enzwell

The End ..

2009-02-25T03:22:00.004Z

As promised, here is the final instalment of the adventures onboard Enzwell.

The last blog finished with us seeing in the New Year at Phuket. After a couple more days in the anchorage there – it is not the most pleasant one in the world, lots of swell – we headed off north up the Phuket/Thai coast.

After about four dayhops, we ended up at a lovely little island called Ko Phayam. It is just south of the Thai/Myanmar border. A yachtie friend describes Ko Phayam as how she remembers Thailand about 20 years ago. We had five days there but I could easily have stayed two weeks. A very laid-back place, no cars, just a couple of wide concrete tracks through the island for motorbikes.

Obviously quite a few people think they have found paradise, as there is a surprising number of expats living there; and due to that there are quite a few good cafes and little nick-nack shops, and a German bakery. The coffees and cinnamon wheels went down real well! Phayam also has two large sweeping bays, and the anchorages on the south coast were good. Not so on the north coast – where the main township is – as the wind was howling.

We arrived at Ko Phayam on Shane’s birthday, so had the obligatory dinner out with yachtie friends. We also had another great night at a bar/restaurant called the ‘Happy Hippy Bar’.

Quite a few bars in this neck of the woods seem to have a Reggae/Caribbean theme, and the HH Bar was no exception. We had a great meal there, and I particularly enjoyed Happy Hour, where the pina coladas were about $NZ4.80 each. Even at ‘full price’ they were only about $8, so I gave them a bit of a nudge…….. The bar staff didn’t skimp on the alcohol content either, as Shane found out when he got his Long Island Iced Tea – it was like rocket fuel!

We were at Phayam with four other yachts that we had been travelling up the coast with. One night we all went ashore and had a great beach barbecue, a few wines and beers, and a sing-a-long to Shane playing his guitar.

After Ko Phayam it was off to firstly the Surin Islands, and then the Similan Islands. Both lots of islands are world-renowned for their marine fish and diving sites. We obviously missed the best spots at the Surins, as we thought the snorkelling there was only average, but we really enjoyed the Similans.

The water clarity at the Similans was spectacular. Everything from the deep azure blues, right through to almost clear where the water hits the beach. We went for a dive one day; I was snorkelling on the top and could see virtually exactly the same as Shane was seeing diving 40 feet below me. Lots of beautifully coloured fish, and some good coral.

We went for a walk up to the top of this hill. This is known as ‘Sail Rock’ – this one big rock appears to be sitting precariously on top of the rest. The view from the top of the hill was great, overlooking the bay where we were anchored.

The area around the Similans is a Marine Park; not that you would ever know going by the frequent behaviour of the locals. We returned from a dive one day to anchor off one the islands in the Similans, right out the front of Park Headquarters. One of the Thai Navy ships was already anchored in the bay – about 100 metres offshore – and we are greeted by the sight of personnel onboard the navy ship with their fishing rods out. The park ranger arrived a couple of minutes later to collect our marine park fees. We paid him, and pointed out the navy guys fishing. He went and spoke to them, the rods were put away, but the guys were back fishing 15 minutes later……… Aside from that, we saw many many fishing boats in the distance that appeared to be within the five-mile no-fishing zone. And they will wonder in a few years why there are no fish left…….

Lots of day trippers come over to the Similans each day, either by longtail or speed boat, but once they are gone at the end of the day, we pretty well had the place to ourselves.

After two weeks travelling north, it was time to head back to Phuket, and in to Boat Lagoon Marina to get a couple of things looked at on the boat. We made our marina stay as short as possible, partly because due to the marina’s shallow basin. The bottom of the boat was sitting in about six inches of mud at every low tide!

Our next stop was Panwa Bali, a calm anchorage not too far from Phuket Town. We were there for Chinese New Year, so went and saw the festivities with Roger and Julie from the yacht Tradition. They are both working in Phuket, so know where to go and what is on.

We didn’t think much would be able to match the great CNY we had in Penang last year, so we got a real surprise.

After having a good wander around Soi Rommanie – the Chinese part of the Old Town – we went back to the main park area where the stage was, to watch the show.

It was fantastic – a troupe had come over from China specifically for the Chinese New Year celebrations in Phuket.. There was a young Chinese gymnast (she was so flexible she could just about turn herself inside out); a fantastic Mongolian opera singer; and girls who were spinning plates on the ends of sticks – by themselves and while standing on other performer’s shoulders. All very spectacular, and we managed to score seats up quite close to see all the action.

Our two-month visas were up so we checked out of Thailand on 12 February. We first headed east and went to Krabi. We hadn’t been to Krabi before so wanted to check it out.

Krabi is a bit of a mecca for rock-climbers. High limestone walls border the southern part of the coastline. No cars in this part of Thailand. Everything has to come in on longtails – tourists, all food/drink for the many resorts, and staff for the resorts (who came in every morning by longtail at 0600 hrs, and went straight past our boat……… their very loud engine roaring by).

