An update on what we have been up to the last few days. The weather was nice here in Port Stephens through the weekend. We ran some errands in town (got a haircut, did laundry, did some shopping, got to know the nearby towns). We spent time planning some travels around NSW over the next couple of weeks. And, we worked on cleaning Tahina to try and remove mildew causing our allergy attacks.

The rain came back yesterday and it was rainy most of the day. It rained all night last night as well. We got off the boat anyway because Karen had to go to a doctor in order to get a prescription refilled here locally. It cost more money to get the prescription written than the medicine! Apparently the US isn’t the only place with medical industry issues.

We’re trying to get ourselves out of here and go do some sightseeing by car, but the weather is interfering. We’re now shooting for Thursday, but I think the weather may push us to Friday.

Dolphins and Rain is a post from: Tahina Expedition

The shooting for this photo was particularly challenging because of the huge variance in lighting with the sun shining on one side, and darker shadow areas on the stairs. Instead of the usual 8 photos (6 around, one up, and one down), I took 24 photos. Each of the usual 8 with exposure bracketing at 1.5 stops. This allowed me to use HDR processing and tone mapping to get a better range of exposures to meld into one cohesive panorama. This photo is more like what your eyes would see as a result – adapting for the bright and dark areas.

So, here is the photo. After hitting the “Play” button, click on the “FULLSCREEN” button to view it bigger. I suggest zooming in some to get a better sense of the depth of the scene. Make sure to look up and down too! Leave a comment if you like this – photographers love to hear what people think!

Three Sisters Up Close in Australia

Spherical 360 Photo of Three Sisters Up Close is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Although we were able to make 7+ knots under sail, we had to turn on an engine to give ourselves a little boost to increase our speed. At 7 knots we would make Port Stephens well before light, but we had a physics problem. The physics was a 2 knot current against us which is a known feature of this part of the Australia waters. Hence, our speed over ground was not the 6+ knots we required to arrive well before dark. With a few hundred RPM of engines we were able to increase our speed quite easily by over a knot. Fortunately, later in the day the winds picked up and we were able to shut off the engine.

We arrived a little earlier also due to my decision to have us pull in to Nelson Bay which is closer to the entrance of Port Stephens. There are three public moorings in Nelson Bay just outside the marina. They can only be used for 24 hours – which we soon found was fine with us. We were moored right in front of a pretty little white sand beach, and the water was calm. It was a wonderful feeling to be parked off a beach again after 6 weeks in Sydney.

We had dinner on board and a relaxing evening before heading to bed early. At 1AM or so, I woke up because the mooring ball was banging against the hull. This happens sometimes if the line is too long and the winds die off and currents move the boat around. I went up and shortened the line and that improved the situation. However, a few minutes later we suddenly had a what seemed like a bunch of boats creating wake around the boat. I went out and there was a bunch of disturbed water coming into the bay and the wind was picking up. Before long, it started raining. We were rocking around like we were in a washing machine! It was a rain squall. An hour later, it finally calmed down and I got back to sleep. Just about dawn, we started rocking again! This time it was from the fishing boats leaving the marina and marching past the moorings. This is when we decided it was ok not to stay more than 24 hours here.

The weather was awesome though and we went ashore in the dinghy to learn more about the area. We got some lunch and enjoyed the touristy town which had lots of little shops and restaurants. Then we went to the nearby grocery store and got some fresh provisions. Very pleasant! Afterwards, we returned to Tahina and relaxed a bit.

We then dropped the mooring line and motored out further west in Port Stephens to Soldier’s Point. We were told they have a nice marina and yacht club here. We saw some boats racing as we approached and we connected to a mooring there. I went ashore to talk to the marina and discuss our options. We hoped to find a mooring we could rent while we do some shore-based travel. The marina looked very nice and they apparently have won several awards here in Australia. After a short discussion with the manager, we soon not only had a mooring for a month, but we were fortunate to have picked the right one to pick up and were already on the only one available!

I went back to get Karen and we went ashore together to get a tour of the facilities by the manager. They have the nicest bathrooms and showers we have ever seen in a marina (I’ll have to take pictures later). They are nicer than most hotels we’ve been to. Wow! Karen was disappointed they only have one set of laundry machines, but it was clean and air-conditioned with a nice lounge with TV and Internet nearby. They also have a courtesy car we can use to go to local stores. We have definitely moved up in the world.

The sailboat race was coming to an end, so we walked over to the yacht club. We were immediately invited to sign in as guests and were soon having a wonderful time drinking beer and wine and chatting with some very nice Australian sailors. They invited us to come again any time and gave us all kinds of information on the local area. What a warm welcome!

It was a wonderful clear day with cool dry air. Capped off with getting our boat situated and a bunch of new local friends, it just doesn’t get much better than this!

Beautiful Weather in Port Stephens is a post from: Tahina Expedition

I attempted to take a 360 in the afternoon a day earlier, but clouds moved in and ruined the shot. This photo was taken mid-morning and the Three Sisters are silhouetted by the light. The rocks are beautiful when lit by the late afternoon sun. Still you can see the view from here is stupendous, and even more beautiful in the late afternoon sunlight. You can also see the blue tint of haze covering the distant mountains which is how they got their name.

Echo Point at Three Sisters in Australia

I take eight photos, six around, one up, and one down, to get a full 360 spherical panorama like this. I then upload the photos to the 360Cities.net web site which hosts thousands of geo-referenced 360 photos and can also be viewed in Google Earth. Read more about the technique at the bottom of this post about the Bora Bora panorama.

