Homeward Bound to Sydney

16th November to 27th December 2022

After many sad goodbyes  to new found friends at the marina we dropped our dock lines at 0500hrs and motored out of the Burnett river. We were headed down the inside passage, aka the Sandy Straits, of Frasier Island bound for the notorious Wide Bay Bar.

Catching a boost from the flooding (incoming) tide we motor sailed to our first overnight anchorage some 64 nm south from Bundy and dropped the hook into 29 ft of thick mud in Yankee Jack Creek.  

Next afternoon the popular “Garry’s Anchorage’' was a welcome destination after another day of long motoring through the shifting sand banks which required our full attention so as to not go aground.

Fabulous sunset at Garry's anchorage

This was a lovely spot filled with the sounds of bird life as well as laughter from the the other six boats anchored nearby. The following day we continued on to wait at Pelican Bay, a staging area where we and many other boats wait for the favorable tide to cross the bar.

Legends says that dolphins bring good luck to mariners and later that afternoon a pod came to visit us.

Waiting at Pelican Beach at the south end of Fraser Island

The car ferry from the mainland dropping of campers to the island

The local Coast Guard based in Tin Can Bay gave us the “Virtual” coordinates of the markers to make a safe as possible passage across the Wide Bay Bar. However they always make the disclaimer that the bar is prone to shifting sands and you cross at your own risk. For us this would be our second crossing of this bar in 16 years.

And so when the virtual gun sounded at 1300  also known as slack tide, a procession of sail boats headed out like ducks in a row. The transit took us a very focused 45 minutes.

Above and Below shows GWTW in red leading the charge on our way crossing the Wide Bay Bar into the ocean

Every boat that tackles this unpredictable patch of water and makes it through without incident breaths a mighty sigh of relief once in the deep waters of the Tasman Sea.

You may be wondering why take the chance of disaster? Well it cuts travel time considerably and eliminates the roughly 150 nautical mile trip along eastern shoreline of Fraser Island.

With the Screecher set GWTW heads for the Gold Coast

Moving on, we quickly settled back into into cruising mode once more. 

We hoisted the mainsail and rolled out our screecher. With an east to north east breeze it was an uneventful sail sitting on 10kts boat speed with a starry sky above. 

Hitchhikers are not uncommon in our line of work. 

We have had our fair share of big and small ones as we have sailed around this planet. 

So waking up to find an exhausted seagull perched on our bow was really just another day at the office. 

We are always glad to give any of our feathered friends a free ride.

Dropping our mainsail on the way into the Gold Coast Seaway

By 1030 the next morning we had just about covered the 136 nm to the Gold Coast seaway with just 4 miles left to run. 

It was great to be able to catch up with our long time Gold Coast friends for a week. But as always the weather dictates our schedule and it was time to hit the road again.

Above and Below : Our welcoming committee at Southport Yacht Club

Sunset leaving the Gold Coast  

First stop on our continuing passage south would be spent in Yamba for a few days of RnR.  This of course included paying the local fish co-op a visit for some mouth watering Yamba prawns. 

Coffs Harbour would be our next stop for a couple of days and as soon as the weather gods would allow we would be heading out for a 225 NM sail to Pittwater north of Sydney.

While in Pittwater we caught up with some of Liam's family and then my family over at a bay called the Basin. The shoreline and camp grounds are run by the National Park Service and can only be accessed via the water, ferry or private vessel, or a very long walk through the National park. It's a beautiful spot and worthy of a few days of chilling out.

Lots of friendly Wallabies and Goannas too.

Liam with his twin boys

Yours truly with my sister at the anchorage at The Basin

December 27th rolled around and as we we left Barrenjoey Lighthouse in our wake we pointed GWTW's bows towards Sydney Heads, 19 miles to the south.

We were going home at last.

GWTW and her crew of two about to enter Sydney Harbour for the first time since we left in 2006

At 4pm and to the tune of Mark Knoffler’s “Going Home” we made a very emotional entrance into Sydney Harbour. Tears rolled down our faces and there were hugs all round even though it was just the two of us

         There was no fanfare nor anyone waving from the shore to welcome us back. 

Our Final Track into Sydney Harbour

And as we headed towards Manly to drop our anchor the ferries, the18 ft skiffs and the Tuesday afternoon race boats that passed by us had no idea of the epic journey around the world that we had just completed.

                   It was time for a well earned glass of Champagne or three.

                                                           THE END.

                                          Well for the time being anyway

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“Down Under Go West Rally Week” What a hoot!

11th –15th November 2022

Above and below GWTW dressed with all the country flags we've visited

The “Welcome Week” events got off to a great start with the first event being the ‘Welcome to Country” ceremony.

This is a traditional welcome by members of the local Taribelang Bunda people who have inhabited this land and the surrounding sea area for thousands of years.

