Refuge Cove Wilsons Promontory
4/03/09 A trip to Wilson’s Promontory.
Pelican has been booked by 360 Degree Films to secure underwater footage for an ABC television series they are making, “Penguin Islands”. Rory McGuiness is the cinematographer for the expedition. He worked with us on “The Big Blue”, an ABC/NHK co-production about Pete Gill and Margie Morrice’s work with blue whales in the Boney Upwelling. He has talked up the advantages of using Pelican with the production team and here we are. Our task this time around is equally daunting. We must locate and film at sea the diminutive “little penguins” . Formerly known as fairy penguins they have suffered a name change in the interests of political correctness (or is that homophobia?) Anyway they seem like gay ….. , sorry, I mean happy little birds as we often observe them feeding at sea or waddling ashore after sunset in a variety of places around the Victorian coast. The task of filming them feeding at sea, is like finding a needle in a haystack and threading it with a train of camels. As far as we know it has never been done.
Melbourne provides a strange backdrop to preparations for the expedition. It is reeling from the worst bushfires on record and is still ringed by fire threatening to burn out of control at any moment. Despite this the weather is cold and damp. Gale force winds are buffeting the coast and spreading smoke along the length and breath of the state. The sky displays an oppressive, apocalyptic glow. Wilsons Promontory, our destination, is alight and permission to film there may be withdrawn before we even start.
We steam along the upside down river (the mud appears to be on the top) towards Port Phillip Bay and The Heads. The river is being dredged to make room for ever larger ships that will bring ever more stuff that we don’t need, paid for by the sale of coal that we shouldn’t sell, to people who shouldn’t be buying it, who will use it to power development that is totally unsustainable, which will accelerate the effects of climate change, and on it goes. Our conspiracy of greed and stupidity is exacerbated by mass denial, which in turn ensures that we fail to employ the raft of solutions available to us to avert a looming disaster
I feel myself incredibly lucky to have the option to go to sea where none of this madness can play itself out directly on my psyche. On the other hand the Bureau of Meteorology is talking about the storms and nine meter seas in Bass Strait. I can’t help but wonder if climate change plays some part in this unseasonably bad weather. Is there is nowhere left to hide?
As we steam down river The GPS and chart plotter stop working. In the course of trying to work out what the problem is I notice that all three GPS systems that we have aboard seem to be malfunctioning. I radio Harbour Control and ask them if anomalies have been reported in GPS systems by anyone else. Negative comes the single word reply. Damon takes the handheld GPS unit up to the bow and reports that it appears to be working perfectly. He hands it back to me and immediately it stops working again. I rack my brains what could be affecting it that is in the vicinity of the wheelhouse. What recent addition has been made to equipment in the wheelhouse? The boat is now effectively a film set hmmm. The radio mic. Ben the sound recordist pulls the radio mic transmitter off my belt and switches it off. The GPS immediately resumes normal operation. He switches it back on and the system goes down once more. Problem solved. How strange that a radio mic should do that.
Conditions in Port Phillip are less than ideal. The only reason we have decided to leave now, is that later they will be even worse. West South West winds of 30 to 35 knots lash the bay. They are predicted to back further into the south and strengthen which will make reaching Port Phillip Heads even harder. So we raise double reefed main and mizzen, unfurl a sliver of staysail and motor sail out of the river. A nasty chop hits us as we clear Williamstown breakwater. Despite ugly conditions in Bass Strait I am thinking that we if can get out of The Heads the weather will be behind our beam and that should give us a quick passage to Rabbit Island on the Eastern side of Wilson’s Promontory . It will enable us to place our camera crew on site with minimum loss of time.
With reports of rising seas and worsening weather outside we decide to anchor near the Quarantine Station at point Nepean. We will attempt the rip on the last of the flood before the morning slack. Manoeuvring close to shore I avoid the usual places where ocean swells can enter the heads and break on the shallow banks near Quarantine Bay. To my surprise large swells are coming through the heads and in the darkness appear to be at risk of breaking right along the bayside coast of point Nepean. I quickly decide that anchoring here in these conditions is unwise and with few options remaining we steam back to the cut at Queenscliff and the security of a berth at the new marina.
5/03/09
In the morning things are no better. In conference with Rory Che and Ben, we decide to wait for the start of the afternoon flood. We take a taxi to Point Lonsdale to observe conditions in the heads. They are totally closed out. Heavy breakers made taller and angrier by their struggle against the ebb tide extend from Lonsdale to Nepean and for some miles to seaward. We hurry back to the taxi to escape the wind and drizzle and return to the relative comfort of Pelican.
