Passage Report no. 69 The leaving of Ipswich

Passage Report No. 69

The Leaving of Ipswich

“You’re in no rush, Dad, I know it is frustrating but you do have time.” “Frustration” but nonchalance as well, “it” can rain, gale. Sahula waits. “If you hadn’t agreed, I would say no!” – crew. Wisdom all round. “It is April as it should be!”

. An Ipswich cruiser blog enroute via through the Kiel Canal shows sunny Sweden days. “You stick to your plan” “Cruising is cutting the cloth to fit.”

Sahula, alongside, leans to a wet, cold, southerly gale

. “I’ll do it on Friday, it will be a good job, your fuel and tank, will be clean.” “Probably Romanian fuel, always a problem. You’re lucky you got this far” Price 400 pounds maximum. It cost more. What price cruising? Skipper is relieved. Main tank clean; bottom was gelatinous goo; bug grows at interface between bottom water and fuel; cleaner machine forces fuel through filters; replace engine filters, drain top tank and fuel containers. Long overdue – tanks not done since the yachts construction (1991).

. “I have three jobs on Saturday, they’ll pay the return from Bergen; Sunday is good” – crew (on tug docking a NZ onion ship). Sunday is slated for departure, sunshine and fair winds?

. Another low is due Sunday. Rain, gales.

“You don’t want to go be there (North Sea in Force 8)”

Ports close – don’t go in –wind against tide, seas are steep, breaking on bars.” “Wait two days for seas to calm.”

“Meet Bill, he’s from …ull, cruised East coast for years” – “key is to get past the Wash – 16 hours Lowestoft to Humber –keep out of there, full of wrecks – if you clear north, nice bays to anchor in, calm in force 8.”

Skipper in “Rodin” like contemplation.

Marina account overlooked, Radar and AIS not reading GPS…; departure maybe Monday, maybe Tuesday. Northerly forecast for Tuesday, light and calm.

Sunny Monday, Sahula departs Ipswich…, a mere eight kilometres to the mouth of the Orwell River. A night gale is forecast. Sahula is in Shortly Marina.

Forecast Tuesday is light east to north winds. Sahula will make for Lowestoft, 6 hours up the coast. If favourable conditions, she’ll keep on to the Humber. If they persist, on to Hartlepool. East coast cruising is a challenge. Next Report: Leaving of Harwich. David 30/4/12

Passage Report No.68

Preparing to Go!

No cruise just happens. “Happening” varies yacht to yacht, finance and inclination. Sahula is kept simple. Too simple for those who appreciate water heaters and makers, hot showers, air-conditioning. All the accoutrements of home. “Cruising is doing maintenance in beautiful places.” On Sahula it is less so. Sahula is returned to a marina berth after a winter ashore. Winter preparations (two low power heaters, chemical absorption pads) ensured no mould or condensation. Bottom painted she returns to her natural element.

Fog, intense North Sea and coastal shipping and prizing a skilled marine electrician, convince Skipper to install an AIS receiver screen (shows ships over 300 tonnes and voluntary smaller vessels on collision course or in vicinity – backs up Radar)and new VHF with DSC emergency button (distressed vessels automatically register with digital shore rescue stations for assistance).

Sahula “nemesis” is a red electrical spaghetti of wires that powered various switches. It is gone. Bags of wire are binned. A new panel (circuit breakers) replaces years of frustration. A standby VHF aerial connection wire ensures that without a main mast aerial (present VHF aerial), operative radio will continue using the AIS VHF gantry aerial. The clean out continues in lockers and crannies. Many years of excess. Seemingly impossible amounts are binned.

Sahula is ready, fresh water and fuel tanks are topped.

Not so the fuel tanks. Algae like growth bodes ill. Fuel was last taken on in Holland. EU fuel has organic additives which allegedly harbour “bugs.” “I know a fellow. He did my yacht tanks.” The “fellow” agrees to “fix the job” on Wednesday. Skipper’s task is to open the main keel tank. A deep low delays departure in any event. Providence shines.

“You can’t get blood out of a stone” becomes “can you get “bugs” out of diesel. Wasted diesel, finances hurts deep.

Sails are checked and sewn, radar reflector mounted. Many small tasks move forward to countdown. A second backup anchor is stored forward. A new “Kindle 3G touch” is it test mode. It may eliminate storing books.

The list seems no shorter, nevertheless, inside space increases. “You’ve tidied the boat!”

“Aldi” store yields bulk supplies. Customers edge away from the overfull cart. The tinned, dried and various, fill lockers. Six months supplies seem impossible. Sahula will sail weighed with full spaces.

