Flat out around Lake Macquarie- Kelly II's HCW 2010 War Story

by Megan Gaynor on 13 Oct 2010 Balmain Sailing Club's Kelly II found an entertaining way of wiling away the darker hours (and they got darker and darker) on Lake Macquarie during this year's Heaven Can Wait 24 yacht race.

Time: 2300 hours. Location: Read on...

'Hello, hello………………………….helloooooo?'

Damn, they've hung up on us!

Call again!'Hello, hello, NRMA? We need a new battery. Nearest cross street? That's a bit tricky -- we are in the middle of Lake Macquarie sailing around and around in circles.

'Yes, we realise it's the middle of the night but please, no, don't hang up, this is not a prank call.'

It was one of those conversations that belong in a Pinter play, totally absurd, but we were living it!

All had started off well enough.

We had decided to sail around and around and, one more time, around a lake with variable water depths, unpredictable winds (nil to gale force) and lots of rain for a sleepless 24 hours.

It's for a good cause, Cancer Research, but it's also about the unpredictable nature of competitive sailing, rising to the challenge of 24 hours non-stop racing through every obstacle a sailor can encounter.

This story is about one of those obstacles we had really not expected!

Race start was the usual windy, overcast start, building to heavy rain and wind gusts that were to cause havoc for the masts of a couple of smaller boats competing.

At times we struggled to contain our spinnaker, but it was with great enthusiasm that we sailed past the Catalina 42 Isis with our spinnaker full and the boat performing well.

We thought this race would be a lot easier than last year's.

The wind dropped, we dined in relatively flat water and were settling in for the approaching graveyard shift … can anyone see the next mark?

Have a look on the GPS. Are we on track?

It should be over there at 2 o'clock. Still can't see it, check the GPS again.

That's odd, it's a bit hard to see the instruments!

There we were, in the middle of Lake Macquarie, and the warm glow of our instrument lights became dimmer and dimmer until they faded to nothing.

Before you could say 'Where has the wind gone?' we were in total darkness, drifting along at about 0.5 knots, with no battery, no lights, no radio, no GPS, no wind and, it seemed, no hope of rescue.

The NRMA was suggested partly in jest but, hey, we were in a bit of strife here and would not be going too far with no power.

And then there were all those barely submerged sandbars just lurking beneath the surface of the dark night water.

Options were considered.

No NRMA staff in the area -- maybe someone could come down from Newcastle and possibly meet us at some northern point in the lake.

Leave it with them and they would get back to us, they'd see what they could organise…

It was not sounding very hopeful.

As we sat there shining our torches up into our sail to provide visibility for other sailors, another idea hatched.

Yes it was late and it was Saturday night, but one of our crew, JT, a local lad, could phone a friend.

Maybe one of his mates could source a battery and meet us somewhere -- but could we find someone still sober this late on a Saturday night?

We couldn't believe our luck when JT found a friend who didn't have a spare battery but was prepared to drive around until he found an all-night garage, purchase a battery and meet us at Murry's Beach jetty. Now that's a good mate!

We all settled back for drinks all round as we cruised at an extremely slow pace towards our destination.

Fate must have been looking kindly on us! We could see a dim light in the distance which we thought must be another race boat, but no, out of the darkness in the middle of the lake appeared the rescue vessel HMAS Alfreso, with Captain Ian Black at the helm.

We headed over and the boys secured the boat, one of their crew jumped on Kelly 2 and within seconds was below and peering intently at our problem battery.

After some testing and tweaking, he emerged triumphantly to announce that there was absolutely nothing wrong with our batteries, rather a junction lead had not been connected after the boat's last service!

A short time later, we sailed off with lights ablaze.

There was only one more task to do before returning to the race, and that was to pick up the new battery at the wharf.

After our two-hour interlude, we did resume the race with no wind, then rain, then one odd gale – yes, we were back into the usual Heaven Can Wait race we know and love.

The remainder of the race was relatively incident-free.

Some of you may have heard about our (initially unsuccessful) effort to leave Lake Macquarie to sail back to Sydney, but for the time being my lips are sealed on that story.