And did I mention that all the plastic drink bottles have to come in by longtail too??!! We went for a walk one of the days we were there, and the locals were collecting up the plastic water bottles and cans – as you can see, they had a few!

After Krabi we stopped at Ko Rok Nok, another beautiful spot with lots of fish and great swimming and snorkelling. We left early to head down to Ko Lipe, just after the sun had got up!

Our last stop heading south was at Ko Lipe, yet another lovely island. Ko Lipe is not too far from Malaysia. Again, lots of great little bars and cafes; somewhere that would be neat to go for a couple of weeks in the middle of a cold NZ winter just to chill out, relax and read books!

We are about an hour away from Langkawi, where I will have my last week on the boat. I am busy packing boxes, to send everything home. I head back to NZ this Thursday and Shane will follow in about two months. He is going to stay in Langkawi and look after the boat. Hopefully it won’t be too long on the market before it is a great new home for its next owners.

The last three years have been a great adventure. We have made many new friends amongst the yachting community – too many to mention individually, but as a body, they would give you the shirt off their sunbaked backs if you needed it, and always with a cold one ready. The highlights of the three years would have to be: cruising the Australian east coast; the World Rainforest Music Festival in Borneo; seeing the orangutans in Indonesia; and spending time in some very beautiful bays and anchorages that are well-off the usual tourist path. Doing what we have done has given us a new perspective on life, and how people in other countries live. By seeing them in their everyday life it has certainly made us realise that one does not need money to be happy. Most of the time on the yacht has been wonderful, but as with anything, things go wrong; there have been equipment and instrument failures, and we haven’t always had perfect weather……..

We hope that you have enjoyed reading our travels. We must make special mention and thank Doug ‘”the Piano Man’ – it is good to know that someone has been reading these blogs. We appreciated your comments Doug!

We look forward to seeing you back on “the land” soon, when we become landlubbers……

Heather and Shane

PS. For those of you interested in checking out the listing for the boat, go to www.leemarine.com 1996 Roberts 434 Pilothouse ketch (44 foot)

New Year in Phuket

2009-01-02T07:50:00.004Z

Firstly, a Happy New Year to everyone. We hope that you all had a great festive season.

It has been an appallingly long time since we have updated the blog, so here we go…..

The last blog finished with us on our way to Penang. We both really like Penang, so we had another week there, doing a bit of sightseeing and shopping. Unfortunately the marina hasn’t got any better; there was still lots of rocking and rolling with all the ‘wash’ coming through from the ferry terminal right next door. Everyone sort of puts up with it though, as the marina is in a fantastic location, right on the doorstep of the centre of town.

After Penang we did a straight run through to Langkawi. As you can see, it was a hard trip for Shane!

Four days there were spent doing a bit of sightseeing, saying goodbye to friends we won’t see again as they are heading west, and also stopping up on duty-free refreshments!

We stopped at a couple of islands on our way north to Phuket – Ko Muk and Phi Phi Don. The islands were as beautiful as ever.

Then it was straight up to Phuket, and a booking we had at Ratanachai shipyard. Enzwell badly needed a paint, and we could no longer delay the inevitable…….

Ratanachai is a shipyard near Phuket town (the commercial part of Phuket, not where the tourists really hang out). The yard used to be solely for fishing boats, but has become popular for yachties over the last few years, as they were very reasonably priced. That was until this year, when they bumped their prices up 50 percent L . Unlike most modern shipyards – which lift boats out of the water using a travel-lift or sling – Ratanachai uses a frame on railway tracks. The railway track goes down in to the water, and the platform is put in to the water, under the boat, and then a strong steel pulley drags the platform out of the water, with Enzwell safely mounted in to place on the top.

As you can tell, the water near the entrance to the shipyard wasn’t overly clean (to put it mildly!). We watched from the boat, as yard employees jumped in the water to ensure that the frames on the side of the platform were correctly in place. They were just in their ordinary work clothes, and had basic breathing apparatus.

We don’t think this guy is long for this life……. He continued his nicotine fix right up until the eleventh hour, sucking away on his cigarette until the last available minute. The cigarette then got thrown in the water, he put on his mask, and was under ‘Enzwell’ diving in the swampy filthy water. Shane and I both decided – rather him than us!

And then the hard work began. We had five weeks until we were flying home to NZ for a visit, to get the boat painted and get it back in the water. We knew we should comfortably get the job done, but you never know in Thailand. Things happen – like the first day we were in the yard, another yachtie was complaining that workers hadn’t turned up for work. To which the reply from the yard supervisor was they were only doing half a day as it was ‘temple day’. Things like that just have to be factored in to the job….

