Sailing around australia; Core Values

(Sceale Bay, South Australia)

13/03/2014 Core Values.

On our Sailing Around Australia adventures, Easy Tiger, Urchin and Zofia find journey planning one of the more tricky parts of sailing together. Trying to get 3 different boats with 6 different people from one place to the same next place in roughly the same time frame with the same weather conditions creates quite a lot of discussion.

Getting three different boats all to go in the same direction at the same time is proving to be difficult. Brian and Eva on Zofia find upwind sailing quite easy while Brian and Maree on Urchin cannot sail under 40dgerees to the wind, as the boat will slam into the waves.

We all have different requirements of anchorages as well. B2 for example has a requirement for a bakery to be close at hand. Leanne requires large sand patches surrounded by weed for whiting fishing. B1 prefers a solid jetty to tie on to Eva would like interesting shops to explore and I prefer to go somewhere remote, no shops and no spending.

Mostly our journey planning discussions end in a plan that we like to say is written in sand at low tide. That is, it can easily be changed. We study the weather up to five days in advance, but within those five days changes regularly occur. Often apprehension, anxiety or overthought scenarios lead to a sudden change to the plan.

There was thought to be a weather window on Thursday. By Tuesday it looked like getting even better, with Wednesday seeming OK too, because of lighter winds all be it in the wrong direction.

The Zofia crew liked the look of Wednesday, so they scratched out the sand and did leave Sceale Bay on Wednesday morning at first light, arriving at Flinders Island by early evening.

On Easy Tiger and Urchin, we had decided to wait until the wind dropped and then make a run for Flinders or perhaps even right around to Port Lincoln. Our reasoning was there is a big blow forecast for Saturday and may be Sunday. We were all keen for the most safety during this bad weather. The marina at Port Lincoln was top of the list.

The two crews still in Sceale Bay worked out that a 40 hour passage would see us in Port Lincoln by Friday evening. That would mean leaving Sceale bay at midnight, then doing 40 hours straight sailing. To me this sounded like the bight revisited. I suggested that we leave at 7.00pm as with daylight saving in south Australia it is still light then. We set off at 8.00pm.

Within 2 hours of our departure, we realised that we were still in the Great Australian Bight. A 3 metre swell was coming side on, the boat was slamming into oncoming south east wind chop. Strong currents pushed us 40 degrees off course then spun us back again. Normally under 1 motor we can make 6 knots per hour. In this chaotic sea we battled to make 3.

I became very despondent, saying to Leanne that I hate night sailing, I hate having to sprint from one point to another. Leanne took over skippering for her watch, but lasted only an hour or so before she became really sea sick. I went back on watch but was quickly fatigued. When Urchin called up at midnight we were in trouble of being lucid enough to make any decisions.

Urchin was also getting smashed about in the conditions. We decided to have a review at 0200hrs. Leanne and I had a review at 1215 though and radio-ed our intentions to turn back to Sceale bay. Urchin followed suit. We arrived back in Sceale Bay at 0400hrs and re-anchored at the foot of the limestone cliffs.

During discussion between the 2 crews the next day we reviewed our discussions and actions that lead to a horrible experience. We all agreed to a basic set of “values”, the first step in strategy.

Our “values” will now govern our journey planning. Our values are now; That we do not “run” from weather; we use the BOM general area weather forecast and support it with localized weather (such as Meteye, Buoy weather, Predict Wind or Wind Alert); If the weather is not right (eg; wind over 20 knots), we do not go; night sailing is for Wombats, we need to make a new anchorage and anchor in daylight. Plan 2 or even 3 routes to the destination; with sailing, the quickest or most comfortable way to get somewhere may not be in a straight line.

The most important point of all though is to obtain local knowledge prior to going. Where we have taken local advice we have rarely gone wrong. We find contacting ACRM (Australian Coastal Radio Monitoring), VMR (Volunteer Marine Rescue) or even SES (State Emergency Service) very much worth a call before leaving an anchorage.

If we had used these values to make our decision on leaving Sceale Bay on Wednesday night we would not have gone. Our reason to leave, was only going to run from the weather, but we would run into head winds for the majority of the trip, We would leave in the middle of the night then we would have to sail through 2 nights and would make the rounding of a cape littered with cray fish pots on rope lines during the 2^nd night.

Our route was planned as a series of straight lines form point to point. Fine if we are a cruise ship or big power boat. Looking at the chart the next day we could have tacked out and back and sailed the whole way to Flinders at 6 knots. We would have travelled 10 extra nautical miles but would have arrived 4 hours earlier.

To top all that off, our local knowledge, “Killa” told us that Sceale bay was the best anchorage along the coast for South West winds.

So lesson learned. Before making decisions that affect everyone’s comfort, demeanor and safety we need to keep in mind our core values. That way we will enjoy our sailing around Australia adventures far more.