s also a sought-after sailor and return delivery skipper across the treacherous ‘paddock’ of Bass Strait for Sydney to Hobart races.
Neaves recently sought crew to help deliver a yacht from Darwin to Perth for its UK-based owner. The prospect of a sail through the tropics sounded idyllic and Neaves has a solid reputation in Sydney sailing circles, so I asked to go along.
Two experienced women sailors and I were to accompany Neaves on the Darwin to Broome leg of the trip, after another man cancelled at the last moment. Megan, 34, had helmed catamarans and dinghies since childhood and had sailed offshore between Sydney and Newcastle. Renee, 29, had trimmed headsails on yachts during the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia’s Winter Racing Series. I was a 37-year-old novice graduate of three short courses at the nearby Pacific Sailing School. It was Renee’s and my first offshore run.
Our delivery yacht was Jucasta, a 38-foot timber Cole sloop. She was about 30 years old, slightly time-scarred and, while sturdy, she was no comfort cruiser by any stretch. Jucasta’sautopilot was broken and there was no shower on board.
On the first afternoon we sailed from our mooring on Darwin harbour’s Fannie Bay and marvelled at one of the Top End’s iconic sunsets. Spirits were high as we motored out to sea for several hours with the faintest whiffle of breeze.
Neaves set an around-the-clock helming schedule of an hour on, three hours off for everyone: a system he adjusts depending on his crew’s experience and the delivery course. As the ocean transformed into a lilting silver soup, we enjoyed a happy hour of a beer each. Neaves showed us how to use the instruments to follow our course and we began our shifts.
Early the next morning, while crossing Joseph Bonaparte’s Gulf, the weather took a turn. The trade winds which regularly bluster across Australia’s north strengthened to more than 25 knots. Neaves, who’d been expecting some wind from the weather forecast, clambered across the deck with simian agility and reefed the main. The swell had now reached three metres and occasional monstrous waves rose from nowhere, crashing over the bow. “Those are what we call significant waves,” he said, with the humdrum expression of someone who had just shelled a bucket of peas.
At this point, all the colour drained from Renee’s face. She was terrified of taking the helm on her own. “I’m so scared I’ll sink us, I just can’t do it,” she said. Renee then quietly began vomiting over the stern, before retreating downstairs into the saloon. By daylight, as the conditions continued, I also became nauseous, only with far less eloquence. I sputtered over the side in a violent guttural retch. I joined Renee below, while stoic Megan and Neaves continued to take turns at the helm.
Below deck, water steadily dripped into the saloon and onto our beds through cracks in the rubber surrounding the hatches. “Oh, expletive, now we’re sinking,” I thought, but the bilge pump below slurped away solidly. As I staggered to the head to vomit, the craft lurched violently and a couple of unsecured kitchen utensils leapt from their cupboards and clattered across the floor. I somehow reached the toilet in time, and as I threw up, the yacht heeled suddenly to starboard, causing the toilet lid to crash down hard onto the bridge of my nose. I touched my nose and found blood.
By now, we’d been sailing for less than a day, were perhaps 60 nautical miles offshore and the sea that raged above began to slam home the concept of mortality. Kipling once wrote; “That packet of assorted miseries which we call a ship”. Every seafarer sometimes has reason to question their judgment, I thought, but what on earth do we make of those who do this for a living?
Neaves, who has steered the flimsiest craft through the foulest 50-knot squalls, confidently took the helm and then snored loudly on his breaks. He tried to pacify poor Renee; “We’re safe and it’s not as rough up here on deck as it feels below, honestly you’ll feel better if you come up”. He gave me a Phenergon, an antihistamine which provided my first hours’ sleep of the trip, and which, unlike several seasickness pills already taken, worked a treat in no time. Soon I was spotting giant waves while Megan expertly wove the yacht in and out of the swell, surfing the biggest ones. Renee, however, only came up to the cockpit to ask about the nearest port.
Neaves suggested we drop anchor at Cape Talbot, in the Bonaparte archipelago, so we could all get a decent night’s sleep, have a hot meal and dry our mattresses in the following morning’s sun. We sailed into the protected bay and prepared to drop anchor, as the wind petered to almost nothing. Several other yachts were moored there close to shore. While anchoring, Neaves discovered that the motor was damaged. There was a whirring sound, hfft, pfft, then silence. The old diesel engine refused to kick in, so we quickly tacked with the mainsail facing the wind to reverse and secure the anchor.
The next morning, as a government border patrol plane dipped and circled above, radioing ours and the other yachts for course and crew information, a fishing boat motored into the bay. Neaves radioed for help, knowing the boat would have a ice machine on board and that without power, the food in our refrigerator would soon spoil. Would it be possible for them to bring us some ice, please, and in return, we could pay them or give them some food or beer? Neaves was reluctant to go across in our rubber dinghy, as navigational guides of the area warned that crocodiles have been known to prowl the shallows and bite into softer craft.
