Bound for Botany Bay...or thereabouts

This journal has always been slightly out of date - so many readers will now be familiar with the awful fate of Arjuna.  What follows is an account of the final leg of Arjuna for those who came in late.

Planning on this voyage has always been a careful blend of up to date information supplied by those saintly workers toiling at the Bureau combined in the right measure with ancient sea craft: a look to the West at sunset, a careful stroke of the sea beard while staring at the wind playing upon the currents in the distance. A Captain considers many variables when planning a passage, weighing up the life of the crew, the safety of the vessel and the level of the remaining sauvignon blanc stores. However, when considering the departure date from Port Stephens, it ultimately came down to the fact that the Second Mate wanted to spend his birthday in Sydney over a tankard of soft drink rather than in some forsaken sun-drenched aquatic playground on the NSW coast drinking filtered boat tank water from an unbreakable plastic cup. 

Iconic sunset cover shot. Also figuratively: 'the sun is setting on this voyage'

Punching South: A highly dramatised account of our journey to Cooktown

Hello again, faithful reader, spam bots and sailing aficionados. The First Mate has requested the Captain fill in some details from her hasty fact and photo filled recent blog posts and so we join the long, continuing adjective encrusted tale of Arjuna:

Almost two weeks were spent in the waters of the Flinders Group. Boats were rare here - tapering off from the handful of yachts heading further north from Lizard when we first arrived to just three between all the islands for the remainder. The highly advanced electronic communication systems on Arjuna were rendered completely useless here. We couldn't even get AM or FM radio. Later investigations proved that we don't have an AM radio, explaining at least one of these issues. We obtained information on the weather periodically from the odd boat equipped with HF radio or super yacht with its own satellite and meteorological office. Every few weeks, a supply barge anchors in the area but we saw no sign. The Third Mate was assigned the duty of recording three hourly wind speed and direction observations. We felt that if we established the pattern of wind then we would be able to work out when to make our escape to the east around Melville and then back to the south east without the need of a bureau forecast. 

We sight a small yacht on our tail. Stokes Bay

The Kindness of Strangers

Stokes Bay - our turnaround point.

We spent 10 days in Flinders Group exploring and fishing. 

 

Over a couple of days at Owen Channel we had bid farewell to Ceilidyh  and Endurance of the South http://www.enduranceofthesouth.com  as they headed on towards Darwin. We made the short hop across to Blackwood Island.

Where is Arjuna?

Well we are back in Cairns after 6 weeks of adventures in the north.  We got as far as Stokes Bay, Stanley Island in the Flinders Group before turning the bow southwards again.

Now everyone is busily catching up on schoolwork, boat work, paid work and paper work while the blog remains sadly neglected.

There are many crazy tales waiting to be told:

of monster fish caught . . .

Fish Ho at South Percy Island

The Captain hard at work somewhere in the Northumberland Islands

Up til now you will have read many a blog post about the Captain's ability to short order cook under duress, his prowess with plumbing, rigging, navigating, diesel mechanics, boat electrics etc.

But one thing had been missing - where were all the fish?

Much Happens

The mighty rocks of Rosslyn Bay

Rosslyn Bay at Yeppoon was initially a planned three night stop to re-encupboardise, refill water and attend to a headsail tear which we had sustained in the less than tranquil conditions out of Fitzroy Reef. Trying to get work done at short notice and in a short turn around period in the marine industry is not easy. The Captain used his skills at begging to book the sail in for surgery and also managed to track down a separate upholsterer to put a new zip on our boom bag. As expected, neither of these jobs fitted into our booked time and we extended at the marina for several more days.

In Which We Cross Time Zones

Some time after departing Sydney, we finally experienced a wind not from the North East. Excitement was in the air and the sense that finally some sails might be trimmed. We arose very early lapped by the shallow waters of Yamba Harbour. The tide was exceptionally low but by ignoring the advice of the crusty old sea salts on the marina two days earlier we felt confident that we could navigate the channel. We made a call into VMR Yamba to log in and check how the bar was running after the strong winds of the previous day. No one was home at VMR Yamba but we exited the marina and cautiously maneuvered back through the harbour and out into the river - hugging the sand banks here, skirting the mooring marks there; all the while reading loudly from the Book of Lucas and quoting from his Soundings.

The Battle North Continues

Our next hop North was a relatively mild(?) distance of 68nm (again). As usual, the wind, swell, sea and fish were all the wrong direction. Most of the crew dutifully arose at first bell for yoga and pilates on the foredeck before their breakfast of eggs benedict and fresh expresso coffee.