The simple story of group of young sailors cruising 500 miles in a 100 year old boat

By Chris Johnson

After a busy summer period at home I was lucky enough to venture down to the AWBF abound one of the Wooden Boat Shops Efficient 44s. It was a fantastic couple of jammed packed days! It’s always a thrill finally tying up and having a beer in VIC dock after cruising down the east coast. This year however, was especially exciting, because over the summer a bunch of my friends had made a plan to sail Storm Bay home to Sorrento after the festival, while her owners Tim and Sally Phillips jumped ship and started there around Aus. cruise on their Deal island 50 Winter Cove.

The crew for our trip composed of Will Phillips and his now wife Georgina, Sam Phillips, Harry Mighell and his partner Tess Lloyd and myself. Before leaving Hobart I took care of the beer and wine shopping with Sam while the others did the less important food, and after a scallop pie lunch we were off sailing down the river and past Bruny island on the way to the West Coast.

Storm Bay is turning 100 years old this July, and nearly 20 years since she was re-launched after the 10 year restoration. As you spent time onboard sailing and relaxing you get a sense of the time and effort that has gone into every detail. It is the perfect blend of preservation and recovery of original pieces of timber mixed with some modern technology, or so we thought, until we burnt through some of the wiring one morning at breakfast!

One of my favourite moments of the journey was on the second day when we were steaming around the southern capes in rare Mirror/flat clam, hot summer conditions were we stopped for a lazy lunch and a few drinks in New Harbour and went swimming and diving. After a glamour day, we saw this as a perfect opportunity to drop some cray pots in off the Breaksea islands. The red glow on the battered westerly facing rocks was amazing as we threw the pots overboard on Sam’s strategic calls.

There was a buzz about that next morning as we hauled the pots instantly showcasing the colour red including a number of jockeys on the outside! The crays must like the wet well in the old Storm Bay.

In Port Davey, the Storm Bay crew all enjoyed walks ashore and relaxing on deck by the woodfire BBQ with our crays inside. We went for a hike up Mt Misery where Georgina thought the name was perfect before we even got to the steepest bit!

We also ventured up to, and past the gorges of the Davey river by dinghy enjoying a swim at our lunch spot on the river bank.

One afternoon Harry Wing foiled down the narrows in fresh conditions and around to Claytons corner with Sam in hot pursuit in the sailing tender and me steering Storm Bay while the others had a nap below.

On the morning of Valentine’s Day we left Port Davey for Pilot bay outside Hells Gates, there was a bit of sea running, after a short and sharp north westerly front the afternoon and night before. Storm bay punched her way slowly out past the breaksea islands where the backwash waves were a little too much for some onboard. Will, who’s fantastic calming nature was amazing throughout the trip was put to the test that morning. He was busy steering while reassuring his fiancé Georgina who had suddenly started a pre wedding weight loss program laying on the wet awash deck. It didn’t take all that much longer before Will was joining in on the same program…

It was a long day for Harry and Tess as they did not leave the aft Dodger, for fear of getting sick below. Upon arriving and dropping anchor some 15 hours later I overheard Tess cheekily say, “well Harry, at least we got to slot our date in!” Sam’s watch keeping schedule was cleverly established by picking scrabble letters out of a hat, and assigning each watch fairly! Although some back-to-back watches were hard to swallow!

Cruising into Strahan for breakfast, we collected another crew member who fitted in well as she was the 4th Olympian on board! Jess was greeted by quite a flat, exhausted and wet crew who needed a pick me up, which was swiftly sorted out in the pub with a Parma and beer. Cruising up the Gordon River to heritage landing and Sir Johns falls while playing cards together by the warmth of the wood fire was the ultimate contrast between the offshore conditions of the days prior.

Our latest crew addition, Jess, while very competent in the water (Olympic swimmer) was enjoying her first time onboard an Ocean cruise. She was thrown straight into an overnight passage from Strahan to Hunter Island, where we left in quite a hurry upon gaining reception after leaving the Gordon. Her first passage included navigating Hunter Passage in wind against tide conditions in 25+ knots.

We had a beautiful day swimming at Shepard’s Bay, fishing and rowing in the dinghy, and wining and dining on what we referred to on the old Storm Bay as the ‘hotel boats’ (deal island 50s).

Our final afternoon at the northern end of three hummock island was fantastic. The girls enjoyed beach walks and swimming, whilst the boys went rock climbing and bush bashing.

Over a beer and an early dinner we decided to catch the last of a fresh south westerly which lasted until we were only a few hours away from Port Phillip heads and was great double reef sailing. It was perfect timing that we then finally landed a good sized tuna after reeling it in for 30 minutes. This was very well received after unsuccessfully landing five tuna’s on the trip due to, broken gaffs, broken lines, and lures. I was cleaning the fish as we entered the Rip and before I knew it I was leaning over the side and grabbing the mooring buoy after what was for me three and a half weeks since I dropped it to leave for Hobart. We divided up the tuna and other fish caught at the end of the jetty in Sorrento, and left Storm Bay happily awaiting her next adventure.

We all felt super lucky and thankful that Tim trusted us enough to take Storm Bay—his pride and joy—out on her first trip without him at the helm. We are already planning our next adventures.