As soon as the ebb tide gives way to slack and flood, conditions in Port Phillip Heads moderate considerably. This is one of the few occasions when I notice large ships timing their departure through the heads to take advantage of more moderate conditions. Four or five ships line up along the south channel and steam south through the heads in single file as the first currents of the flood flatten the waves. Almost magically in the last half hour Port Phillip heads has been transformed from a boiling cauldron of white water to something far less threatening . Pelican as the slower vessel chooses the Eastern side of the main channel giving them plenty of room to pass. We watch as their bows plunge and rise over the swells 50 meters on our beam, Pelican climbing and diving in her own time
After passing the light at South Head on Wilson’s Prom, the southernmost tip of the Australian mainland, we drop anchor in Refuge Cove about 14 hours later. We have made good time under sail in moderating seas. It is about 0500 hrs and we fall gratefully into bed in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We are ready to work by 1100 just over 24 hours after the official start time of the charter. I am satisfied that we have delivered the best possible outcome for the film crew whose job it is now to deliver pictures.
6/03/09 1100
We steam out towards the Seal Islands east of Refuge Cove. It transpires that this is not the best time of the year to film the ‘little penguins’. At this time many of them are moulting, a process that involves them staying cosily tucked up in their burrows for about 18 days while they change their feathers. They don’t even feed during this period. Those that are not moulting are probably feeding at sea in preparation for their moult and will be hard to find. These mighty little birds will travel alone at sea many miles off shore and often feed at depths of up to 70 meters or more. Their prey is exclusively small fish such as anchovies, and baitfish of various kinds. These must be caught individually at the expense of great effort.
The first penguin we come across is decidedly dead, although recently so, judging by the fresh appearance of his carcass. Rory and Che (Rory’s son, a professional diver and most trusted dive buddy) kit up and get in the water. Che’s primary role here, is to look after Rory allowing him to give full attention to his camera and subject. These waters are a known habitat of the great white shark so both divers are wearing shark shields, a device for repelling sharks. No one knows for sure if these things work but we take comfort from the fact that, to date no one has been killed while wearing one. Rory takes some footage of the unfortunate bird and bags it for the freezer and later examination. The most common cause of death for penguins is apparently starvation. This makes me wonder if the aquaculture industry which routinely uses tons of baitfish, which must be harvested from the wild might be having an impact on density of baitfish population and therefore on the populations of penguins throughout Victoria and Tasmania.
In the afternoon we anchor off Rabbit Island. Rory goes ashore to check out the beach and the burrows. He is looking for fresh signs of the birds coming ashore, which will tell us if they are active. Shearwaters, penguins and numerous other birds frequent the island and many species can be observed on the beach including Cape Barren geese and pacific gulls. We decide to wait and see if we can observe the rafting of the penguins. Each evening when they return form feeding, the penguins meet in a huddle or a raft, just off the beach and come ashore together. Rory figures that the rafting might be an opportunity to get some footage of the birds. On this occasion we are out of luck and fail to see any group of birds near the beach, just one or two individuals making their way ashore. It is impossible to tell wether this is because they have passed us unobserved or they are simply not here in numbers due to the moult or other reasons. We remain watching and listening with binoculars at the ready till well after dark, but no luck.
7/03/09 0500
The following morning we steam into Port Welshpool to pick up Simon Target the director, Brad the sound recordist and Peter Don the penguin scientist along with Simon’s sons who have come along for the ride. Mary and Tim will also get off to return to Melbourne. On the way in I foolishly try to take a short cut through a narrow channel marked on the chart at the entrance to Corner Inlet. Unfortunately my chart is a couple of years out of date and we encounter shallow water where there should be 6 or 7 meters. Strong tidal flows in this area result in shifting banks where a little local knowledge can go a long way. I press on in the hope that we will find a path through but with the keels brushing the sand I have visions of being forced onto the banks by the flood tide and then stranded for 12 hours by the ebb. With pounding heart I spin Pelican around and we claw our way back to deep water. A long detour is required to regain the main channel and unfortunately Mary and Tim will miss their bus as a result.
