Wings Cruising Log

We've got a nice sunny day here in Sydney today, but the last few days have been pretty wild. A big storm formed in the Tasman Sea on Friday, causing quite a bit of havoc for boaters, thankfully we were not among them.

Even though this is winter, and winter storms are common, this one was one of those strange occurrences that surprise everybody. A slight dip in the isobars going across the top half of Australia caught the eye of the weather forecasters last Wednesday. It was the kind of dip, which, combined with certain upper air movement, could cause a cyclone - in summer that is. In winter, well, all they could say was that a low would form east of Australia, probably by Friday. It did. On Friday the wind was blowing like crazy and the low had shown up on the weather maps looking like, of all things, a cyclone.

We were watching it closely because we knew that our friends on Icon were on passage to Lord Howe Island, right in the path of the low. With no radio of our own these days (Wing's radio is disconnected for the work we are doing) and no satellite phone, and knowing that Icon isn't on any regular radio schedules, we couldn't contact them to find out howthey were doing. We thought though that they would have arrived at Lord Howe on Thursday, maybe Wednesday. By Friday the low pressure system, by then a storm, was right over Lord Howe, and by Saturday we could see that it was probably getting very rough in Lord Howe's exposed anchorages, blowing 40-50 onto thecoral reef lee shore. We were worried.

Meanwhile in Sydney things were also getting rough. A ferry stuffed into a wave an blew out a bunch of windows, injuring several passengers. A cruise ship bound for Sydney had to stay at sea, making a miserable, if not dangerous, time afloat for the passengers. The owner of a nearly derelict 100ft wood converted Navy boat trying to make it to Melbourne,headed out Friday night, from our marina, with four back packers on board for crew, and the lot of them had to be rescued a few hours later as the boat foundered just south of Sydney. They were lucky to get picked up by the rescue helicopter because locating a sinking vessel at night in 70-80 knot winds and 50 foot seas would have been difficult. The rescue people who work this coast are really pretty good. In this case the vessel obviously should never have gone to sea. The owner was warned of the danger by Dara, our marina manager,but he went anyhow, turning down an offer of free moorage until the weather settled. The backpackers, recruited through a newspaper ad, were oblivious to the danger. It is also probably safe to say that they hadn't told anyone much about where they were going or with whom, either.

Saturday's scheduled sailboat race to the Gold Coast was postponed, wisely, since in addition to having horrific conditions in the ocean, all the ports up the coast were closed so that competitors would be unable to duck for cover if they needed to. Even worse, rescue boats would have been unable to get out if called upon. The crew on Zena, Sean Langeman's big red 60 footer, who hoped to be able to set a speed record, were a bit put off, but probably they were a bit relieved too. The race was again postponed on Sunday and finally got off on Monday. A couple of other boats that were out there got into trouble but luckily the sailors were all saved.

We also got good news about Icon. When we finally got through to Lord Howe Island we found that Icon had come and gone, beating the worst of the rough weather. We tracked them down to Mooloolaba Yacht Club up on Australia's East Coast where they arrived on Sunday. Well, the boat that is. The crew seem to have disappeared, probably into the yacht club bar. As soon as we get in touch with them we'll tell you how their trip was, but at least we know that they are in Oz.

On our own front, Wings is back in the water and back in her own slip. The major maintenance items, the rig, keel, & rudder are done, and now we start the deck and interior refurbishment. We also have got to look forward to several more months working in Oz, since paying for the work on Wings is going to take a while.

Living in Sydney is OK, we'd rather be sailing, but not in conditions like last weekend.

Fred & Judy