MORNING TIDE and her C IR C UMNAVIGATION A DVENTURE [ ] ‘Let’s do it’. This was my excited MORNING TIDE reply to Jim’s proposal that we should By and her sail off in our yacht Morning Tide. Margaret Putt A dream of many years and now in Circumnavigation Adventure 1990 we had the opportunity as Jim had retired from engineering and I had retired from nursing. Our three by children were now adults and we had Margaret Putt the ideal yacht. PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor [ ] MORNING TIDE and her Circumnavigation adventure — … by Margaret Putt … Published in 2015. Printed in Perth, Western Australia by Scott Print. Any part of this book may be reproduced with the prior permission of the author. 01 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor MORNING TIDE AND HER CIRCUMNAVIGATION ADVENTURE 02 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor [ ] NAVIGATION CHAPTERS INDEX Introduction ...................................................................... 5 Introduction ...................................................................... 5 01. Australia ..................................................................... 7 Around Australia ............................................................ 7 02. Indian Ocean to the Mediterranean .........27 Christmas Island and Cocos Islands .................27 03. Mediterranean to England ..............................41 Sri Lanka and India.......................................................30 04. England and Returning to the Med ..........69 The Arabian Sea, Oman and Aden ......................34 05. The Atlantic and Panama .................................87 The Red Sea ......................................................................35 06. Pacific and Home ...............................................103 The Mediterranean ......................................................41 07. Specification, Construction France, rivers and canals ...........................................56 and Early History ...............................................117 England ..............................................................................69 Spain and Portugal ......................................................73 Gibraltar Southern Spain and the Balearics .....76 Canary Islands ................................................................87 The Atlantic .....................................................................90 The Caribbean ................................................................93 Venezuela ..........................................................................97 The Panama Canal and the Galapagos .............99 The Pacific .....................................................................103 Returning Home ........................................................115 Morning Tide ...............................................................117 03 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor MORNING TIDE AND HER CIRCUMNAVIGATION ADVENTURE 04 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor INTRODUCTION [ ] INTRODUCTION ‘Let’s do it’. This was my excited reply to Jim’s proposal that we should sail off in our yacht Morning Tide. A dream of many years and now in 1990 we had the opportunity as Jim had retired from engineering and I had retired from nursing. Our three children were now adults and we had the ideal yacht. Morning Tide was built by Jim in three years and launched in August 1982 but two months later Jim was diagnosed with cancer. He had severe chemotherapy treatment and survived. Three months later we were back at work and we sailed whenever we could. Jim took part in races at Fremantle Sailing Club. We cruised South West Australia, north to Shark Bay and the Abrolhos Islands. Our first venture offshore to foreign lands was when we entered the 1986 Bali Race. Going foreign for the first time was a steep learning curve and an expensive one since we were required to equip Morning Tide to Cat 2 standard. i.e. HF Radio, life raft etc. We were also introduced to different customs when clearing in or clearing out of a foreign port. Don Clarke of Tradition was extremely helpful and later gave us advice about what to avoid when sailing offshore of South American countries. We had helpful advice from many other people. I read books and we decided to add four new systems before leaving Fremantle. They were 1, Radar, 2. Mast steps and 3. A furling headsail. 4. Intermediate forestay for carrying a hanked on #4 headsail and storm jib. We were glad of all four. At a later date we made a further improvement by adding a trysail track with the trysail permanently hanked on and bagged at the base of the mast. - By Margaret Putt (1st Mate) 05 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor MORNING TIDE AND HER CIRCUMNAVIGATION ADVENTURE 06 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor AUSTRALIA [ 01 ] AUSTRALIA Darwin Fremantle We decided that our annual cruise to Quindalup would be the ideal time to depart on a circumnavigation of Australia having determined that March was a good time to cross the Great Australian Bight. These plans coincided with those of our friends Peggy and John Hogan. They had retired at the same time in 1990 and we decided to sail together around Australia. On board their yacht Ceilidh they had a passenger-Bella a winsome poodle dog. We sailed to Quindalup with the Fremantle Sailing Club’s Boxing Day Cruise in 1990. Quindalup is on the beautiful Geographe Bay in S/W Australia. We departed the Quindalup anchorage early one morning in January 1991. We had some idea of what to expect after rounding Cape Naturaliste. We had previous ventured round this Cape in company with Wye Knot, Larkspur and Bluebell in earlier years.. Strong winds south of Cape Naturaliste persuaded us turn and sail back to anchor in Meelup Bay for the night. Meelup can be a rolly anchorage but we slept well. The next morning the winds had moderated so Ceilidh and Morning Tide left and were able to round Cape Naturaliste and head for Albany. Wye Knot had suffered a rigging failure and needed to return to Bunbury. After two long nights Ceilidh and Morning Tide rounded Cape Leeuwin and then headed south- east towards Albany. I was sea sick and Jim was weary but the next morning the sun shone, the winds moderated and we even caught a fish. However the following day the weather changed 07 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor MORNING TIDE AND HER CIRCUMNAVIGATION ADVENTURE again and we battled heavy seas and strong winds to enter Albany harbour on the south coast. Our motor did not cope well with the strong head wind and to make matter worse there was a smell of burning. Jim hoisted the try sail and stopped the motor. Members of the Princess Royal Yacht Club kindly waited until 8p.m. to assist us to tie up at the jetty. Ceilidh arrived later. Later investigation of the burning smell revealed it was the drive belt to the alternator needed tensioning. With all navigation lights on and the radar running continuously (it was after dark) the load on the alternator was causing the drive belt to slip. The Hogan’s and ourselves hired a car to get fuel and water on board and later drove to see the lovely surrounding country. After a short stay in Albany we again headed east. It was a day sail in strong winds to an overnight anchorage in Bremer/Dillon Bay, a pretty bay with giant granite cliffs and white quartz sand. The next morning we departed for Lucky Bay. We enjoyed the sail to Lucky Bay where a school of dolphins escorted us into the anchorage. Magnificent ancient granite boulders formed cliffs sloping down to the green water. Jim likes to think we had anchored close to where Matthew Flinders anchored all those years ago. The Esperance Yacht Club was a very welcoming club and a yacht member kindly lent us his MORNING TIDE AT ANCHOR IN LUCKY BAY 08 PDF compression, OCR, web optimization using a watermarked evaluation copy of CVISION PDFCompressor AUSTRALIA Ute to go shopping. Mike another member saved my sanity by making a partitioned tray for the galley in Morning Tide. This enabled me to do the difficult task of serving meals and cups of tea whilst coping with the challenging movement of the yacht. The partitions prevented food and drinks finishing up on the sole in rough weather. Threading our way through the Archipelago of the Recherché we anchored at Cape Arid and finally Middle Island. Middle Island is a good place to wait for favourable weather for departure for Cape Catastrophe, the next major cape to be rounded before we could make for Port Lincoln. Jim heard on the radio a favourable weather forecast for the following few days. and on the earlier advice of Jack Baxter in Albany we departed the following morning on the back of a front to cross the Bight. Ceilidh did likewise. We kept in regular radio contact with Peggy and John. They sailed a short distance from us. I was anxious during the first day due to an approaching thunder storm from the West. Thankfully it passed us by. During the six day crossing there is no shelter in the big cliffs fringing the Bight. Thankfully we had good weather and imagine our relief and