Seawolf — Father and Son: Part 1
/By Geoff Evans
Our son Gareth Evans has been living overseas for over 10 years, working as a geologist in the iron ore industry in Western Australia (WA), and is in the process of sailing his yacht back to NZ.
He’s become a fine yachtsman, brought up on our family yachts cruising/racing out of Devonport and the Northland coast.
He bought his boat Seawolf, a 1980s Beneteau First 42, 4 years ago in Pittwater, NSW.
He got her shipshape and then took leave to sail anticlockwise over the top to Australia to WA with his cousin Peter Deverell. They had an exciting voyage; inside the Great Barrier Reef, round Cape York, across Gulf of Carpentaria, exploring the Kimberley’s, Montebello’s, Abrolhos Islands to Perth, a trip of over four months. Seawolf has since been based at Fremantle (Fremantle Sailing Club).
Gareth had decided to sail home to Devonport. He and Steve, a fellow kiwi as crew, stranded in WA set off from WA in early February, aiming to dodge the MIQ restrictions by sailing to NZ. Jane and I followed their progress with much interest, battling persistent headwinds round Cape Leeuwin, along the south WA coast then choosing their weather to cross the Great Australian Bight to Port Lincoln, South Australia (SA). Then a sudden change of circumstance; Steve’s Kiwi wife had health concerns and he had to return to his family (inc 4 kids) in Whangarei. Gareth was thinking of heading on solo, but with some persuasion from Jane, dad Geoff flew into Port Lincoln 12 March to join ship. What follows are some brief impressions and pics to bring us up to date. We’ll hope (!) to write Part 2 for next month’s newsletter.
Great flights: I stayed the night with my brother Howard in Sydney then off to Adelaide and Port Lincoln (PLO). I had a moment of panic thinking there wouldn’t be enough time to board the flight to PLO, until I realised the SA time zone is half an hour later than Sydney. I had arranged for a small hire car at the airport. Great to join ship and lend a hand with the preparations, with numerous repair jobs including sorting (!) the steering, the Perkins’ exhaust manifold, sail repair, provisioning, etc. However, we had time for exploring the area and even fitting in a twilight ‘race’ on a Falmouth Workboat (a traditional gaff cutter) and making some special friends.
Thursday 17 March, there were awkward moments for us attempting to set off, all with plenty of spectator interest and ‘encouragement’. Backing out of the marina we found the steering gear was 180 degrees out, which was so alarming/confusing. We had to stop, and thank goodness managed to rope the ship into another berth. Luckily Graham the ship wright then managed to get aboard to sort the chains and cables out. OMG. We then set off southeast into a 15-25 southerly, took ages overnight avoiding the dangers near Althorpe Island off Cape Spenser, then beating all the next day down Investigator Straight (including an Australian Border Force inquiry) arriving at American Beach Kangaroo Island 1700 having covered 150NM in 29 hours. We were pleased.
The next day we motored up American River on the flood, and with some difficulty got to our allocated mooring. We enjoyed a couple of days there, meals and walks ashore and SUP and fast dinghy rides on the river. on 21 March we scooted down river on the ebb and re-anchored off the beach, to prep ship and cook a few meals to freeze down for the coming trip. We set off at 1800 hrs for Tasmania, beating out of the Backstairs Passage, past Cape Willoughby and out into the Southern Ocean. Gareth had been scheming with departure planning using PredictWind Ocean and managed to find us a reasonably bearable breeze, close hauled on starboard tack over the next few days down past Robe, Portland, then just south of King Island and into the Bass Straight and onto Tasmania. The 4 hours on, 4 hours off was exhausting, but the dolphins, following circling albatrosses and shearwaters kept our spirits high.
After 585NM in 4 days on Friday 25 March in pitch darkness we got to Devonport, Tasmania. We motored against a strong ebb up past huge ferries up to Mersey Yacht Club and berthed there with good facilities, i.e. hot showers and friendly shopping nearby. It’s such an industrial bustling place, quite a contrast to our NZ Devonport! The next day we caught the next ebb down to the coast and then motor-sailed along to the Tamar River. We caught the flood tide up to Tamar Yacht Club at Beauty Bay Marina. Apart from the tides, this is a lovely facility for cruising yachties, with thoroughly competent, friendly folk and with a pub, restaurant, and laundry all within walking distance. Tomorrow, we aim to head across the Bass Straight, firstly to Deal Island then onto Eden and then to clear customs for NZ out of Sydney. My bro Howard has indicated interest in sailing the Tasman with us. He has a Hanse 40, currently berthed in Menorca (we have relatives there), but with Covid, Howard hasn’t had much sailing for the last couple of years!
This father and son sailing is fun. We’ve been really impressed with the help so far from such friendly and amazingly competent people, namely Cookie in Port Lincoln, Carol on VMR at American River, Terry in MYC and Luke at Tamar Yacht Club. Thanks guys!
Geoff Evans 29/3/22