PRISCALINA – 40FT FOUNTAINE PAJOT CATAMARAN

The plan was to settle into Airlie Beach and then start looking for a suitable yacht. As Steve already had every boat broker and webpage bookmarked on the laptop, he was already well in front in regard to researching potential vessels. We had accepted an offer on the house and with only two months until the removal trucks would roll in, Steve announced that he had found the ‘perfect’ boat. There was a discussion on the issue of it ‘not being the right time’ – ok, perhaps it was just me bringing up the discussion in a futile attempt to slow things down. We did decide however, that at least we should start getting onto boats instead of just web browsing them and a trip to see several boats along the east coast was organised. We looked at one in Airlie, another in Brisbane and three in Sydney with all their pros and cons. Steve ran the two contenders by Mark Reid, a colleague he had worked with in the South Pacific and who was a sailor of many nautical miles. Based in Melbourne, he had sailed his yacht back and forth between Australia and the Pacific Islands, with a stint of living in Fiji as the Fire Chief. In the end, we could not fault the Fountaine Pajot Lavezzi in Pittwater Sydney, called Priscalina. She had spent four years sailing from Croatia to Australia and provided a home for Olaf, Renata and Ronja (who was born in the middle of this journey). Baby number two was due in March, and they were heading home to Switzerland, leaving everything onboard except the clothes they were wearing basically. This amounted to the icing on the cake as the dollars soon disappear if you have to set up home/boat from scratch. So, twelve months earlier than planned, we purchased Priscalina.

CATAMARAN DELIVERY – SYDNEY TO WHITSUNDAYS
As excited as we were, it was also a little daunting to contemplate bringing Priscalina home to Airlie from Sydney, with our limited experience. Mark Reid had offered to help in a much earlier conversation, so a call was put in to see if the offer was still on the table. Mark was extremely keen having never sailed a catamaran before. We were ecstatic to have him on board!
An eight- day non- stop passage with us rotating around a three hour ‘watch’ was Mark’s plan. Looking back, I’m pretty confident that this type of itinerary would not be in a Flight Centre glossy brochure.
Steve and I flew in to pick up the keys and provision the boat ready for Mark’s arrival the following day. Our departure date had been pushed back a week to allow for Marks chemotherapy results to be approved, and now the weather was not on our side. As our lease on the mooring was up, we decided to sail around to ……… and pick up a National Parks mooring to allow a better weather window to arrive, hopefully only the day after.
A decided was made to head off, even though the weather had only improved slightly, as another strong front was coming. Poking our bow out into the Pacific Ocean had us nose on to 20kt winds and 2-3mt seas, drizzle and cold. Ouch! Motoring for the next 24 hours saw us start our three- hour rotation of sleeping, eating and on watch routine kick in. It is slightly unnerving to be at sea, in the dark and by yourself at the helm for the first time. As morning broke so did the port motor with no chance of investigating in these conditions, a stop at Coffs Harbour was plugged into the chart plotter. Mark, at six and a half foot tall, squeezed into the engine well and soon had us going again but not before a hot shower and a burger to soothe the soul.
The weather had come around enough for us to get the sails up but not enough to combat the current so to keep us at five knots the engines were still on. Another day and night saw the port motor fail again. Steve navigated us safely over the Gold Coast Bar and into Horizon Shores where we then bid farewell to Mark, as it looked like we needed to get the experts in, and this could take up to a week. As it was Easter the following week and marine mechanics were in high demand, our first quote was a quick, easy fix – just replace the whole motor. A sleepless night was had, thinking about that cost!
Steve had only just joined the Facebook community and through a reconnection with a school friend now living on the Gold Coast we were able to use his contacts. These mechanics soon had us back up and running. A combination of gunk, black death and inadequate fuel filters were to blame.

Gold Coast to Whitsundays
Mark had assured us we were more than capable of doing this on our own. We weren’t sure, but we had no other choice. Looking back this was really when we started to enjoy the journey as it allowed us to break it up into stages with no time pressures. Our first day was spent navigating through the Gold Coast Seaway and into a berth at Manly and provided us with a chance to catch up to family and friends and even a Brisbane Lions game
The next leg was a short trip up to Mooloolaba where we needed to work out a strategy to navigate through the notorious Wide Bay Bar. There is no shortage of dire warnings about the dangers of the ‘mad mile’ to unprepared mariners, and as such had us wary. Added to this was the ongoing saga of the two co-ordinates on all navigational charts are now incorrect due to the shifting sands. So, we crossed off as many precautions as we could, heading up and anchoring in behind Double Island Point the night before as we still needed another two hours of motoring to be at the bar at 6am for the top of the tide slack period. We had called the Wide Bay VMR for the new co-ordinates the day before, so on arrival at the first mark we logged on with the VMR, put on our life jackets and proceeded through. Well, that was an anticlimax! As luck would have it the day we crossed, we had the wind drop out and it was like a mill pond. However, we will always err on the side of caution when it comes to our safety.
After a coffee to settle ourselves, we worked our way through the myriad markers and channels of the Great Sandy Straits to fuel up and dock at Urangan Harbour. There are many beautiful anchorages amongst the straits, and we will return, however there looked to be a weather change coming and Steve was also being given a farewell by his colleagues at the AFAC conference in Melbourne in just over a week.
Another day trip up to Hervey Bay, where we discovered the smallness of the world. A dinner was to be had at the local RSL and we had just stepped in the front door to hear Steve’s name being called. Two of his Queensland work mates had decided on dinner here as well. We enjoyed a great meal, a few drinks and a lot of laughs which was terrific.
With the upcoming weather change approaching we decided that an overnight passage would be needed to get us to Rosslyn Bay Marina where we could leave the boat for the week, to allow the weather to pass and Steve to head to Melbourne. This time it was only the two of us, but we left it at three-hour watches, and this worked well. The weather was still variable, and we were using the motors along with the headsail just to make the five knots we needed as a minimum. We crossed the shipping channel at Gladstone, narrowly missing one of these huge coal ships when it decided to change course.
The night at marina coincided with their 25-year celebration by the family who not only built it but still own it and we were invited. After getting our delicious steak meal we scouted around for a seat and spied two on the end of a long table. The official part of the night then started with the family, politicians and other dignitaries speaking and now we realised we had gate crashed the VIP table. It didn’t take us long to exit gracefully between speeches before the rest of the table realised we were just ‘grotty yachties’.
We had decided to rent a car for the week to head home, picking up Maddy from my parent’s place and a week later made the return trip back to Rockhampton. This enabled us to catch up with my sister and her husband and took up their offer of a lift back to Rosslyn Bay and an opportunity to look over Priscalina.
The end was now in sight, and we once again decided that an overnight sail would get us to Airlie without wasting the better part of a day sitting in an anchorage only hours away from home. This was an uneventful leg but an experience, coming through the many islands of the Whitsundays during the night. We were ready and waiting for the team at Abell Point Marina bright and early the next morning, ready to put Priscalina into her home berth.
An eight-day delivery had turned into almost four weeks, but what a start to the next stage of our life!