The yard was like a trip back in time in some respects. All the workers clocked in. The ‘nearly start time’ siren went at 7.55 a.m., the ‘start’ siren went at 8 o’clock, and then again two hours later for smoko. The end of the day was at 5 pm, and when the siren went to signal that, there was a steady stream of workers heading out the yard gate. No overtime or extra work done here……

We had a few neighbours while we were in the yard. Roger Rat and his family were living in a nearby drain. We hadn’t even got the boat finally settled to it’s final place in our little part of the yard, when Roger stuck his head up from the drain to see what was going on…… Fortunately they decided their home in the drain was OK, and didn’t try to move on to Enzwell! There were quite a few rats in the yard, and also a few BIG cockroaches, so I always had my wits about me!

There was a lot of preparation work to be done before we could do the painting. Getting the old paint off, sanding, fairing, it all took time…. Just before we were about to start the painting, we had to get a big ten put up right around the boat, so that no over spray went on to nearby yachts.

This is what Enzwell looked like one she was ‘tented’. It was hot enough working on the boat before the tent went up, it was like a sauna with it! The temperature on the deck was over 45 degrees Celsius. The sweat was just dripping off us! The conditions were a bit trying, but as they say, we could see the light at the end of the tunnel as the job was not far off being done.

I had to leave Shane and the boat in the yard, and head home two weeks earlier than planned, as Mum passed away. In my absence, Shane got the work on the boat finished, and the boat was back in the water a week before he flew home.

Although the first part of my trip home was somewhat sad, we both had a good time in Wellington, catching up with friends. Shane was rapt to be in Wellington for the birth of his first grandchild Ethan.

On December 16th we were on the plane and heading back to Phuket, bringing a few goodies from NZ to enjoy back on the boat. We stayed in the marina for a couple of days to finish painting the deck, and then it was down to Panwa Bali at the south end of the island to celebrate my birthday.

Our Christmas Eve dinner was in a nearby bay – Nai Harn - with fellow Wellington Roger and Julie from the yacht ‘Tradition’.

The bay has a lovely big calm anchorage, and is a popular Christmas stopover for yachties.

Two nights later we went over to Tradition for dinner, and took over some of our ‘goodies’ – a pavlova all the way from NZ, topped with strawberries and whipped cream.

Every mouthful was savoured! All the sugar was a bit too much for Shane, who spent most of the next day in bed with a crook tummy…!

We headed around to Patong Beach for New Year. Patong is the tourist hub of Phuket, and is where all the bars and nightlife is. We had also heard that there was a great fireworks display at midnight.

We went ashore and had dinner, and then wandered down Bangla Road, the main area for nightlife. Past throbbing masses of tourists, jammed-packed bars, and lots of good-looking Thai ladies, who used to be men…….! A lot of the hotels put on beautiful dinners, and quite a few had beautiful ice carvings on display.

Later on in the evening, we headed down to Patong beach. The Thais have a tradition with lanterns, where you put all your worries and stresses in to the lantern, and float then float the lantern away, sending all your worries and stresses with it. It can be done either by sending your lantern in to the air, or floating it away on the sea.

These two lanterns are just about to be sent on their way. Hundreds and hundreds of these lanterns filled the sky on New Years Eve. It was quite a sight. We came back to Enzwell, and sat on the boat and watched the fireworks. There were fireworks going all night long, but the display at midnight was spectacular. Fireworks were going off not just in one place, but the whole length of the 2.5 kilometre beach!

And so to 2009. We are, as they say, “swallowing the anchor”, and the boat is on the market. We have enjoyed our travels around Australia and Asia, but late March will see us return to Wellington and head back to work. Hopefully we’ll get at least one more blog done, updating on our travels around Thai waters before we head home!

Heather and Shane

2008-09-30T03:14:00.008Z

So Long Borneo

And so to racing. A new experience for us as the results would testify but we improved a great deal with each race. Starting in Labuan, an island just off Brunei, we had the first day of racing round the cones. This was a nightmare. Didn’t leave the dock till late and ended up being about a mile from the start line when the whistle blew, and the wind died, and the current was against us !!!! One hour later we limped across the start line. The wind slowly picked up and so did our speed, alas too late. Never mind we learnt about starting. The next race was the 100 miler to Miri. As there is often very little to no wind you can motor in this race and they have a system of multiplying this time so it’s all pretty fair in the cruising class. Great start on the line and we kept a pretty fair wind till night time. Anyway one way or another we managed to come in second on adjusted time and were pretty thrilled with this. Now we have mentioned the oil wells before but here is another example of them.

About midnight, no moon and raining we are sailing through this huge oil field with good wind doing about 7 knots, oil wells everywhere with gas flares and lights, next thing this huge black shadow passes between us and a rig. “What was that” ? It turns out there are multiple capped well heads with no lights all through this area. It was a tad scary to say the least, hitting one of those with about 18 tons at 7 knots would not be a pretty sight. The heavy rain blocks out the radar so it was squinting through the rain and mist for a while. Still could have been worse, another yacht had his son on board as crew. Woke up hearing banging on the side of the boat. Found the son sound asleep on watch, with the boat banging down the side of a huge anchored ship!

All in all we had a great time and old “enzwell” didn’t do too bad. Giving us four nights in hotels, free marina, free meals and US$400 was very nice of them we thought.

