Category Archives: Ocean Passages

Posts about ocean passages with S.V. Sunny Spells. These can go on a bit, so have a glass of your favourite muscle relaxant close at hand…

St Helens Marine Rescue Activities, Summer 2010

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Motor Vessel Mame Escorted over St Helens Barway

It has once again been been a busy summer for the St Helens Marine Rescue Association. Their radio logs show that during this period they:

  • logged 3,012 radio transmissions on VHF;
  • logged 262 radio transmissions on UHF Channel 94; and
  • provided assistance and tracking to a total of 793 vessels, carrying a total of 2,245 persons.

Their rescue boat activities comprised:

  • thirty-five (35) escorts over the barway;
  • eight (8) assists and/or tows of vessels;
  • assisting with three (3) police call-outs; and
  • assisting the Tasmanian Police with one (1) rescue.

In total, they helped 47 vessels into the safety of St Helens/Georges Bay, carrying 121 persons. The value of the vessels assisted to safety is estimated at over $10 million.

New website for St Helens Marine Rescue Association

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I had the pleasure of spending several days at St Helens recently and was escorted acrosss the St Helens barway twice by the St Helens Marine Rescue Association’s rescue vessel Break O’Day. In conversation with the Association’s (Ian Hollingsworth) I gleaned that the Association is entirely self-funded. Considering the expense of operating two rescue vessels and the base station (telephones, internet, radios, computers), this is no small achievement.

I’ve been thinking about ways to help them raise funds and an opportunity presented itself when Ian told me that they don’t have their own website. I’ve now developed a new website for the Association as an in-kind contribution to their ongoing activities. I’m working with Ian to ensure they get a PayPal account set up so we can add a “Donate” button to their website.

Gabo Island to Eden

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This post comes from the high seas (gotta love technology), only because I want to post the photo…

Steaks for dinner, sushi for lunch! 4kg of Striped Tuna

Steaks for dinner, sushi for lunch! 4kg of Striped Tuna

Caught on a trolling lure, 28kg line. The bitch put up a serious fight, going straight down and dragging out almost all my line against the highest drag setting! Best quote of the day from Kelly when I asked a Barra-fisher whether she could handle the landing net: “does a bear know how to shit in the woods?” – I deserved that!

Across Bass Strait!

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It took a real leap of faith to cast off yesterday morning and head out through the Potboil (!) Shoal, forsaking the safety of Franklin Sound for what promised to be a rough crossing. The wind had howled all night and I had very little sleep. From the forecasts I knew, however, that we really only had a 36hour window to get across, unless we wanted to stay another 10 days in the hope of a better crossing.

So off we went, trailing our new friends on Carribean Blue (also RMYC members) by about an hour. In the lee of Flinders for the first 6 hours, the seas were not too bad and the wind kept abating until we were broad reaching with full canvas up, making 7 to 8 knots.

Once we got into Bass Strait proper, however, the seas got a lot bigger, I reckon about 3 meters, short and steep, with some braking waves. We also had it right on the beam which was a bit uncomfortable. It was now blowing 20-25 knots out of the west and we were still broad reaching with two reefs in the main and half the #2 genoa rolled away. Wild sailing but at least we were making good time!

Weathering the weather in Bass Strait - one tough chick!

Weathering the weather in Bass Strait - one tough chick!

Just after sunset the wind abated as forecast, the pressure started rising and it looked like our faith in the forecast would be rewarded. We started steaming as soon as the boat speed fell below 5.5 knots, knowing there would be a nasty nor-easter to punch into later on Thursday.

So we motored all night and all day on Thursday. When the nor-easter came through we decided to call it a day and went into the anchorage at Gabo Island where we had a lovely night. I was shattered and went to sleep after our dinner (bbq snags and potato salad). The crew went exploring ashore in the moonlight, petting penguins and lying alongside the lighthouse, staring up at the sky…

Gabo Island is a great anchorage in good weather and provides good relief from the north through the east to the south. However, the holding is not good, with the bay being mostly a smooth rocky bottom or kelp and thin patches of sand here and there. In a big blow the jetty probably is the safest option. We had about 3.5 meters of water at high tide and the tidal range was only 600 mm. I would think twice about sitting out a storm here though. We reset the anchor four times and found it lying upside down on a rocky bottom when going round by snorkel to check…