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Weather

Thursday 23 Feb // 04:23AM (local)
Humid.
Wed
/
Partly cloudy.
Thu
20/29
Early shower.
Fri
19/27
Partly cloudy.
Sat
16/26

Weather data courtesy of BOM

Useful Information

Clubs, Organisations and Associations
WA Yachting Foundation The Western Australian Yachting Foundation Inc (WAYF). was established in 1988, in the wake of the Americas Cup challenge in Fremantle. The Foundation's aim was to promote Perth, Western Australia as a world acclaimed yachting venue.
Yachting Australia describes itself as "the peak body for all forms of yachting, both power and sail, throughout Australia"
Yachting Western Australia The WA Pages of the Yachting Australia website

Gear
Craypot Line Protection ?? Craypot lines cause much anxiety for cruisers on the WA Coast, especially on the Abrolhos Cruise. Here is one product that looks like it could help. With a set of "spurs" one could almost become blasé about the craypot lines that seem invariably to litter the line of the leads into Jurien Bay!

Government
Legal Requirements of Yachts Entering/Leaving Australia This link is to the Australian Government Customs Service website pages dealing with yachts entering Australia. Overseas yachts intending to visit Australia should note particularly the legal requirement to give Customs advance notice of their arrival.
WA DOPI Marine home page The Western Australia Department of Planning and Infrastructure has responsibility for all things marine (harbours, moorings, registration etc.) Their Marine home page is here.
Australian Government Trap for the Unwary Inbound Cruiser This article presents one side of a saga that has raised many eyebrows in the cruising community on and near Australia's East Coast. Whatever your beliefs about who's at fault here, foreign nationals arriving in Australia by yacht have been ordered by an Australian Court to pay very substantial sums of money for failing to adhere to the letter of Australian Customs law. There are important lessons in this story for any yacht approaching Australian shores.

Locations
activecaptain.com website From their homepage: "ActiveCaptain currently has a visual database of over 10,000 marinas, over 15,000 local knowledge markers, 4,000 reviews, and 2,000 anchorages. Continued success depends on you." You need to register to get the most out of it, but registration is free and they don't seem to spam you. Once registered, you can add information about marinas and cruising spots. I registered and added some information about FSC. If each FSC Cruiser adds something about their favourite cruise destination in WA, the (currently sparse) information about WA cruising areas will quickly fill in and this will become a useful resource for all of us.
Kimberley Cruising Website Dennis and Annette Ford's website provides a comprehensive collation of information they've gathered on numerous cruises through the Kimberleys since 1982
MarinaMap Information about Marinas, services, charters etc all over the world
Broome Port "Pleasure Craft Information" A favourite for many Aussies and a must-anchor for cruising visitors to the Kimberley, Broome is now that little bit easier to visit by boat thanks to this comprehensive guide courtesy of the Port of Broome authority. Don't sail into Broome without consulting this guide!

Natural Wonders

Photos

Publications

Safety
AMSA Australian Maritime Safety Authority This site includes a link for you to register your new EPIRB electronically.
AMSA EPIRB Registration page From this page, you can download a PDF Form (recommended) or MS Word Document template to fill out and email back to AMSA to register your new EPIRB. There's also a form you can print off, write on and fax or snail-mail to AMSA.
Cruising Section "Green Book" Safety Recommendations This book provides guidance for Cruising Skippers on ways to minimise the risks associated with cruising. It is a work in progress so if you have any suggestions for improvement, don't hesitate to contact the author, Kim Klaka. You can contact me (rhills@medimorphosis.com.au, the webmaster) via the website and I'll forward your message on to Kim.
Cruising Section Safety Checklist (Coastal) This document accompanies the "Green Book" (also in this section of the website) and is designed to help you ensure your boat is as safe as you can make it for coastal cruising (eg. Rottnest, Mindarie, Quindalup). If you have any suggestions for improvement, please contact Kim Klaka via this website
Cruising Section Safety Checklist (Ocean) This document accompanies the "Green Book" (also in this section of the website) and is designed to help you ensure your boat is as safe as you can make it for ocean cruising (eg. Abrolhos, Albany, Bali). If you have any suggestions for improvement, please contact Kim Klaka via this website
Cruising Section Cruising Section Risk Management System 2005 (Version 3.1) This document details plans and processes for managing the risks inherent in cruising.

Technical

Technical - Electronics

Internet in the Sticks - NextG Antenna This article from the online sail-world journal (http://www.sail-world.com) describes how to dramatically improve your NextG mobile coverage by installing an aerial on your boat.
Mux Mysteries (or how make all those instruments talk to each other) If, like me, you have a range of instruments from different manufacturers, you can make them talk to each other. However to do so, you have to be prepared to roll your sleeves up and get down and dirty with things electronique! John, the master of SV Sarah, has written a very detailed account of how he connected various instruments using several different muxes and his notes make very worthwile reading for anyone contemplating doing this kind of thing.
Aussie GPS "Mouse" Store GPS receivers are so cheap these days, it makes sense to have a couple on board your boat as backups for your main GPS/Chart Plotter, especially if you carry an onboard computer. If you just want the cheapest you can find, a quick search of eBay for "GPS Mouse" should get you started. However I (Rob Hills) have personally purchased a couple of GPS "Mice" (one with a USB connection and one wireless "Bluetooth") from this Australian company for use with my notebook computer and also my PDA/Phone. I've found them to be very knowledgeable and helpful. Their website also has some very interesting pages with comparison information about different GPS receiver technologies and some comparison testing. Look at the "Useful Links" area of their home page (near the bottom-right corner), especially "Which Chipset"
Sailing Electronics Blog Terry and Louise Baker of Miss Saigon drew my attention to this fantastic site. It provides a range of articles (and online discussion by sailors/cruisers) about the various bits of electronic kit (chart plotters, GPS, wind instruments etc.) we find ourselves beholden to these days

