Chesterfield Reef Photos Part 1: Boat Maintenance in Paradise

Here are the first few photos of out time at the reef, more to come!

Our arrival in 22 knots of wind - this was inside the lagoon, which was far from calm!

The following day it all looked very much better - the moon appeared at about 3.00pm

The white sand in only 5 metres of water resulted in the most dazzling blue imaginable

Maunie anchored in the middle of the ocean

However enticing the water looked, we were determined to solve the leak into the forward heads so we spent all of the first day removing the old deck caulking and re-sealing it.

Cutting out the old caulking

Masking tape applied, ready for the new sealant.

That long job finally done, we were ready to take the dinghy ashore to a little island, only a few metres above sea level, to meet the wildlife:

Sea birds of many types wheeling around above the island

In the next installment we'll add photos of the nesting birds.... coming soon!

Safely arrived in Bundaberg, Australia

Just a quick update to say that we arrived at 10.30 this morning after a lovely 'magic carpet' ride overnight with the Parasailor pulling us along at 6 to 6.5 knots in a steady 15 knot breeze. At 04.00 the wind started to fade away so we decided to drop the sail before it wrapped itself around the rig and just after Dianne had navigated us through the crossing traffic of merchant ships using the inshore coastal shipping lanes; three hours later we re-hoisted it when the wind returned and we had a really sporty arrival in 20 knots.

 

So far we have completed our clearance process with Border Force (Customs and Immigration) which was painless and friendly. The quarantine biosecurity inspection comes next and that will involve lots of opening lockers and checking for plants and insects. Only once that's done can we go ashore to explore the immediate vicinity of the marina which lies a few miles out from the town – the full Bundaberg experience will have to wait till tomorrow but that's fine, we'll need an early night.

 

Once we have sorted out internet access we'll upload some photos from the past week. In the meantime, it's just nice to be stationary again.

Day 3: Pressue testing the deck (and the crew) in 45 knots

Last night was a bit of a challenge! As darkness fell the increasing wind and the ominous black clouds on the horizon prompted us to put in the third and final reef into the mainsail, just as a precaution, and, oh, we were glad we did. At about 8.00pm the first of those clouds unleashed rain and wind, lots of it, and that became the pattern for most of the night. Some frantic winching in the cockpit, in torrential rain with waves crashing over us for added excitement, saw the yankee rolled away to about a quarter of its normal area and this reduced sail plan saw us safely, if not comfortably, through the squally night. We saw sustained winds of 30-30 knots (Force 7) and one half-hour period of mid-40's, with a peak of 51; that's Severe Gale Force 9.

 

Maunie coped admirably through it all, though the regular waves crashing over us were certainly a pretty stern test of our deck repair. We are delighted to report that it remained completely watertight.

 

This morning the rain clouds are long gone and we have blue skies and winds down to 22 knots. The sea state is still a bit rolly but we are making a steady 6.5 to 7 knots towards Bundaberg, now 130nm away. The forecast is for the wind to continue to drop and to go more behind us so, if the rolling isn't too bad, the Parasailor may be making an appearance for the final approaches. Final approaches with are, suddenly, busy with ships; we had three pass within a couple of miles of us this morning (heading between Singapore and Brisbane). We'll be keeping a good lookout as we approach the busy Queensland coast and it was reassuring to talk to one of the tankers this morning on the VHF to confirm that our Echomax active radar reflector was bouncing back strong echoes and that our AIS transmissions were good.

Day 2: Some fridge juggling at sea

By Dianne

 

We both enjoyed the first day of motoring under blue skies and agreed that, apart from burning some diesel, it was quite a relaxing way to start the next part of our passage. We were entertained by clouds of sea birds over dense schools of fish and when we thought at one stage that we had dolphins with us, closer inspection showed it to be a huge marlin.

 

Constance, the autopilot was in charge of helming all of yesterday and through most of the night. So far this season we've been unable to do this as running both freezer and fridge would draw too much power. A combination of motoring, solar and no freezer allowed Constance to stay in control even when the nav lights and instrumentation were on. Fans of Winnie, the Windpilot should not despair as she's now doing a fine job at the helm and giving Constance a break. It's good to have this choice.

 

After defrosting the Waeco freezer and cleaning it out at Chesterfield Reef, we decided this was the better fridge to use for the rest of the passage. It's next to the galley and, let's face it, you don't want to have to walk too far for your chilled stuff! So to keep ourselves entertained, we switched off the deep fridge in the pilot house and transferred all the contents to the other fridge. This allowed further fridge cleaning but at least it means we arrive at Bundaberg with two recently scrubbed fridges and only one in use.

 

We timed this job perfectly as the wind gradually increased through the evening and we began sailing at 22.00. The winds built further along with the seas, leading to a rolly night (there seems to be a pattern developing with our passages!). This morning Maunie is flying along at 7+ knots and as the wind and seas look unchanged for the rest of the day, we'll be sticking with white sails rather than reaching for the spinnaker.

 

Off to get a cooling drink from the sparkling clean fridge!

On passage again

Just for variety we have set off a day earlier than planned this time! We looked at the weather files yesterday and saw that there was a danger of sailing into some not-so-great weather on Tuesday. The 'gribs' (wind and pressure forecasts) showed a trough followed 20 knot southerlies as we approached Bundaberg from the north east (with the strong Australian current carrying us southwards). Mmmm, that sounded a bit uncomfortable.  A quick email exchange with Bob McDavitt, the weather guru in NZ, followed and he agreed that a Friday departure made more sense, though we'd start with a few hours of motoring until the SW breeze picked up, to get us there on Monday.

