Year 2 – 3 March 2025 -Brisbane – Cyclone (Hurricane) Preparations
If anyone reading this and is free in all or some of April to mid July 2025 to come to Australia then do contact me as I am short of crew during this period at present.
It rained a little in the night but was dry and sunny/cloudy in the morning. It looked more menacing as we had breakfast and we knew what was offshore. I checked the weather and it now seems inevitable that Cyclone Alfred will hit the Southeastern QLD (Queensland) coast and/or the North of NSW (New South Wales) between Wednesday and Friday of this week. They are just not sure where but it looks like we are in the firing line as it were. We are probably in the safest place up a river in a marina and I heard that even Coffs Harbour where we were some time ago and they are going to feel it. There is really nowhere for us to go. We just have to stay and prepare for a lot of rain and strong winds and there is no way we can avoid it.
We have already done quite a lot in terms of doubling up lines etc and taking in things which could be blown off or away. We decided to take down our Bimini (sun cover) and fold it away and put up the cockpit tent. This is essentially a covering which covers the whole of the cockpit. We are expecting about 20cm of rain and with the wind it would just blow into the cockpit soaking it. The cockpit tent should prevent this and mean we can sit in the cockpit and remain dry. The picture of the day is the cockpit tent up with the sides open in preparation for the rain. In winter it provides a dry room of the cockpit.
We took down the NZ flag as it will probably shred in the wind. We had also had the steel man up on Friday and he had suggested some steel supports for the davits and he agreed to come at lunchtime to measure up. We therefore had to exposure the areas he needed to see. We decided once we had exposed everything to tighten up all bolts and to check what is proposed is going to work. We decided having looked at everything and having tightened everything up it should work. We also checked our fenders and got some more from the marina and went round and checked everything.
The steel man came around lunch time to measure up and he suggested putting a support between the original fitting and the secondary fitting. He should have this ready to fit on Friday weather permitting. This should work.
We could not do anymore so we relaxed and then decided to go out to BrewDog for supper. We walked there and to our astonishment it was closed so we returned and a mushroom omelette with broccoli was in order and it went down well.
We have had a bit of a boring day but we have achieved quite a lot. It is a waiting game really -the calm before the storm. I have, however contacted a few crew finding websites to see if I can find more crew for when I am short so we shall see.
Let’s see what tomorrow holds.
Need/Opportunity Year Two
I am in need of more crew from late April to Mid-July 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