We had a beautiful sunset over Hinchinbrook Island, had a feed and were then fast asleep for an early morning departure at 0 dark 30. We covered the 65 miles before dark making Mourilyan Harbour on the slack tide, averaging well over 6.5 knots as we did the 65 NM in about 9 hours.

We found the new gennaker easy to launch and recover, the only problem winds most the way to Cairns have been in the 25-30 kt range and well out of the 15-18kt range for our gennaker.
 

We left first light for the final 50 miles to Cairns, in 25kt winds and were doing 7-8 kts most the way, we came down the channel into Half Moon Bay Marina with the wind howling on our beam and it was quite hair raising. We made it in OK but it was not for the fainthearted. We made it into the marina, and our assigned spot was right at the entrance. We were quickly berthed and then the pressure was off to just relax…..not…we had some maintenance issues, had to clean the boat but before long we were in the Yorkeys Knob Boating Club having a feed and relaxing.

Our berth in Half Moon Bay Marina, you can see the entrance right behind Crusoe.

We have 7 days to explore, rest and catch up with old friends, then we head to Norship to haul out Crusoe for a quick bottom paint, then back to our berth at Half Moon Bay. I will have another few weeks then back to work. We rented a “wreck” for the remainder of the time I am here, so we are mobile. When I return from work next hitch we will have 8 weeks to make it up the N. Queensland coast across the Gulf of Carpenteria to Gove where we will clear customs then through Indonesia and to Northern Borneo Malaysia, where we plan to hang our hats for awhile.

We woke at first light and headed for the Whitsundays, since we were making a good 6-7 knot average we decided to do some sightseeing and take a route that weaved us through the Islands, winds were 15-18kt. We passed outside Shaw and Lindeman Islands and headed for the passage between Whitsunday Island and Hamilton Island, we had to watch for “Surprise Rock” but it was low tide on arrival and it was clearly visible. Coming down the narrow passage was lovely at a leisurely 4-5 kts, the resort at Hamilton became visible with the high rises and parasailers.
                         
Keswick to Whitsundays                   Hamilton Isn. Resort

Undeveloped side of Hamilton (previously owned by ex Beatle George Harrison)

We safely navigated the narrow channel and rounded the corner into Cid Harbour, dropped the anchor and watched a beautiful sunset with an amazing moon rise over the hill off the bow of Crusoe, a very visually stimulating experience.

Moon Rise over Cid Harbour

Plan is to cruise here for the next couple days and leave for an overnighter to Magnetic Island on Thursday 10th as the breeze is forecast for 20+ kts and will make for good time for the 125nm run downwind. We will head to Stonehaven anchorage today, just a short hop to the next northerly island (Hook Island) then Hayman Island the following day. As the winds will be light we will break out the new Gennaker and practice hoisting and flying it…next post.

Raewyn with her Spanish Mackerel caught while approaching the fairway bouy at the north end of the Sandy Straits.

The next day timing was everything as in the sandy straits the tides reverse direction mid way so if you time it right you head into it with the rising tide and get the tide going out the other, we hit it perfectly and had a couple knots extra both ways!

We headed for Masthead Island in the Capricorn Group, however we had a forecast for winds in excess of 33 kts and the anchorage would have been too animated so we sailed past it, and kept moving north. All in all it was two over nighters to NE Percy Island, where we spent 2 very blusterous nights tucked into “Blunt Bay”

Approaching Blunt Bay NE Percy Island                          Tiare Taporo III In NE Percy Island

We discovered our generator was not sending out AC voltage to our distribution panel so rather then continue cruising the Percy’s we decided to head to Mackay a day early to fix the problem, to do so we had to lift anchor at 0400 to make Mackay before dark (and wind 25+kts). I am writing this from the dock in Mackay, and its blowing dogs off chains right now, so we are happy to be tied to land for the moment.

On the way to Mackay we were visited by a small pod of dolphins including a very young calf, who never missed a turn or jump with mother, it looked like a small social group of about 8 .

We want to mention a cool product the coolest thing since sliced bread! Tree Frog Pad www.treefrogpad.com. We approached them to purchase some to hold our computer from sliding on the boat, and they sent us a package of several sizes to try for free, really nice people, and the product is absolutely the cats (frogs) meow. We 100% recommend this as we had our laptop on a flat chart table while rolling from gunnel to gunnel for two days of intense downwind sailing, and not once did I even worry about it falling off the table.

    
The Tree Frog Pad

We zig zaged our way through anchored freighters into Mackay, and tomorrow we will try to sort out the generator, luckily they have a Northern Lights dealer in the marina boatyard.

Day 1 in Mackay, we had Rod at “Boat Power” Diagnosed and removed our Generator for rewinding. It was fortunate we were close to Mackay when this happened as Rod knows his stuff and we are confident he will have us powered up again soon, estimate is 7 days, but we are hoping we can get it done before the end of the week, fingers crossed.

We took it apart in bits to get it out of the tight engine room, removed the door, together they were about 200kg all up, but the two main pieces pictured were about 100kg ea, so we just muscled them out.