After a quick stop in Welshpool we return later that morning to Rabbit Island and spend the day filming a range of activities around the search for penguins. In the background Wilson’s Promontory is still burning and the wind is still blowing. This is all contributing to less than ideal conditions for underwater filming. Simon and Rory make the most of the situation and devise ways to get as much useful footage as possible. We return to Port Welshpool before dark to drop our day crew and spend the night there tied up at the wharf.
8/3/09 0945
Depart Port Welshpool for Seal Islands to the east of the Prom. Rory and Che dive at White Rock and then at Rag Island but fail to find suitable subjects in the prevailing conditions apart from a lot of very cute seal pups. We set sail for Oberon Bay on the western side of the Prom in the hope of making an early start in the morning in more sheltered water . We Drop anchor at 2130. Damon treats us to a fine meal of pizza and we crash after another big day.
Next morning finds us diving on the southernmost point of the Australian mainland not far from the lighthouse. Rory reports clearer water lots of rocks and kelp but no big fish or penguins. This seems to be repeating on us everywhere we go. The dramatic landscapes and clear oceanic water (in the right conditions) of Wilsons Promontory do not translate into lots of fish and where there are few fish there is little interest for penguins. They seem to prefer the estuarine waters of corner Inlet or the deeper waters of Bass Strait. I can only assume that the large populations of seals must also travel long distances to feed.
In the afternoon we visit Kanowna Island where Rory gets more footage of seals in the clearest water so far, about 8 metres, but still no large fish or Penguins. We then take a look at Skull Rock nearby which must be the ultimate location for a “Phantom” movie though I suppose these days they would use special effects and create their own skull cave without the expense of transporting a large film crew to such a remote location. Rory tells a story that after three months of filming in Antarctica for the “Happy Feet” movie known in animation parlance as, “environmental acquisition”, he joked with the animaters on the film that they just sat in darkened rooms playing with pencils while he got to cruise round Antarctica. They retorted that he was yesterdays man. Now that they had his footage of Antarctica they could make a hundred more movies without him and that in particular he would not be needed for Happy Feet 2. They were both right.
One of the reasons why Rory is one of the most sought after natural history cinematographers anywhere is his determination to deliver results. On this occasion after trying without success to find more usable footage at Whisky Bay to the north of Oberon Bay he decides to dive the drop offs on the exposed corners of the off shore islands where great white sharks are likely to be found cruising for seals. He wants to be dropped into and recovered from the surging current against the plunging vertical walls of rock at Anser and Rodondo Islands to the south of the Prom. Sure no problem I swallowed. So next morning with the wind blowing up to thirty five knots Pelican is manoeuvred within meters of the granite cliffs. Rory and Che do not want to swim across open water where they would be easy targets for the sharks we are hoping to find. In fact it does not prove to be difficult but despite their best efforts we still fail to secure the dramatic footage we hope for. As so often happens with natural history filming the weather and luck were not with us. We have explored some of the most beautiful coastline in the world but our time is up, no penguins. We set a course for Port Phillip Heads. In following winds we sail and surf at speeds up to 18 knots arriving in Queenscliff about eleven hours later. The next day we work the eastern coast of Port Phillip Bay without much luck and offload the film crew at Williamstown where we begin our next job the following day.
MELBOURNE TO BERMAGUI
22/4/09 2215
We Depart Central Pier in Melbourne for Bermagui. Pelican is booked on the slipway there for a stern-lift, hull modifications which will hopefully reduce drag, increase buoyancy in the stern and provide more speed and efficiency under both sail and motor. On board Peter Malcolm, Ian Campbell, Peter Sanderson, Lara Crew, Finnley McKechnie and myself. We have a relatively uneventful sail through Port Phillip Heads to Refuge Cove and arrive in time to shelter from the worst of strong N E winds which are forecast.
Refuge Cove Wilsons Promontory
We spend a very pleasant day catching up on sleep, walking, and trying out Peter’s multi wave oscillator which is a strange machine designed to cure cancer through creation of fields of energy generated by a large black box and beamed through copper coils to a person sitting between them. If any place on earth can help heal, Refuge Cove would have to be it. This is one of the most beautiful anchorages anywhere and I never lose the excitement of dropping anchor here. The only people that you meet have either walked or sailed to get here so there is often a story to be shared. Ashore, Finnley (2 &3/4 years) plays in the creek with Ian and myself racing cuttle fish skeletons (is that the right term) across the beach in the ebb tide.
