NOUMEA TO GLADSTONE INC. GANNETS

21 June 2023

The morning of the 13^{th of} June, as soon as the marina office opened, I dropped off the gate pass and said my goodbyes.  Ten minutes later Truce was passing the breakwater heading out of the Marina.  I could not get away from Noumea fast enough.  I am sure New Caledonia is a wonderful place (many people say so) but to me Noumea is just a frustrating expensive place.

Once out of the harbour a helpful breeze sprang up and sails were hoisted, the engine switched off and peace returned.  We sailed out from the lagoon through Passe de Dunbee wing on wind with about 10 knots of SE breeze in calm seas.    We sailed on, the wind gradually reducing until midnight on the second night out when calm prevailed.  I lashed the helm and went to sleep until morning.  I don’t do that very often. 

The next day the wind built slowly and by midday we were sailing again.  A slow day only 57 miles.  All afternoon the wind built, I progressively reefed down, ending up with 2 reefs in the main, staysail and 50% reefed yankee.  A short 1.5m sea made life uncomfortable on board.  The next day followed the same pattern, squalls, calm periods and a short sea, spray, uncomfortable ride and reefed sails.  Managed 114 miles but hard work.

The fifth day out we had good sailing conditions, calmer seas and a steadier breeze giving a daily run of 134 miles.  This felt better.  The sixth day started well, we made 128 miles to noon then it got progressively slower until at midnight with flogging sails and I stopped trying to sail, dropped the main, lashed the helm and went for a sleep.

A short time later I was disturbed by a thud on deck, a sound different to all the other usual boat sounds.  I went out and found a gannet sitting on the side deck.  I kicked it off and returned to sleep.  As soon as I laid down, I heard some sounds from the cockpit.  I checked and found two gannets sitting there happily shitting away.  I kicked the off and went back to bed.  Five minutes later I heard some more unusual sounds and going on deck was confronted by a whole colony of gannets.  Anywhere on the boat that a gannet could perch there was a gannet.  The crosstrees, the radar dome, the spinnaker pole, the dodger, the windvane, the tiller, the outboard, the antenna mast.  They all looked am me as if to say – your move sucker.

It was clear I was not going to have a quiet night and in the dark it was unnerving to have so many birds around, they get quite aggressive when you try and move them.  I decided to motor out and try and escape the situation.  I started the engine and motored off at about five knots.  The gannets seemed quite relaxed and happy to motor on.  I then started kicking them off one by one.  As I kicked them off they tried to get back on board but the boat speed made it more difficult for them and after about thirty minutes I had the boat clear.  I motored on for the remainder of the night, some gannets tried to return and landed on deck but were quickly thrown off. 

What a weird night, soon after the gannet episode spiders started falling from the sky.  First, I felt something on my head and knocked it off.  Under torchlight I found a spider, then more on deck.  No idea what that was all about, maybe Global Warming or something.

I kept motoring through the following day and night.  The area of calm weather was expanding on the weather forecast and I was anxious not to have another gannet night, it had really freaked me out.

Finally, on the seventh day out of Noumea a favourable wind returned at midday as we passed through a strong rainsquall.  The squall was quite strong and caught me with too muck Yankee out.  I now have a tear in the sail along the leech, an area that is weakened due to the effects of ultraviolet degradation.  I will need to find a sailmaker to make a permanent repair. 

Early morning, we passed between Boult Reef and Llewellyn Reef heading towards Gladstone East Channel.  We had a good twenty knot breeze to see us into the channel that gradually died away as we approached Gladstone Marina.  By two in the afternoon we were all secure alongside the quarantine berth awaiting inward clearance.

The clearance in with the Australian Boarder force was straightforward and efficient with the usual question and answer session. 

The biosecurity check however was completely over the top and outrageous.  As usual and vegetables, fruits, meats, eggs etc are removed from the boat along with garbage, that’s OK.  But then the biosecurity guy ripped the boat apart, all drawers out, all soft furnishings removed, every area of the boat checked for – termites.  Apparently, there could be a type of termite on board they don’t already have in Australia. 

I have been going to sea for a long time and never seen this level of disturbance from biosecurity.  Then the guy said that they have dogs that can sniff out termites.  That being the case why not just bring a g down to the boat for five minutes to check it out?  Instead, I had to endure over two hours of opening the boat up and questioning, they even wanted to know about previous trips going back to 2016.  To add insult to injury the bill for all this disturbance came to $480.  It’s a rort and its hard to see what value it adds to the biosecurity of Australia.  I could go on; I was really upset.  Come on Australia, you can do better than this.  A walk ashore, a good shower and a large Rum and Coke put me in a better frame of mind.

The trip from Noumea was a real mixed bag of extremes from strong squalls to flat calm with gannets and spiders thrown into the mix. Despite this we managed to average 4.5 knots from Opua to Gladstone, covering 1,829 miles. Yes, its slow but considering we has over 36 hours of flat calm along the way not so bad.

I have booked into the marina for three nights.  I need to chill out and slow down for a couple of days and plan the next part of the journey. I also need to restock on just about everything.