Denisens and Doubts

12th Jun 2010

I’ll get to the Denisens in a moment but first: We were up at 06:00 and under way by 06:30 for a beautiful sunrise trip down the river. With cuppa in hand, the navigation was decidedly easier, being the second time around so all in all, a pleasant morning.

Leaving the bar at 08:20, the offshore leg started out great with a good 7 kts and a completely tolerable sea. In fact, we enjoyed a couple of hours of what I have always called ‘coffee sailing’, an event that is not all that common in reality! As if to confirm this view, about 11:00 the wind swung south thus putting it directly behind us; good for a square rigger but not for Pilgrim, so we needed to tack off our course in order to settle the boat. This was not a major issue as our good speed was going to get us to Ballina early and this would make the bar crossing all the harder as the tide wouldn’t be right. (it is here where the doubts side of this tale start but to that soon!).

Sometime after the wind shift I was at the gunnels securing the preventer when I saw a big dark shape dash under the boat. I called “Dolphins” and waited for it to surface but - - - - it did not ! This can only mean one thing, it was a bloody big shark or some similar scary denisen of the deep. Strange thought it may seem on a 9 tonne steel boat, shark sighting are always ‘spooky’ at sea and this was no exception. None the less we sailed on without any further visitors being seen.

On arrival at Ballina I enquired about the bar and the report was not entirely good so we hoved to (stopped the boat) and waited for about 30 mins. After this we decide to ‘have a look’ so we proceeded cautiously towards the bar. Now the issue here is that if big swells come through and catch us on the bar, the potential for a breaking wave and loss of control, is the risk. This is true of all bars but Ballina is even more demanding as it has no headland to protect it from the ocean swells. Well aware of this, I was a little apprehensive, and even had some doubts, as we motored in. Fortunately, between Paul and I we kept a close eye all around and got in without too much drama. I was none the less relieved once we cleared the danger zone.

Once in, we dropped anchor just off the trawler harbour but having noticed in the way in that the RSL had a great wharf, I gave them a ring and was told it was available to us for a few days - beauty! Upping anchor we soon tied up to the wharf and all that was required was that we sign in to the club, an easy task!