Day 53, April 28 -

At 11 AM local (WST) time I dressed up with sea boots and wet weather trousers to transfer the anchor chain from the V berth area below into the chain locker at the bow and then put out the anchor. Conditions were not too bad, though not ideal. There was enough wind to cause white capping and once in a while a wave would slap the bow sending spray over the foredeck. One problem was that I would have to have the forward hatch open for short periods of time and I did not want any more moisture going into the V berth section. Nevertheless the job had to be done because I did not want to be in the close waters of Cockburn Sound and Gage Roads without an anchor ready for deployment.

The first task was to get the chain into the locker. I opened the hatch and dead lifted half of the chain hand over hand so as not to scour the edge of the hatch base. I then began to feed it into the hawse pipe. Once I had 2 meters of chain dangling into the locker I took the rope at the end of the chain and lashed it to a bracket that I had installed for the purpose. The idea of the rope was that I would be able to knife through the rope it if forced to cut away the anchor rode during some emergency. I then lifted out the second half of the chain and shut the hatch, thankful that no sea water had passed through it.

Then it was time for the 45 lb plow anchor, which was stowed at the base of the clothes locker on top of the disassembled Swarbrick 50 lb anchor. I cleared out the clothes, lifted out the anchor, and placed it on the port (leeward) bunk of the V berth. Then from topside there was no other way of avoiding a one armed dead lift of the anchor up to the deck. The wet deck is wonderfully non-skid for footwear, but is like glass for metal objects, so I had to be careful about putting it into a stable position for the shackle work. In the bag for once I had brought everything that I needed: large adjustable wrench, long screw driver for holding the shackle while worked it with the wrench, stainless steel mousing wire, and side cutter pliers. Soon the chain was attached to the anchor and I worked it forward thankful that I had not put the chain on the wrong side of a sheet or the lifeline. At the bow there was no way around it: a one armed dead lift of the anchor leaning forward, shoulder against the forestay, deck pitching, trying to place the anchor stock on the roller. That went OK and other than a grumbling back the entire job had gone well. I remember surveying the scene while I was on the foredeck working on my knees, of the bright sunshine, blue water, bow cutting smartly through the water, and thinking to myself 'Savour these moments, mate, because your blue water sailing days are about to be over for a while.'

After tidying up I rescued the last 10 beers from their soggy cardboard case up forward, put them in the refrigerator, and started it up. I was getting bright sunshine to help charge the batteries, expected to run the engine during the night, and shucks, why not treat myself and visiting guests to cold beers.

I was pleased with the state of the boat. Other than a bit of last minute tidying up my remaining tasks were to have a bath and change of clothes, which I might well do during the night in the moonlight, and after daybreak putting up the Q (quarantine) and Aussie flags, putting the boat fenders in position, and set up dock lines fore and aft. From photos of the Customs jetty that Brenda and Stephen had sent me while I was in Cape Town I expected to go nose in with the jetty to my starboard, so most fenders would be set up on the starboard side but I would probably set up 2 on the port side, just in case.

At 1PM WST we were 39 miles directly west of Halls Head, 50 miles from Fremantle, and making 4.5 kts. The dream run continued.

At 3.30 PM WST I tried the car radio and received FM stations with crystal clarity. We level with Singleton, 32 miles to the east and coming up on Secret Harbour. Fremantle was 40 miles ahead. I set the ship's clock to WA time.

At 0800 UTC our numbers for the sailing day were:

POS 32S23, 115E07
NND 98 nm (in last 24 hours)
DMG 4880 nm (from Cape Town)
DTG 37 nm (to Fremantle)

We were 29 miles W of Secret Harbour.

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