Grand_Marlin
28-04-2007, 07:59 PM
G'day Guys,
Just spent the last week bringing a near new 40ft Riviera back from Sydney to Brisbane. (same as the pic below)
Monday was spent getting the boat ready, making sure everything was ship shape, fuelling up, plotting the course on the charts and installing a temporary GPS for the trip.
Tuesday was spent waiting for the southerly weather to clear.... a few beers and a stroll down the cross just to be friendly with the locals ;D
Wednesday morning, we were off.
Forecast was wrong ... and it got worse as we went.
So, we spent 5 hours in 4m seas and 25 - 30 knots of southerly as we made our way to Port Stephens in some of the most miserable conditions imaginable... We took plenty of water right over the top of the flybridge :o
It was pi$$ing with rain and visibility was 1/2 mile at the best.
The trip into Port Stephens harbour was interesting ... big seas, no visibility, and none of us had ever been into the harbour before.
If anyone has been into Port Stephens before, they will know that the entrance isnt all that wide ... the visibility was so bad that we couldnt see either headland. :-/
A bit of tricky chart and GPS work, and we were in 8-)
A hot shower, a few beers and a steak at Hogs Breath helped settle the nerves from the day.
ps - dont let anyone tell you that you cant surf in a 40ft Riv :o
The next day saw the weather a lot clearer and calmer, so we trekked up to Coffs Harbour, narrowly missing a whale on the way out of Port Stephens :-[
The 460hp C7 Cats pushed us at 20 knots all the way, while we took in the scenery of the coastline.
We met two of the most arrogant pr!ck$ in the world at the fuel wharf at Coffs ... guys, thanks for nothing - if we had a choice, we certainly wouldnt have bought fuel off you >:(
From Coffs, we headed to Brisbane, with the most magic of conditions.
less than 1m of swell and glassed out conditions - awesome.
All was well until untill we had a fault message come up on the electronic screen, and lost considerable power on the port motor about 10m south of Ballina :-/
Dammmmnnnnn :-X :-X :-X
After a few phone calls to Riviera and to Cat, we realised there was nothing that could be done ... it was either an electronic fault that had caused the computer to drop power in the motor, or, more likely, we had blown a turbo. :'(
The decision was made to soldier on, on one motor ... 100 miles at 8 knots :(
We got inside the goldcoast seaway at around 6.30 ... thankfully the seaway was very calm.
We anchored up near wavebreak island and had a few beers and a chicken ::)
Today we made our way back to manly ... arriving at RQYS to our waiting wives and kids (who for once were pleased to see us home ;D )
All in all, an eventful, but very entertaining trip.
Cheers
Pete
Just spent the last week bringing a near new 40ft Riviera back from Sydney to Brisbane. (same as the pic below)
Monday was spent getting the boat ready, making sure everything was ship shape, fuelling up, plotting the course on the charts and installing a temporary GPS for the trip.
Tuesday was spent waiting for the southerly weather to clear.... a few beers and a stroll down the cross just to be friendly with the locals ;D
Wednesday morning, we were off.
Forecast was wrong ... and it got worse as we went.
So, we spent 5 hours in 4m seas and 25 - 30 knots of southerly as we made our way to Port Stephens in some of the most miserable conditions imaginable... We took plenty of water right over the top of the flybridge :o
It was pi$$ing with rain and visibility was 1/2 mile at the best.
The trip into Port Stephens harbour was interesting ... big seas, no visibility, and none of us had ever been into the harbour before.
If anyone has been into Port Stephens before, they will know that the entrance isnt all that wide ... the visibility was so bad that we couldnt see either headland. :-/
A bit of tricky chart and GPS work, and we were in 8-)
A hot shower, a few beers and a steak at Hogs Breath helped settle the nerves from the day.
ps - dont let anyone tell you that you cant surf in a 40ft Riv :o
The next day saw the weather a lot clearer and calmer, so we trekked up to Coffs Harbour, narrowly missing a whale on the way out of Port Stephens :-[
The 460hp C7 Cats pushed us at 20 knots all the way, while we took in the scenery of the coastline.
We met two of the most arrogant pr!ck$ in the world at the fuel wharf at Coffs ... guys, thanks for nothing - if we had a choice, we certainly wouldnt have bought fuel off you >:(
From Coffs, we headed to Brisbane, with the most magic of conditions.
less than 1m of swell and glassed out conditions - awesome.
All was well until untill we had a fault message come up on the electronic screen, and lost considerable power on the port motor about 10m south of Ballina :-/
Dammmmnnnnn :-X :-X :-X
After a few phone calls to Riviera and to Cat, we realised there was nothing that could be done ... it was either an electronic fault that had caused the computer to drop power in the motor, or, more likely, we had blown a turbo. :'(
The decision was made to soldier on, on one motor ... 100 miles at 8 knots :(
We got inside the goldcoast seaway at around 6.30 ... thankfully the seaway was very calm.
We anchored up near wavebreak island and had a few beers and a chicken ::)
Today we made our way back to manly ... arriving at RQYS to our waiting wives and kids (who for once were pleased to see us home ;D )
All in all, an eventful, but very entertaining trip.
Cheers
Pete