Crossing the Ditch by Castrission James

Author:Castrission, James [James Castrission]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780730400639
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers

DAY 12

Bumbling along at 6.30am our paddles seemed to be getting stuck in mud. I peered down, and realised we were paddling through seaweed. This change in texture was almost as exciting as seeing the yellow buoy a couple of days earlier! We were now 700 kilometres away from Forster, causing us to mull over where on earth the seaweed could have come from. As we pondered, I thought I saw something on the horizon off our starboard beam.

“Jonesy, there’s a sail over there,” I casually blurted out as if we were on a day’s paddle along Sydney’s Northern Beaches.

“Are you sure it’s not a tiger fish?” he replied, feeling pretty pleased with himself.

“No seriously, there’s a yacht over there.” My tone was beginning to crescendo as the sail got closer.

“Shit, there is too!” Jonesy yelled, finally seeing the boat in the middle distance. “Let’s try and raise them on the radio.”

I leant forward and pulled out the handheld VHF. “What should I say?” I asked uncertainly. (We’d both obtained our marine radio operator licences prior to departing and we’d been trained in how to communicate on the radio. Although the shock of stumbling onto another boat out here on the Tasman had thrown me a bit.)

“Unknown vessel, Unknown vessel, Unknown vessel,” I began. “This is Lot 41, Lot 41, Lot 41, do you read me…over.” I sheepishly turned to Jonesy, seeking assurance that what I’d said made sense.

He nodded in encouragement and we silently waited for a reply. There was nothing for a while, then suddenly the silence was broken by a short-wave crackle. “Lot 41, Lot 41, Lot 41, this is yacht Aquarelle, Aquarelle, Aquarelle, reading you loud and clear.”

This was fantastic. “Aquarelle, this is Lot 41, Lot 41, Lot 41. We’re currently en route to NZ in a kayak.”

“Lot 41, this is Aquarelle,” the voice replied. “We heard about you two crazy bastards the day you left Forster – it was all over the news in New Zealand. How are you doing?”

“Brilliantly.”

He told us they’d like to come and say hello, so they changed course and made their way towards us. Over the radio we helped guide them: “20 degrees to port”, “too much – 30 degrees to starboard” etc. Soberingly, they’d only spotted us when they were a mere 30 metres away. For some reason, the Comar Unit (the same one that wouldn’t turn on during our Port Stephens sea trial) had begun pulsing our position rather irregularly. We’d heard horror stories of other vessels being run over at sea, and it isn’t surprising that ships like the Danish Emma Mærsk, weighing in at just over 150,000 tonnes, don’t even feel the bump when they hit sailing vessels, let alone a 1-tonne kayak!

At night-time, we displayed Max the tri-colour nav light, but our experience with Aquarelle indicated how useless this weak navigation aid was so close to the water – it was only a metre above the surface and waves would often cover the line of sight.

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