23 July 2010
Shortly before 11pm on 21 July we crossed the finish line and brought all sail in as our new course to enter the Hydrographers Passage put us directly into the wind. With the Pacific now behind us, all we had to do was transit this 50nm long stretch of water and from there it was just another 70nm to reach our landfall of Mackay in Australia. It would be plain sailing, very straightforward, no problem at all. That was the theory at least. The reality however was very different. Now in shallow water, the seas had built up considerably in steady force six winds gusting seven and Voyageur was nearly laid over on one occasion in the beam on seas. David hand steered to the waves for our safety until within the entrance, as once in behind the reef the seas did flatten out considerably. However we now faced a counter current and were dismayed at the strength of it. It was just our bad luck with timing that we had entered the narrowest part of the channel, Bond Entrance, one nm wide, just when the tide was on the ebb. Supertankers use this channel and now we heard Double Progress, a big bulk carrier, announcing that he would arrive at our present position from the south end of the channel in 50mins time. We thought we would easily be through before he got there but it soon became apparent that struggling to make even two knots with the engine at 2500revs it would be close. David called him up. He asked both us and Liza who were just ahead to keep over well to the east as he needed at least 3cables room to clear Tip Reef. We clawed our way over to the west cardinal buoy marking Bond Reef on the other side as close as we dared. Our progress was now painfully slow. Double Progress said he was flying. He had both the wind and the tide with him, lucky man. He came up so fast and glided past in the moonlight, the silhouette of his great black hulk an eerie sight in the moonlight and stormy seas. He thanked us for giving him the sea room and wished us a safe onward passage. The rest of the night we spent pounding into wind and waves, David and I taking one hour each on watch, the current pushing and pulling Voyageur this way and that. It was so hard to keep her on her course. All through the next day we ploughed on, Voyageur slamming into the seas. It was a punishment for both her and us and one we could have well done without after 1050nm of ocean sailing. Even once the tide turned in our favour we could still manage no more than four knots. What a slog! 44nm in 12 hours. Now it was clear that we would not reach Mackay in day light hours so we planned that once we had cleared the southern end of the passage we would reef the sails, slow Voyageur down overnight for a morning arrival at Mackay Marina. This would give us a chance to rest and recover for we were both quite fatigued from the last 24hours. However after receiving a new forecast of strong trade winds for the following three days David felt that we must soldier on. We really needed to get there. WARC had briefed us that the entrance was well lit and would be no problem. It was with enormous relief that we were finally able to get an angle on the wind to put out the first the main and motorsail, then bearing away another five degrees at last we sailed with most of the genoa, setting a final course for Mackay. There is not only a huge marina, but a shipping and fishing port also, so just as predicted it was well lit, the navigational marks easy to identify. Suzana talked us in to the safety and security of an alongside berth on the quarantine pontoon. With no one to take our lines as it is locked pontoon I stepped ashore my legs all wobbly from our rough ride. Oh, the relief to be here was enormous. We took hot showers, the first for two days and collapsed into bed. It was without doubt the roughest, toughest passage David and I have ever made.
In the morning we ate the most enormous breakfast which included the last of the fruit, followed by a mound of bacon and French toast. Now we were ready for the quarantine man. Moses was more interested looking for termites in our beautiful woodwork than the contents of my food lockers. I think the fact that when he broke the handle of the very first locker that he opened caused such embarrassment, that he was too reluctant to open any more. It was all to our advantage for we got to keep our precious shell collection, basketware and tapa. Poor Jeannius were less lucky. They had their tapa confiscated, using the term "bark" instead of cloth. I played safe with the freezer contents and gave up my cheddar cheese carried all the way from Gibraltar. All cooked and frozen meat, and dairy products not originating from New Zealand are confiscated due to BSE disease in cattle. It was with great reluctance that I had had to ditch three meals of chicken in the sea and a huge chunk of wonderful Wahoo. I have since discovered that we would have been allowed to keep the fish. Our stocks of alcohol were not bonded on this occasion in spite of being well in excess of the recommended limit. Slainte!
Susan Mackay