Day 117 (day 48 from SA) at sea on board FGT Thu 5 March 09Position 38 45S 143 40E 100 Albatross miles to Melbourne.
Wind
18 to who cares knotsSea state -
who cares. Quiet.Boat speed
av zip kts.
Av boat direction- 90 - on the highway.-
Barometer 1026.6
cloud cover varies 0 - 80% Air temp 16C
Greetings from Apollo Bay Pier on the FGT,
Here we are waiting for departure time at 5pm.
So what to do? Pretty easy -first solid sleep, then wake up, scratch etc, coffee, 15 minute walk into town , breakfast at the busiest cafe, making 9 new friends, reading newspapers, bs'ing ourselves , shopping for fresh food , back to the boat, Hello SM's Munie and Mark, and Sm's 19 yo son Thomas - the birthday boy. Who remembers when they were 19?
Fuel and water the boat, lunch at the pub, then amazing stuff, 2 old buds - Gary and Peter appear with beers for all! Haven't seen them years. More beers, back to the boat, visitors gracefully leave, and after consultations with Greg, Diedre, and Chris from Extravaganse 3 of the RYCV, we departed into the rain clouds.
Willy on Friday - 2pm!!!!! ( Thursday 10 p.m. Canada edt)
On on to Willy.
Cheers
Your 30,000 kilometer Crew
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From Doug S email later Thursday (report about March 4th Wednesday's storm and update of present position):I'm writing this Thursday March 5th 22:00 Melbourne time as we head for Williamstown. It's been a fast paced 48 hours. Woke up Wednesday to a lot of motion and wind noise. I'd slept through some pretty wild action. Woke up with some of my stuff laying on top of me that had been thrown off the shelves.
I went up to steer. Brendan told me that Stui had a wave break over the transom onto him and the boat broached. (Turned sharply up into the wind and leans way over ). That's what threw my stuff off the shelves. I am a deep sleeper!
Waves very big. During my 2 hour watch the wind gusted up to 54 knts. I caught a beauty of a wave at just the right angle and slid down at the best speed I'd had of the trip at 19.5 knots. Big waves coming up on the port stern corner. If you were a little to the left of course the wave would push the stern around and you would do a mini broach, with the starboard side rail touching the water. If you got the angle just right you'd have a great surf, with white water all around you and the sea roaring.
Winds were howling when over 45 knots, but quiet when surfing. It was exhilarating. You pay good money for fair ground rides that are this good. We just had the staysail up and the boat never felt out of control. After my shift I stayed up with John and video taped him. I walked up to the mast and had a very secure spot jammed in between the mast, handholds, and a winch handle. Being at the centre of the boat it was actually smoother up there. Went back to the cockpit, sat down talking to John, advising him of approaching big waves, so that he could adjust the course. I saw a big one coming, told him to go down a bit, he spun the wheel and I said here we go!! 22.7 knots of speed with foam all around. Wow! Smiles and laughing. I had just put my camera into a plastic bag when John said "Doug look out!"
I looked back at John and saw a huge wave behind him. I thought OK we're surfing again. But then it just went up into a big steep wall and I knew it was going to break. John had steered so that the boat was going straight down the wave, a perfect position. I saw it turn white, turned my head forward and down, and the water came rushing over the top of us. It was like being in a waterfall. Baseball sized drops roaring over us. It seemed to go on and on and on but was probably over in about 5 seconds to 8 seconds. The cockpit was full of water, the cushions were everywhere. I was laughing, trying to straighten stuff out while John, who had been pushed into the wheel was watching for the next big wave. The guys down below had seen it coming through the door window and then just saw us disappear into a wall of grey water. After the water level had drained from the cockpit, they opened the door, Doug G stuck his head out and asked if we were OK. I was still laughing. He may have thought I was nuts, but it was just such a wild experience! The Falcon had shook off another potential bad situation. What a great boat. I stayed up and did some more filming and got Stu with a mini wave that broke over the back right on to him.
There was some discussion downstairs while I was steering and it was decided that a stop in Apollo Bay may be the safest move. A phone call to the harbour master, who said the seas were calm and to customs who said there was no problem, they could clear us there. That decided, we made for Apollo Bay.
I came up for my afternoon steer and knew we were within 25 miles of land, but it was foggy, rainy, so nothing in sight as I started. Brendan was up with me spotting waves behind, and as we came up on a high one, something was off the starboard bow. I looked again as we came up on the next wave and caught a quick glimpse of a light house on our right side, pretty close! WHAT!! There was only suppose to be water there and I had just looked at the chart, my course was correct. There should not be a light house there! We yelled down for the guys to check the chart and radar. Just then we popped up on a big wave and it was a ship not a light house. OOPS. Yell down stairs again, sorry!! Maneuvered to stay well clear and watched as he pounded into the big waves with spray shooting well over the bow. I happened to look to my left and there was a dark band, HEY LAND, sure enough there was the Cape Otway lighthouse and surrounding hills. Ah that felt better. pos 38 58.55 s 143 30e. time 16:18 Melbourne March 5th
John came up and steered us into Bass Straight. We were having rain showers on and off. All of a sudden there were dolphins heading towards us from the bow. They were everywhere. Jumping right out of the water. On both sides of the boat going all directions. Had time to grab my camera and video them. It was like they were putting on a show for our arrival! Then Stu turned around and saw a rainbow behind John as we were making our way in shore to Apollo Bay. Looked like mother nature had approved of our change of plans.
Brought Falcon into the harbour with some small swells coming across the entrance. Nice and smooth inside. Tied up to the wall in rain showers and very windy, glad to be off the roller coaster. Time 17:00 Melbourne.
Had a quick stay of 24 hours in Apollo bay, clearing customs, fueling and watering, cleaning up. Celebrated landing in Australia with a bottle of Champagne, a big steak dinner with great desserts for all. A nice sleep with no motion.
Audrey wrote and told us about our friend, Pete Goss who is about 3 days behind us. They had been knocked down by a large wave and one of the crew (Mark) has broken his leg. We hope all will be good and are awaiting more news. We're so glad they are close to Australia and getting assistance. The whole crew realises how lucky we are to be safe after such extreme weather!
Out
Thursday at 18:50 Melbourne, underway for the last time. Right now sailing up to Melbourne. Due to the narrow entrance at Port Lonsdale, we have to wait for the slack water between low and high tides to get into the bay. Our present position is
38 23.660 S -144 28.833 E(FRIDAY Mar. 6th 03:00 Mel. /15:00 UTC Thurs.) slack time for tide will be 08:30 Mel. If this changes we will get you the info.
About 5 big ships passed us within the 1st 3 hours of this leg. Running with 2 people on deck to keep a sharp eye out. Also Thomas G (John's youngest son) is on board for the last leg after meeting us at Apollo Bay. That's it for now.
