We hoist the Blue Peter to head for Nelson, NZ

The Schooner Maggie B has finally hoisted the Blue Peter. The Blue Peter is Code Flag “Papa” which is white in the center and blue outside. It means “outward bound” and was a warning to crew that a ship was ready to sail. We are off for Nelson, New Zealand after clearing Customs and finishing all the last minute errands.

Those with a meteorologic interest should check the Commanders forecast which is posted somewhere on the web site. There is a “deep gale” out in front of us in the Tasman Sea. This is good news as it will throw off southerlies behind it, which we should pick up tonight. More interesting is a “monster late fall gale” with pressure to 960mb south of Tasmania, but coming this way. We should be timed just right that we will have the help of this first one, then a day of motoring and then pick up the Northerlies of the next one, and tuck ourselves into Nelson well before it gets too big. Our usual rule is to motor when the wind gets light enough so we slow to four knots. This trip it will be six knots. I don’t want to hang out in the Tasman Sea and get the full brunt of this second low.

All is well.

Commanders Weather Corporation
Sunday 12:00, 04.29.07

From: Commanders’ Weather Corporation
Route: Hobart, Tasmania to Nelson, South Island, NZ
Departure: 00utc Mon, April 30, 2007
Prepared: 1515utc Sun, April 29, 2007

Summary:

Routing

Wind Forecasts
Wind direction TRUE, speed in kts, time is UTC

Mon, April 30
00: 080-100/ 5-12 depart
06: 120-150/ 7-14
12: 160-180/12-20 - winds could exceed 20 kts at times E of 150e
18: 170-190/15-22
Weather: Variable clouds with a chance of isolated to widely scattered showers Seas 5-9 feet, confused swell

Tue, May 1
00: 180-200/12-20 near 41 30s/152e - set rhumb line course for Nelson
06: 170-140/12-18
12: 160-120/10-16
18: 120-090/ 5-12
Weather: Variably to partly cloudy Seas decreasing to 4-7 feet, mainly SE swell

March 7
00: 360-030/17-25 near 37s/115 30e
06: 340-010/15-22
12: 320-350/12-20, squally showers near front
18: 300-330/10-16, chance of shifting to 220-240
Weather: Mostly cloudy with scattered showers and potential for isolated squalls Seas 6-8 ft, SW swell

Thu, March 8
00: bcmg 180-210/17-25 near 38s/119e
06: 170-200/12-20
12: 200-230/10-15
18: 210-240/12-18
Weather: Variably cloudy with a few squally showers likely, then partial clearing Seas 4-7 feet, mainly SW swell

Wed, May 2
00: 070-100/ 5-12 near 41 35s/156e
06: 060-030/ 7-14
12: 050-020/10-15
18: 030-360/12-18
Weather: Partly cloudy to cloudy with a chance of showers and squalls at night Seas 4-7 feet, building to 6-10 feet late, increasing W swell

Thu, May 3
00: 360-340/15-25 near 41 30s/160e
12: 350-010/18-25
Weather: Mostly cloudy with a good chance of showers and squalls Seas 10-15 feet, NW swell and wind wave chop

Fri, May 4
00: 350-010/18-25 near 41s/164e
12: 340-360/20-30, gusts/squalls 40-50
Weather: Becoming cloudy with more showers and squalls likely overnight Seas 10-16 feet, NW swell and wind wave chop

Sat, May 5
00: 330-350/18-25 near 41s/168 30e
12: 310-280/10-18

Maggie B back in Hobart til the Easterlies settle down a bit

The Schooner Maggie B is back at more or less the same spot at Elizabeth Street Pier in Hobart, Tasmania. On our return from Port Davie we saw one of the most marvelous sights I have ever experienced. As we came in to the Bay approaching Hobart, four or five dolphin joined us. It was completely dark and the water was full of phosphorescence. As the dolphin rode our bow wave it seemed as if they were illuminated from inside and when they jumped or came up to breathe, it was like fireworks going off. Just marvelous.

We are sorry to lose Claus to the Overland Trail. He left this morning in a discouraging drizzle.

Our unusable “North American” compass has been replaced with a lovely Plath which is set up for southern latitudes. We will store away the useless Danforth until we once again cross the Line northward.

While we are ready (more of less) to leave Hobart and head for New Zealand, the weather isn’t ready for us. A high has settled in to the south of us, which is spinning off strong Easterlies. Not good for the route to Nelson, NZ. There is a nice tight low coming which should bring big NW’erlies, so we’ll just wait, with no hardship, in Hobart the 3-5 days for the wind to shift.

All is well.

Location: 43° 40S, 146° 22E
Friday 12:00, 04.20.2007

At noon on today, the Schooner Maggie B was at 43° 40S, 146° 22E, off the southern tip of Tasmania. We were doing 7.5 knots under all plain sail, headed for Hobart. We should arrive back at Elizabeth Street Pier about 2100 tonight.

