Sailing Around Australia ; The little things

On our Sailing Around Australia Adventures aboard Easy Tiger, I have found that it's really the little things that can make or break ones day.

Small things can take on big proportions, especially when we are on edge. Today, we have had to anchor the boat in a position that is about fifty metres from the sheer rock face of an island, here in Duke of Orleans Bay. This means we will have to be on anchor watch all night tonight.

After suffering a pretty rough night last night, where the wind was trying to tear our anchor out and push us on to the beach, we repositioned ourselves to the other side of the bay, in the lee (out of the wind) in preparation for the wind direction North East wind that was forecast. We anchored the boat perfectly to get protection behind a sand dune.

Unfortunately, the forecast was a little bit out. As we sat aboard Zofia for a morning meeting about our planned departure for the Great Australian Bight, we looked back at Easy Tiger to see her swing right around on the anchor chain and straight toward the beach. It seems the wind was actually from the south east not the north east. By the time we got back to the boat, East Tiger had her stern only about 50 metres from the beach.

We decided to travel by dinghy to the caravan park to drop off some rubbish and scout out the possibility of supplies. The caravan park was about 1 nautical mile away but as we would follow the shore line I decided that I wouldn't need the usual wet weather gear and life jacket we would normally wear for such a trip.

We started off well, then as we got out from the Lee of the Island, we realised there was quite a wind blowing. I spent the trip surfing the dinghy on the little wind waves and we got to the caravan park with Leanne and Myself quite dry. We dropped off our rubbish and had a chat to a couple of caravan "parkers".

Then it was time for the return trip. You know the saying, what goes up, must come down. Well what went down wind must return up wind. I found this out the as we headed out from the caravan park back towards the boat. The little waves slapped into the side of the dinghy, creating a splash that the wind delighted in spraying over us. It didn't matter which way I turned, either myself or Leanne in the front of the little dinghy copped a spray every couple of metres all the way back to Easy Tiger. We got back on board dripping wet.

On board as we dried off dried off, the wind was howling, and we were creeping closer and closer to the beach.

Zofia had anchored quite close to Table Island in the morning anchor shuffle. But we could see them being caught in a swirling wind as it "wrapped" around the Island. Suddenly, as we were watching, they were on deck, anchor up and motored off to the previous night's anchorage. This left us a dilemma. Do we follow suit or do we look for something better where we are. Either way we had to move. The wind was pushing us ever closer to the beach, with bullets (short gusts of wind) now hitting 35 to 40 knots.

After some careful observation of the wind patterns in the lee of the island, I suggested to Leanne that there was a small area that seemed to be protected from the wind, but it would be very close to the island. As we were considering this option, Urchin crew got their anchor up and headed to the spot where Zofia had just vacated. That would not leave us enough room to take the area that we had picked out. As we waited for them to get set, the wind gave us another shove and Easy tiger lurched back over our imaginary "line in the sand" that meant we were too close to calamity. We had to immediately pick up our anchor and head out into deeper water.

We got our anchor up quite professionally using nothing but hand signals, as the wind was too strong to yell against and our headsets were playing up. Urchin then turned around and headed back passed us. This meant our spot was open so we headed in as close to the deadly rocks as we dared and dropped the anchor. Immediately the boat was hit by a bullet of wind and threw us dangerously close to a semi submerged rock. "pull up the anchor, lets get out of here" I yelled back to Leanne. She hit full throttle reverse with both motors, but the boat didn't seem to pull back.

I had lost sight of the anchor chain while staring at the rock that was getting closer instead of further way like I desperately wanted it to. I found our anchor chain disappearing under the back of the boat and started a cold sweat. If it got stuck under our keel as we had happen with mooring lines a couple of times I would have to dive under the boat and manhandle it off the keel, with the boat propellers spinning just a half a metre away. Finally the engines started to make progress against the wind and the strong current and we started to go backwards.

As we were backing out, I also noticed something else. There was no wind. "Stop the boat and drop the anchor", I shouted to Leanne. We set the anchor in the exact spot I had observed earlier, a little pocket of water well protected from the wind by the Island.

After we had sat for a while and set three anchor alarms, we marvelled at the fact that we were actually facing Urchin in a sort of stagnant game of chicken. As we were caught between 2 directions of wind causing Easy Tiger to face away from the island, they were in a direct stream meaning they were being swung to face the Island, yet we were only some 200 metres apart.

After working out who would keep watch for which hours and getting ready for a long night of staring at the rocks (which always seem closer at night), the wind had another part to play by changing direction. You guessed it, the wind then swung around to the North East (where it was forecast to be all day), swinging us around on our anchor chain to mean that we are now parallel with the sheer rock wall that is Table Island, in Duke Of Orleans Bay.

As we are now in quite a strong wind flow and facing into the wind, there is a high chance that our anchor could come unsettled and we could drift, hopefully out to sea and not onto the rocks. To hold us in position a little more firmly, we let out another twenty metres of anchor chain.

I am now on my turn on anchor watch. At least I don't have to stare at the rocks, wondering if they are getting closer. I now have to be alert for sudden wind direction changes. My "guesstimate" is that we were 50 metres from the rocks when the wind was south, earlier in the afternoon. As we let out more chain, if the wind goes back to South this means we will be 20 metres closer to the rocks.

Nothing to worry about there, as long as my "guesstimate is accurate to within 20 metres. It's only a little thing but a wrong calculation here could ruin more than our day.