Peter in his multi-wave oscillator Refuge Cove
25/4/09
Strong winds are forecast to back north and then west hopefully giving us an easy run to Gabo Island. That afternoon we say goodbye to the crew aboard another cat (the name escapes me) that has arrived and anchored nearby (see photo above). She is on her maiden voyage en route to Eden after a 5 or 6 year build. I expect them to depart with us as there is a limited window before more heavy N – NE winds are forecast and we are hoping to make Gabo and get around the corner before they hit.
Peter Malcolm on the bow as we depart Refuge Cove.
About 12 hours out of Refuge, sailing on a broad reach under full sail we are abruptly becalmed and then clobbered by winds in excess of 50 knots from the North with some of the heaviest rain I have seen anywhere. We hurriedly reduce sail and after some anxious minutes manage to get Pelican back on course under double reefed main and mizzen with a sliver of staysail. We sail hard on the wind all night in heavy conditions, falling away from our course then clawing back the lost ground through numerous wind shifts. I scan aft with the bino’s expecting to see our friends from Refuge overtaking us as their cat looked quite fast. Dawn reveals no sign of them and there is no response to my attempts to raise her on VHF 16. We continue in heavy conditions all day. Finnley is curled up with Lara in the fwd deck cabin. the rest of us take turns at sleeping and doing watches.
26/4/09
Early evening, Peter Sanderson on watch, hears a snatch of a message on the VHF mentioning something about a catamaran in distress. It appears to be a vessel or other station responding to a distress call. He is unable to raise the station and hears nothing more from either them or the vessel in distress. I can’t help wondering if the call has anything to do with our friends from Refuge. I am unaware of any other vessels in the area, nothing has passed us sailing west and conditions would hamper other vessels being well positioned to overtake us as we have made use of the only favourable sailing window heading east.
There is not much we can do except continue on our way. Peter Malcolm is a little weak and needs lots of sleep but otherwise seems reasonably well. He insists on doing his watches. He has chosen to fight his lymphoma with alternative methods and is quite ecstatic that his diet and detox regimen seem to have cured him of the sea sickness he would normally be experiencing in these conditions. His theory is that heavy metals in his system contribute to his sensitivity to movement and disorientation but the detox has eliminated them along with the sea sickness.
27/4/09
We make Gabo Island mid morning. The lighthouse is a remarkable structure built of large, hand shaped blocks of rose granite quarried with hand drills and chisels from the island foreshore. Some of the stones at the base exceed 10 tons, are intricately shaped and fit each other with minute accuracy. My great, great, grandfather Henry Nathaniel Rose was a leading stone mason on the construction in the 1860’s or 1870’s. To day you can rent the light keepers house or one of several other cottages there for a stay on the SE corner of Australia overlooking one of the most infamous pieces of water on this coast. Just below the lighthouse is where Francis Chichester’s Gypsy Moth V, was sailed onto the rocks by Desmond Hampton who had failed to wake from a nap in the first “Around Alone” race. The disastrous 98 Hobart race met its worst conditions not far from here where opposing currents from Bass Strait and the East coast converge near the edge of the continental shelf. Today however the conditions are relatively moderate.
Gabo Island Light
We arrive off Bitangabee Bay North of Green Cape NSW about 1800 hrs and decide to overnight there. Before we enter the bay we receive several worried phone messages from friends and family. A catamaran has been dismasted and abandoned in Bass Strait. The crew suffering hypothermia have been airlifted from the vessel and taken to Sale Hospital. I wonder if this might be our friends from Refuge as we have still seen no sign of them. We make several calls assuring people that we are ok before entering the bay where we will be out of phone reception. The tiny sheltered bay affords Pelican just enough swing room to clear the rocks on all sides. It rivals Refuge as one the most beautiful anywhere although it is accessible by road and has a large well used camp ground there. We drop anchor and settle in for another well earned rest while the North Westerlies continue to make our progress north difficult. Winds are forecast to ease and back into the west tomorrow and we should have an easy passage to Bermagui.
28/4/09
We arrive Bermagui late afternoon after a leisurely start and a pleasant sail. I get a phone call from Sol, a friend aboard the abandoned vessel. They are all ok. The owner is planning to relocate her and bring her back in for repairs. They had left Refuge about three or four hours behind us which would have put them just out of VHF range (about 25 miles ship to ship). Apparently they were caught, like us, with too much sail up but were dismasted by a sudden vicious squall in deteriorating conditions. They recovered and continued under jury rig for many hours but the appalling conditions which media reports described as 14 metre seas (Sol estimated up to 10) started to work the structure of the vessel until they worried that they were in danger of breaking up. Also, suffering from the bitter cold they set off their EPIRB and were rescued in fading light late on the 26 th. I reflect how local conditions can vary dramatically. We could have been no more that 40 or 50 miles distant from them but encountered waves no bigger than 4 metres and sustained winds of no more than 50 knots. I can only surmise that wind and tide conspired with shallow water (they were making for Lakes Entrance at one stage) to produce the conditions they describe.
