Harlequin Cruising Blog: Nivani-Cairns (Take 2)

Buoyweather forecast

Flying from Cairns to Madang a week earlier, the Coral Sea had seemed pretty meek & mild - not a whitecap in sight, not visible from 30,000 ft anyway. Now the forecast for the crossing back from PNG to Oz was a bit more 'brisk' shall we say.

Passage Weather & Buoyweather both agreed: up to 30 kts from the SSE, with some 2-3m seas to match. Oooo-Kay. Not really a problem for our course of about 230 degs, but maybe a good idea to dig the storm sails out, just in case. With three of our crew relatively new to Harlequin, best to practise whilst sheltered rather than being forced into it offshore, in the dark, rain, etc, etc. You get the picture...

Coral Sea Dorado

A quick set & drop of both sails (with Trysail remaining strapped to the boom) and we were done. And it worked! Neither sail was needed, although we ended up with at least 2 reefs in the main & Genoa for the entire crossing.

Clearing the Jomard Entrance at dusk (ducking several ships in the process, courtesy of AIS. Gotta love AIS...) we took up a course about 10 degs south of the rhumb line, to allow a bit of flex to bear away from the bigger seas expected later. Then it was just a case of getting comfortable with the watch system (3 on & 3 off at night, and 4&4 during the day) and the heel & pitching across the 2-3m seas. The speed of 7-8 kts was mostly comfortable, but didn't leave much enthusiasm for anything else, such as cooking, eating, or even fishing.

Fresh meat!

In fact, it was 2 days before the lures were trailed at dawn, initially using a large double-hooked squid lure. Not an hour later, "Fish on!" - and it was a big one. David grabbed the rod and we heaved to, but the monster was too much for us and the lure was retreived with one of the hooks bitten off at the wire trace.

OK, lets revert to our traditional pink squid, and a small yellow squid, just as a trial. "Fish on!" First on one line (Dorado), then the other (Spanish Mackerel). Too easy.

Prep'ing flags for Oz

David claimed both, but Max helped land and despatch, and we couldn't resist an immediate sashimi. Yum.

Not long after, we received a fly-by from the Aussie Border Protection aircraft - anticipated as we had given a fairly accurate updated ETA and position report by Satphone email the day before.

Border Protection fly-by

Then followed a spell of R/T chatter to confirm all the info they already had, followed by a warning concerning our rights & responsibilities and a (presumably taped) acknowledgement from us that we had "no vegetables or animals on board". There then followed a frenzied double-check that all such items had either gone or were about to go overboard.

Vegies that is, not animals...

Dawn, off Cairns. We did it!

Rich & Max delivered up a storming pasta & fried tuna dinner, and we settled down for the last night, a slow beat through the Grafton Passage, timed to have us off Cairns at dawn. Ducking quite a few large ships using the same passage to exit Queensland waters, we arrived off the Cairns approach channel in time to shake out the mainsail reefs, stow the Trysail and prep for arrival.

At 0730 we were in the channel, and on the radio & phone to Marlin Marina, Customs and Quarantine to schedule berthing and arrival inspections various. At 0800 we were alongside, by 0930 we had dropped the 'Q', and by 1030 we had been Customs cleared. We had officially arrived!

Skipper after a long night

After all the hype, we found all the Aussie CIQ personnel extremely friendly, civil (downright welcoming in fact) and helpful. The paperwork & procedures were not unreasonable or terribly onerous, and cost only $330 for the quarantine inspection (OK, that was a bit steep) before we were officially cleared and issued with a year's Cruising Permit for Australian waters.

It was obvious that everything was taken very seriously (with a very deep quarantine inspection, and sniffer dogs for both drugs & explosives), but so had we, making sure we had complied with all procedures as advised on the Customs & DAFF websites.

A quick reverse around the corner from the Customs berth to our own temporary marina berth and talk turned to a run ashore for a very large breakfast.

But first, of course, out came the rum to celebrate!