Ulladulla Slip

At the second attempt we motored over the Batemans Bay bar at 4:30 in the afternoon. There was a little bit more water and I think we took a better route. Stuart and Richard were rather relieved. The trip to Ulladulla was rather uneventful in that there was no wind, as a consequence we had to motor all the way with the autopilot doing the work. We arrived at 10:30 pm and logged off from the local Coastal Patrol. We then secured Malua along side a yacht which had sailed from Tasmania and were on their way north. Fortunately they had not gone to sleep so they helped us with our lines. After the early mornings start and excitement we all turned in and slept uneventfully through to the next morning.
The crew left in the morning to drive back to Batemans Bay. I cleaned up the boat before Denny arrived to take be back to the house. I arrived the next day to prepare for the evening’s slipping. I measured up the cradle and then made marks on Malua where the cradle should go.
Just before the top of the tide I motored over to the slip and waited for the manager to let the cradle back into the water. I then motored up on to the cradle. It was obvious that I had not made the marks and more water was needed for Malua to sit correctly on the cradle. I secured lines to the cradle and winched them as tight as they would go. Not a slight movement.As the tide was about to go out I for the second time in a few days, I had to back out of being stuck without sufficient water. With the engine in full astern the boat was not moving. I had to take the lines attached to the cradle forward and use the windlass to pull the boat off the cradle. What a relief to be free floating again. What to do next?

Aground on Batemans Bay Bar

With no success with the local marina management I decided to sail north to Ulladulla to put Malua on their slip. I was accompanied by Stuart and Richard. The high tide was at 5:30 am so we decided to leave the dock at six. We would be just a few minutes after the top of the tide. I had plotted a course slightly south of the leads because I knew that NSW Maritime could not move the leads to show the best passage across the bar. We moved slowly towards the bar expecting to touch for a few moments as we crossed the bar. Well be hit the bar OK and didn’t move off as expected. Luckily it is just sand although rather well packed. I applied more power and hoisted the main and genoa to get the boat to lean and reduce the draft. There was a slight swell which assisted our forward motion but we seemed to be going nowhere. The boat was solidly aground.
After about 30 minutes and the reality of the tide falling I thought it prudent to contact the BB Coastal Patrol to give us some assistance. We continued to drive forward moving the vessel slightly NE. We were starting to heel but not make any progress. We took stock of the situation and started to look for deep water which much to our surprise was sighted off the port quarter.I put the engine astern with full throttle, hoping that the swell would lift us off. Fortunately Malua broke free and we went astern into some deeper water. Not wanting to chance our luck any more we steamed back towards the breakwater. At that point the Coastal Patrol vessel appeared much to their disappointment. We drew alongside and thanked them for the offer of assistance. We steamed back into the Marina to wait for the afternoon tide which would give us an extra 400mm.