Journal Entries

March 2006

March 1- I have to head down to the Gold Coast this weekend for a conference. I am planning to sail down on Thursday night, however the weather is looking pretty bad right now. I had hoped to find a nice anchorage on Friday morning so I could drop anchor and dive overboard to give the hull and prop a clean. Considering the weather conditions I don't know how realistic that will be. There are 90km/h gale winds forecast and severe weather warnings issued. Here is a picture of what the weather is doing. The red circle is where I am. It doesn't look good.

I'll see what happens tomorrow and decide if I sail or not. I've been reading up on storm tactics and it might be a good opportunity to practice "heaving to".

March 2 - The weather system seems to be building and it's not looking pretty out there.

8pm - Well, I've had to make a decision about sailing down the coast and unfortunately I'm not going to go. Everything is against me at the moment. I would have to leave on the slack of an outgoing tide which would be about 1.30am tomorrow morning, everything is wet which would make things unpleasant and then I'd have to navigate in storm conditions in the dark on my own, having had little sleep.

I was looking forward to testing out my storm tri-sail and if it wasn't for the heavy rain and everything being wet I would probably still go.

So I will have to leave the boat and go to my conference like a normal person. Damn!

March 6 - I'm back onboard in Brisbane again. The choice not to risk sailing down the coast was a good one. The Bureau of Meteorology apparently didn't forecast the weather accurately and the low pressure system ended up turning into a cyclone, albeit not a tropical cyclone. A wave was measured at 17 metres off the coast and winds up to 119km/h were recorded at the tip of Moreton Island. Here is what the low pressure system had turned into by 10.15am yesterday.

I'm hoping to get out for a sail on the upcoming Easter weekend. Weather permitting.

March 14 - It's official, Lin and Larry Pardey are my new idols. I recently bought the "Storm Tactics" DVD by Lin and Larry Pardey. Larry Pardey is now 67 and has been cruising with his wife Lin for over 30 years. They have sailed approximately 180,000 sea miles living a very simple and carefree cruising life. Most cruising sailors have probably heard of the Pardeys or even read some of their books. What I liked most about their approach to cruising was the "keep it simple" concept. Can you believe they don't even have a motor in their 29ft timber cutter, which they built themselves. Their little yacht is incredibly beautiful and in bristol condition. I started looking around my yacht thinking, do I really need all this junk. I would not go so far as ditching my engine, but certainly think I could get rid of many of the fancy gadgets which were on the boat when I bought it. The pardey's don't use an outboard on their dingy but either row or use a small sailing rig. I thoroughly recommend getting hold of their books and DVDs.