After a few days in Miri it was off with LaBarque up the Rajang River to visit a long house that a few yachties have kind of adopted. Now a long house sounds rather exotic and the older traditional ones were, yes with skulls hanging from the ceilings, these were head hunters not so long ago. In the cultural village in Santubong where the music festival was held, were a couple of very traditional longhouses, really nice, and in Kuching was a replica of part of a long house, and I swear to you they were real skulls in the ceiling.

The present day long houses are not such a grand affair. Basically you put 20,30,40 or so houses beside each other, sharing dividing walls and roofline, and they all share a communal area in the front, like a long giant hall, with the front doors leading off this space. Kind of a marae environment. Not too grand as we said but real life and a great welcoming people.

We anchored right out front about 40 miles up a river and awaited our invite. Late afternoon we had visitors; most of the village came out and we showed them through our home – enzwell – and they also went and looked at LaBarque.

Give them a can of beer, any other gifts you may have, tee shirts, caps etc, and then they ask you to their home that night. Taking the Vat 69 donation, in you trot and you all gather in the front hall. Out comes their gongs and things plus the local brew, Tuak rice wine and you all get p*ssed, and bang gongs and things. Well since we took two bottles of whiskey and some beers, some of them got quite nicely thank you. We quietly supped the rice wine when offered and since we drink from shot glasses and it’s only about wine strength, we stayed pretty sober. All in all a great experience and meeting of cultures. I think Heath found a hidden talent on the gong.

Staying in the river was beautiful. Very peaceful and calm and at night right beside us was a tree full of fireflies twinkling away like christmas lights. Can’t be quite as rapturous about the mossies though!

The Rajang river, where the long house is, is huge, fed by various smaller rivers and it is the main logging area with logs piled up all along its banks. So if you want to know were the rainforest is going/going/gone, here it is, mostly into plywood.

Unfortunately with this many logs sitting on the edge when a big rain comes, logs just float away and you get to find them in the sea around this area, a real hazard to cruising yachties. Not so bad in daytime but at night you can’t see them. Then BANG, bang, bang down the side of the boat. Being steel we are not so bad; it is rather unnerving though.

Next stop was back to the Santubong river and Kuching. Picked up a few mementos and saw the Orangutans again. Not nearly as natural or interesting as the orangutans we saw up the Kumai river, but still worth while.

And so farewell to Borneo. Definitely the best and most interesting part of Malaysia. Next stop – over to Singapore. Now I forgot to mention that the auto helm gave up around Miri so we have been hand steering all the way and three days and two nights across the South China Sea is no fun. Fortunately we had a good run with light seas and moderate wind. We got a new part in Singapore, still thousands of huge ships in harbour,

and now it’s back in action steering us to Penang.

Brunei

2008-08-12T00:57:00.004Z

One thing that needed to be dealt with before the rally finally split up was the petanque contest. Now you see some time ago off Tioman Island an international was held and the kiwis, us that is, Tom and I off Matariki, kicked butt. The aussie contingent found some lame excuse to call that null and void and decided a rematch was to be held, while Tom is away. Now I won’t bring up underarm, but what can you say. The Aussie official, self-appointed seemed a little biased perhaps. Still holding all titles what can one do. Well done Sal. With new team member Marlene, we still came a credible second though.

Left Miri, with the seahorse guarding the way, and had a great sail up the coast to Kaula Lait, (I think) Brunei.

Brunei is a small independent state like Singapore. Very like singers actually with their currency interchangeable, and very wealthy thanks to oil in Brunei’s case. Still sinking wells up the coast. Amazing operation. They take this barge/ship thing out and then jack it up on stilts and away they go. Some time later the cash register is ringing again.

Now I haven’t taken you through the process of checking in and Brunei was a good example. First, find were to go. Fortunately others have been before and you usually have some idea of the location of the various offices. Here, like singers, they have set up a one stop shop which is great. Then any one of many options may be run into. Here, first people in uniform we met said “Go to customs first.” Gave them the clearance from the last country, OK that was easy. Next immigration. No sir, go to port authority first. OK, up the stairs. No they say go to immigration first. Down the stairs to immigration. Now this office has about six people all sitting around doing not much. “Oh, they said that ? OK, fill out this form, plus crew list, plus cargo manifest”. But we don’t have cargo, Oh,ummmm. Fill out this form then. Now go to port authority and get them to sign this then come back. OK up the stairs, can you sign this please. Sorry that man is out at the moment, tell immigration we will sign it later. Back down the stairs. Oh, OK, umm……..OK they fill out the rest of their bits, in triplicate of course, then, back up stairs. Man is back, signs, back to immigration, yep they’re happy. Now take all this back to port authority. OK. Sorry the man is not here and I can’t find him ?? Waiting, waiting…… he comes back takes his copy of the paperwork and just two short hours from walking in we walk out (Backchat and I) and find a well-deserved coffee. Now they aren’t all this bad, but pretty similar. Paper shufflers rule and all consider their bit vital. God save us from bureaucrats !!