Peter will crew to Scotland. The Marina notice board calls for subsequent crew to Bergen. Two applicants (male, young) appear well qualified (certificates abound). “I need sea time, it is an adventure.” Previously, Sahula has always taken on friends and family.

There is a point where more can be done but it is time.

Weather alone determines events. “April is always awful – it will clear, you’ll have a great cruise” – Skipper remains the eternal optimist. A cruise achieved is a past event. A cruise is a cruise, is a cruise. Whim, weather and the unknown require “cuts to the cloth.” With time determined by seasons, Sahula has till September.

Next Report: Up the East Coast, Ipswich to Scotland.

Best David

Passage Report No. 67 Ipswich, Australia, I 2011-12

Passage Report No. 67

Australia revisited 2011-12

Two years, time to go “down under”, to visit friends and family, soak up the “freedom” of space, inhibition, of light, colour and sunshine. To leave the “old” world for the new. To experience the joy of passing the final airport door to beautiful daughters, “Welcome Home Dad” in vivid pink.

Gone is the long flight, it is a familiar Sydney, Australian world. Skipper revels under blue, warm sky, the iconic harbour, bridge and Opera House and beaches.

Soon Skipper is on a “cruise of a 1000 beds.” Sydney, Melbourne, Townsville, Mackay, Brisbane, Canberra, Newcastle, Gosford – city, country estates, units, houses - hospitality abounds.

Skipper wears thin Sahula’s voyage maps. Actuality of the dream captivates. “You are brave” – Skipper has never felt brave. “Admire doing the Dream” – Skipper just left an interesting job that had run its time, sold a no longer appealing house, took an opportunity, cut costs and living on a small yacht, crossed seas. Difference is a life interest.

It is not about doing as others. It is about respecting them. Each to their own. There is no excuse for a boring life. Skipper’s life is interesting, but friends also. Theirs sustains Skipper in so many meeting. Home, family, friends – a castle. Appreciating others, gives depth to a life much travelled. A free spirit needs an anchor amongst friends in a more settled world.

Yet, there is a side of life ashore that accentuates the spiritual, material, achieving life, for health, education and family. It is less so in the sea life. Many cruisers particularly note their absorption in it shifts to a less material, personal focus.

A birthday to celebrate and Skipper “graduates” to a pensioner. A later age is defined by “A seat, sir,” discount tickets, inexpensive public transport and future planning and an appreciation of youth. Skipper sails on, planning the cruise to Australia.

Essentials are renewed – driver licence, ATM card, passport.

Health tests, sight test, hearing test – the latter rebuking disbelieving daughters!

Among friends it is a new era, both common and different.

“If this is the dark side, roll on” –Skipper enjoys Pittwater from the bridge “lounge” of an ex-sailing friends, 55 foot motor cruiser.

Pittwater is Sahula’s prospective home port.

Skipper flew twice to Melbourne to be with a daughter, sister, friends and cousins. The notorious seas of the Great Ocean Road coast, home to surfing, emphasises the fragility of ships. These strait and bay waters stood before the roaring south winds.

A tropical Townsville Xmas bought together family. Nearby, Paluma’s mountain eerie welcomed 2012. A striped cassowary chick, fed in a Cardwell rainforest retreat, its forest foods devastated by cyclone “Yasi.” Memories of Hinchinbrook Island’s, natural and cultural beauty. Of attempts to destroy it. Of battles wrung. What humans ill seek, nature achieves. Of conscience pricked at Skipper’s life of “complete and utter self-indulgence” – is there ever?

Skipper’s Townsville art exhibition called friends. Paintings, prints now in homes. Mackay friends bought four for their Eungella, mountain retreat. There is satisfaction that art finds good homes.

Never far, Canberra’s Swedish Embassy facilitated the Scandinavian cruise by providing six months “tourist residence permit” (usually 3 months in EU). The process cut short the time in Brisbane. Friends missed.

JB, (met Sahula and daughters in Greece) French adventurer, EU to Australia. Surviving a 10 tonne harvester running over him in Western Australia’s vinyards, fights to keep his spirit, reminds of the fragility of adventure.

Expensive houses, cars, yachts, restaurants and lifestyles fail to dent Skipper’s cruising ardour. They rather enhance the debate, to continue sailing home.

Skipper flies to Sahula in Ipswich, England. A long flight. Met by sister and days on Colchester friend’s farm. Sahula staunches winter concerns, having no ill effects. Now to prepare for another adventure. Soon Sahula is water bound.

Next Report, “To prepare, to go”

David

21/4/12 Ipswich Haven Marina Suffolk, UK