With a little experience sailing a dinghy and a few days on yachts in sheltered waters, I felt I knew a bit about sailing. However, I didn’t really know what I was in for as we headed out from Coffs Harbour to a life totally dictated by wind and weather. The first principle is that if the wind is fair in strength and direction, you sail and sail and keep on sailing. With three-hour watches during the day and two hours each during the night for 24 hours a day, the Escapade headed south while witnessing stunning moonlit nights, glorious sunsets and sunrises, whales breaching and slapping flippers and dolphins zooming in to play in the bow wave – what’s not to like?

Maybe struggling out of bed after four hours sleep, feeling groggy and fumbly as you put on six layers of warmth and waterproofing, as well as a life jacket with tethers to clip on to cables so you don’t fall overboard in the night (every sailor’s worst nightmare). Or maybe a ‘lovely day of calm’ that would be beautiful on a beach, but at sea means hours of the auxiliary diesel chugging away in the echo chamber of the cabin and ruining the peace of the quiet ocean.

But sometimes, sometimes, all the natural elements come together: a steady 12-15 knot following wind with a stable sea and suddenly the vessel just starts to move in a more graceful way. She glides and she hums as she skims over the water’s surface at a rate of knots and the only sound is the rush of water under the keel and the wind in the sails. There is just nothing that compares with that!

The main meal of the day is lunch around 2.00 pm and each afternoon at 5.00 it’s happy hour in the cockpit. We watch the sun set and enjoy the rations of a beer each with crackers, cheese and nibbles and bond over the highlights of the past 24 hours. The skipper, Michael, has been sailing most of his life, and his skill and experience is evident in his constant observation of the wind, sea state and set of the sails, always looking for the best boat performance no matter what the conditions. First mate, Rob, carries himself as an ‘old man of sea’, never working in haste, but always alert to the situation and applying a steady wisdom to solve any issues that come up.

From Coffs to a dawn arrival in Pittwater, then on past Sydney Heads and Botany Bay, flying past Jervis Bay on
20-25 knot tail winds to Bermagui, we arrive for a short stay for boat repairs and to wait for the next change to pass. Then on to Eden under motor before ‘going round the corner’ into Bass Straight to dodge oil platforms in the night until the dramatic lines of Wilson’s Promontory come into sight. Unfortunately, westerlies were just about to set in that would make the last stretch to Port Phillip Heads a hard and dangerous slog, so we pull into Port Welshpool until fair winds return to take Escapade back to her home port.

And this is where I jump ship to deal with some shore-based commitments after two weeks of adventure on a fine
sailing vessel.

Jeff Donovan

Photo: Rob preparing to tie up in Bermagui