360 Panorama in Blue Mountains at Three Sisters is a post from: Tahina Expedition

Katoomba is a historic town that was once home to a coal power station. We decided to stay at the historic Carrington Hotel which was the first hotel up there back in the 1800s. But, first we had to get there. We knew of no place where we could leave our dinghy over night, so we opted to take the ferry from Coaster’s Retreat. To get ashore, I first took Karen in the dinghy with our baggage. Then, went back, put away the dinghy, got the kayak out and paddled to shore. Then we hid the kayak in the trees and locked it. It took 2 hours for the bus to take us into the city, then another 2 hours for the train to get us to Katoomba. We should have planned more days!

Considering our brief few hours in Katoomba, we had an enjoyable time. We met up with a new local friend George Dyke and his wife Lucy and son Bernie. George contacted me because of a common background with International Space University. We got to see the Three Sisters, and I took 360 panoramas there (to be posted later). We really did not do this place justice, we wish we had a week or more to spend in the area. But, we needed to get back to Tahina because we didn’t have a long-term mooring.

The geography is interesting. The mountains are actually a broad high ridge, with big canyon-like depressions carved around them. Katoomba is situated on the top with a huge cliff area and awesome expansive views around it. We could easily see why the call them “Blue Mountains” with the typical haze of the atmosphere on a sunny day causing blue tint. We were already familiar with the phenomena from living near the Blue Ridge highway of North Carolina.

Anyway, here are a few quick photos of the Carrington Hotel, and our visits to the Three Sisters.

Visit to Blue Mountains is a post from: Tahina Expedition

We’re going to stay here a few days because there’s a northerly wind blowing. On Sunday and Monday it’s supposed to be sunny, so we’re going to take public transportation and make our way up to the Blue Mountains. Finally! It’s something we had planned to do for over a month, but the weather interfered. Then we plan to sail further up the coast to Port Stephens where we hope to find a temporary berth or mooring for some more sightseeing.

This morning, I took the opportunity to dive overboard and check out Tahina underneath for sea growth. Yep, we had a bunch of scum, and some sizeable barnacle growth on our props and saildrives. No wonder we were not making normal speeds under motor! I spent an hour or so, with wet suit on, cleaning off the growth and wiping the waterline from the city harbour waters. Actually, for a big city like Sydney, the waters were remarkably clean. But, we were there for a month, so it definitely accumulated.

Tahina Has Left Sydney is a post from: Tahina Expedition

In reality, Tahina has never seen what I would call rough weather. We have never been in a major storm (cyclone/hurricane). We purposely choose our route during idyllic weather patterns, and I put my flying weather skills to work when weather routing our passages. However, we have seen what most people would call rough weather.

There has been the occasional squall, and nearby passing gale that has made the seas pretty impressive. And, we have ridden some pretty immense waves resulting from weather far away, or from wind to our aft. These waves have been as high as 9-10 meters and would scare the heck out of a lot of people. Tahina handles these big seas very well though. The big swells are far apart, and the boat simply rides up and over them. The big swells are long, and everything stays pretty much upright on board during those big seas.

The bad weather for us is during squalls or passing fronts, or especially with the wind ahead of us. Here the seas get very disturbed and Tahina has to bash over or through the swells. It is a loud experience. The wind is the loudest part, but also the rush of the water past the hulls, and the waves bashing against the sides and underneath. The boat also moves the most in these conditions.

Mono-hulls have to lash everything down in almost any sailing conditions. On catamarans, we rarely have to do it. The two hulls just give us so much stability the ride is almost always smooth. But, when the wind gets ahead and the seas get up, then our drinks on the table are no longer safe. And, even on Tahina, we have to start putting things away on our counter tops. Once we had stuff all over the floors that had fallen from counters, desks, seats and beds. It was a mess!

Tahina is a South African-built catamaran that was designed to handle blue water conditions. She is strong, and built well to handle all normal conditions at sea. Properly handled and rigged, she can manage any normal sea conditions. We will continue to plan our passages carefully, and choose not to go (or change our route) if bad weather is ahead. Tahina will continue to provide us with safe passages.

Rough Seas is a post from: Tahina Expedition

This weekend we’re having some very nice sunny weather. Yesterday a bunch of boats came into our little bay, but not as busy as last weekend with the cruiser’s club. We got off the boat and took a train ride to our new favorite shopping center at Macquarie Park. The boat needs a thorough drying out and we’ll probably have to clean up the mildew again. Oh joy!

Note: picture above from here.

Sydney’s Rainiest Summer is a post from: Tahina Expedition

I knew when this happened, what we were dealing with. Other boaters we know have run into it. It means our anchor rode (chain) has actually stretched at that section. The links are no longer the same size, and thus don’t fit properly in the gypsy. After 2.5 years of most often using the final 30 feet, it finally has stretched the chain links. The short-term solution to this is to shift our rode end-for-end to the other side (which hasn’t been used much) and use the other end for now. We also have to remember NOT to use the last 25 feet or so of the rode (which we haven’t ever done actually since we have 400 feet of rode). After hopefully another 2.5 years, we’ll have to change the anchor chain.

Another job for the always changing list of boat issues which always exists no matter how hard you try work it off. If we’re lucky, we might be able to wait until we take the entire rode off when we get up to Bundaberg. We had already planned to take it off so we can send it to be re-galvanized. This protects the chain from rusting.

Anchor Chain Change is a post from: Tahina Expedition

It’s probable that there’s something in the summer fauna here in Australia that our American bred system wasn’t made to deal with. We had something similar happen in New Zealand for a while. We are taking an allergy medication when it hits which seems to eventually pull us out of our misery. But, this thing strikes one of us every few days. It’s getting old.

What prompted me to write about this today? A 5:30 AM strike by the spore of course! Aaaaaachooo!

The Spore is a post from: Tahina Expedition