Last night in Wombat Cove, Port Davie, Tasmania was marvelous. It was clear at night, with no moon. Since it was dead still all the thousands of stars could be seen as well reflected in the water as looked at straight. We set out for Hobart at 0600, a little before a lovely sunrise. For the first part of the route we had a good NW’er, but it died out at about 1300 and it looks as if we will have to motor the rest of the way in.

After dinner we read poetry to one another for perhaps two hours (or two bottles of lovely Tasmanian Pinot Noir). In yesterday’s post I reported that we had 10 books of poetry on board. It was a mistake — once we sorted things out a bit, we found 15!

Today coming around the southern waters we had two seals playing around us for 10 minutes, jumping much of the way out of water. Perhaps they were hunting fish that our passage had stirred up, or perhaps they were just doing it for the fun of it.

Regular readers will recall that I have been having some issues with the Lewmar blocks we have on board (six have broken!). About a month ago I got a nice letter from the Lewmar Product Manager for Blocks, concerned about my troubles, or perhaps concerned about my blistering negative reports. I think that Nigel Irens burned his program outside their booth at the Paris Boat Show as a protest. In any case, I wrote the Product Manager a detailed report on our problems and he supposedly is having their research group do some tests on my specific areas of concern, to improve their next generation of blocks. So perhaps some good will come of our problems.

All is well.

Location: 43° 20S, 146° 00E
Thursday 12:00, 04.19.2007

Rainy day today. We are happy for Tasmania, which has been very dry. This morning we remained tied up to King’s Landing in Melaluca Channel, Port Davie, Tasmania until noon. The scene on the Maggie B was very domestic: Hannah sewed up her trousers and then made tea muffins; Bori wrote in her journal; Claus studied the walking map to decide on hikes he is going to take; Owen worked on our SSB radio to tease weather reports out of the air; Theresa stitched a sheath for her new marlin spike to her sailor’s knife; and Frank wrote postcards.

When Hannah’s muffins were done, we had tea and ate them with jam and butter while we watched the excellent video: “The Last Cape Horners”, produced by Mainsail Books Australia. It is a video every sailor should see (mainsailbooks@ansonic.com.au). I got it from the excellent Maritime Museum in Hobart, but it should be available on line somewhere.

We then motored out of the Melalueuca Inlet, and most of the way out of Davie Sound to Wombat Cove, just near the mouth 43° 20S, 146° 00E. It is a quite tight anchorage and well protected from the NW to Westerlies we expect tonight. After some boat cleaning chores, most of us plan to go ashore for a hike, possibly up the nearby Mt. Misery (catchy name!).

The plan for tonight is to have everyone recite a favorite poem and then, perhaps, watch “Cold Mountain,” which was the film chosen in last night’s 6/5/4/3/2/1 exercise. We have about 10 books of poetry on board, including one of Rilke, so Claus can be comfortable in his own language.

One sad note — Hannah has been interested in having a pet on board, threatening to smuggle on board every kitten or wombat we see. Yesterday I relented and brought her back a pair of leeches, named Port and Starboard, that I picked up (unknowingly) on our walkabout. She turned them down! So they had to swim home.

We plan to leave tomorrow morning (hopefully in a nice NW’erly) at about 6 AM, so that we can get back to Hobart about four or five in the afternoon.

All is well.

Location: 43° 25S, 146° 09E
Wednesday 12:00, 04.18.2007

We are tied up to the bank of Melaleuca Inlet, Port Davie, Tasmania at 43° 25S, 146° 09E. We are about two miles up stream from anything resembling open water. Our web posting should lead you to Google Maps and you will see the Maggie B as far inland as she has ever been (and may ever be). Coming up this inlet was a bit anxious making as the passage was often narrower than we are long, though we did carry more than ten feet under our keel most all the way. We ran aground once, but fortunately the bottom is very soft mud and we just plowed through.

There are a few posts along the bank at the end (called, rather grandly, King’s landing) and — to our surprise — we found another sailboat already here. We sort of had to put our nose into the bank on one side to spin her around, and I never worked out a proper plan (wind blowing one way and current pushing the other). We made a complete thrash of it, to my great embarrassment. My lame excuse to the skipper of the other boat was “we’re more used to Blue Water….” His wife looked at us with horror.

We got started early this morning as a 30 knot blow came on us from the one direction where we were exposed and the anchor started to drag in the soft mud as we were being blown ashore. We hustled to get the anchor up and motored in moderate rain to a more protected spot, where we had a lovely hike ashore after the rain mostly cleared.