1/5/09
Pelican goes up on the slip at Bermagui. She will remain there for a total of 7 weeks creating a new record for length of stay at the facility (by one week). The work involved building a structure on each stern to reduce the turbulence and drag created by their canoe shape. We knew in the design stage that this would be an issue but decided to leave the solution for the future, when we knew more about how she sat in the water, how she performed and how she carried load. We had underestimated the degree of drag created however. Pelican effectively had a maximum speed on a reach of around 12 knots (she routinely surfs in excess of 20 knots). But I always felt that she should be capable of sailing speeds in excess of 15 or 16 knots. More efficient hulls would allow her to be driven more easily giving her higher average speeds, longer daily runs and increased fuel efficiency under motors.
Stern pods are constructed on moulds from cedar strip epoxy, in 2 halves, glassed inside and out, fitted with bulkheads and finally joined together before being glassed to the hulls.
The design brief was to build a minimal structure that would not handicap Pelican’s ability to manoeuvre stern to the weather (the canoe sterns are ideal in this regard). This has become our standard operating procedure when deploying or retrieving divers or equipment as the vessel is entirely stable and manageable in this orientation. It also gives the master an unobstructed view from the wheelhouse of all work and water access areas and is therefore a great safety bonus. Further we did not want to lose the aesthetic of the traditional Polynesian design of the vessel or the sense of her as having double ended hulls. We did not wish to modify the existing hull structurally as this would necessitate re looking at the survey. Neither did we want to modify the rudders so our mods needed to be limited to the area aft of the rudder posts. Finally the modification needed to integrate with the existing hull design so as not to appear added on. It needed to improve hull efficiency while maintaining a degree of sit in the stern at speed, so that while surfing she would retain some of her tendency (though much reduced) to dig in aft and keep her bows clear of the water.
Fitting halves to hull before joining them together.
Our solution to this brief was to build a kind of stern bulb that would look elegant, have minimal structure above the waterline but reduce the angle of departure of water from the hulls. This would give her a similar underwater shape to standard catamaran designs, with U shaped underwater hull profiles and sugar scoop sterns. With hindsight we got most of this right however we seriously underestimated the amount of work and expense this required. Surprise surprise. It is a BOAT after all. (bring out another thousand)
Ready for final fairing and painting.
Towards the end of this seven week marathon our dear friend and colleague Peter Malcolm passed away after losing his battle with cancer. I travelled to Melbourne to see him a few days before his death. He was inspirational in his positive outlook, his consideration of others and his grace under extreme difficulty. He was surrounded by loving family and friends who supported him in every possible way. I was fortunate to have the opportunity to say goodbye. I include his obituary written with help from Peter's wife Davini and several other people as a separate document. We all miss Peter big time.
Pelican a Bermagui landmark for seven weeks.
Since we relaunched Pelican I have had no time to test her at sea under sail, however under motors the improvement is dramatic. Prior to the mods she made a maximum of around 8.5 knots (3000rpm) under engines. Post mods she achieved 10.1 at 3000 revs, in one direction (by the GPS against the swell) and 10.3 (against 7 knots of true wind) in the other. She will cruise happily all day at 9 knots (2500 revs) with a max cruise of close to 9.5 knots (2700 revs) and will do 8 knots for the cost of about 8 litres per hour of fuel at around 2150 revs, or 6 knots on one engine at 2000 revs for around 3 litres an hour. This puts us on track to achieve 15 or 16 knots or better under sail. Pre - mods the drag increased dramatically with speed. Under sail at 12 knots she used to put up a large wake which could be heard from the bow. Now the water comes clean off the hulls and there is a dramatically reduced wake. The boat also sits flatter. The increased buoyancy at the stern reduces any tendency to hobby horse and the bow cuts through waves better without wanting to kick up when crossing waves. All in all Pelican’s new sterns seem to be a resounding success. I can’t wait to get her out under sail.
Happy Sailing
Garry McKechnie