So here I am in Brunei for a couple of days so I can get another three months on the passport when I go back to Malaysia, just a short boat trip to Labuan Island about 10 miles away. Heath is back home visiting her sick mum. Anchored off the yacht club, which is very welcoming with showers, washing machine and a good restaurant. They had a club picnic on Saturday which we got invited to.

Mostly ex-pats working here and it is like their social club. Happened to arrive when Brunei was having their big dragon boat festival, right beside us so we have had a great vantage point.

Serious stuff here with about 15 boats in each race and at the end, they have an all in covering about a mile. Hard work. They also had small speed boat contests and water taxi races etc etc. Big party on the beach, loads of food stalls and fireworks on the Saturday night. As I said, got my passport stamped and off to Labuan today, another duty free port so time to stock up the booze cabinet again. Can’t work out why, but Malaysia has three duty free islands, Langkawi, Tioman and Labuan. Maybe they had a raffle and these islands won?? It sure is a big money spinner for them. Till next time

Borneo rocks

2008-08-04T13:06:00.004Z

Very odd things happening with the font ?????

So the rally is now over and we have to make our own plans. Since the last blog we have probably had the highlights of the entire trip through asia, with the odd low point, like crossing the south china sea for four days and nights. Parts where OK, when we had no wind and were motoring in smooth seas, then the wind kept getting up with 40 knots, rain, biggish sloopy seas, yuk. It really is total crap. At least we weren't alone in our turmoil with two others crossing about the same time breaking gear on the way. At least all we had was our headsail weather strip ripping apart which is now fixed.

We stopped at two islands on the west side before crossing over. Redang and Perhentian. Both really great. Beautiful Islands with clear water, diving, snorkeling, sand like talc and really friendly people. Managed to dive and swim with a turtle at Perhentian Island with my hand on his back for about 50m. It is starting to get developed big time at places like Redang with big resorts etc but is still a nice mix of old and new.

So after the crap crossing we arrived in the Santubong river near the city of Kuching. First walk in the Kampong, or village, was greeted with cleared roadsides and believe it or not…..rubbish bins at every house. Now this is a first for Malaysia. It's a real mix of west and east values, the best from both we think. Kuching is a lovely city, maybe the size of Hamilton, with a river running through it. Like all Malaysian cities the commercial area is mostly a china town or little India with two storey shop houses being the mainstay of trade. It also had the best and cheapest carvings, masks, drums etc we have seen so far, not to mention antiques. Like to buy an old Portuguese cannon ?

But, the main event and one of the main reasons to be here was the Rainforest World Music Festival. It was just awesome. Max of about 9000 per day for three days. During the day they had "workshops", which meant getting people of similar instruments from different parts of the world, from different groups together, talking and showing off their own stuff then jamming. What a treat. Drums where needless to say very popular, then violins playing with Greek and Japanese strings, guitars with lutes and other ethnic strings, and on and on. Then at night the groups from different parts of the world played. The hits where probably a group just formed, Akasa, with a guitar maestro from KL ex Aus, a sitar player and two tabla players, playing a fusion of blues, western and eastern traditional. Sounds weird but what a fantastic result.

Then a group from Poland plying Celtic with such passion and flare they probably stole the show. Indian group playing bollywood, Portuguese group playing like madmen. Ah so much. Great setting at the rainforest park around a big lake and with cheap, great food and beers for about NZ$3.20. Just to add to the occasion it was run with a craft show with great local art and craft. The weaving was far more delicate and fine than anything I've seen. Then of course being in the rainforest, it rained. Each night for about an hour, turning the mosh pit to a mud pit.

No one seemed to mind though as it is about 30 degrees and some great mud fights where had. It's also a bit of a rendezvous for any yachties within a couple hundred miles so we knew lots of people there and spent most of our time with a couple from Aussy, Ian and Christine, ex Rhodesia that we meet in Penang a while ago.

If you want a holiday with a difference, this would be it. But book early, all accom is booked out by about March and it gets more well known every year.

After that we spent another week in Kuching on a hired motor bike so had a real good look around then headed off. First stop was an island just out of the Santubong river where we were. Forgot the name but this is where the turtles come and do that egg laying thing. Crawl up the beach, at night, dig a big pit, drop in about 70-100 eggs and the cover it all up again. And it was turtle laying season. It's all national park so you aren't allowed out when they come up the beach and dig the hole 'cause they would bugger off, but after that you go out with your torch and have a nosey round. We saw a big green turtle, about 2.5 m burying it stash. Poor bugger, takes over an hour of very hard work to cover the eggs, what a great thing to see.

Time to move along though as the next and last rally stop was at Miri.

The trip up was a bit harrowing. We stopped in a river fro one night and it was a continuous flow of bits of old trees and logs coming down. The river bank was completely covered in old logs, teak, just rotting. Out at sea at night sailing up we heard a couple of huge bangs as we would run into logs floating at sea. Either washed down rivers or fallen off barges which are continuously taking logs to the mills, acres of them. The rainforest disappears as we speak to be replaced by palm oil trees. Billions of them.