Technical - Going Aloft
Climb Your Mast - Feb 2009 FSC Cruising Topics Night Presentation The "PowerPoint" presentation (in PDF format) from Rob Hills' Feb 2009 Topics Night presentation on "Climbing Your Mast" Note, this is a largish file (2.6MB) so I suggest you don't try and download it via HF Modem!
Mast Mate hoistable mast climbing ladder This product can be hoisted up a mast track (or a tensioned rope) to create a temporary ladder to climb your mast. Used together with a bosun's chair (for additional safety), it's one answer to the old problem of the mate not having the strength to winch the skipper up the mast.
Topclimber I own an earlier version of the Topclimber and can personally vouch for its effectiveness. It requires a bit more effort to climb the mast with one of these than it does with a bosun's chair, but as you can use it solo, it requires NO strength or effort on the part of the "Admiral", something that's bound to reduce the tension that often develops around a mast-climbing event! Once aloft in one of these, you feel much safer than in a bosun's chair, especially if in any kind of a sea. I've hung upside down in one, working on the underside of the spreaders more than once.

Technical - Lighting

Technical - Power
Deep Cycle Battery FAQ This page is on the website of a US Solar Electric store, but it provides the best description I've seen of the various types of battery technology available. If you've got battery problems or are thinking of upgrading your batteries, take the time to read this page first.

Technical - Under your boat
Smooth as a Baby's Bottom In this article for the Bluewater Bulletin in June 2004, Dr Kim Klaka ruins some perfectly good bar-room debates with a few facts! Read on to learn how smoothe the bottom of your boat really needs to be.
Is electrolysis eating your boat? If you have a steel boat, this article is mandatory reading. If your boat has any metal bits in contact with salt water, this article is mandatory reading. In case you're still reading, your boat does have metal bits in contact with the water - read the article! Seriously, Nick Walker does a superb job of simplifying the mysteries of electrolysis for the rest of us in this excerpt from the October-November 2009 FSC Cruising Newsletter.

Technical - Waste Management
Holding Tanks These are the notes from Dr Kim Klaka's Cruising Section Topics Night (22 November 2002) on Holding Tanks. An excellent resource on this sticky subject.

Technical - General
Animated Knots This is a very good educational tool for learning how to tie knots, as it shows animations that you can control the speed of
Anchor Comparison Review Interesting article that tests the holding power of various types of anchors in hard sand in California with interesting, and sometimes surprising results.
Anchoring - Bill Burbidge's Notes for Quindalup 2005 For the Quindalup 2005 briefing, Bill Burbidge provided an excellent overview of anchoring techniques. The attached document contains the notes from that talk
Anchoring - Kim Klaka's Topics Night Nov 2003 Kim Klaka's November 2003 Topics Night talk on anchoring - still as relevant today as it was then and an excellent treatment of the subject.
Docking and Manoeuvering This is a detailed document which gives excellent tips on manoeuvering your boat, especially in tight areas and marinas. If you read only one treatise in your life on boat manoeuvering, make it this one. Can be downloaded and stored on your computer or printed out.
Hull Speed "My displacement yacht's maximum hull speed is directly proportional to the waterline length and can't be exceeded, right?" Wrong! according to this article. It's very technical but appears to be reliable (validated as "factually correct" by our own Naval Architect, Kim Klaka).
Physics of Sailing Have you ever wondered how a yacht can sail into the wind? Here's a great article that describes the physics of sailing in terms we can all understand
Trimming Furling Headsails Neil Pryde Sails is a US-based sailmaker with a comprehensive and interesting website. This link is to an article on their website giving tips on tuning and using Furling Headsails - a must-read for any cruiser
Convert your Barient/Barlow winches to self-tailers This link takes you to WinchMate, a website describing a product that can convert old winches into self-tailing winches.

Unusual

Weather, Tides and Astronomy
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) WA Weather The Australian Bureau of Meteorology weather website for Western Australia
Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) Wind Forecast This page enables you to obtain wind forecasts for any part of Australia for up to 7 days ahead. Many of us who use it are finding it more useful (and accurate?) than the usual bulletins.
BuoyWeather Useful "virtual buoy" approach to weather observations/predictions.
Elders Weather Elders Weather provides comprehensive weather information combined with the ability to focus on a local area. A number of cruisers report this site is particularly accurate for the Geographe Bay area (try Bunbury, Busselton or Dunsborough).
Ocean Outlook Ocean Outlook includes regional wind and wave forecasts up to 5 days ahead, surf cams, tides, moon phases etc. Some believe that Ocean Outlook's wind strength forecasts tend to be less "conservative" (read lower) than those issued by the Bureau of Meterology.
Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron - local weather Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron have an interesting website, but one particularly fascinating component is their live weather page. Not only does it have up-to-the-minute information on weather conditions at the club, but it also has daily, weekly, monthly and yearly averages and peaks!
SeaBreeze Comprehensive wind and wave forecasts with an emphasis on windsurfing and kitesurfing, but despite that many yachties swear by Seabreeze. 7-day forecasts, live wind and swell data.
WeatherZone Comprehensive Australian weather services website. Free membership available which gives you localised weather with the facility to customise units, weather views, email alerts and alarms etc.
US Navy WXmap US Navy Weather maps. Note, your first access to this site may cause your browser to complain about a "problem with this website's security certificate". You should be OK to ignore this warning and continue on to the website.

Wildlife

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