Sydney to Brisbane – 2017
Friday, January 27th – The morning after Australia Day, we motor west in Sydney Harbour, go under the Harbour Bridge, and head for Lane Cover River. We have been here several times before and like this anchorage for its quiet shelter and convenient access to downtown Sydney.
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If we time the ferry schedule right, we can go from Avante to busy Circular Quay in just over half an hour.
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We have been to Sydney many times before, but it’s always fun to spend a day wandering around in this vibrant city. After dinner and a show, we catch the last ferry back.
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We go into Sydney again the next day to meet The First Mate’s long time friend, Jane Minor, who is joining us again for a few days on Avante. One of the things we love about Sydney Harbour is that there is almost none of the decrepit docks and old warehouses found in many ports. Approaching Sydney from the west on the ferry, we see that many old waterfront buildings have been converted into upscale housing.
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Of course, The Captain loves all of the sailing that takes place on this busy harbor.
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Sunday, January 29th – With Jane onboard, we take Avante across Sydney Harbour and anchor in Watson’s Bay.
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It’s a fine day for a hike out to Hornby Lighthouse on South Head before having a nice lunch at Doyles. After lunch, we go for a swim in Camp Cove, then head across the harbor to Manly where we anchor in Spring Cove.
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Monday, January 30th – We spent several days anchored in Spring Cove in 2014 and one of our favorite things to do here is the Manly to Spit Bridge Coastal Walk.
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This is really a great 6 mile hike. There is plenty of climbing involved as the trail runs along this rugged coast.
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The secluded beaches that we find along the way are inviting little jewels. After hiking out to Spit Bridge, we catch a bus back to Manly where we find a restaurant for lunch.
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Tuesday, January 31st – We are off to Pittwater today, and we have a lovely breeze of 8 – 12 knots from W when we start which allows us to sail away from Manly and out through Sydney Heads into the ocean. Less than an hour after turning up the coast, the wind shifts to NE and drops off. We have learned to be apprehensive when the wind suddenly drops off on the Australian coast, and sure enough, we are soon hit with a Southerly Buster. Fortunately, we are heading north, not going all that far today, and the winds are from behind us. Winds are 30 – 35 knots as we approach Barrenjoey Head and prepare to enter Broken Bay. This is Jane’s sixth time on the boat with us, but she has never experienced a ride like this before. We enter Broken Bay, but get little shelter from the wind until we are well into Cowan Creek. Our anchorage for the night is Yeoman’s Bay.
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The next morning, we move further into Cowan Creek and pick up a mooring in Houseboat Bay. From there we take the dinghy over to Bobbinhead Marina where we hike a nice loop on the Sphinx Memorial Track and the Bobbinhead Track, returning to the marina for lunch.
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Thursday, February 2nd – Whenever we are in this area, we always try to eat at the Cottage Point Restaurant, so we motor back out Cowan Creek and head ashore for lunch. Jane is leaving us today, and she has arranged for her friends, Bob and Susie Kribs, to join us at Cottage Point. After a great lunch, Jane goes off with the Kribs.
The next morning when we start to raise the anchor, the windlass works very slowly at first, then speeds up a bit. Not a good sign! We motor over to Pittwater and anchor in Coaster’s Retreat because with concerns about our windlass, we want to avoid any deep anchorages. The windlass works slowly again and then stops completely. The Captain spends a frustrating afternoon and all of the next morning trying to fix the windlass, but he is unsuccessful. We have plenty of spare parts after our earlier problems with the windlass in Fiji, and he tries a number of combinations, but is unable to create a working windlass.
Saturday, February 4th – Without a windlass, the heavy anchor and chain has to be raised using a rope led forward from the port cockpit winch. This is a cumbersome process as we reach down and put a hook through our anchor chain, then use the winch located back by the cockpit to raise only a few feet of chain before the hook risks getting jammed. Next, we secure the chain, release the hook and repeat the process. It works, but it is slow. When the anchor is finally raised off the bottom, Avante is just drifting, and we have to be careful not to drift into any nearby boats while we are preoccupied with raising the anchor the rest of the way into the boat.
Tonight we are having dinner with our friends, John and Julie Lamble at their home on Taylor Point. We usually anchor right off the mooring field below their house, but that anchorage is too deep, so we decide to anchor in the much shallower Morning Bay and take the dinghy all the way across Pittwater to Taylor Point.
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Dinner at the Lamble’s house is lovely, and we thoroughly enjoy caching up. After a fun dinner, it’s a long dinghy ride all the way back across the Pittwater into 10 knots of wind to return to Avante.