We saw two marvelous birds today. First was a big flock of Black Swans. While all black when they are on the water, they show lots of white on their wings when they fly. We had a big flock fly near us this morning. I had always thought that they were just a convention from the ballet Swan Lake…. The other delight was a Wedge Tailed Eagle, which looked quite surprised and irritated as we squeezed our way up the Melaleuca Inlet.

We had “movie night” last night, watching South Pacific. Tonight is “Cold Mountain.” We chose movies from our collection of about 50 by pulling numbers 1 to 6 out of a hat. The person who gets the 6 chooses the six movies he/she would most like to watch, “5″ reduces the number to 5 by throwing out one, etc. until “1″ chooses between the two finalists. Unfortunately we forgot to ship any popcorn.

The trip up this narrow inlet was made much easier by our Probe forward-looking sonar, made by Interphase (see web connection). It does a good job of seeing what is coming, though it can only look 4-5 times forward whatever depth you are in (50 feet ahead if you are in 10 feet of water), but still that is a lot better than waiting until you hit something.

All is well.

Location: 43° 20S, 146° 13E
Tuesday 12:00, 04.17.2007

It was so hard for all of us to leave Hobart, but we are incredibly thrilled to be in Port Davie on the Southwest Coast of Tasmania, a part of the Southwest National Park and World Heritage Area. We are anchored in Swan Cove of Bathurst Harbor, at 43° 20S, 146° 13E. We sailed and motored around last night, passing through the lovely D’Entrecasteaux Channel at night (again!). Perhaps we’ll see it in the day when we head back to Hobart. It is only about 100 miles around, but some complex water. We were passed from lighthouse to lighthouse like a partner being passed from hand to hand in a contra dance. We saw some incredible phosphorescence where the creatures were joined together in rectangular blocks the size of a large loaf of bread. In some places there were perhaps 100-200 “blocks” all glowing away well before being stimulated by our passage. Group sex, we decided.

The entrance to Port Davie is invisible from the sea and guarded by some very scary tooth-like islands. Once inside there is every sort of cove and harbor. Some are just big enough to anchor across with bow and stern to trees, others have room for a fleet. Some places have romantic names like Black Swan Island, others less so like Starvation Cove. There is no development, no roads, no buildings and only one very rough path. Where we are anchored we can see 10 miles in most every direction, and there is not a single light or dwelling. The water is the color of strong tea (bourbon whiskey?) from the tannin in the run-off. We went swimming when we arrived (16C or 63F — brisk!).

The landscape rather reminds us of wilder parts of Scotland or Newfoundland. Matthew Flinders, the first to circumnavigate Tasmania, described the Southwest as “The mountains are the most dismal that can be imagined. The eye ranges over these peaks with astonishment and horror.” We find it much nicer. Pictures to come to the web site.

We rowed ashore in the Reep and climbed a small hill along the shore, which is unnamed. It has been christened “Mount Maggie.”
Onboard we are six. The four crew H/B/O (Hannah, Bori and Owen) plus the Captain. Joining us as crew is Theresa Chapman, a 24 year old Australian. Along for the fun of the trip is Claus Heinrich, a 22 year old German friend of Theresa’s, and now of us all.
Today is Hannah’s birthday. Owen baked her a lovely chocolate cake with chocolate icing and sparkles.

We plan to nose around here this week, returning to Hobart on Friday, then hopefully being off to New Zealand next week.

All is well.

Can’t get enough of Tasmania

The Schooner Maggie B is back at Elizabeth Street Pier in Hobart, Tasmania. This is such a wonderful place we all might desert, just like the stories of the ships that got to San Francisco in 1849, and all, from Captain to Cabin Boy took off for the Gold Fields. But no, we are planning to get underway this Monday, though we may have to use our famous Nova Scotia ice mallet to knock people’s fingers off the pier.

What have we been doing? Just about everything. Certainly Ten Days on the Island - Dream Masons was a marvelous way to start. Since then we have driven all over the island, seeing lovely spots and horribly degraded areas (from sheep, mining or clear cutting). We have camped out on the Bruni Peninsula, we have sailed on the Brigantine Windeward Bound, we have been rowing sculls, we have been up Mount Wellington, gone to Opera, ballet, plays and movies, been to cabaret shows and many music sets, swam in the ocean, toured wineries and distilleries, seen where the convicts were kept, enjoyed wonderful food, went out sailing on the Maggie B with friends and we keep making new friends.

The weather has been just perfect, like the fall in Maine — cool at nights (two blankets!) and t-shirts during the day.

There has been lots of boat work. We aren’t the sort of people who work on the boat instead of sailing it, and we sure don’t plan to be a fixture in a marina, but when we arrived in Hobart we had a list of 21 “to do’s” and as we went over the boat it grew to 34 items. We are now down to seven items and the Maggie B is stronger, safer and more efficient than ever.