Anyway, now in Miri and while here a few of us managed to get an invite to the local hash house harriers and as they said they had a walking group, I was in. Well, I don’t know about NZ harriers but this was no walk like I had been on. We are talking fairly serious Borneo jungle, wading through creeks and swamp, up and down steep muddy banks, through the vines and teak forest. Didn’t pay to think about the leech's and snakes they have here. Still about 120 people where on the “run” so it couldn't’t be too bad. Bit of advice though, when you are next asked to go into the jungle, don’t were your old crocs, those plastic shoes all yachties live in. A really memorable experience though. And, they are not called the drinking club with a running problem for nothing. Massive meal and free beer all night for NZ$14. Great club, great people,e great hangover !!

At each of the rally stops we do a local tour. Here we drove pout to the Niah Caves. Took the coast road out past HUGE mansions along the way. There is a lot of very serious money in the country. Anyway the caves where awesome. About 2 kms worth in the hill with heights from about 2m to 80m. They harvest guano from the floor, bird shit to you and me, and birds nests from the roofs for birds nest soup. They have poles coming straight down from the roof of the caves, only in the really high bits, and these they climb up. No safety ropes nothing, straight up and yes they lose people now and then. What we couldn't work out was how they got the poles hanging from the top in the first place? Also in the caves is an excavation from the 70’s were they found a n old skull, as in 38 000 years old. This was twice as old as homo sapien was supposed to be there so they got very excited. Just above the town here is the first well put down by some upstart company in the early 20’s which continued producing for Shell right up till 72. There are now hundreds of wells in the South China Sea and as you sail at night you can almost always see at least one flare burning in the distance.

Now if you want any expensive medical work done. Think of coming here. While at Kuching I decided to get an MRI on my back. Yes sir, how about at 4 today. No OK, Monday lunch suit. So in I go get the MRI, see the doc again. She says I should see the ortho doc and you can see him now, I’ll take you up. So, two visits to doc, one MRI, one specialist, Scottish trained, all in one day off the street NZ$360. Unreal.

The Rally continues......

2008-06-25T00:51:00.003Z

21 June 2008

We are four weeks in to the Passage to the East rally, and things are going well! Ten boats eventually started in the rally. Although there were early stops at Penang and Port Dickson, the rally ‘proper’ started in Sebana Cove.

Our day trip in to Kuala Lumpur (with Sazli, our rally host) was interesting. We went to the Batu Caves, a special area to followers of the Hindu faith. A flight of 272 steps leads up to Temple Cave, which has Hindu shrines in it. Each year during the Thaipusan festival in January or February, up to a million Hindus come to the area near the caves. Some of the truly faithful devotees subject themselves to body piercings; they have spikes, skewers and other piercings through their skin, attached to which are offerings such as milk pots, feathers and flowers. Although it looks very painful, a trance-like state aapparently stops the followers from feeling pain. We were actually in KL during Thaipusan, but didn’t really fancy either the crowds, or seeing people with numerous body piercings with hooks from them, dragging things along the road!

We arrived at Sebana Cove early, and got the ferry over to Singapore for three days. We had to buy a few boat spares, and it meant we could also spend some time with my cousin Jo-Ann and her husband Terry again. Each Thursday evening they go to Scottish dancing, so off we went too! Shane’s and my ceroc and salsa dancing in Wellington must have stood us in good stead, as for rank amateurs on the Scottish dancing front, we didn’t do too bad!

While we were in Singapore, the Great Singapore Sale was on. I was very well restrained though, and didn’t buy anything! We also went to the movies and saw “Sex and the City” which we really enjoyed.
For our rally gala dinner at Sebana Cove, we were all presented with the traditional Malay dress to wear for the evening. It was lovely woven cotton, and very cool to wear. In the heat here, it makes a lot more sense than the tight-fitting clothing we are used to wearing.

Our day trip the following day took us to the Desaru fruit farm. We had a tour around the orchard, and then got to sample lots of the different fruits, some of which we had never had before. We had the chance to sample all the different fruit; we took it easy as we still had to visit the homestay village where we were having lunch! And that proved to be another feast…….

A friend has commented to me that these rallies seem to involve a lot of gala dinners and eating – she would be right! Fortunately I am keeping up with my running, otherwise I’m sure I would be not far off signing up for Jenny Craig!

Our next rally stop was Tioman Island. A lovely little island, with white sandy beaches and clear blue water. Let’s hope commercialism doesn’t move in and spoil the great atmosphere the island has……… While we were there, we went to the local school’s karnival, a bit like the school sports day we all participated in when we were at school years ago. Just before prizegiving they marched around the field in their house colours.

