About six months ago my friend Bruce Diggins, who had about two years previously had moved his boat to Port Geogrape Marina near the town of Busselton about 100 nautical miles south of Fremantle, suggested that I also consider moving my boat from her pen in the Fremantle Sailing Club to Port Geographe Marina.
My first reaction was to politely laugh off the idea, but the more I thought about it the more attractive the idea became. Moving the boat to PGM would allow me the experience of life on a floating pen and put me on the edge of the wonderful cruising ground that is Geographe Bay, and a change of scene would do me good.
It did not take me long to formulate then execute a plan, which is a one-year experiment during which I will retain my membership of FSC as well as ownership of pen D81.
I started off by making contact with Karen, the manager of PGM, and her assistant Kerry who after a process of examination of my documentation on Pachuca's LOA (length), beam and draft, the state of her gas and electrical systems, insurance cover, registration, etc offered me a choice of three 12-meter pens on their D jetty.
In parallel with this I made contact with Nicole at the FSC Harbour Office who was enormously helpful in bringing me up to speed in all aspects of how to go about leasing my pen. One useful item was the price that the club charges for the leasing of club-owned pens, which provided me with a basis of formulating my asking price. Another item was the fact that there were no 12-meter pens available for leasing.
On 7 March I prepaid the full amount for a one-year lease of pen D59 at PGM, and a few days late I authorised the advertisement of my at the FSC website.
Working with old friends and fellow sailors Peter and Stuart we agreed on the plan to make the passage from FSC to PGM over a three-day period as follows:
Sun 23 Mar: 25 nautical mile leg from FSC to an overnight stay stay on a mooring off Doddie's beach at Madurah,
Mon 24 Mar: 50 nm passage from Mandurah to an overnight stay on anchor at Bunbury Harbour,
Tue 25 Mar: 25 nm passage from Bunbury to PGM
We knew when we started that we would be facing three days of southerly winds but we were ready and willing to do a lot of motoring.
The first day was the worst, with us having to motor from the shipping channel to Mandurah directly into a stiff southerly wind that at one point reached an apparent speed of 22 kts.
The second day was better, where we motored the entire day against a gentle southerly and in the calm waters, particularly during our passage inside of the reef.
The final day was the best day where we were able to sail most of the day against a moderate SE wind and were forced to run the engine for the last two hours due to a failing breeze.
We had to discuss with the marina the fact that our 12 meter pen was actually only 10 meters long. After being informed that having a 12 meter boat alongside a 10 meter side jetty conformed to an Australian standard and another issue that was left unresolved, Brenda my partner and her son Stephen took us back to Perth.
By the time of my meeting with the prospective lessee of my pen at FSC at 10am yesterday (the 21st) the issue with the PGM pen had had been resolved and soon the contract was signed for the lease of my pen with my guarantee that the lessee could have the pen available for at least one calendar year.
According to Google, the road distance from suburb Darlington to Busselton is 240 km representing a 2.7 hour drive. This is in contrast to the 47 km, 47 minute drive to Fremantle, so I envision visits to the boat spanning at least 3 days, be it for work/maintenance or sailing. This will mean getting back to spending more nights on the boat, something that I have done less and less over the last few years.
Unfortunately the photo that I thought that I took of Peter and Stuart in the cockpit of the boat didn't happen and in the frenzy of activity after we berthed at PGM I forgot to take a photo of the boat in her new home.
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