After the haunting sounds of the Digeridoo faded away the ceremony moved on to the “Smoking” ceremony where all rally participants were encouraged to step forward and be enveloped by the white smoke.

According to legend the smoke not only cleanses us of any bad spirits hanging around our person but also keeps us safe while in this country and provides everyone a safe journey back to the land from which they hail. 

With the welcome formalities over it was time to move inside and partake in some serious imbibing and woofing down of canapes.

We had a fun night socialising with all the other rally goers, swapping stories of the passage from New Caledonia and generally catching up with friends we’d cruised with over the years gone by. Oh, and also to officially celebrate the end of our 16 year circumnavigation.

Us with fellow  Aussie circumnavigators from  the yacht " Blue Heeler"

Group photo with 'forever friends' that we hung out with for two years in NZ.

Over the coming week their was more catching up with friends but this time they were land based. Nick flew in from the Gold Coast and Pete drove down from the sunshine coast. It was great to see them both. 

Every day there were a bunch of  new activities to keep us busy. The list included barefoot bowls, music jam nights, dinners at the local pub, BBQ’s, info seminars on weather and cruising the Australian east coast from Cape York to Tassie. There was even one on how to understand the unique way we Aussies speak! Do we really speak that different? Surely not.

A day trip to the Bundaberg Rum factory was a must.

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One of Liam's favourite beverages

Enjoying a seafood platter Ulla and Pelle from Sweden

Music nights featuring Liam

Cane Train crossing

Barefoot bowls on the marina lawn

Roos at sunset

It was a really fun week that literally flew by but soon it was time to drop the dock lines and point GWTW’s bows south to Sydney.

It had been a long time coming and we just couldn't wait to see Sydney Heads and sail back into the harbour once again.

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Down Time at Fraser  Island.

22 October - 7th November 2022.

Now that all our Australian entry formalities were done and dusted we were free to do whatever took our fancy.

First up was a much needed trip to the Supermarket. We were pretty much out of everything. Just a short way down the road from the marina was the local IGA and, as an added bonus, they had a free courtesy bus that would pick you up and once the shopping was done, they’d drive us back to the marina. Wow, after all our years of sailing this was a much welcomed service.

Over the coming days we ventured further afield into the main township of Bundaberg. The local bus stopped right outside of the marina and took about 20 mins to get into town. Town was a pretty busy place. It had everything and more. Woolworths, Coles and Aldi had shelves overflowing with stuff, the likes of which we hadn’t seen for months. No more trying to work out what the labels said either. It was all in English ! 

                                                         Farmland along the Burnett River

Anchored off Fraser Island

Living in the marina was great for a week or so but soon we felt the need to be out on the hook. So in company with our friends on Eye Candy we headed across to Fraser Island, a 46 mile jaunt east of the marina. We dropped the anchor at 1700 hrs just south of Triangle Cliffs on the sheltered western side of the island. It was lovely seeing the clear blue water again rather than the muddy Burnett River that flows past the marina.

Spending four days there was worry free for a change. There was no more being students of the weather or changing sails in the dark on a rolling sea. Sleeping all through the night was sheer bliss with no thumping of the engine to spoil it.

But time moves on and soon we were lifting the anchor and heading back to Bundy. On the way back we caught a huge Wahoo, probably the biggest we’ve ever caught. It was a  real beauty and sure to take up a lot of room in our freezer. And as Liam always says “you can never have too much fish!”

What a catch

No need for a caption here !

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The Final Ocean Passage

15th- 21st October 2022

So here we were staring down the barrel of what would be the very last ocean crossing of our 16 year & 183 day circumnavigation.

On reflection it was hard to come to grips with the fact that we've been away for so long and even harder to imagine a life going forward without cruising. Salt water is most definitely in our veins.

Having topped up our two fuel tanks and seven jerry cans with  570 L of duty free fuel as well as a quick last minute shopping trip for the bare minimum of supplies to get us to Oz, (not much point having too much and then having Australian Border Force take it off us once we arrive in Bundaberg), we were ready to go.

Goodbye Noumea

Our last night in New Caledonia was spent anchored off the small island of ILE NGE also known as ILE Laregnere. This was the same place that we’d waved goodbye to our Kiwi friends from S/V Otama a couple of weeks earlier. Tomorrow it would be our turn but there would be no one waving.

We enjoyed our last anchorage in this island nation sitting up on the foredeck while mother nature put on a beautiful sunset complete with the fabled Green Flash.

Sunset at our last anchorage

At 0630 on October 16th our anchor chain rattled its way into the chain locker and the clunk of the anchor snugly settling onto the bow roller let us know that we were away.

Quietly we slipped out of the anchorage with our usual finale song playing, "Time To Say Goodbye".  Next stop Bundaberg Marina QLD, 760nm to the west.

