2018 anticlockwise voyage
Hobart to New Zealand to Newcastle to Hobart
16 January 2018 - 25 April 2018
Contact .....
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From time to time...
we sail somewhere, come across something interesting or do something that we just want to write about and show pictures. This is where it happens:
The Crew....
Jackie and Alex
Port Davey
I built a mirror dinghy in the 1970's. From there I went straight to my first keel boat - an Australian designed and built Compass 28. This only lasted a few years when career, family and life took me into different directions. My engineering career saw me going to sea on scientific research cruises around the western Pacific, Antarctica and the tropics. After retirement from regular employment, whenever I saw sail boats I would stare at them and think back to my sailing days decades earlier, and talk to Jackie about it. One day, during one of these moments, Jackie said, "either get a boat or stop talking about it". That was it! We bought Chaika, a Jeanneau 36i, and used this to get me back into sailing and help Jackie, who'd never owned a boat before, to learn the ropes. Two and a half years later we decided we wanted to continue this life and upgraded to Rusalka, a comfortable and safe, coastal and ocean going, Hallberg-Rassy 40.
Rusalka is based in Kettering, just south of Hobart, Tasmania. There are wonderful cruising grounds in sheltered waters nearby. A little further afield, the islands of Bass Strait to the north or the rugged and isolated Port Davey, Bathurst Harbour inlets on the west coast of Tasmania offer unique experiences that cruisers from many parts of the world try to get to. For the more adventurous the Southern Ocean is just on our doorstep, whose affects can be felt around the south and west coasts of Tasmania, Bass Strait and the Tasman Sea.
What is this name .....
...... In Slavic folklore, from Russia through Ukraine, Belorusia, Poland, the Balkans to Slovakia and Czech, one finds this water nymph - sprite, mermaid, water creature usually inhabiting a lake or river, but also associated with the sea - this is a RUSALKA.
Not entirely an endearing creature, but generally considered to represent beauty, a rusalka is also feared. From pagan Slavic tribes the story....
And then there is the wonderful, and rightly famous, aria, "Song to the moon" from the opera Rusalka by Czech composer Antonin Dvořák. There are many great recordings, from the early divas Fredericka Von Stade and Lucia Popp to today's greats Anna Netrebko and Renee Fleming.
It should be mentioned, there is another lesser known opera called Rusalka written by Russian composer Alexander Dargomyzhsky, taken from an incomplete poem by Pushkin.
Rusalka is a Hallberg-Rassy 40
Year 2007
Hull number 95
GRP hull, Vinylester
Hull insulated with Divinycell closed cell foam above waterline
Central cockpit
Whitlock steering with Mamba drive
White hull, teak deck and blue gelcoat hull stripe
LOA: 12.40
Beam: 3.82
Draft: 1.99
Air Draft: 18.3
Displacement: 10t
Ballast: 4.1t
Engine: Yanmar 4JH4AE
Power at crank shaft: 54 hp
Diesel tank: 460 litre
Water tank: 460 litre
Holding tank: 70 litre
Rusalka - Swedish built, Swiss registered, berthed in France, then re-registered in Australia, now home port in Hobart, Tasmania
We have owned Rusalka since the second half of 2014. She was just over 6 years old, named Bajazzo, Swiss registered and lying in Port Napoleon Marina at Port Saint Louis du Rhône in the the south of France.
The previous owner bought her new to sail the Atlantic in the ARC 2008. After arriving in Saint Lucia she spent a couple of seasons cruising the Caribbean.
The boat was shipped back to Europe, on a Dockwise freighter DYT Transport. Then after a couple more years cruising the Mediterranean the owner decided to sell.
We had a friend, who lives not far away just outside Saint Tropez, to have a quick look at her. We then flew over to inspect for ourselves. We returned home and after much anxious thinking negotiated a price and signed a sales contract. There was a lot more work sorting out all sorts of things - survey, insurance, vessel registration, transport back to Australia, all sorts of fees and charges, vessel preparation. We flew back to Port Napoleon and after a short while moved on board continuing to organise, wait, organise, wait, organise, wait........
Finally it was time to go. From Port Napoleon we sailed (motored) to Genoa in Italy. There was more waiting....
Then it was time to load the boat onto the freighter Happy Dragon. We met other people also using the Happy Dragon to ship their boat to New Zealand. Having put off our return flight to Australia several times at great expense, we decided to not see the loading, instead leaving it for someone to do in early October - so we missed that event.
Back home we eagerly awaited the arrival. We were able to follow the Happy Dragon online, on its way from Genoa to Florida, through the Panama Canal (saw it on a live web cam through the canal) and to Auckland NZ. Just before it arrived in Newcastle NSW, we couriered several boxes of stuff then flew up just in time to see the Happy Dragon arrive into port in the first week of December.
Once docked, it was lowered over the side into the water where I hopped on board and brought her into the Newcastle Cruising Yacht Club. Import formalities were completed and the name was changed to Rusalka.
Crew arrived for the delivery Newcastle to Hobart - Andrew and Damian. With 4 of us on board it was a quick trip to Hobart stopping in Pittwater, Jervis Bay, Eden, bumpy 6m seas across Bass Strait, Orford and finally Kettering in Tasmania, a week before Christmas 2014.