Sailing back to Oz .

[Cruzy Suzy]

We are in Malaysia. Does anyone have advice re sailing back via Western Australia..timing and weather...especially cyclone avoidance.


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[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by Cruzy Suzy

We are in Malaysia. Does anyone have advice re sailing back via Western Australia..timing and weather...especially cyclone avoidance.


Sent from my iPad using Cruisers Sailing Forum

Did it 20 years ago, left Phuket in April and went via Singapore, Banka and Sunda Straits.
Headed due south through the trades - which had kicked in just north of Sunda- with the plan being to hold that course until we got down near the latitude of Fremantle. Mislaid the rig 700 miles west of Carnarvon so motored there and fitted a new one.
Left there in September (?) ( don't have my logbook here ) just ahead of the cyclone season. Had a bit of rubbish weather just north of Geraldton and then parked her in Fremantle ( work commitments played a major part in the planning and timing) until December.
Then had an easy run across to Geelong south of the high ( went down to 40S and crossed in that latitude ).
Hope this helps
El Ping

[Cruzy Suzy]

Thanks for that. What sort of weather brought down the rig?

[El Pinguino]

SE... about 15 knots over the deck, slight sea.
Failure of the T-ball thingo , port lowers, 8 year old rig with rather a lot of miles on it.... 3 or 4 weeks after I bought the boat.
It was just its time to go........ if I had inspected the rig thoroughly... ie mast out of boat... it would have been spotted... you could see by the break that much of it wasn't 'fresh'.
We live and learn....

[El Pinguino]

and also... one more thing, stay offshore as per my original plan. We had to go to Carnarvon... inshore south to Geraldton was OK but south of there screaming sea breezes out of the south each afternoon. same same Chilean coast.