SUMMERING IN SYDNEY

Christopher Robinson

Late March and we're sitting in a pleasant fishing port called Eden (without the fig leaves!) close to the south-eastern point of continental Australia. We arrived six days ago after coast-hopping down from Sydney, and have been waiting ever since for favourable winds to cross the notoriously difficult Bass Straits to Tasmania.

Rising Star always seems to make her landfalls at night and Sydney Harbour (shown on the chart as Port Jackson) was no exception. We had had an uneasy passage from Mooloolaba in Morton Bay just north of Brisbane in Queensland. I had recruited an additional crew to join Karen (a Canadian backpacker) and myself. Kevin from New Zealand had put a notice on the board at the chart agents in Brisbane and we agreed to take him on. Just as well -- the passage was one of continuous strong squalls, the first of which hit us on the first night out as we were trying to clear the tip of Cape Morton. Reefing at night with 30 knots from behind with two inexperienced crew, as we pitched and rolled in shallow water on a lee shore, was not fun. Kevin did the deck work on the main, Karen was on the winches and I had the helm. As I talked them through the process I was glad we had taken on the extra hand. Returning to the cockpit soaking wet after some true gorilla work, Kevin helped coil the lines and finally turned and asked me if now was an okay time to throw up. His wish was granted -- he had earned his place as crew!

The entrance to Sydney Harbour is formed by the `Heads', which are two cliffs. The North Head, lit by a green light with only three mile range, overlaps the South Head, whose light is low and obscured from the north, so the entrance is hard to see. That Captain Cook did not find this harbour is not surprising. Just to add to the confusion there is a long range light on the coast south of the Heads (the Macquarie Light). Furthermore the land to the north gives the appearance of an entrance but is in fact a beach, as some vessels have discovered. Our approach was difficult as we were still experiencing what the locals call a `southerly buster', though once we had positively identified the North Head things became easier. There are good transit lights (or leading lights) and once inside the harbour the channels to avoid the reef are well marked. We made our way to the Cruising Yacht Club and tied up on the fuel dock of the adjacent marina at 0300. There was no space apparently available and we were tired.

This was in early December and the CYC's space was all taken by boats gathering for the Sydney to Hobart Race. Although I had been told that the Royal Sydney Yacht Squadron had no dockage I telephoned them to see if they could help. My call was before office hours but I was told to come on over and tie up and `we'll see you are taken care of, sir'. The Squadron is located on the opposite side of Sydney Harbour to the CYC and we motored over past the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge in front of Fort Dennison Island (formerly a punishment place for the penal colony). It was a beautiful morning and the sights were spectacular.

The Squadron has a long floating jetty for temporary berthing and we went ashore to find the showers. It operates a very smart boatyard with a 37 ton travel lift and spacious hardstanding right in front of the clubhouse, which is situated on a small hill overlooking the waterfront. In the locker room next to the showers I encountered a young man putting on his overalls, presumably to work in the yard as it was about 0800. Nevertheless I introduced myself, and politely enquired if he was a member of the Squadron. He replied that he should be, as he was the Commodore! I was warmly welcomed to Sydney by Norman Longworth.

The Squadron and its members and staff have been really superb hosts to Rising Star and her crew. Many have visited the boat and offered help and hospitality. The House facilities are well used by members both for local racing and for dining and banquets. Thus it was that on my first night there I decided to dine in with Karen (Kevin had had to return right away to Brisbane), only to find the dining room taken for a Christmas party. I was stunned when the people appearing in their black tie rig were none other than the partners and their ladies from the Sydney office of the accounting firm in which I had been an international partner some years earlier! They were of course equally surprised to see me, but lost no time in making us welcome with champagne and other goodies. The discomforts and soakings of our passage had become a distant memory by the time the hard core of our hosts were having nightcaps aboard Rising Star!

Sydney is one of the world's great natural harbours with many bays and inlets. There are, however, few available anchorages for the visitor. I was fortunate to have a friend of a friend who had an available mooring off in a safe bay off his private home. This is where Rising Star lay while I returned home to Connecticut for Christmas and some shore leave on the ski slopes of the Rockies.

Upon my return to Sydney Rising Star was hauled out at the Squadron for some repairs and a bottom job. The yard is professionally managed and staffed by the Squadron's own employees, with very reasonable rates and no restrictions against working on one's own boat. I needed some repairs to the skeg (after an encounter with a coral head in the Whitsunday Islands which had moved from its charted position!). The work was done expertly and I was able to get all the supplies for work I was doing myself without any problems. While the boat was in the yard I stayed in the Squadron's comfortable and reasonable accommodations.

This happened to be the week of the Asia Pacific Women's J24 championships which were being hosted by the Squadron. One team was from the USA and the remainder from different parts of Australia. It also happened that the USA team included the daughter of a well known singlehander of a Valiant 40, sistership to Rising Star, whom I had previously met at Valiant events in the USA. Anyway, fifty lady sailors at the Squadron for the week made my stay there even more enjoyable, as I was invited to all the parties. I searched seriously for crew but with no immediate success.

With the help of the local knowledge so readily available I planned my cruise to Tasmania. Charts and advice were offered and accepted. Karen had left for New Zealand before Christmas to continued backpacking so I continued my search for new crew. I responded to two notices in the CYC, and placed my own both there and at the Squadron. Two women, Kris, an American from Hong Kong, and Christine, from France, came to visit Rising Star and discuss the cruise. With me being a Christopher this could have made for some confusion, but French Christine did not have the time to do both Tasmania and return in time for a cruise to Cairns on another boat, so she dropped out. Kris, who has her Yachtmaster Certificate, joined the boat.

Her first job was to help me bring Rising Star to the dock and she rigged all the lines and fenders without a word from me. As we approached the Squadron's floating jetty she made a superb leap, bow line in hand. Unfortunately the jetty is very narrow and her momentum carried her forward into a spectacular face plant in the water the other side. As she retained her hold on the dock line throughout I knew she would be good crew. She was laughing as I helped her out of the water. The boys in the boatyard directed her to the showers and nicknamed her `the waterbaby'.

We set sail from Sydney with a favourable forecast that was changed after we left. We found ourselves sailing out of Sydney Heads into one of those southerly busters. We beat into it for most of the day to reach Port Hacking about twenty miles to the south, and waited it out through the next day in this very quiet, pleasant and protected anchorage. Then at the crack of dawn we left for Jervis Bay, another sixty miles south, a very large and lovely bay which is used by a number of local fishing boats. We went in deep to avoid the rolly swell, but early in the morning the fishermen asked us to move as we were on their calamari patch! The north-east winds continued and we sailed 130 miles that day, to arrive at Eden about 0200. That was the last of the northerlies and the southerly busters have kept us in Eden for more than a week.

Eden was one of Australia's first whaling ports. Today it is a fishing harbour tucked into the appropriately named Snug Cove in another beautiful bay. As we wait here enjoying the town and its 150th year celebrations a replica of the Bounty has arrived. We had seen her in Sydney Harbour and she has now arrived here for the Sesquicentennial. Lieutenant Bligh might have been surprised to see his vessel, now wood clad on steel frames, powering for several days into a southerly buster, her 150 hp diesels giving her about 2 knots. It's a good reminder to the cruising sailor -- never sail with a schedule. Perhaps, when we reach Tasmania, we'll stop in Adventure Bay where the original Bounty anchored after her passage from South Africa en route to Tahiti. At the time Bligh thought he was in the southern part of continental Australia. He did not know about the Bass Straits - perhaps he was lucky.

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