With a full main hoisted and a light breeze of 8 kts from the SE we motored through the Dumbea Pass and out into the Coral Sea. Australia here we come.

Time to hit the road

From day one the wind gods had already made their decision about this final passage for us.

They deemed that there would be no gear breakages and also no viable winds for true sailing, Clearly they wanted both GWTW and her crew of two to get to our destination in one piece. So instead of the fast sailing we’re used to we had cold starry nights and beautiful sunsets with the icing on the cake being more green flashes. Oh and dare I forget the thump of one of our trusty Yanmar engines.

Every day and night was the same as the previous as we alternated between engines and mainsail or genoa. The daily mantra of “no fish were hurt today” was of great disappointment to Liam.

Our only voice contact with the outside world was checking in each morning and evening with Gulf Harbour Radio based in NZ on our HF (high frequency) radio net. We’d seen a couple of planes and two or three passing ships but no other yachts.

Then on the early hours of day three the breeze came up. We were100nm west of the Kelso Seamount which had to be avoided and at last the engine was turned off’, “ahh the sound of silence,”  it was music to our ears. Even the heavens must have been thankful as a shooting star was sent our way to celebrate the occasion as we glided along under the stars with a full mainsail and genoa.

By1030 that morning the wind was gusting 21 kts. It was time to put a reef in the mainsail and roll in half of the genoa. Boat speed read 9.8kts and climbing, with the sky starting to look overcast and stormy and the seas became increasingly lumpy. By later that evening the second reef was pulled in as the winds remained constant and the seas were now up to 2 meters and quite rough.

Day five saw the wind shift from the southeast to east which was dead behind and not a good angle of sail (aka known as shit),for any catamaran. Our distance to run was now just a piddly138nm to go…Put the bubbly in the fridge!

As we closed the gap between us and the coast the heavens opened and down came the rain. With the shipping lanes creeping ever closer we were glad we had radar on board to spot the rain squalls and approaching ships.

The wind once again shifted. This time to the north east nudging 20+ kts at times, but even so we hoisted our mainsail fully up with a half genoa up front.

It was sleigh ride time and we could smell and see the finish line.

GWTW stretched her legs for one last gallop. She was heading to the barn.

Tears flowed at O555 on the 21st of October as we crossed our outbound track from way back in 2006. Our anchor rattled its way down into the muddy waters of the Bundaberg River and we waited for instructions to berth on the quarantine dock at the marina

                                                           It was over, we’d done it.

                                                We have sailed around planet earth.

Tied up to the Quarantine Dock next to fellow Aussie cruisers Eye Candy

But our journey isn’t officially over until we sail back in through Sydney Heads so stay tuned.

Meanwhile here in Bundaberg the Down Under Rally welcome party would be starting in a few days time and that should be an absolute hoot.

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New Caledonia : So many islands, so little time.

20th September – 15 October 2022

After arriving back to the metropolis of Noumea after our jaunt south to Isle of Pines and surrounding islands we realized there was still a heap more exploring to be done. But first things first… a  much needed provisioning trip to the fresh market and then on to the supermarkets. We spent four busy days lapping up life in the marina before heading out again.

The majority of islands dotted around the western side of New Caledonia are uninhabited. These islands or cays are really just sand strips with a bit of vegetation thrown in for good measure and are usually drop dead gorgeous.

Our first stop this time was L’ ilot Mbe Kowen  and yes it was drop dead gorgeous. In company with our friends from Eye Candy we stayed a couple of days. Swimming in the pristine aqua shallows, watching the turtles glide past and walking on the white sand beach filled our time there perfectly.

                         The photos below are of a couple of fury friends we found at an abandoned resort

Next up was a rendezvous on Isle Laregnere to meet up with our Kiwi friends from Otama who would be Australia bound to Gladstone the following morning. Also a big thanks to Clair from Eye Candy for taking this photo when my camera battery died .    

And off they go to Australia

Yet again the little gem of L’ ilot Nge was another beautiful spot and perfect for walks  ashore. 

Sharing the serenity with a couple of Pukeko

Sundowners with Ted and Adrian from Otama 2nd and 3rd from left

Great spot for sunset and sundowners too.

Over the following eleven days we spent most of time back down in the Prony Bay area visiting a plethora of anchorages and small islands. There was more socializing on shore with new found friends as well as trail walks, ruins to discover, hot spring pools to soak our weary bones in and dinghy trips up narrow coconut tree lined creeks. It’s never a dull moment when you are out there cruising.

There is always time for a catch up ashore at Casy Islet

GWTW anchored at pretty Casy Islet.
And below a hard way to take your punishment.

Enjoying the hot springs. Thanks again to the Eye Candy crew for the photo.

Our last stop on this itinerary before hitting the big smoke again was one of our favourite islands Bay Vere. It is a lovely horseshoe shaped bay with just a hut and a kayak rental area which didn't look like it was in business any more.

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