The Barra-B was a large fishing boat captained by an affable fellow called Robbie McIntosh, who was fishing with his wife, children and a dreadlocked hand in his twenties. With the generosity of spirit often found among mariners, McIntosh and his young hand fired up their aluminium tender to deliver us some enormous chunks of ice. He said they were heading for Wyndham. The temptation of the sturdy boat was too much for Renee and she begged McIntosh for a lift. “I won’t be any trouble,” she said. We tried to convince her to stay on the yacht but her mind had been made up hours before in the swell. McIntosh obliged, and gained an unexpected passenger and some beer for his return voyage.
Neaves then turned his attention to the engine problem. Manual in hand, he and Megan began dismantling, suspecting an oil filter problem, or that water had seeped into the fuel during the rough crossing. But their efforts brought no joy. The static of the radio soon announced that help was near; another yacht owner moored in the bay had heard Neaves radioing the fisherman and knew we had motor problems. John, an earthy former soldier who had been sailing a large steel-hulled yacht around Australia since his retirement, seemed a veritable grease monkey. “There’s not much I don’t know about those old diesels,” he said, and came over to take a look. After several hours’ tinkering, he threw his hands in the air, promising to return in the morning to try another possible solution.The same night, a young couple in a sleek Beneteau Oceanus 39 called Shining Wolf anchored nearby, radioed to ask if they could come across to say hello. Alison and Mathew had taken a year off work to travel north from Perth to Papua New Guinea, hoping to sell their yacht in Queensland on their return voyage. They had brought their German Shepherd along for the earlier part of the trip, staying close to shore for daily walks. As John obligingly returned the next morning to help Neaves with the motor (without success), they collected Megan and I for a walk along a narrow strip of beach furrowed with crocodile tracks. On the return trip, we inspected their yacht, and they mentioned they had a satellite phone. Megan rang her family to learn that her grandmother had died.
Neaves deemed the motor problem irreparable without parts or a mechanic, so there was nothing to do but return to our course as we’d already lost a day-and-a-half. As soon as we left the protection of the bay, we once again found lumpy seas, filled with the relentless white peaks that Megan called galloping horses. Yet just a couple of hours later, the wind vanished and the waves receded to a gentle lapping. We raised goose wings but the sails luffed in the stillness. Megan helped Neaves to chart our course using the GPS, a process they dubbed ‘navaguessing’. She knew we were gaining little ground under the elusive breeze. We still had solar panels powering batteries for our instruments, mast lights and Neaves’ computer but he warned that if it became overcast or the batteries got low, we’d be unable to flush the toilet or use the bilge. In the meantime, we continued helming around the clock on shifts of 90 minutes on, three hours off, sometimes shrouded under fog so thick that it was impossible to tell where the ocean began and ended.
On the day of her grandmother’s funeral, Megan sat on the deck and held her own quiet ceremony, scattering some shells into the ocean, writing a poem and burning it, drinking tea and singing a song, ‘Cockles and Mussels’. “Grandma used to play us that song on the piano,” she said. Shortly afterwards, Megan spotted the first of several whales we saw on the voyage. The days that followed were the best of the trip. We showered on the old teak foredeck behind the headsail in our swimmers using buckets of sea water; a ritual with sunsets providing surely the best bathing view on earth. We cooked delicious meals with meat and vegetables in the tiny galley kitchen, the precious ice lasting for the trip.Neaves also taught us how to tie left and right-handed bowlines and half-hitches and other knots; and on clear nights, we practised celestial navigation, using a pointer of the Southern Cross to find South. When the batteries were well charged we sometimes listened to music, including the American singer and sailor Jimmy Buffet’s nautical offerings, the Cruel Sea’s Deliveryman and Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. Neaves glowed with pleasure whenever he told sailing stories. “I can’t imagine getting an office job again,” he said, briefly discussing another existence as a salesman for a photography company. His relaxed demeanour remained unchanged during the nine days whether on choppy or glassy water. As we ranged the western coast of the continent and headed south, our sails filled with wind and we scooted across the surface like a flying fish. “Now this is sailing,” said Neaves. We were about a day out of Broome when we saw the West’s extraordinary moonrise known as the Stairway to Heaven. The moon slowly climbed from a slither on the horizon and smeared the ocean with shimmering ripples of gold. As for most of our voyage, there were no other craft in sight. Haunting strains of the late cellist Jacqueline DuPres’ Elgar Cello Concerto drifted from the CD player. No-one could speak. I understood at that moment exactly why people like Neaves do what they do.
