From Raby Bay to Pittwater

“When you reach Brisbane, come directly to Raby Bay.” That is the invitation that we have been given by fellow J/160 owners Cyndy and Stephen Everett.

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Sunday, December 9th – 0615 – It’s another 60nm day for us, and we depart Mooloolaba early to head south to Brisbane. Winds are light forcing us to motor as we head down the coast and enter the deepwater ship channel into Moreton Bay. By noon, we finally have enough wind to turn off the engine and sail across Moreton Bay. Raby Bay is a small bay within Moreton Bay, and there are some shallow spots in the canals that lead from it to the Everett’s home. Stephen has advised us that we should have half tide or better when we enter the canals.

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We spend 5 days as guests of Stephen and Cyndy and have a delightful time. They insist that we move off Avante and into their guest bedroom. Sailboats are a primary topic of conversation, and we share and compare our experiences and methods for doing things. Stephen has a home workshop, knows where to source the boat parts we need, and knows who the most reliable marine suppliers are. We soon find that we have many more interests in common than sailboats, and dinner conversations range long into the evening. The Everetts are the most gracious hosts, and we thoroughly enjoy our time visiting with them.

At the beginning of the year, we had envisioned rejoining the Western Pacific Rally somewhere in Australia and continuing south with them to Tasmania before crossing the Tasman Sea back to New Zealand, but the rally has been sailing for 5 months and has dwindled down to just a few boats. We have discovered that we have enjoyed our sailing in Australia much more than we had expected. Several sailing friends, who had previously cruised through Australia, had not been overly enthusiastic about the sailing here. However, they had done the standard cruising route of arriving in Bundaberg and then going north along the coast and through the Torres Strait to Darwin. They talked about conditions being extremely hot with big tides, few interesting anchorages and crocodiles which limited any water activity. We have had a much more interesting experience and in our discussions with the Everetts, we learn of other attractive options. We change our plans. We are going to stay in Australia for a year.

Our revised plans are to sail south to Sydney for the holidays then to leave Avante in Australia for several months while we go home. On the Everett’s recommendation, we decide to sail back up to Brisbane in January, and with Stephen’s help, we make arrangements to store Avante on a neighbor’s dock while we are back in the States.

While here, The First Mate is able to solve two problems. She discovers that Brisbane has an Apple Store, so The First Mate makes 2 visits there to try to fix problems with her “Bad Apple.” They are not much help, but they try.

The second thing she accomplishes is to get signed up for healthcare. Her birthday is in January, and she needs to sign up to start receiving the medicare benefits that have been paid for over the years by payroll deductions. There is a certain time period when she is able to sign up, but it had not started when we left the USA. “No problem,” she was told. She can easily sign up online. Somehow, that has not been easy. Despite her having received regular statements by mail, the online system refuses to recognize her. She is told to “make an appointment and visit her local social security office or to call a toll free number.” Of course, the only phone numbers provided do not work from overseas. With some persistence, The First Mate had learned that the office for the Asia Pacific region was in the Philippines and had made some progress with a woman there, but then a bad cyclone went through the Philippines stopping all communications.

Finally, while at the Everett’s, The First Mate is actually able to talk by phone with a representative from her local office in Colorado. This woman informs her that the reason she is having a problem signing up is that her records are incomplete. Some years ago, the Social Security System had transcribed all their written records onto a digital system. The person transcribing the First Mate’s records had neglected to enter the state she was born in. The original written records are no longer easily accessible, and The First Mate will have to come into the office with a valid birth certificate. Fortunately, this woman is helpful, for when told that we are out of the country and not returning until after the end of the enrollment period, the woman offers to make a note in the system that will allow us to come in when we return, and medicare will be activated retroactively. Whew! How many hours were wasted due to a clerical error!