Another rally stopover, another gala dinner……. At least we did have a bit of a walk before dinner this time. A big squall blew through a couple of hours before we were due to be picked up, and a tree was blown over, blocking the main road on the island. Tioman only has a relatively short stretch of road; transport to most of the bays and villages is by water taxi. Tioman has become very popular because of its lovely clear water (great for diving and snorkelling). It’s duty free status hasn’t harmed it either – all the yachties stocked up on liquid refreshments.

After Tioman we went to Kuantan, the capital of Pahang state. Our anchorage there was in front of the very flash Hyatt Hotel. It was just a pity that it was quite a rolly anchorage, as most of us only stayed two nights. The Hyatt put on a wonderful night for our gala dinner – a great meal and some wonderful traditional dancing. Plus we all got a lovely woven carry bag each.

Our day tour took us to a batik factory, where we saw the intricate work being done. It is very labour intensive. The wax is put on by hand; after that most of the painting is hand-done by small paintbrush, rather than the whole piece of cloth being dyed. We also visited a traditional village where fish are dried, and rubber and palm oil tree plantations.

After Kuantan we stopped at two islands on our way north. The islands on the way north had lovely clear blue water, great for swimming and snorkelling. Not so great was the view that greeted us this morning – off Pulau Kapas the water is thick with jellyfish. Some of them have long tentacles at least 2-3 metres long. Shane is not looking forward to what is hanging off the anchor chain when we pull it up……

Later on this morning, we will head in to Terengganu marina. Our first mission is to find somewhere to watch the second All Blacks vs England rugby game. We missed watching the game last week, but the marina manager (an Aussie) assures us the game is on. We should be kept busy for the week we are going to be in the marina, as Shane has a few things to do on the boat, and there is a bit of work to be done by both of us before we do our five day passage over to Kuching, where we will spend 2-3 months over in Borneo Malaysia.

We both agree that the east coast of Malaysia leaves the west coast for dead – we can swim over here, and the water is lovely and clear. There is far less rubbish in the water, and way less fishing boats. The Passage to the East rally will certainly become more popular in years to come.

Heather and Shane

East Coast Rally

2008-05-28T23:29:00.004Z

Prior to leaving Thailand, we got one last bit of work done on the boat. We came to the conclusion that our fridge was on it’s last legs. At anchor, we needed to have the engine on for about three hours each day, just so there was enough juice in the batteries to keep the fridge running. Of course, that was starting to wear the batteries out…….. So we bit the bullet, and got Siam Cooling on the job, and we now have a wonderful new fridge!

On our last night in Phuket, we went to Nai Yang beach, on the west coast near the airport. Only a few tourists go there, it is nothing like Patong. We found this great little restaurant called Mamma Mias, and sat and had our meal at the bar. There was a poster for the movie Bridget Jones’ Diary on the wall, with a couple of scrawled signatures on it. Yes, Renee Zellweger and Hugh Grant had dined there! The second Bridget Jones movie was partly filmed in Thailand, near where we ate at Nai Yang. They stayed there while filming the movie. We just had to watch the movie, and also noticed that Ko Panyi, the Muslim village on stilts that we wrote about in our last blog, also featured in the film.

We stopped at Phi Phi Don on the way south. They got hit hard there by the tsunami, but tourism is totally up and running again. This is what the beachfront looks like during the day – longtails from one end to the other.

Just as we got to our next stop – Ko Lanta - our camera decided it didn’t want to play anymore, so that was the end of photos for a while.

We left Thailand, and arrived in Malaysia six days after having left Phuket. Our port of arrival was Langkawi - a duty free island – so we just had to stock up on beer and wine! There is a large expat community there, and because of this, quite a bit of western food. One of the big local supermarkets sells 2 kg blocks of NZ cheese. It’s amazing what you miss when you can’t buy it for a while! Suffice to say, I stocked up….

While at Langkawi, we stayed at Rebak Marina for a week. It really is a resort, with a marina attached. Yachties are treated just like hotel guests. There is a great pool and other creature comforts; no wonder some yachties stay there for months! We nicknamed it ‘Fantasy Island’, as although it is a great place, it is a little removed from the reality that is Malaysia.

And then it was south to Penang, and the ‘East Coast Passage’ – a rally starting in Penang, down to Singapore, then up the east coast of Malaysia and over to Borneo by early August. This is the first year the East Coast Passage has been run, and there are 14 boats doing it. Most are starting from Sebana Cove near Singapore; only three of us started in Penang. The rally can only get more popular in years to come, as the east coast is where all the great beaches and dive spots are, and the area is largely untapped as far as a yacht cruising destination goes.

The night before the rally started, we enjoyed the customary ‘gala dinner’. Quite a small event this time, given the small number of yachts starting in Penang.

On Monday morning 25 May we were off. We were the first yacht to leave, and managed to get under the Penang bridge without any problems. Although you know that the boat will go under the bridge, without the mast getting knocked off, it is still a little nerve-wracking until you have actually passed underneath! Shane wasn’t obviously too stressed, as he enjoyed his early morning cuppa…..

