S.V. LOWANA IV
DARWIN to the KING GEORGE RIVER, WA
EASTER 1994
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| Passages across Joseph Bonaparte Gulf |
Russ Swan Skipper
Bill Hawker
John Hawker
Tamea (Tumma) Jeffreys
Wed 23/3/94
Commence organising boat for the trip. Start servicing of engine. Top up fuel and water.
Thur 24/3/94
Bill and I shop for non-perishable stores, eg packaged food etc. Load onto boat.
Mon 28/3/94
Finn Campbell (diesel engineer) comes out to boat. Checks engine and shows me how to bleed the air in the fuel system. This proves to be a valuable lesson later on. Engine servicing completed. Pick up new GPS - a Garmin 50 hand-held with a wall mount and attachment to boats 12v DC power.
Wed 30/3/94
Bill and I shop for fresh stores ie meat, fruit and vegetables.
Thur 31/3/94
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| Under Sail |
0930 hours: Leave mooring in Sadgroves Ck and move out into Darwin Harbour. Lift dinghy and secure onto davits. This takes some time due to testing a different system of raising dinghy higher than previously to clear a following sea. Other final preparations eg bring out and secure extra sails, crew briefing on safety and general boat housekeeping etc.
1050 hours: Hoist sails off Talc Head and depart Darwin Harbour. beautiful day, slight breeze, seas 0.6m.
1220 hours: Reach #5 buoy at Charles Point Patches under sails only. Wind dead aft, goosewinged sails. Have lunch of chicken rolls, tomato and onions.
Afternoon: Freshwater pump fails. Find surface rust on an in-line fuse. Clean off and all ok. Notice refrigerator not working. Negative wire has corroded and broken off the moulded plastic power plug. Have to cut it open, re-wire, solder and tape up plug. Get it working again ok. It continued to work with no problems for rest of trip. Temporarily install the new GPS to boat power and mount the antenna externally up on the targa rail. Stern gland holding well. Very little water coming in and minimum bilge pumping required. Shear pin of the auto-helm breaks caused by binding in the planetary gears. The whole shear pin connection is torn apart. Hand steering from the time being.
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| Sunset in the gul |
1800 hours: Have dinner of cryovac Silverside, mashed potato and peas.
2030 hours: Slow going. Only made good 16 nm since Fish Reef light. Average speed 3.5 knots. Seems to be an adverse current and no wind. Also beginning to wish I had cleaned the boats hull prior to starting out, although it had only been done a month ago and didn’t think it would be too bad. Motor sailing now.
Fri 1/4/94
0600 hours: Sight navigation lights of the Wooli, a 64’ timber cruiser owned by Don and Annette Ross who are also sailing to King George Rv. They have another couple on board and all together there were five children between the two families. Very slow progress during night. Little or no breeze so motoring along instead. Whatever winds we get are from dead ahead and have to tack virtually west or south. Take headsail down at one point because it was back-winding and slowing us down. However fluctuating winds come in abeam do give a boost from time to time.
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| a mirrored sea |
0730 hours: Have breakfast of cereal, a cuppa, scratch and look around. Water like glass. Boat is perfectly mirrored in the water which is a deep indigo blue. Loads of sea snakes, small ones around 2-3 ft long usually on the surface. They are a light brown colour with black bands and very small heads. Occasionally we see one swimming straight down, to get away from us I suppose. The day is absolutely brilliant, just enough of a breeze to keep relatively cool, if not enough to keep the sails filled.
Morning: Bill and Tamea set to work with the cordless drill and permanently mount the EPIRB near the wheelhouse door where it can be snatched up quickly if needed. They also mount the GPS bracket onto the hull above the navigation station. No one sick yet but we haven’t had any seas big enough to talk about yet.
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| Bill's turn on watch |
1300 hours: Lunch of chicken rolls.
Afternoon: Catch up on some sleep. Fix the auto-helm using some spare parts left over from a previous fault. Degrease the planetary gears to get rid of the crud. Get it working better than before. No more problems with the auto helm for the rest of the trip.
1800 hours: Mince stew with pasta, fresh and dried veges for tea. Winds treating us poorly all day, remaining dead on the nose for the whole of the time. This remains the same for the rest of the trip over.
Sat 2/4/94
Early Morning: Sight navigation lists of two more yachts to our south. Later learns that these were Hope and Rattle and Hum. They slowly pass by us in the distance. Breakfast of cereal and toast.
Morning: Another fine day. Slight breezes head on as usual. Hold to a westerly course during the morning. Tack south for a while to get to a final approach position favourable to winds. Tamea occupying himself cleaning anything made of brass or bronze. Another disappointing run for the last 24 hrs. Expect 5 to 6 kts which I know the boat can easily achieve when motor-sailing, but only getting about 4 kts. Definitely regretting not cleaning boats hull before departure now. Also seem to be strong adverse currents holding us back. Check fridge contents. All ok.
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| Mud-map of Koolama Bay and King George River |
Evening: Have to close with the coast in pitch dark. GPS’s are great gadgets allowing you to do this was careful use of waypoints.
Late Evening: Nose our way into Koolama Bay at the head of the King George Rv. Hope and Rattle and Hum anchored just inside the entrance on the eastern side in a small cove with a sandy beach. Tried to anchor just south of them in the lee of some cliffs but the newly purchased 35lb CQR plough anchor would not hold in 9m of water. The large Danforth (sand) anchor wouldn’t hold either. Tried a couple of times but it dragged each time. Moved about 1 nm further south around a bend and set the anchor in about 5m of water. This time successful.
Sun 3/4/94
0100 hours: We enjoy a couple of beers to celebrate and get to bed.
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| Lowana IV in Koolama Bay |
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