Perth April/May 2015
We had a not to bad a passage from Port Lincoln to Fremantle, but got headwinds on the last day coming into Framantle, heavy rain and wind right on the nose. Not what you expect from Perth. To top it off the steering failed but luckily auto pilot worked so with Warren navigating down below and me steering above we got in safely in the wee hours of Wednesday morning. Glad it was familiar waters for Warren. Berthed at about 4am, had a small celebratory rum and ready for a sleep. Had our first visit from Rory at 5 30 am, but luckily he was on his way to work so no drinking. Friends, family and old crew from Warrens many years of sailing MS in Fremantle popped in to welcome us during the day which is a lovely feeling as usually you arrive in a foreign port not knowing anybody.
The Fremantle Sailing Club is fantastic, a huge place with great facilities and an added bonus of a huge nautical playground in the bar so I could have a cold beer and Morg was safely having fun with kids in the playground.
We had a few days in Fremantle before heading home and again a long list of repairs left with Warrens faithful crew to oversee (leaking fuel tank, steering, new dodger……….) repairs just seem to be endless even after 5 mths out of the water in NZ. After a couple of weeks home for my nieces wedding which Morg was paige boy at, Nanas 90th birthday and Warrens parents 70th wedding anniversary which was a big family reunion down in Whakatane, we were back in Fremantle with 10 days to get the boat ready for the Fremantle -Bali race.
Meeting the race requirements, seeing to all the repairs, installing new communications and navigation systems and provisioning plus trying to organise visas etc took up all the time and we still weren’t ready. The forecast for the start of the race on the 16 May was pretty grim and so thankfully they had the good sense to postpone the start till Mon 18. It wouldn’t have been too pleasant out there otherwise. Besides ourselves we had Warrens son Tom, Robbie (one of MS original crew members who had done many miles on her), Matt an old salt from FSC and Mark a friend who had also done a bit of sailing on MS before. I was looking forward to having a few extra blokes on board and it wasn’t expected to be too much of a strain as we had entered the rally division and were allowed to use Reg our trusty autohelm.