Well, Ocean Breeze is tied up in the quarantine area of Mackay Marina as we wait for ABF to come and do the clearance.
We were just informed that ABF won’t be here until the afternoon, so we have some time to clear up. Biosecurity will be here early tomorrow morning, I hope, so we can get the boat put into a berth, have a night’s rest and then go to the airport so I can do the whole thing again on a Lagoon 450 from Tahiti.
The blog was skipped yesterday as morale wasn’t as high as it should have been when approaching land.
From the entrance to Hydrographers Passage to the marina is around 90 nm, so it’s a fair hike. The first section of Hydrographers Passage was pretty uncomfortable, with waves and spray, but we had the current with us, which gave us a nice push in the right direction.
Unfortunately, the current was opposing the wind, so it picked the waves up. We got through the narrowest section before the tide turned against us and then had several slow hours with up to 30 knots of wind from in front.
Then we had to turn 45 degrees to starboard as we followed the passage. The wind eased off and came around to port, the current changed in our favour, and we had a great final run in with the headsail and engine pushing us along.
It was exciting coming into the marina, as there is a large sea wall that we need to find a gap in, then go through the commercial port, find a gap in a second seawall, navigate around some finger pontoons and finally tie up on the fuel wharf, which doubles as the Q berth.
It all sounds pretty straightforward, but at night-time, approaching an unfamiliar port and finding the berth can be tricky. Especially with the lights of the city in the background, gusty winds and all the other potential obstacles.
After several weeks of reefs, islands, narrow passages, dodgy water pumps, birds, bureaucracy and a considerable amount of weather, it was quite nice to finally have Ocean Breeze safely alongside.
Now we just need ABF and Biosecurity to sign us off.