The Steamtug Blog

Don’t go looking for Adaqua down at the waterfront of Geelong, she’s not there! After battling mountainous seas, constant rain and almost running out of beer she has been left to think about her bad behavior on the other side of Victoria. After an interesting crossing of the open sea, across the top of Bass Strait she sits in a small, calm estuary, East of French Island in Westernport bay.

The last few days have been an arduous adventure that I will never forget! So I am taking the time at home after being away so long, checking some of the 70 emails I have, getting the lawns mowed and popping some of my favourite things in the veggie garden. Like for example a hops vine which has been planted on a bed of compost made of old malted barley. Should be the perfect combination to get the perfect beer eh?

How it all began…

Grumps has a brother John who just brought a yacht for $5. Yes… it’s not a miss print… he got a hot tip on a racehorse, whacked on a $5 bet and through some complicated way it paid out enough to buy a broken down yacht. It’s a 34’ Clansman, one of the first fiberglass yachts built in Sydney in 1968. It needs a lot of work, but was really a bargain for the price he paid. (Does this story sound familiar?) It was located at Corinella, 3 hours drive away, and I know how frustrating it can be with a project that needs your attention so far from home. So I came up with the idea that we bring her back to Geelong so he can work on getting her back to seaworthy. What better way, than to sail her back. But that means crossing Bass Strait, one of the world’s roughest stretches of water! So with all this in mind, I came up with the brilliant suggestion, that we motor around in Adaqua, going through Port Phillip heads for the first time since I owned the boat (in fact the first time in something smaller than an ocean liner!) and sail the yacht back.

Sunday was a big day for the underwater hockey club which I needed to be at since I am club president,  so Monday was the scheduled departure day for this grand adventure. But as always happens with boats, Adaqua looked at the weather on Monday and said “Nyut… we aint going Monday, it’s Sunday or nothing”. Monday’s wind was going easterly and too much for comfort out in the open ocean, and then it was going to be dead calm for the rest of the week, with no wind to push the little yacht back. Sorry to my hockey team, but Sunday was the obvious day for us to go.

So we left home port late Saturday afternoon and steamed down to St Leonards pier where we moored overnight. After a small argument with a fisherman complaining that we nearly hocked up his line… “Hmm… Lucky you didn’t get my line” I answered, yes you were lucky. He became mad and said “No, you were lucky!”  we would not have gotten off the boat if we had got his favourite $2 fishing lure. I asked him how that would be possible, and he just huffed telling me I was a smart arse and walked off. Fish and chips for tea, than we watched some tele before bed. The crew were happy and excited to be lucky enough to be a part of this adventure.

We waited until 9.30am Sunday to get the tide right for passing through the heads, also known as “The Rip” because the whole of Port Phillip Bay’s water, one of the world’s largest enclosed bodies of water has to drain out through a narrow channel with tides running through between 6 and 8 knots. Scary stuff if you are not prepared! We timed it for 1 hour past slack water so the tide would help to hasten our departure into Bass Strait. Too bad if we wanted to come back eh?

Out in the open ocean the wave pattern instantly changed. The short choppy waves turned into long rolling swell, up to 3 metres in height that gently lifted the boat from the port bow and dropped us into the next trough. Not really rough, but still too much for Grumps. I cooked up a big pot of ship’s stew and rice, while Fred the auto pilot was doing a great job keeping us on course for Cape Schanck with the land about 3 miles off our port side. John and I ate the stew. Mmmm delicious. But Grumps paddled in the rice and confessed he was sick. I told him the best cure was to sit under a palm tree, but since we didn’t have one, having something in the stomach will help settle it. But a few mouthfuls soon ended up all over the back deck which I easily washed away and he went to bed.

To pass some of the time, I lay down on the roof of the cabin and just watched the world slip by, rocking gently with waves when I noticed we were surrounded by a big pod of dolphins! There were about 20 of them, including a mother and calf who were heading for the bow wave up forward. It must have been a perfect speed for them (about 8 knots) as they stayed with us for about 30 minutes. I took so many photos, I got tired of looking at dolphins! Then one of them swimming along side turned to look at me and asked “Hey, have you got any more of that carrot and rice we got back there?”

4 hours later we entered Westerport harbor and the situation improved greatly, passing behind Phillip Island, and around behind French Island to Corinella. Coming up the creek, we could see Meridian waiting patiently at her mooring and was such a happy sight after 10 hours at sea. My journey planner said 11.5 hours, but coming behind Phillip Island with the flooding tide, we actually got up to 9 knots! Woooo!

We fended off the little yacht, and transferred the mooring chain over to Adaqua. I would rather have a 4 ton yacht hanging off a 10 ton motor launch, rather than the other way round. We mucked around and saw there was plenty to be done before we sail back, and with the bad weather coming Monday, we decided wisely to stay until Tuesday. Just as well, because the wind got up, it was freezing cold and barely stopped raining all day. Yuck!

Everytime we went outside to do something on the little yacht, the rain would start again, so we soon gave up, put a movie on the tele and settled in with a hot cup of tea. Then we got hungry. So I cooked up another batch of ships stew with rice! (It’s the only thing I know how to cook!) Grumps cracked it, refusing to eat my lovely stew, and instead cooked up some pancakes. Then an afternoon nap, as we were still quite tired after yesterday’s effort, then another movie this time settling in with a beer, followed by more ship’s stew. I thought of doing some macoroni for a change, but couldn’t be bothered so again had it with rice. I think they were getting tired of my cooking and if we had not departed the next day, it could have resulted in a mutiny.