 

So we had a busy evening and morning getting Maunie ready, emptying and defrosting the freezer (the passage meals can all be kept chilled now) and completing the cleaning and re-organising of storage lockers ready for the strict biosecurity inspections. We did manage a trip ashore to another island to take more photos of seabirds plus, especially for Laura, a juvenile black tipped reef shark that was cruising in the shallows just by the beach.

 

As predicted we're currently motoring in only four knots of breeze on a calm sea with a lazy one-metre, long-period swell so it's a very comfortable way to begin. Lunch was seared tuna steaks (the last of a gift from Sel Citron that we'd had in the freezer) with a few salvageable lettuce leaves from Luganville and the remaining two Vanuatu tomatoes, together with freshly-baked bread rolls. We've been working out our meal plans very carefully so should arrive having used up pretty much everything, meat and veg, that would be confiscated on arrival.

 

We are really sorry to have had to leave Chesterfield Reef as it has turned out to be the highlight of an already very good season but we are looking forward to the next chapter of our adventure. We'll keep you informed of progress via this blog and our YIT reports

 

PS – a message to Kerry and Damian on Sel Citron: So long and thanks for the fish! Our emails to you are all bouncing back to us at the moment, with a message from your mail server people saying that we have a 'Bad Reputation'! How very dare they?! We've emailed our mailasail provider to ask them to look into it...

Wow, a pitstop with a difference - nesting seabirds and mating turtles

The view from our anchorage .

Chesterfield Reef has been all that we could have hoped for, and more! If you look at our YIT page, we think that Patricia from Gulf Harbour Radio has posted a Google Earth image of our location.

The wind calmed the day after we arrived so, after a great night's sleep, we decided to take advantage of the sunshine to attack the accursed deck leak. Graham spent most of the day removing the interior of the forward heads locker to allow him to unbolt and remove one of the chain plates (to which the lower shroud is attached at the deck) and then set about cutting out perished caulking in between the teak planks; meanwhile Dianne sorted lockers below (in preparation for the strict biosecurity inspection we'll get on arrival in Australia) and then moved on to sort minor leaks from the ventilation dorade vents. Re-sealing the deck involved miles of masking tape and a two-person team to apply the new sealant, smooth it with a putty knife then removed the tape before the sealant hardened. We had a bit of a worrying moment when the second tube of sealant turned out to have gone off, in spite of its seal being unbroken and it still being (just) within its use-by date; there are no chandleries here but luckily we managed to find enough useable material in a part-used tube to finish the job. So, it was a long, long day in hot sunshine but we kept looking up at the birds circling us and down in to the dazzlingly turquoise water to remember that there could be a lot worse places to do this!

By comparison, yesterday was a delightful day off. We launched Dingy McDingface and motored 3/4 mile to a little island to the south of us. The smell of a thousand nesting seabirds was a little strong but the sight was just incredible. On the grassy higher ground there were Terns sheltering their single, surprisingly large, eggs from the ravages of the sun and predatory Frigate Birds and on the beach Australasian Gannets nested just above the high tide mark, their wings having drawn a perfect circle of brushed sand as they turned on their eggs. In the small, scrubby bushes and trees blue-billed Boobies perched on branches looking too frail for their weight (these are big birds, the size of a pheasant) or sharing messy nests of twigs with huge, white downy chicks, looking almost like baby penguins, who were shouting for more food. As we walked carefully past them the birds just watched us, relatively unperturbed by our presence, so we were able to get some great close-up photos; every now and then, though, a few birds would suddenly rise into the air to act as a catalyst to the others and the sky would be filled with wheeling, squawking birds for a while until they settled back down. The noise was deafening.

We left the birds in relative peace and walked along the pristine white beach to the west end of the island. In the shallows a very large turtle lay resting and we could see some big splashes a hundred metres out into the lagoon – there were turtles mating out there! Returning to the dinghy we paddled out and drifted with the breeze only about 5 metres from a pair locked in the process of making babies; we did feel slightly guilty about intruding on this very private moment but we didn't seem to put them off their stride at all! After ten minutes of taking photos and video we left them to it and returned to Maunie.

So, as you will imagine, this morning we've spent a lot of time editing the hundreds of photos and we'll post a few of them on the blog as soon as we get to Australia. Which, we think, will be on Tuesday. We are just checking the weather – there may be a rain front crossing us tomorrow or Saturday which could possibly delay us a day or two– and hope to leave on Saturday morning; it's 430nm to Bundaberg so that'll take 3 days.

Safely anchored in 5 metres of water, in the middle of the ocean

We are delighted to report that Maunie has stopped, after almost exactly 4 days of constant motion over the 587nm from Vanuatu.

 

Yesterday the wind began to drop and we thought we'd have to start the engine but a favourable direction (close reaching) and kindly sea-state meant we continued to make reasonable progress (sometimes only 3-4 knots) in a gentle 7-8 knots of breeze. Through the night we made better speed and, as predicted, hove-to just outside the entrance to the reef at 04.00 to wait for some sunlight. Unfortunately this excellent plan was slightly marred by the arrival of a boisterous 20-25 knot southerly, caused by the surprise formation of a low pressure system just to our south and that made for a wet beat the huge lagoon, whose surface was far from calm, and we are now anchored in brilliant turquoise water just 5m deep at the very southern tip. There's still a half metre wind-chop but it's not bothering us; to be honest we'll sleep through anything tonight.

 

The wind is supposed to calm over the next few days so we're looking forward to exploring the little islands that dot the circumference of the reef; we have already seen some interesting sea birds and there are said to be reef sharks in the shallows and turtles hatching on the beaches. We have a few boat jobs, too, including solving a deck leak in the heads – we thought we'd already fixed that one but alas the seas piling up on Maunie's side deck proved otherwise.

 

We'll try to capture this place on camera but won't be able to post photos till we get to Australia. Thanks to those who sent us emails or YIT comments whilst we were on passage, it meant a lot to us to hear your words of encouragement.