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Monday, February 6th – We start up and raise the anchor using the port cockpit winch again. Fortunately, it is a calm morning and we are only anchored in 22 feet of depth. Today, we are leaving Pittwater for the passage north to Brisbane, and we stop at the Royal Motor Yacht Club fuel dock to fill up as we expect to have to motor a lot on this passage. By 1030, we are out in the ocean and motorsailing up the coast with both sails up. Wind is only 10 knots from SE, and we run the engine to keep our speed above 5 knots in order to stay ahead of some strong southerlies that are forecast for later. We must be well ahead of them, for by noon, the wind has dropped, and the mainsail is doing nothing but banging, so we take it down. We motor all day, using the jib only when there is sufficient wind to keep it flying.
This is our fifth time to go up or down this coast, and we have always done it in one leg. There are some places that we can stop, but Avante’s deep keel precludes many. We consider stopping in Port Stephens on this trip north, but it is not all that far from Pittwater, and the weather forecast is for two days of rain and wind starting tomorrow. We keep going.
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Wednesday, February 8th – After almost two days, we motor past South Solitary Island in the morning. Due to a Southerly Buster, we passed this island three times on our trip south a month ago, but fortunately, we only pass it once this time. Our progress up the coast is slow as we are motoring against the Eastern Australian Current and do not have enough wind to sail. Our weather has been very cloudy with some rain, but nothing terrible. The engine has been running since we left Pittwater.
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Thursday, February 9th – By mid-morning on the third day, we have motored through the Gold Coast Seaway and turned up the North Channel where we anchored just past the last large concrete marker. The total trip from Pittwater to the Gold Coast was 397nm and took 72 hours. This trip was uneventful. We encountered no Southerly Busters or any strong winds, and did not have any issues with the boat. However, it was not a sailing trip – we motored 98% of the time!
Friday, February 10th – Today we will go through the inland passage between the Gold Coast and Brisbane. We are underway by 0530 in order to be past the shallow area below Jacob’s Well two hours before high tide. Unfortunately, our trip starts off poorly when we quickly run aground heading back to the main channel. We are shocked when we run aground while staying well away from the warning marker and while going through an area that is charted at 15 feet. Fortunately, the shifting bottom is sand and mud, and we are quickly underway again. The rest of the trip proves easy, and we are anchored in Moreton Bay just after noon.
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It is 9 days before our scheduled flight back to the States from Brisbane, so we decide to spend this hot summer weekend anchored in Horseshoe Bay on Peel Island. Winds are light in Moreton Bay on Saturday morning, and lots of people arrive to enjoy the beach. At one point, we count almost 100 boats at anchor and a number of small craft pulled up on the beach.
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Disaster strikes on Sunday afternoon when we prepare to leave and head over to Raby Bay. The engine will not turn over. We have plenty of battery power, but when The First Mate turns the key to start the engine, nothing happens. Our reliable Yanmar diesel engine which has just brought us almost all of the way up from Pittwater is silent. After uttering a few choice words, The Captain spends the rest to the day trying to find the problem.
Monday, February 13th – When we wake up at dawn, we find that the wind has shifted to southerly. We are now anchored on a lee shore without an engine or an anchor windlass. Almost all the other boats that had spent Sunday night in the anchorage begin to motor away, but we are stuck. Trying to sail out of the bay into the wind when it takes forever to raise the anchor and uses a winch we need when sailing would be awkward at best. We could drop the anchor chain and sail off, but then we cannot go through the narrow canals of Raby Bay without an engine. At this point, the winds are only 10 – 15 knots from SE, but they are forecast to increase to 20 – 25 knots in the afternoon. We certainly want to be gone by then.
After spending the previous evening studying the wiring diagram for the engine, The Captain has a plan. He will connect the starter motor directly to the battery, bypassing the control panel and ignition switch. He connects everything up, and there is a loud cheer when the engine turns over and starts. We are both extremely relieved. We slowly raise the anchor using the port cockpit winch, and by 0900, we are tied up next to Salacia behind the Everetts home in Raby Bay.
Stephen and Pamela are off traveling for several weeks, and their daughter, Cherie, comes by to give us access to the house. The Captain continues to work on the engine and finds some corrosion and possible loose connections in the starter circuit. When he is finished, the engine starts every time. He spends the next 3 days working on the boat replacing the anchor windlass and doing some normal maintenance. We had rented a car, and when the boat work is complete, we take off for a few days of land travel before leaving Avante on a neighbor’s dock and flying back to the States for several months. We will return in May to sail to New Caledonia.