Fixing the boat in remote South Tasmania

As we were safe on anchor in Clayton’s Corner, the idea was to have a full night’s sleep before heading off to Hobart. However, the sweet dreams were interrupted in the middle of the night by an alarm sounding from the plotter. Apparently, the voltage was too low.

Bathurst Harbour, the channel leading to Clayton’s Corner

Sharon got up to investigate the problem. The batteries did not hold charge under load, and we were down to a horrific 22,5V. That requires the engine to be started in order to charge, as the generator has not been fixed yet - it was still waiting on parts.

About this time, Sharon also discovered that the toilet was not flushing. That’s another major problem, not related to the batteries. After a walkthrough of the salt water intake, it was clear that the problem was somewhere between the intake and the pump. Sharon headed down below where the pump was, and it turned out that the pump was loose and floating around. She fixed that, but it did not help take in the salt water.

We spent half of the night monitoring the voltage of the batteries, and trying to figure out how the salt water could be fixed. It looked like a salt water pipe would have been blocked. However, the wire to be used to find and remove the blockage was on Salt Lines. So in the morning, Matt came onboard from Salt Lines, bringing the wire and the moral support. He and Sharon started troubleshooting the pipes, as the crew were slowly waking up to this new reality where we did not have free electricity or free salt water.

Salt Line’s skipper Matt, Silver Fern’s skipper Sharon, and watch captains Ken and Daniel attempting to fix the problem

No salt water means no flushing the toilet. We took out a large bucket to fill with water from the outside, and got to use that instead. One bucket per one flush seemed to be the ratio. We also poured a bit of that water into the sink, for rinsing dishes. It turned out to be quite a lot of grass in it, which once again was a sign that a pipe blockage could be happening.

Matt got into the engine room and used the wire inside of the salt water pipe that ran to the pump. A few inches through, it ran into something. There is a hook on the end of the wire, to help pull out anything that’s blocking it. So what did he pull out? A fish!

This was a good laugh, because Matt hasn’t ever caught any fish. Well, apart from this one at least. But this tiny one made all the difference. Now, at least we had the salt water going, setting off cheers on Silver Fern.

Such a tiny creature - but such a big difference…

Next problem was the batteries losing the voltage. We continued monitoring them, and tried to turn off anything that would be drawing excessive electricity until we would get to Hobart. We were hoping to finally fix the generator there.

We departed towards Hobart, hoping that this would be the end of trouble. We had some beautiful sailing to look forward to. However, a few hours later, we got some new challenges.

Silver Fern has three electrical winches, that are operated from the cockpit. The buttons have plastic covers on them, giving some protection - yet it’s still very easy to accidentally push one. One of the covers, on the starboard side, had unfortunately lost its cover. This makes it even easier to push it. So as we were tacking, we were just too many crew in the cockpit, and somebody touched the button just that little bit to put too much pressure on the backstay. It was stopped and released, but now there was another thing to worry about as we needed to make sure there was no damage done to the rig.

Almost everyone’s up in the cockpit - a rare sight, as we have decided not to be more than five people up here at a time.

David’s description of adventure sailing is “fixing the boat in remote places”. We certainly got a fair bit of that. I think Sharon hadn’t slept more than a couple hours each night. But it was not only the breakages and challenges. The sailing itself was amazing.

The South coast of Tasmania was wrapped in clouds as we sailed by. At times, we had little visibility because of the foggy patches. A quarter of an hour later, we’d sail our fo the fog and have a clear starry sky. The sunsets and sunrises illuminated the rocky shores and made an astonishing backdrop for this sailing leg.

Mike at the helm, taking Silver Fern through another foggy patch

Closing up to Darwin, we saw some seals in the water. I’m quite accustomed to seals as they are plentiful in Scandinavia. But these ones were different - they were jumping and playing in the waves just like dolphins! The seal would jump right out of the water, turn around and dive nose first. I’ve never seen anything like that - the seals at home just lay lazily around on sun-warmed cliffs, or swim around under the water, or pop the head up at a maximum. This looked like a seal that has been brought up by a dolphin family.

We also saw a multitude of sea birds, and April spotted a few flying fish. Bruce has been taking a lot of photos, and I bet they will win him another wilderness photography prize. There is a lot of marine life around here, and it feels great to be in the middle of this wilderness. Whatever needs to be fixed on the boat is a bit of an extra spice to it.

Doctor Ken taking the temperature, of the outside air

An absolute highlight was us going around the southernmost point of Australia, reaching the 43°41 latitude offshore. This is as far as most of us have gone. Ken, Sharon and me also sailed past the northernmost point of the Australia circumnavigation, so this was definitely a special moment. For myself, this coincided with hitting 30,000 nautical miles of sailing. Certainly a moment to celebrate! I’ll splurge on a pair of new sailing gloves to mark this moment once we make it Hobart.

Patrick enjoying a very early breakfast in the cockpit as the sun rises this chilly morning

April and Bruce, night sailing in South Tassie