Wednesday 28 July 2010

Sailing on Leap Frog
When we last left you one of our favoured crew members had been lost, and we were preparing ourselves for one of the most deceptively treacherous and savage regions we shall most likely encounter on our expedition.

The mighty broadwater has delivered to us some polar experiences. the mighty SV Leapfrog slipped silently betwix the becalmed banks of the peaceful stretch of water, lulling her crew into a dreamlike consciousness state where under the gaze of the moon and lite drizzle of life nectar the evening was spent. In anticipation of the importance of the next days navigational difficulty the great Captain Ahab once again bunkered earlier than the rest of the crew, this decision proved to be of great importance as if the captain had had less rest then a disaster more unimaginable may have occurred.

As the evening before had done the beauty of the Broadwater had all the crew of The Frog entranced, that was until a stretch was reached where the crew had been warned to be wary, the sky went dark, the surface of the water trembled and the captain quailed, the crew began to cry out in fear of unknown as somehow The Frog inexplicably mounted in pace massive eddies appeared and giant mountains of water sprung randomly from all quarters and in an instant all seemed lost for The Frog and her courageous crew as a deathly crunch was heard and felt throughout the bones of the ship and Leapfrog ground violently to a halt.

Shock, as quickly as it was upon the crew was replaced by dashing action; Captain Ahab handed the helm to Cloudbreaker and dashed for the life raft initially the crew observed this as being a Captain abandoning his post. It was quickly understood that it was not a display of cowardice but instead great courage, as they great power of the 4 hoarse powed Suzuki fired into action and Ahab motored abeam of The Frog he called to crewman Chong; Chongs lightning reactions to swing out on the boom topper and deliver it into Ahabs waiting grip was the only reason the mighty vessel is still afloat today, using all four mighty stallions, Turvey was able to keep a steady lean on its larger counterpart and coupled with the gutsy bowls of The Frogs own yanmah deeper waters were inevidably found.

The excitement of the crew was short lived however as the seductress of the Broad water was not finished with our heroic bunch. Ahab and Turvey surged ahead in an endeavour to mark a safe passage for The Frog with her deeper draught to follow. However in such torrential conditions which had set in the two vessels became separated and with nowhere to go but forward The Frog ventured cautiously on. Just as the two vessels were once again within sight of each other, again a most powerful squall ruptured the crews world. Whirl pools surrounded both boats and The Frog was once again stalled in her path. The crew and captain tried again to repeat their successful endeavours of the last times grounding, however this time the Broadwater sirens had completed their task and the SV Leapfrog was hard aground, sore sorry and soggy crew aboard her.

Full faith in the captain had been placed with the knowledge that he was surpassed by no other in the world when observing the movements of the tidal motions of the water, and once again in this case his interpretation of the tide times had indeed been correct. It was in fact the serendipitous chance that his knowledge of what date it in fact is, does not match his tide charting abilities. Somewhere since the undertaking of this voyage our courageous captain has misplaced exactly one week and had ordered the vessel to be skippered through such waters several hours before the more sensible times of high water! Saying that "had we been a week earlier navigation would have been fine" (Quote- The Captain)

This slight miscalculation was dually realised and although by this stage all on board had broken into the grog supplies in anticipation of an extended wait The Frog, in her own sublime manner swung tenderly on her anchor and was accordingly tended to by the crew and guided further down river, now bobing peacefully and sound in the blue of safe anchorage. Captain Ahab unconscious below, from excess or embarrassment or perhaps both. Either way little consolation for his missed opportunity, for just this afternoon this crew member witnessed the rare event of seeing a manatee or in nautical terms, the sea cow.
Could this be a prelude to the answer to Ahabs prayers? It is folk lore that the sea cow can often precede a sighting of the fabled Moby Dick. Return here to find out.

Until next time this is Cloudbreaker signing out.

