Departure at last!

Pilgrim Progress 30th Apr 2010

We Departed Heron Cove marina at 12:00 to find the alternator out of action. We had no choice but to returned to marina for Sam (the electronic guy) to find a poor crimp connection (their work). Good fortune really as if it happen on route it would have been a much bigger issue.

13:00 departed again, got fuel at RMYC and set off.

Motored out of Pittwater in high spirits we found the water outside Barrenjoey to be very confused with crossing swell and sea and erratic light winds. Without sails Pilgrim was very rolly so I immediately feared for Pauls ability to cope with the sea sickness potential which even I admit was very high.

With sails set we started to catch some wind and things settle a little.

After and hour or so the winds shifted and increased to a very well received 10-15 Kts from the SE. With the engine now shut down Pilgrim really showed her colours with speeds of 6 – 7 kts giving us 8 kts over the ground.

The seas remained confused but we had a steady sail until sunset. Sadly, by this time, Paul had lost a hard fought battle to avoid being crook.

The night brought with it numerous tankers off Newcastle, each to be avoided, Rain and significant fluctuations in the wind with gust to 20 Kts+ from any where in a 90 deg sector. The gusts ‘lumped up’ the sea and called for sail trimming and eventual reefing so things were not so easy, particularly with Paul out of action.

The biggest problem of the night was a diesel leak which was pouring fuel into the bilge and making an almighty mess and smell. I tracked the leak to the aft of the starboard tank but could do nothing to stop it. After some time I actually had to hand pump the bilge to try to keep it from spreading through the boat. This of course was not a pleasant task as the boat by now was lurching in all direction, wet and still, Paul out of action. The Good news was the autopilot was doing a great job.

Resigned to this problem and working hard to maintain my ‘self pledge’ to not let things upset me, I settled into sailing the boat and navigating our way using all the magic Raymarine gear, all of which worked well but for the life tag system.

The life tag is a man overboard system that each of us wear. If we leave the boat an alarm sounds. Unfortunately we got a number of false alarms from what I though was inadvertently bumping to the units but latter seemed to be a fault.

With the good performance of Pilgrim we made Fingal much much earlier than planned so instead of a morning arrival by day we sailed in to rainy and dark Port Stephens at 02:00 sat morning. Keen to get snug I opted for a mooring in Shoal bay which all went well but for the Life tag alarm repeatedly activating, thus demanding that we (Paul was on the mend) pick up an unfamiliar mooring in shallow water on a dark night all to the tune of screaming alarms.

After securing the boat and a cuppa, I got to cleaning the fuel out of the bilge in an attempt to make the boat liveable for the night. This took hours and was horrible to say the least but I got it done and we both hit our bunks about 05:00.

Leg one was over!