We left Sydney early this morning and expect to arrive in LHI sometime on Thursday. Not sure if we will be able to report position underway, our radio email is not working so far. Wind is light and seas are not high but they are confused, a bit rolly at the moment. All is well on board.
G
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Monday, 22 April 2013
Tuesday, 16 April 2013
Back to cruising life
After 2 years of land life we are now back aboard Zenitude. On Saturday we left the marina and resumed our cruising life. We are still around Sydney Harbor waiting for a weather window long enough to reach Lord Howe Island in reasonable weather. The latest forecast has a strong southerly change for Friday, it seems that we can leave right after that front passes, either late Sunday or early Monday.
G.
G.
Sunday, 7 April 2013
Change of plans
One more low coming down the Tasman Sea did it. We changed plans. After receiving this forecast: 'a very intense low coming down close to Lord Howe Island next Sunday
afternoon and night (14th) with gale force cyclonic winds. Once that has
cleared, and the S winds ease on the NSW side of the Tasman, hopefully
things may become more settled'.
We decided to take it easy and forget Sydney-New Zealand hard trip. Which means we won't visit Tonga, at least not this season.New plans now are Lord Howe Island (after the low clears), New Caledonia and Vanuatu. But, you never know, plans may change again.
In the meantime, while waiting for weather we finally installed our Camino 101 AIS system and we managed to integrate it with our Raymarine plotter. Now we can track big ships and they can see us, one hopes.
G.
We decided to take it easy and forget Sydney-New Zealand hard trip. Which means we won't visit Tonga, at least not this season.New plans now are Lord Howe Island (after the low clears), New Caledonia and Vanuatu. But, you never know, plans may change again.
In the meantime, while waiting for weather we finally installed our Camino 101 AIS system and we managed to integrate it with our Raymarine plotter. Now we can track big ships and they can see us, one hopes.
G.
Friday, 5 April 2013
Still Waiting
Every night we check the weather maps and every morning we get an email from Roger Badham, the weather expert we hired to give us advise on our trips. He is an expert who has weather and trip advise service for sailors and he is famous around the sailing community. He's been saying it is a 'no go' with a following series of 'no change' and this morning the latest is 'No change this week to the lousy conditions'. With all the technical explanations, the result is that Oscar could leave Sunday with a possible window, if they go fast it's doable but not enjoyable.
We are thinking we want 'enjoyable', we don't need 'doable'.
So, we wait.
By now we are starting to think that if we can't change the weather at least we can change our plans. Just a thought.
G.
We are thinking we want 'enjoyable', we don't need 'doable'.
So, we wait.
By now we are starting to think that if we can't change the weather at least we can change our plans. Just a thought.
G.
Tuesday, 2 April 2013
Waiting for weather
Ready to go, just the weather is not co-operating. Our weather guru have been telling us is a no go, last week and this week. Maybe next week. Here is what he reports:
"SAT 30
Low develops later Monday and track ESE to be over NZ by Thursday.
Broad area of SE/20-25 across entire Tasman all this week and back to SE/15-20 through to early next week.
I see all this coming week very difficult and the follow week in a slow improvement.
End"
So, we wait
G.
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radio email processed by SailMail
for information see: http://www.sailmail.com
"SAT 30
Low develops later Monday and track ESE to be over NZ by Thursday.
Broad area of SE/20-25 across entire Tasman all this week and back to SE/15-20 through to early next week.
I see all this coming week very difficult and the follow week in a slow improvement.
End"
So, we wait
G.
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Tuesday, 26 March 2013
Making plans and getting ready
Oscar is targeting to depart end of March towards Opua, New Zealand with a crew of 2. I will happily miss this trip and will fly to Opua by mid April. The plan is to spend sometime in Bay of Islands and then join a rally to Tonga. We'd like to stay about 2 months around Tonga, then Vanuatu, New Caledonia and back to Queensland. There is no Port to Port rally this year to Bundaberg, so most probably we'll sail back to Brisbane instead. Oh well, that's the plan.
Before the fun starts we have many things to do. Zenitude now is moored at the Multi-hull marina in Rozelle where we have better access to come and go while moving all our staff back from the apartment. It's work, work, work and then more work. We had only one fun day with friends coming on board for a lunch at Castle Rock on a beautiful sunny Sunday.
Among other things we have now a new set of batteries, new led lights all over and the inverter working as it should, no more energy complains. At least for now.
We've set up again our sailmail account, replaced the grounding copper tape where damaged, tested the Pactor and the SSB, received the weather gribs thru the radio. It all seems to be working.
