Today is annual bonanza day in Laurieton, when all of the shopkeepers have specials and many set up street front stalls with a Christmas theme.The girls quickly got into the spirit checking out many of the stores for bargains. Unfortunately for the guys the only shops that didn't seem to get in the spirit and have exceptional deals were the hardware store, the auto shop and the bottle shop.
Kim managed to secure the first purchase (helped by Santa)
Bev tried to look uninterested
There were some interesting buskers as well, who may have been real talents in an earlier life. We particularly like this lady singing Christmas carols in from in front of her karaoke machine.
Our favourite busker
Even the local tradies dog was in the spirit looking very cool in his sunglasses
After a couple of laps of the town , it was back to our boats to prepare for departure, in our case North to Coffs or Yamba depending on the conditions, and in Wilparinas' case, home to Broken Bay. The forecasts for both directions looked OK, although going North there was a possibility of isolated thunderstorms.
We said our goodbyes and headed out of the river at 1pm on the high tide. We headed off in calm conditions with light winds, motor sailing until about 3.30pm when there was enough breeze to sail. It became a bit brisk, so I put a single reef in the main, and within 30 mins we had to start the engine again to keep up a reasonable pace. It was clear the the East Australian Current was running very strongly and close to the coast, as 8.5 knots through the water was giving us only 4 to 4.5 knots speed over ground. It was clear it was going to be a long day, motor sailing all the way.
We didn't think it could get worse when around midnight a series of storms appeared from nowhere, just off Smokey Cape. I managed to quickly get the headsail in, but we still had a single reefed main up when the worst of them hit with vengeance. We were tossed around in circles with sail and ropes flying everywhere, whilst I managed to get a second reef in the sail, but it was chaos, no visiblity , the boat going round in circles and everything taking a pounding.
The topping lift caught on the backstay block (again) and this time snapped in two, bring the boom down on top of the dodger frame, and lots of other excitement. We simply concentrated on keeping the boat away from the shore steering off the compass. As soon as it petered out, some time later, I quickly dropped the main and got the halyard onto the end of the boom to elevate it back out of the way.
We struggled on still against a 3-4 knot current towards Coffs Harbour, through more rain, but no more storms, and arrived at the harbour at 6.30am, exhausted. Neither of us had any sleep, understandably. We anchored in the harbour awaiting the marina office to open to get a berth, and began to survey the damage. To make matters worse, the autopilot misbehaved most of the way and it was hand steering for most of the trip.
The dodger and bimini need some significant repairs with the dodger frame bent from the impact of the boom, and the bimini badly torn and shifted a bit to one side, but fortunately still structurally intact with the solar panels still there. The topping lift needs to be replaced, as does the bridle block on the backstay, that it caught on. One of the reefing blocks on the main was demolished, only one of the 4 mainsail battens survived the onlslaught, but that seems to be the extent of the damage.
The rigger and sailmaker had been down to the boat and will come back on Monday to complete the repairs. The bridle block and reefing block have been ordered from Sydney and should also be here early next week, so it looks like we have a few unplanned days in Coffs Harbour. We have abandoned our plan to go on to Yamba, as will now be short of time and the thought of another 60 nm against a 4 knot current has low appeal. Should be great on the way home though.
We heard from Steve on Wilparina that they had a very casual motor sail back to Broken Bay, assisted by the current we were fighting, and arrived back around lunchtime on Friday. Guess we should have gone South !!!
It will be a BBQ on board and an early night tonight.
No comments:
Post a Comment