Monday 26 July 2010

Sailing on Leap Frog
As you may be able to guess there is some disjointedness murmuring within the mind of the Great Captain Ahab (Chris Warren), it is true that there are some minor mechanical concerns it is my belief that he is more troubled over the loss of one of our original crew members. James, better known on this vessel as Cheech, has today been lost; swept over the side of the mighty Leapfrog by a surge of unimaginable magnitude and was last seen sliding into a misty haze drifting towards Brisbane. He has left behind the fondest memories for those who survive him and any replacement crew stand very little chance of being able to surpass what such a great seaman brought with him to this vessel. Lest we forget, but forward we must go. And that is what we will be doing, even with an underhanded amount of crew the Mighty SV Leapfrog will surge forth into the uncharted waters of the north, battling beasties and boaties in the continued search for Captain Ahab in his quest to land the fabled Great White Whale! will he be able to conquer his dream? what challenges lay in store for The Leapfrog? check here regularly to find out.
This is Cloudbreaker signing out

Yanmar are a bunch of assholes

Sailing on Leap Frog
Today is the day that we are going in search of a kit for the fuel lift pump, unfortunatly the original manafactures have decided that you should not service the pump but will sell you a whole new unit, not for us off to the auto stores in search of a seal kit to fix the problem.
The The Gold Coast has been fun and good to catch up with family and friends. The weather has been a little cold however so we will be heading further north this week
Chris

Thursday 22 July 2010

Marine Stadium


Sailing on Leap Frog

After a night of heavy reaching and running in up to about 25 Knots the Leaf frog was doing speeds over the ground of 6-8 knots and at times up to 10 down waves the boat is performing well above our expectations and have had a good quick trip. During the trip we saw heaps of whales, some a little to close for comfort with a whale swimming right under us. There were birds and dolphins along the way and we were lucky to pick up a Bonnito on the way which made for another nice meal. The Gold Coast seaway was entered at about 11:30 on Wednesday morning after almost 3 days at sea. We motored around the corner to an anchorage called Marine Stadium just next to seaworld. We then spend day drying the boat and checking out the Yacht club facilities at Southport. The plan is to stay in the goldcoast for the weekend.

Out at Sea

Sailing on Leap Frog

Mid Passage from Port Mac to Southport
Flying under the evil Kiwi at last – the breeze moderated and we were able to fly the Kite which was great! It has a picture of a Kiwi on it with blood dripping from its claws and blood drip eyes all in red! (Leapfrog was built in NZ of Kauri Ply in the early 60’s based on a Griffin design) The boat has been going quicker than expected and we have had great reaching and running conditions so far so when there was a prediction of no wind and then wind from the North we decided that we should pull in...
A lovely stop in Port Macquarie, we stayed right in the middle of town, as we were told later by the marina guy we had anchored right next to the channel in right near the park. The best way to describe the day in port which started on Sunday at about 9 am when we set anchor after a couple of nights at sea. We enjoyed a great Sunday session which involved lost phones wallets and received comments on the Jolly roger which we have flying. A quick restock of supplies more ice. VB and bread – the main meals are still going strong thanks Mum’s. The bar crossing was done on slack tide on Sunday at the morning low and on Monday on the afternoon high – there was fair bit of current during the middle of the tide. We have has a few running repairs the traveller and hopefully fixed a minor diesel leak. Packing is starting to take less time as we cram all of our stuff onto the vessel. Its Raining now and James and I start our watch 6pm Monday night watchwhich is in less than half an hour It would be nice to stay down below however this will have to be done by Steve and Troy for the next 3 hours.

Saturday 17 July 2010


Sailing on Leap Frog
We have finally departed! After much preparation we managed to sneak away from the dock very late on Thursday (3am) and went and stayed the night in Double Bay. Currently Leapfrog is home to Troy, James, Steve and Chris - along with more stuff than I ever thought was possible to fit into a 31ft boat! - we are down a little on the water line... After a good rest we then realised that half a jar of coffee was just not enough... so up to Edgecliff on the first of may boat to shop missions. We managed to clear the heads at about 16:00 and turned left. The breeze has been about 15 knots from the SW overnight with about 1-1.5m swell (it was a little variable overnight).It is now 0900 Saturday and we are currently about 5 miles from Port Stephens so we have been making good time with speeds over the ground from 5-7 knots. The weather is looking like it will go light tonight however we are going to push on north. The boys have been having a good time with plenty of steering to keep us all amused all are in good spirits and are looking forward to some warmer weather!
Chris