TAKING TYMARA TO TASMANIA By John Wickham
Tymara at Currie Jetty
From the RSAYS to the Mersey Yacht Club in Devonport Towards the end of last year John and Veronica Wickham sold Tymara, their son Mat’s boat. A Fjord MS-33, this pilot-house motor-sailer was built in Norway in 1975. It was bought by Captain Jacques Sapir, former owner-captain of the ketch Hawk which had traded in the Pacific Islands in the 80s. Jacques now lives in Devonport, Tasmania so a delivery trip was planned. John recounts how the trip went.
J
ACQUES invited me and his
friends Lance and Alan, both from Devonport, as crew. We agreed to leave on Sunday 5 November. As it turned out, the following Wednesday was a better day to leave, giving us an early start with light easterly conditions. This made for a very pleasant motor sail down Gulf St Vincent, with a fuel stop at Wirrina Cove. We made Christmas Cove, Kangaroo Island by 1700 hrs and had a meal at the Penneshaw Hotel, planning to head south to Robe the following day. I was somewhat uneasy with this plan, as Lance had been seasick crossing Backstairs Passage, due to the usual rock-and-roll across this notorious stretch of water. We had an early start on the Thursday morning but, by the time we were leaving Cape St Albans, the ebbing tide was flowing at 2 kts. With light winds, and predominantly SE swell, the passage was very uncomfortable with the tide causing the sea to stand up. As I had suspected, it was not long before Lance became seasick again, and he thought he had better not continue with the voyage. We decided to return to Christmas Cove, Page 32 SQ Autumn 2018
and he made bookings to return home. Alan was running out of time so he too decided to leave as it looked like the weather would deteriorate over the next few days. The crew was now just me and Jacques, who was a little apprehensive that there were just the two of us on board. Jacques’ health was a little restrictive. He could not do a lot physically, and became tired quite easily. I suggested that we would always wait for calm weather, have a few days rest when we were at each port of call, and that I would put my head down after him. As it happened, this plan worked out fine.
Under sail off North Haven
By 11 November the weather had improved, so we once again went to the Penneshaw Hotel for an evening meal. It was a beautiful evening, sitting outside looking across Backstairs Passage to Cape Jervis. All was flat calm, with the setting sun lighting up the mainland. I don’t recall how many times I have crossed this stretch of water – probably most years since putting our first keel boat in at the Squadron in 1983. We left on Sunday 12 November, knowing that being in a dodge tide period the tide would not be a problem. On clearing Cape St Albans once again, we had a little help with an ebbing influence. We quickly settled into a routine, with Jacques putting his head down whenever he felt tired. A good day and night saw us nearing Robe in the early morning. We had decided to go into the port to top up fuel. Robe now has a 24 hour fuel service, as we have at the Squadron. There are now also two red port and two green starboard buoys to help guide you through the narrow channel into the breakwater. We refuelled, and were under way by 1030 hrs. The weather was supposed to be easterly winds 10-15 kts on BOM Marine Weather, but we had south-easterlies all day and night, until midday Tuesday.