Year 2 –17 January 2024 -Sydney - Hankering Down in the Storm
The storm continued all night and I could hear the dinghy bashing on the side of the hull. The rain continued during the night and Stormbird was moving around from side to side.
When we woke it was not much better and we had breakfast and waited to see if things would lessen. It did not. I went to see the dinghy and it was half full of water and I noticed the engine almost half off. I had to rush to get in the dinghy and managed to get the engine on properly secured again. I then had to try and bail the dinghy out with a bucket which took a little time. The wind was still howling and on the instruments it was still gusting up to 45 kts a force 9. Stormbird would swing one way a little and then the other and luckily she held on the anchor.
The morning passed and I did some admin and others read, sorted pictures etc. Kevin wanted to get off and with the weather like it was this was not looking promising. We had some soup for lunch and bread.
By early afternoon we decided to ring the local sailing club and asked them whether they could come and collect Kevin and they agreed. They came out in a big rib and came alongside and we got Kevin in and passed him his luggage and he was off waving. The larger rib cut through the waves and white horses. In the meantime, our dinghy was taking on water from the spray. We will miss Kevin and it was great he could come and experience a bit of my voyage. We wish him a great journey home. We are now down to 3.
Every now and then I would and check on things and noticed that the snubber hose cover had slipped down and the rope was pressing on the metal anchor housing. This could in time fail with chafe. We therefore had to start the engine and motor forward to take the slack off and we were able to bring the hose back up and protect the line.
As the day wore on the dinghy was filling with water and we needed to do something about it. We decided to bring it back to the stern (rear of the boat) and haul it on to the davits. This was not easy in the swell but we managed to get the davit fittings on and then hauled it up a little so we could drain all the water out of the drain hole. This took some time and when it had drained far enough we pulled the dinghy up and it was out of the way.
There were windsurfers out in these extreme conditions zooming about with a few ribs out just in case. Why you would want to do this in shark infested waters I do not know. Apparently there are lots of bull, tiger and great white sharks in the bay.
I looked up Rose Bay and there is a bit of history to it. It was named Rose Bay after Britain’s Secretary of the Treasury George Rose. On 7 June 1942, Rose Bay was one of two suburbs fired on by a Japanese submarine lying offshore. It also as a rich history as a flying boat terminal. Named Sydney Water Airport in July 1938, Quantas Empire Airways operated out of here with flights to the UK. When land-based planes took over in the 1950’s certain sea planes continued when the base closed in 1974. There are tourist sea plane flights today.
We had a beer and read for a bit and the wind did not abate. We therefore had a pasta pesto supper and then cheese and biscuits whilst swaying from side to side and with a howling wind.
We hope tomorrow things will calm down a little. However, the forecast says by not much.
The picture of the day is a view from our anchorage of the Sydney Harbour Bridge when things were calm and there was a sunset.
Need/Opportunity Year Two
I am in need of more crew from April to September so if of interest do email me at hine.nick9@gmail.com
In year two I will be going from New Zealand to Sydney and hen up the Eastern Australian Coast, Indonesia and then through Bali, Singapore and on to Thailand to end year two about the end of November 2025.
The blog will continue as we continue the journey. If you have any comments or suggestions about the blog then do email me on hine.nick9@gmail.com