Hitchhikers Guide to The Coral Sea

The final leg of the Pacific crossing is about 1100 miles from Vanuatu to Mackay, Queensland, inside the Great Barrier Reef and, of course, as you are reading this, it means we made it across the ocean….9000 miles of it in 7 large hops! I calculated that we spent around 72 days actually at sea averaging 5 knots and of which about 10 days were motor/sailing. The strongest winds we had were on this last leg when it blew force 8 for about 3 days out of 10…nice!! More about that later…… We had a few days of flat calm and unpredictable winds for most of the whole crossing, so much for “Pacific” Ocean…more like “Horrific” Ocean on occasion! It has been said that last year’s El Nino may have altered the weather patterns but nevertheless, as a relatively seasoned ocean voyager now, I would say ”be cautious” to anyone contemplating a Transpacific and don’t believe anything that anyone else tells you about perfect conditions!!!

This last leg took us 10 days…one day or so of calm necessitating motoring, then about two days of steady winds and really rather pleasant conditions…you start to sit back and relax in the warm sunshine, enjoying the motion of the ocean. Then the sun disappeared but things were still steady and we were making slow progress WSW at a little under 4 knots in 15 knots of NE wind, yankee and mainsail set, no reefs. We were still within reasonable time for reaching Mackay before the weekend (when checking in with Customs etc means very high “overtime” charges). This state of affairs continued for a couple of days or so, then the sky started to darken from the SW but conditions didn’t change as the wind was NEish until a day or so later when the “dark cloud” hit the boat (I was down below when it hit but not for long!). The wind went from 15 to 35+ knots and swung 180 degrees from NE to SW in less than 30seconds and we heeled hard over to 35deg+. We have encountered many nasty squalls in both oceans but this was far more dramatic and sudden. We were seriously heeling and it was a real struggle to reef the sails before any damage might occur. Anyway, the boat and us survived intact thankfully and we were sailing again rather more upright, now under the trusty staysail only. Phew! The SW force 8 blew on and off for the rest of the trip and we also endured almost two days of torrential rain within this system plus the lowest night temperatures we’ve had since the Atlantic meaning all the foul weather gear had to be worn. A Queenslander we met ashore says that these conditions are unusual but that they catch yachts out and more get lost this way than from cyclones…probably because they are so unexpected.

The best part of this leg was the sighting of two humpback whales which we saw inside the reef on their winter migration to their breeding grounds and which happened about 10 miles outside Mackay. They put on quite a show, blowing, diving, breaching and lobtailing. They were too far away for photos unfortunately and my camera had no battery either of course! Incredible only to have had three or four sightings of whales across the whole ocean though we have seen hundreds of dolphins en route. I expect there have been lots though when I just happened to be facing the other way! We also provided a free overnight ride (hence the title of this piece) for four “boobies” during the rough weather who presumably didn’t fancy having to fly all night…we were several hundred miles from the nearest land. They had an awful job landing and there were many more birds flying around the boat that tried and failed to find a safe spot. I hope they survived the night….sure they did!

Soooooo here we are in Mackay, Queensland, a new and very large marina with all the usual shoreside attachments, restaurants, etc. It’s strange to be among mostly European “types” again and they really do say G’day as they pass by……haven’t seen any Aborigines but then we haven’t left the marina area yet. The bus service to town operates infrequently on Saturdays and not at all on Sunday so we will have to wait until Monday to see anything of the surrounding country. There is a lovely looking beach outside the marina so I dipped my toe in…absolutely freezing…. so no chance of me getting a final chance to swim in the Pacific unless Papua New Guinea still counts?

We had breakfast ashore and will have to eat ashore for the time being as there is hardly any food left on the boat. We were advised not to bring in any fresh food as well as lots of other restricted goods because we’d been told that Australian quarantine officers would swoop onto the boat and remove everything that could be a contaminant as soon as we arrived…they did sort of swoop but were really very nice and only removed a small seed that someone had given me in Nuku Hiva and a packet of lima beans which we bought in Panama! It would seem that the main problem is anything that could “grow” and become an invasive or noxious pest if it was accidentally dropped on Oz soil. I suppose I can see the logic in that but I wish they’d explained it better beforehand on the website. There are all sorts of heavy fines they could impose and so in fearful anticipation, we had eaten or jettisoned anything and everything… even foods prepared in Australia that we bought in Fiji and Vanuatu…. Bit of a waste in the end.

I have a feast of birds to spot while ashore. They are all quite common here of course but it was very nice to see the rainbow lorikeets and galahs as well as a cockatoo..not sure if it was sulphur crested…I shall have to look it up when I can get online later.

The boat comes out of the water on Monday and I fly out to the UK on Tuesday for my two weeks “holiday” with friends and family. Really looking forward to that…. I might even get to have a bath for the first time in a year. I realised too the other day that until Savu Savu a few weeks ago, I hadn’t even had a proper shower since February in Panama. Ooer!