The long, scenic way back home
A new dawn brought with it a whole new adventure as I surfed my way across late kiwi Uber drivers, lazy aircraft engines, missing earphones, stormy winds and a little too laid-back marina managers to get a taste of Magic Miles. The trip was to commence from Sydney and end in the Gold Coast. The exact reverse fixture that I’d sailed as my first ever trip with Ocean Sailing Expeditions onboard Silver Fern, which feels like a lifetime ago (it was last December).
Magic Miles was easy enough to find in the Marina as she was the biggest sail yacht in Middle Harbour Yacht Club Marina by quite a lot. I was greeted onboard by Johnno, a 90’s grunge rock aficionado, Greenpeace Warrior, tattoo enthusiast and Magic Miles’s Chief Mate. Next onboard was the Skipper, Jimmy, who aside from stellar surfing credentials across Tasman waves, was also Johnno’s un-identical twin. He did insist that he was elder to Johnno by about ten minutes, but I’ll need some written medical proof at some point.
Once the new halyard was in place, we welcomed onboard, Johnathan, who had been on the run from the Canadian Mounties for the last six months. Joining him was Ross, the human cat on the last of his nine lives. Making a comeback to the sailing arena was Brett, Mister-I-can’t-take-off-my-own-boots. He would be bunking with Laurie, an old school Melbourne cowboy; Stuart, who very much like Johnathan, was on the run, but not from the Canadian national authorities, just his wife.
Sonia, a professional forklift freestyler and adrenaline-seeker, also joined us and delighted me with her tales of energy-drink addiction-recovery. Next up were the father-daughter duo of Pete, who wore an incredible lobster-hat (it was actually a famous Japanese baseball team’s logo) and Merrilyn, named after her Grandma and probably one of yesteryears famed mage, Merlin’s alter-egos. Tony was last but not least to the party, as beers and pizzas were passed around that night, as the crew got to know each other, before the big adventure began. Sadly, Adam, an Italian olive-oil forager in a previous life, could not join us due to a last minute family emergency. But he’d most definitely be with us on the yacht, in spirit!
As we set sail the next morning, a few pesky nuts and bolts of the main sail’s car delayed our progress. It was quickly sorted out before the sail locker’s sliding access door confounded three of Magic Mile’s greatest minds. It slid to open, you weren’t supposed to try and rip it upwards. Once we started making headway to our destination of Port Stevens for the night, Magic Miles showed what magic she was really capable of, as 9 knots became the average speed for the day.
Torrential rain and sea with unforgiving swells quickly got to almost all of our crew, as Magic Miles held strong against nature’s fury. It was quite amusing to see other vessels scrambling for cover and anchorage as we kept on our mission. I decided to treat the crew to some Indonesian style chicken noodles but was amused to see that not many were still capable of putting food into their mouths, by the time dinner was ready.
Brett was back in his usual position of hugging the heads for dear life, as Merrilyn showed me her skeleton shaped slippers. Sonia carried out a six hour watch on deck as almost every other crew member was fighting sea sickness. I was on the helm as we motor-sailed against an enigmatic tidal force at Port Stephens Bay. Memories of coming back into Portsmouth Harbour at night time without the leading lights flood back. (never again!)
We finally managed to find solace in Salamander Bay as the last few still standing at 2am, tucked into my now cold noodle-dinner. The plan was to lay low as the horrid weather moved town south and we fixed the boat up a bit. The engine’s throttle had come off during our anchoring process. Never a dull second eh? Oh, I’ll buy a free beer for anyone who can find the Magic Mile’s engine throttle’s location by themselves.
A slow start to the next morning got a bit exciting as Peter and Tony decided that our fire bucket needed swimming lessons and dropped it into the sea. Sadly, even though the bucket knew how to swim, it didn’t know how to climb back up the yacht and promptly started swimming away from us. The tender was employed as Johnno’s lifting straps made their debut. Order and normalcy were restored, as Sonia helped the crew get lunch up and running. Magic Miles awaits tomorrow as the Gold Coast beckons. God knows we could really do with some sunshine!
- Arjun Thimmaya, Chief Mate, Magic Miles