A testing time at sea!!

After a lovely catch up with friends on the boat in Eden Harbour and then dinner at the pub, Tom Peters joined the Gradiva crew and we set off from Eden Harbour at 10pm on Wednesday 6th January, bound for Lakes Entrance - due to pass through the entrance bar into the Gippsland Lakes at a rising tide by about 6pm the following evening.

We set Ayla up in bed on the deck and motored on out into the dark seas. The phosphorescence was beautiful! It was so peaceful and so easy to follow Pete's previous tracks on Gradiva's MaxSea software. About 1pm I decided to go to sleep in the downstairs cabin, leaving Tom and Pete at the helm. The lounge has a nifty little back that flips over to make like a bunk that you can't roll out of - and it's so soft and comfy! I woke about 3am but they assured me they were fine up on deck so gratefully I went back to sleep!

About 4.30am I awoke suddenly to a lack of engine noise and some commotion up on deck. The engine had just suddenly stopped. I jumped out of bed and helped the boys put the sails up and started tacking out to sea. Of course we had a head wind so we just started doing some long tacks out and back, not gaining a great deal on our course, while the boys started problem solving the engine trouble.

This continued all day with phone support when we could from Garth Watson and John Parsons - both friends and mechanics - but they just couldn't get it going again.

We had a mixed bag of weather that day. But mostly like this:

And we ended Thursday 7th January with another gorgeous sunset...

Still not able to start the engine, we continued doing our long tacks out to sea and then back towards land again throughout the night but we were still not getting much closer to Lakes. We were in constant contact with Eden Marine Rescue and the Paynesville Coastguard who were ringing every hour to check on our status. They were awesome! But both said we needed to get a little closer before they would come and tow us and we were pretty much half way between both.

And then the storm hit us! We were tossing and turning all over the place. About 3am the waves started crashing over the sides and Pete asked me to take Ayla downstairs before she either rolled off the side or got soaked. We were a little concerned she'd get sick downstairs but I tucked her into the comfy lounge bunk with an extra blanket and a bucket and she soon went back to sleep.

By this time we had floated into the shipping channel and Pete had to put Gradiva into a "heave to". I think that's the way you say it. I'm learning all this as I go along?? Heaving to is a technique for stopping the boat almost completely with the sails still up. The boat maintains a steady position relative to wind and waves, in contrast to "lying ahull," in which sails are dropped and the boat is allowed to drift any which way - usually leading to an uncomfortable and perhaps dangerous boat position. A boat lying ahull is likely to turn beam-on to the waves and may capsize.

Heaving to is apparently great in a storm because it allows you to "lock" the boat at a safe angle to the wind and waves and go below to ride it out, which is exactly what my clever Pete did! He backwinded the foresail which would try to turn the boat away from the wind and turned the mizen and the rudder the other way which would try to turn the boat into the wind. Then he tied the steering so it wouldn't move and we came down into the cabin.

We could see two ships coming towards us from different angles on the MaxSea software so Pete was able to contact them and explain our position and ask them not to run into us! And then we tried to sleep. I'm pretty sure I did. I had complete faith in Gradiva and my Pete. But I'm pretty sure Pete didn't get much sleep, nor Tom. Ayla luckily slept peacefully through the whole night.

The storm continued the next morning and by about 8am we made the call to turn around and use the wind behind us to sail back to Eden and get the engine looked at there.

This was pretty much as far as we got - half way between Eden and Lakes Entrance:

And these were the types of conditions we faced:

It was cold and wet but luckily Pete had some wet weather gear on board that he'd sourced from eBay...

The storm subsided eventually and the blue skies returned. The wind was a good 15-20 knots and with the swell pushing us towards Eden as well, we had a good 8-10 knots of boat speed. Gradiva was riding the waves beautifully! It was very cool and so much fun. The sun warmed us up quickly and we were flying towards Eden.

And then at about 4pm the wind just suddenly died. It was the weirdest thing. One minute we were flying along, riding the waves and having so much fun and then boom - nothing. Completely dead flat in the water. Zero boat speed. We got so close!

So we called Eden Water Police who were already on standy-by to come and get us and tow us in to the harbour - they just had to come a little further...

So, some 48 hours after we had left Eden Harbour, bound for our home in the Gippsland Lakes, we had returned from whence we came! But yet another beautiful sunset to greet us...looking out towards Mt Imlay.

One tired but happy Captain (now that he could drink a beer!) with Gradiva safely tied up to the Police jetty...

Tom went home. Ayla, Pete and I went and had hot showers and then Costa was nice enough to keep his chef on and cook us some amazingly great fish for dinner at about 10pm. Thank you Costa!

And boy did we sleep well that night! Well, Pete did. After I woke him to loosen the ropes when the tide dropped so low. We had enjoyed a well deserved bottle of Sauvignon Blanc with dinner and Pete finished with a couple of Bourbons, which meant he snored his way through the night. But I was just glad he was finally getting some sleep and I had plenty of work to catch up on anyway...