And the list goes on. Shopping and storing it all is one of the last things we are doing, same with re-fueling and storing extra fuel in jugs. It seems that the trip to New Zealand is a mix of strong winds days with no wind at all days, so need to be prepared for a lot of motoring.
As incredible as it feels Zenitude is almost ready to go.
G.
Before the fun starts we have many things to do. Zenitude now is moored at the Multi-hull marina in Rozelle where we have better access to come and go while moving all our staff back from the apartment. It's work, work, work and then more work. We had only one fun day with friends coming on board for a lunch at Castle Rock on a beautiful sunny Sunday.
Among other things we have now a new set of batteries, new led lights all over and the inverter working as it should, no more energy complains. At least for now.
We've set up again our sailmail account, replaced the grounding copper tape where damaged, tested the Pactor and the SSB, received the weather gribs thru the radio. It all seems to be working.
And the list goes on. Shopping and storing it all is one of the last things we are doing, same with re-fueling and storing extra fuel in jugs. It seems that the trip to New Zealand is a mix of strong winds days with no wind at all days, so need to be prepared for a lot of motoring.
As incredible as it feels Zenitude is almost ready to go.
G.
Tuesday, 29 January 2013
Ex-cyclone Oswald and Australia Day Wet Weekend
We are looking forward to a long weekend out in the harbor but when we check the weather forecast we realize it's going to be another wet weekend in this Sydney summer. Anyway, with so much to do to get Zenitude ready for next sailing season we decide to stay the long weekend in the marina and get some work done. It's Australia Day on Saturday and the wind hauls all day, but it's a dry and warm day. Sometime during the night the wind stops and the rain starts. As it turns out, the rain starts and it doesn't stop for the rest of the long weekend.
On Sunday night the news from Brisbane are not promising. It is expected that ex-cyclone Oswald will be coming our way and high damaging winds will reach Sydney sometime during Monday. We talked with friends at Manly marina in Brisbane that reported having gusts of 68 knots wind at the docks. Considering that 72 knots is hurricane force, they were almost at that level. When the wind finally got down to 30 knots it felt like calm for them. News from Queensland are devastating and we are waiting for the storm to hit Sydney but besides the rain, it is surprisingly calm here at the marina. Amazingly we focused on the many tasks we had planned and actually got a lot done.
Waking up on Monday morning we find it's still very calm and it's still raining, heavily at times. The wind hasn't come yet and the rain hasn't stopped. Forecast is now confusing and we think we'll get anything between 20 to 50 knots winds, maybe unpredictable high tides, and for sure still lots of rain. Oscar decides to stay another night, we don't want to leave Zenitude not knowing how the moorings will hold, specially if tides are not predictable. The mooring rope may all of the sudden be too short if the tide rises too much, this is how several boats sunk in Bundaberg, 2 years ago when a cyclone hit them. I leave Oscar and Zenitude to come back to the appartment as I need to be able to get to work without too much drama. In the end, the dreaded wind misses Sydney as the storm goes in an easterly path out to sea. The explanation is a strong Southerly that is also coming this way and will reach us some time next weekend, has pushed ex-Oswald out to the east. Finally on Tuesday around noon, the rain stops and some little blue patches appear in the sky. Summer is back in Sydney.
G.
On Sunday night the news from Brisbane are not promising. It is expected that ex-cyclone Oswald will be coming our way and high damaging winds will reach Sydney sometime during Monday. We talked with friends at Manly marina in Brisbane that reported having gusts of 68 knots wind at the docks. Considering that 72 knots is hurricane force, they were almost at that level. When the wind finally got down to 30 knots it felt like calm for them. News from Queensland are devastating and we are waiting for the storm to hit Sydney but besides the rain, it is surprisingly calm here at the marina. Amazingly we focused on the many tasks we had planned and actually got a lot done.
Waking up on Monday morning we find it's still very calm and it's still raining, heavily at times. The wind hasn't come yet and the rain hasn't stopped. Forecast is now confusing and we think we'll get anything between 20 to 50 knots winds, maybe unpredictable high tides, and for sure still lots of rain. Oscar decides to stay another night, we don't want to leave Zenitude not knowing how the moorings will hold, specially if tides are not predictable. The mooring rope may all of the sudden be too short if the tide rises too much, this is how several boats sunk in Bundaberg, 2 years ago when a cyclone hit them. I leave Oscar and Zenitude to come back to the appartment as I need to be able to get to work without too much drama. In the end, the dreaded wind misses Sydney as the storm goes in an easterly path out to sea. The explanation is a strong Southerly that is also coming this way and will reach us some time next weekend, has pushed ex-Oswald out to the east. Finally on Tuesday around noon, the rain stops and some little blue patches appear in the sky. Summer is back in Sydney.
G.
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