If it sounds a bit boring, well it was. To amuse ourselves, we were spying on the man on the next boat who had his whole house out on deck including a bicycle! We nicknamed him the dutchman since he had a bike. But with the binocullars we found it was actually a tandem bike and he had a lady inside, who was probably cooking up a batch of ship’s stew with rice!

The next excitement was when the man in the boat the other way came out from the pier in his little tinnie, went aboard and took off. It was a big Bertram 28 footer and he roared off in a show off manner and didn’t return. The next morning when we awoke, all I could hear was Grumps exclaiming “Wow! Have a look at that!” I was cursing that those 2 pirates had me out of my bunk again before 7am, but I could not help my curiosity. Once up on the pilot deck we peered out the window to see the big Bertam about half a mile away hard up on the sandbar and sideway in the low tide. He wasnt’ going anywhere. I reckon he picked the wrong marker to come back, which easily happens in those fast boats where you have to make quick decisions. Anyway, she refloated a couple of hours later when the tide returned, meanwhile we were waiting for high tide to pass so we could leave on the water heading back out.

The trip back

After a nice breakfast we packed up Adaqua, locked her up, jumped onto the little yacht and off we went. It was much more cramped and I was missing the luxury of Adaqua already. We made good time with the tide pushing us out and with the sun shining and a light wind pushing us from behind, everyone was happy. And then the fun started!

The light chop of the enclosed water soon changed to big rolling swell which was left over from the wind of day before. The little yacht pitched and lurched increasing in intensity until we were finally again in the open sea. The swell was mountainous with peaks 5 metres above us. We were lost in a bowl of water as the land came, and disappeared behind the next mountain. And the wind, which wasn’t really strong, but more than we expected and too much from the East.

With the yacht heeled over so hard, I noticed the inside cabin had become immersed in about 8 inches of water. I saw it running slowly in from a drain hole from the galley cupboards and announced with a bit of a joke, “Hey, we are sinking” John was lying on his bunk when I made this announcement came flying out of his cabin with a look of terror at the sight of the water. I told him not to panic as it was not leaking fast, but we had to bail her out all the way! And despite this fact, the aft cockpit too filled up with a large amount of water because there were some dodgy drain holes from the rear compartment that were only sealed up with duct tape. The rear compartment had been cut open to the sea underneath so that an outboard motor could be used instead of the main diesel engine which had broken down a couple of years earlier and was abandoned for the cheaper option of using a second hand outboard. Talk about dodgy!!!

It wasn’t long before the 2 brothers started to turn green and with the huge seas throwing us about, I finally found myself the only person not sick, holding onto the tiller while both brothers were chucking up there breakfast either side of me. They both went to bed, with John getting up occasionally to bail out the leaking water. I sat alone at the tiller for hours, tired of fighting against the wind and waves to keep her on course. I was not happy with the sail set, but could not leave my seat to change anything, and as we were doing ok, just let it be.

Grumps came back later as we approaced Port Phillip heads. He was very quiet, and I asked him to look behind and see if there are any ships coming into the channel. We both could not see behind the wall of water behind us. The water at the heads was even more rough and the little yacht fought against me to not go into the bay. But I never let her win, keeping her on course despite a couple of waves breaking over my back, down my shirt collar and right down to my bum crack. We had our feet up on the seat opposite us to keep them out of the water, but with the struggle I just had to put my feet down into the water getting my shoes and socks wet making me even more cold than I was. After an epic battle we finally got around Corsair rock, into the heads, across the shipping channel and into calmer, more sheltered waters inside Port Phillip Heads. Grumps and John both offered there thanks to me, saying they thought we were all going to die! And how great I was to have saved them! “Oh come off it!!! A 17 year old school girl did more than this single handed! And it was not me that saved you, it was Meridian”. She is built to take this sort of stuff and is very seaworthy despite all the leaks.

Queenscliff

There was no way I could go on, so we headed up the creek into Queensliff marina. We put the sails down, and John got the dodgy outboard motor going and we motored into the marina heading directly towards a million dollar yacht when the motor cut out! I was having a panic attack, then he got it going again and steered around only to have the motor cut out again. This time we were drifting across the marina, perfectly in line with an empty berth. The motor refused to start again, and we just drifted slowly right in with Grumps and I jumping off like it was meant to be. I guess Meridian knew where she was going, and it all looked like a well executed plan.

Grumps did a runner and got picked up, going home to a hot shower and warm bed. John and I slept off the experience until sunrise when we got the motor going and headed off again. The morning was calm wind and beautiful sunrise and we sailed ever so slowly back towards Geelong at 3 knots; less than half Adaqua speed. It was going to be a slow trip, but at least it was relaxing. During this quiet time, John confessed to me that he was having second thoughts. “I don’t think I am cut out for sailing and will sell her”. What!! I told him not to let one bad experience turn his dreams around. “Just look how relaxing this is now!” He could see my point, and hopefully will not give up. As for me, the worry over that bad trip soon faded and I look back now at what a great experience it all was. And we made it!

We finally arrived back at my home berth in Geelong to be greated by Grumps, and my some Mitch who came down to welcome us home. So Meridian is now at home in Geelong for  a couple of months. Which leaves me to the question… What are we going to do for new years eve this year? Any suggestions anyone?