One Leg at a Time

After an early start from Middle harbour yacht club in Sydney (4:00am) into a light southerly breeze we made good progress to begin with until the wind picked up to about 15 knots.  The forecast had indicated the wind would increase but go more SE. This did not happen and the S prevailed and even had some SW in it at times.

Sea and swell were each about .5 metre so it was not rough.

Once the wind picked up over 15 knots we put out the headsail and kept motoring. But we needed a lot of tacks as the wind was doing its best to make our first day out one to remember.

It was slow going and we were underway for approx. 18 hours instead of the expected 14 hours. Both Kelly and I were very tired after the late night packing and early morning departure.

It was with great relief when we finally reached Hole in the Wall on the southern end of Jervis Bay for a well earned rest.    (Thanks to Frank and Sue of Bundeena who helped us navigate the entrance in the dark)

We were in the middle of setting the anchor when Kelly spotted a line floating in the water and firmly snagged under Nashira. Fearing it was around the propeller we let out more chain and hoped we had set it well enough as we did not want to use the engine until after clearing the line.

After a well earned sleep we started preparing the Hookamax dive unit for going under Nashira and clearing the line.  Found the battery is not charging so connected the Hookamax to main power (ad another item to the to-do list – fix battery charger)

Well joy of joys once under the yacht the line was caught around the rudder and not wrapped around the propeller as I had feared.

While under Nashira I did a quick check of the bottom and found the saildrive water intakes were being choked by growth and this is a little over 2 months since we anti-fouled her.

So all in all a sigh of relief and we are ready to prepare for our next leg