There is an inland route from Moreton Bay running south to the Gold Coast. It is a complex maze of navigable waterways winding among many small islands between the mainland and the barrier islands. From Raby Bay, it offers a much faster and calmer passage than going all the way north through Moreton Bay and then heading south in the ocean. The only issue is depth. Stephen had initially recommended this route to us, but then he reconsiders. He has been through this route numerous times over the years with his prior boat, but he has not done it with his J/160, and the J/160’s keel is deeper. It will be tight! The Captain has been researching the situation and tells Stephen that conditions will be ideal on Saturday with a king tide around noon. It is lucky to have a high tide at mid-day and even luckier to have a king tide. It is quickly agreed. Avante will head south through this maze on Saturday, and Stephen will come along as our guide.

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Saturday, December 15th – 0615 – Stephen, our pilot, arrives at Avante by dinghy, and we are soon underway. Our departure time has been carefully calculated based on the tides and the distances to the shallow sections. We should have plenty of water depth for most of the trip to Gold Coast, but there are a few shallow spots. The first one is the gutter off Banana Bank. We need a certain level of tide to get through here, and this limits how early we can depart.

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By 0840, we are through the W’s. This is a tight and narrow area where our course zigzags through some shallow waters. The tight section of the channel is well marked, but there are no nearby navigational aides to guide us after we exit and turn southeast again. We are grateful for Stephen’s experience, as we would never have had the confidence to move as fast as we did through the fairly shallow water without him. We pass by numerous locations with interesting names such as Coochiemudlo, Cabbage Tree Point and Jacob’s Well. It is after Jacob’s Well that we face our last real shallow point where the channel crosses over from one side of the waterway to the other then crosses back. Surprisingly, we find over 2 feet under our keel here, and Stephen decides that it must have been dredged since he was last through this area.

At 1030, we have passed all the really shallow spots and have deeper water for the rest of the way to Gold Coast. All we have to do is follow a marked channel around the islands and sandbars, and Stephen knows that we can do that. We say farewell, and Stephen departs for a long dinghy trip home.

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Ahead of us is a 400nm offshore passage down the Australian Coast to Sydney, and our plan for the trip from Gold Coast to Pittwater is to do the entire 400nm in 1 leg, sailing far enough offshore to catch the East Australian Current or EAC as it is called for short.

In late afternoon, we raise anchor. The Southport Bar is rough with waves breaking along the rocky shore, but we cross it with no problems and, heading out the Gold Coast Seaway, turn right to go down the coast. The first two days of the passage are relatively uneventful with northerly winds that allow us to sail most of the time. We find the East Australian Current, and that gives us a great assist. There is a lot of ship traffic going up and down this coast, and our AIS system is quite helpful, especially at night.

Monday, December 17th – 0230 – Our position is 140nm north of Pittwater. Wind is 15 – 20 knots from N. We have favorable current, and and our SOG is just under 9 knots, as we sail downwind with only the jib. Things are going quite well. That all changes just over an hour later when the wind starts getting flukey and then abruptly shifts 180 degrees to S. We quickly turn on the engine and furl the jib, as the wind builds to over 30 knots. Seas grow high, and the waves are steep. We motor directly into them carrying just enough power to maintain steerage. We have experienced our first Southerly Buster, and as with all dramatic things on a boat, it was in the dark of night!

Boy, does a Southerly Buster ever slow you down! After 12 hours, the wind is down to 25 knots on the nose, but the size of the waves has not decreased, and we are still motoring slowly into them. By Monday evening, the wind is below 10 knots, and it is raining. We can go a little faster now, but we have lost all help from the current. Visibility is so poor that we turn on the radar to help keep watch for ships, and there are a lot of ships either anchored or drifting as we pass Newcastle.

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By 0855, Avante is tied up to a mooring ball in Pittwater. We are in a unique waterway just 25nm north of Sydney with Sydney suburban beach towns on one side and the wild Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park on the other. It is one of Australia’s more popular cruising grounds. We have arrived just in time to celebrate Christmas Down Under and New Year’s in Sydney Harbor. What a fantastic way to round out 2012 and begin 2013!