On the boat, we have fixed and replaced two bilge pumps and re-routed the drain lines so (hopefully) they don’t ever again fill up the bilges by draining IN instead of OUT. We have changed and cleaned all our fuel and water filters (seven!), we have rebuilt the washdown pump (again), we have replaced our deck cushions, we have rebuilt our boom outhaul sheave, we have replaced several shackles which were worn, we have worked out a method to drain the shower when we are on the starboard tack, we got new electronic and paper charts (from here to Chile!), and we have gone over the rigging top to bottom.

There have been two interesting “discoveries.” One unpleasant discovery when we were at sea was to find the engine room mostly full of water and the bilge pump not working. We fixed the bilge pump, which was “broken” because the float switch cover had come off, which meant it would not work either when it was underwater or when its master switch was on. But the real puzzle was how did the water get in. We puzzled and puzzled, pulling everything out of lockers and crawling around to look for hidden openings. In the end the answer was painful.

We have a big (100 gallons per minute) emergency pump that can double as a fire hose. The deck fittings are two inches across and can have a variety of hoses snapped on, ready for any emergency. The two deck fittings also, unfortunately, worked perfectly to drain all the cockpit water right into the engine room when the cockpit partially filled when we were on starboard tack. They are now closed off.

The second interesting discovery was “dip.” Basically, a compass that is perfect in Nova Scotia doesn’t work in Tasmania. The magnetic fields are different. Big ships have vertical magnets that are flipped for the northern or southern hemisphere. Not so for little ships. Supposedly Danforth now equips their compasses to be “universal,” but not the one that we have. Our compass can be taken apart and rebalanced for the southern hemisphere, but then it won’t work when we go back north. Most probably we will buy a second “southern” one which will be cheaper that getting our current one “fixed” twice.

Our plans are to sail from Hobart on Monday to go around to Port Davie on the SW coast of Tasmania, which is a world heritage site. But we are watching a very intense low (970 mb!) that is working its way here. We might just end have to stay a little longer. No hardship! Then after Port Davie we are headed to Auckland, which is about 1200 NM or a week or so of sailing.

All is well.

Schooner Maggie B in Hobart, April 2

The Schooner Maggie B continues to be (mostly) docked at Elizabeth Street Wharf in Hobart, Tasmania. I say “mostly” because we had a real scare today. I was wandering down the dock to get a parking permit for our rental car when two boatie friends came running down towards the Maggie B to with the dread word “tsunami” on their lips. A major earthquake had sparked all sorts of alarms and Queensland in the north of Australia was expecting a surge. Hobart is much further away and well protected, but we were untied and heading out to sea in less than sixty seconds. The time of expected arrival came and went without anything and we returned to our same spot. The rental car got a parking ticket — maybe with the excuse of tsunami evacuation, I’ll get off?

While we were at sea we watched a lovely little proa get underway for the long trip to New Zealand (photos soon on the web site). We had met the crew of two adventurers, and are a bit appalled about their trip. The Australian Coast Guard is appalled also, as the last people who tried it disappeared at sea. They were given a formal warning, and told that if a rescue should become necessary, that the crew, or their families, will bear all costs.

Boat work is now beginning in earnest. One of our bilge pump problems was solved with the surprising discovery that a little cover on the float switch had come off, which made the pump inoperative. Hose pieces that are being extended are cleverly designed to be just a tiny bit too small to fit together. Must be a metric/English fight.

Our main steering compass is now somewhere in the Australian Postal system, going to New South Wales to be assessed to estimate repair/replace options, then the Canadian Danforth dealer who sold it will be contacted and decide what to do, then it will be shipped to Sydney for repair. Who knows how many months it will take. Compasses are adjusted to five different zones in the world for “dip,” which is the impact of being more north or south. New Danforth compasses are self-correcting, but of course ours, even though it is the top of the line, is not. In any case, it appears to have come off the pin it rotates on.

Australians take Easter very seriously. Not necessarily religiously, though. They get Good Friday off from work, plus Easter Monday AND Easter Tuesday. We may head out to find lovely little coves, but there is also supposed to be a series of great bands coming to town. Decisions, decisions.

Over the weekend I drove up to Launceston, on the North side of Tasmania. Going up on the main highway was interesting, mostly to see how degraded the countryside was, with most all trees cut down and then most all the pastures being “sheeped,” which takes up everything else. Coming back I took a scenic highway through a lake district which was much more lovely. I’m glad that I wasn’t on the road at night because the amount of roadkill was horrific, with the carrion crows seeming to be the big victors. It seemed that there was easily one relatively recent kill every kilometer. Even though it was daytime, I had two wallabies make a fair effort to see if they could dive under the car (I was able to stop in time).

All is well.