Day 2 Mackay:

We got all 4 laptops (yes 4) all working with Nobeltec and AIS (automatic identification system) working with the help of Nick at MME, it was a challenge as the Comar AIS says to use different settings than the Nobeltec does, but perseverance paid off, once one was done we knew what to do with the other 3. So now if we loose a computer to theft or damage we can pull out a spare, we also have a dedicated fifth computer that is 13 years old running windows 98 that runs the cruiser version of C-MAP and Sailmail, (this computer runs on it’s own dedicated GPS), so we actually run two computers at all times. This allows a check and balance with each other, and we always have paper charts on hand. It is important to know your position at all times. In the o’ll days (Odds Bodkins - or Tayanna 37) we only had a sextant and if we were within 4-5 miles we were happy, so the modern technology of today opens a lot of doors, however we always have a sextant on board and up to date sight reduction tables and nautical almanac, in case we loose all power and are unable to get a fix by GPS.

Day 3 Mackay:

Rod from Boat Power is bringing the Gen set back this morning apparently all sorted, to re-install, so we could be on our way again tomorrow. Here is Rod arriving and me supervising:-)

They have been tested overnight with 20+ kt winds as a front just passed through Tin Can Bay

Raewyn had covers made for the new fenders, we used the same one’s on our last boat and helped save the paint.

We awoke this morning in Garry’s Anchorage to fog - this is “Dragonfly 3″ owned by Jim and Anna from Brisbane, they are about 100 meters off our stern in this picture.  We plan to leave for Tin Can Bay on the tide this morning.

Here in the Sandy Straits we have caught fish & crabs, seen dugongs, dolphin and turtles.  Once the fog lifts we will retrieve the crab pot (hopefully with crabs) and weigh anchor for Tin Can Bay, with an overnight along the way at Pelican Bay so we can go into Tin Can Bay Marina on the high tide the next afternoon.

Sheridan Flats Bounty

Fishing the banks

Sunset

We’re off to pull up the crab pot, fog is lifting now, we have about 3 hours before the tide is favourable for our departure today Monday 19th September 2011.

Sutera Harbour is where Crusoe will be berthed in the near future, what a great place to call home! Visit their website and book a vacation, by Oct-Nov 2011 Crusoe will be there and you can see her in person! The staff has been most helpful in getting us booked into the marina far in advance, we plan to become full members, and live aboard in 5 star luxury. http://www.suteraharbour.com/v3/

We have managed to do 3-4 good sails to shakedown the systems, we can now boast new sails, some additions to our navigation eqpt. Sailmail for email and grib files while at sea, the bottom is clean and both engines (main and Gen set) serviced. We had a nice sail to the Cavali Islands last weekend, 10-18 knots of wind was the most we could muster, but the new sails were quite nice, made by a local company “Willis Sails” in Kerikeri.

We hope to make Cairns direct from Opua, a few thousand NM and really put Crusoe to the test, as the departure will be winter in the lower lats of NZ, however with everyday of “Northing” the weather should improve and warm up as well. The newest plan is to make Cairns ASAP, clear into Ausi, and continue around the top to Darwin where Raewyn & Crusoe will sit out another 6 weeks while I return to work, leaving only a short 1500nm sail to our next destination of Sutera Harbour in Sabah Malaysia, where Crusoe is now registered (Langkawi).

We are now sitting out a 40Kt gale on our mooring in Opua, at present winds are between 30-40kt and we are unable to get to shore without getting wet. Tomorrow I am off to work, so the last day here in NZ is a leisure one, updating this blog site and packing bags, I even got a little nap in! We will endeavour to keep the updates coming, and we hope all our friends, family and visitors will continue to check in and leave us a little blog note, always nice to hear from you.

Hello all,

I am experimenting for the first time as an administrator on this site (thank you John and Wilma).

The plan is to continue with this site and follow the future travels and adventures of Crusoe.

At present I am writing this from work many miles away from Crusoe in Nigeria, I will continue to work 6 weeks on and off to add to the cruising kitty.

The plan is to sail from NZ first week of June to Cairns Queensland, park in the Port Douglas marina for 6 weeks while I return to work, then after 6 weeks I return to Port Douglas, we then sail around the top of Australia to Darwin to clear customs. From Darwin we will sail to Ambon in Indonesia, clear in and onward to our destination of Sutura Harbour in Sabah, Borneo (Malaysia) where Raewyn and I have now obtained our 10 year resident visas. Will we stay there 10 years? Time will tell…..if we tire of it well we will just sail somewhere else.

Raewyn and I have done a few miles together, this will be our fourth boat together. It started in the late 70’s with “Odds Bodkins” (Tayana 37) which was well campaigned and many miles logged, followed by “Fantasea” a Lock Crowther 40′ Cat we bought in Townsville sailed through PNG for our second time (first on Odds) and to Ponape where we tried to charter, however Ponape being in the stone age still, we were a few years too early, so we sailed to Guam and sold her. Then came “Saveke”, a Davidson 14M (measured 50′ for the Panama Canal). Raewyn and I ran Saveke Offshore Expeditions and had a adventure of a lifetime and had many generous sponsors help us sail around the world. http://www.nobeltec.com/Downloads/Document.asp?D=WEB&H=COMPANY.STORIES.SAVEKE This is a link to one of the articles published on Lats and Atts and printed on the Nobeltec web site.

We plan to have “no plan” after Malaysia and just play it by ear, see what comes along…maybe another expedition, maybe just a quite retirement, but for sure there will be some adventure involved so stay tuned, bookmark this blog and come visit from time to time as we will add to this as we travel.

Fair Winds
Brent Weyer