Tiare Taporo III in Australia from across the Coral Sea

Hi,
We arrived in Bundaberg, Queensland after a 7 day crossing from New Caledonia on Friday morning. By and large the passage was a much more reasonable one than when we came up from NZ although, as the winds were persistently behind us, the sailing wasn't quite as good as it could have been. It's difficult holding a precise course downwind in lumpy seas and requires much more concentration than reaching or even hard on the wind. It's not relaxing the way a beam reach is but hey, you'd think we were never satisfied. First we complain that we had it on the nose coming up from NZ and now we complain because it is behind us!! Some people are never satisfied.
Two other complicating factors were that our watermaker has packed up entirely and so we did not want to spend too long at sea because we weren't sure how long the water would last and the other was that AQIS (Aust. Quarantine) charge AUD330 for quarantine clearance but nearly double on weekends so, unless we were prepared to hang around for 2 more days at sea, we neeeded to get here by Friday which we have done. But only by extensive use of the motor because of extensive periods of light winds, either by itself or motorsailing. Once again the old Ford came up trumps and never faltered in spite of being run for 3 days straight as we approached Australia. We were constantly trying to second guess the weather and develop strategies that would get the best from the wind patterns but time and again Murphy would trump us. We'd look at the forecasts and decide whether to go south or north of our rumb line course but usually the fellow would wait for us to commit and then do something quite different. One day for instance we'd had the genoa poled out and for a while we were getting along quite well but then another windshift happened which as usual disadvantaged whatever we thought we had gained! But in spite of these minor frustrations we enjoyed the pasasge and certainly experienced generally benign conditions. Just a 20 or 30 degree change in the wind patterns would have been nice. But the absolutely azure blue sea and the sunsets and sunrises had to be seen to be believed and we had a reasonably full moon as well.
One experience on the morning of our arrival on the Australian coast should be mentioned. We have an AIS receiver which receives VHF transmitted information giving ID, position, course and speed from any vessel over 300 tons which are all legally required to have a transmitter. We were getting close to the coast and crossing a busy (north/south) shipping lane. No doubt ore carriers heading to Asia. The alarm went off at around 0300 and we could see a ship heading for our position at 16 knots albeit 8 miles away at that stage. So we called them on our VHF radio as we had the right of way and asked them if they had seen us and what their intentions were. Eventually, by which time they were much closer, someone with a heavy Russian or other E European accent answered and said he couldn't see us, either on the radar or visually. We were getting seriously worried as he didn't sound as though he was going to make the necessary course alteration. At 6 knots our ability to get out of the way in time was questionable and it was difficult to know which way to go!! Then we turned on our masthead strobe light (which is actually illegal) and he saw that. They then made a sharp course alteration to starboard and passed us on our port side within 200 metres or so. Not a nice sight especially when during his turn he was coming straight at us and we could see both of his red and green nav. lights!! These shipping companies are all run by accountants these days and they don't like doing anything which causes any type of delay whatsoever. Why he couldn't see us on radar or even visually we have no idea but the strobe made the difference and we would recommend anyone contemplating an offshore passage to have one as well as an AIS receiver. Ours has proved itself time after time. In many cases the vessels we have encountered hadn't seen us - weren't even looking probably - and our radio call alerted them to a potential nasty situation. We came across a total of 4 ships all at right angles to our course as we approached the coast from about 90 to 30 miles off Fraser Is.
We arrived at our waypoint off Breaksea Spit north of Sandy Cape (Fraser Is.) just after 1700 on Thursday and then turned onto our new course for the Burnett River (Bundaberg). Thankfully we were able to sail with the wind on our port beam AND NO ENGINE!!! We didn't want to arrive before daylight so sailed with reefed main and staysail only but were still doing up to 5 knots which meant that we would be at least 2 hours early. Never mind, the plan then was to heave to until daylight - which we did. On the way in we passed a number of large fishing boats with huge banks of floodlights to attract the squid or maybe prawns? Haven't discovered which yet. We were busy eating the last of our Noumea food because of course the Aussies would take anything not consumed. Among other things the last of our Saucisse Andouillette was sadly eaten!!
At dawn we headed for the Burnett River entrance 5 miles away. After 6 we called VMR Bundaberg to advise of our impending arrival and they advised us to moor to the quarantine buoy off the Bundaberg Port Marina. We couldn't find the buoy but were then directed straight into the quarantine berth at the marina. We had 2 very pleasant encounters with firstly the AQIS and then Customs. When the Customs officer came on board Jean was asleep and he sat on the saloon settee near her feet while he and Jim did the needful. She was very surprised when she eventually woke up to find him there and it was the cause of some mirth - especially as she had been gently snoring! Then at last we were free to go (although we have to let Aust. Customs know where we are every 3 months until we leave Australian waters next July!!) and we berthed in the marina. Everyone very friendly and welcoming and a bag full of goodies was delivered on board by the organisers of the Port to Port Rally. Even Customs had some free gifts for us!! Fish and chips at the local cafe and then some rest. Jim then walked ashore to start the process of sorting our problems - shore power/watermaker etc. Very impressed with the efficiency and facilities here.
It is now Sat. morning and we are about to go to breakfast with the Rally participants - then getting a bus into town to see the sights. Will let you kbnow our impressions later.
Lotsaluv from us
www.tiaretaporo3.blogspot.com

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