We arrived at Port Dickson yesterday afternoon, and head off on a day tour in to Kuala Lumpur this morning. We have been there before, but it should be good fun, as the host of the rally, Sazli, is taking us there.

I’ve just checked the date, and realised it is two years ago today that we moved on to Enzwell in Brisbane. Where has that two years gone??!!

For anyone that wants to check where the rally is taking us, go to
http://sailmalaysia.net/rally-info-east.html and if anyone wants to email us, the address is crew.enzwell@gmail.com

Heather and Shane

Phuket

2008-04-26T23:59:00.003Z

After a great holiday in NZ, it was back to the boat in Phuket. We enjoyed getting back to the warm weather again, as the weather had packed up for our last two days in Wellington. However, I don’t suppose we can complain too much, as Wellington had by all accounts had it’s best summer for years!

We decided to get a couple of things done on the boat when we got back. A new mainsail cover (the old one was falling to bits), and some davits on the back (so that we can lift the tender/dinghy out of the water when we are motoring or sailing). We have always had to drag the tender along behind us, which isn’t that good for it.

The guys came to do the davits, and put bamboo poles across the back of the back of the boat. For a while we weren’t sure whether we were getting bamboo davits, rather than the stainless steel ones we had asked for! All was soon revealed; the bamboo poles were simple ‘scaffolding’, to enable the guys to weld the davits on. Poor old Enzwell did get a few funny looks from other yachties though, wondering what the heck was being built on the back of our boat!

We hired a car one day, and did a bit of shopping and had a look around the island of Phuket. We went out in Patong at night, and after dinner went to a bar for a couple of drinks. I had a pina colada, and being in Patong and near all the ‘girlie’ bars, this is the glass it came in!

We were in the marina for two weeks, and then it was off to explore Phang Nga Bay. The bay is lovely and sheltered, so we didn’t get to sail at all, but the water was lovely and warm, so swimming was on the agenda each day. There are also a long of islands with hongs “rooms”, that are great for exploring. Teems of tourists come in each day, so we tried to do our exploring either first thing in the morning, or late in the afternoon after they had all gone.

We went to the first hong at Ko Phanak during the day. We followed in a bunch of tourists who had come on one of the tour boats. You can see them kayaking towards the hole in the cliff. It is totally dark inside, so we needed to wear a headlamp. We paddled in on the tender. There are bats in the cave, hanging from the roof, and the cave itself smells a bit. But once we paddled to the other end, it was worth it, as we came out into a huge big lagoon.

We also visited a Muslim village, which is built on stilts next to an island. Heaps of tourists visited during the day (you can see all the longtails – boats – in the photo) but we waited until the end of the day before we went ashore. We hired one of the locals to take us for a bit of a tour in his longtail.

We went through this cave, with huge limestone formations hanging from it. The scenery in Thailand is certainly quite spectacular, huge limestone cliffs and rocks everywhere.

Our Thai visa runs out this coming Wednesday, so we will be checking out and heading back down to Langkawi, primarily for a bit of R and R at one of the resort marinas there, but also to stock up on duty free wine! Our plans are to hang around Langkawi for a bit, and then to get down to Penang by the end of May, to start in a rally that goes down the west coast of Malaysia and then up the east coast, where all the great beaches are. Some of the yachties that we met in last year’s rally are doing the Malaysia too, so it will be good to catch up with people we haven’t seen for a while.

Till next time.
Heather and Shane

PART TWO - Thailand and home to NZ

2008-03-26T03:14:00.002Z

(see Part 1 of this blog below)

Our next stop was at Phi Phi Le – famous as the location where the movie “The Beach” – starring Leonardo di Caprio - was filmed.

Tourist boats go there in their droves each day, so we got there late afternoon and had a lovely peaceful night with about five other yachts, and left before the tourist onslaught the following morning.

We checked in with Customs at Ao Chalong in Phuket, had a couple of great nights catching up with fellow Kiwi yachtie friends, and then headed up to the top of Phuket to Yacht Haven Marina. We were having about five nights there before heading to NZ.

We hired a motorbike one day, and did a tour of Phuket. We went to Patong Beach, which was really hard hit in the tsunami. The place has been totally rebuilt; there is no evidence of the tsunami at all. The beach was amazing – about two miles long, the entire length of the beach was about eight deep with deckchairs and beach umbrellas! The place was full of East Europeans and Russians – planes come in direct from there each day. We hardly heard another English voice the whole time we were at Patong.

So after spending a week in Thailand, it was time to jump on the big bird and head home to New Zealand…….

Our time in NZ has been great. We were initially booked to be here for three weeks, but business matters mean that we have had to extend that time by two weeks, so we are now back in Phuket on 1 April.

We got home to find Wellington having the best summer in over ten years, so we were pretty happy with that! It was great to be back, to get to ‘The Cake-tin’ to see the Hurricanes beat the Chiefs (the Super 14 rugby competition for the non-rugby followers out there!), and generally just hang out spending time with family and friends.

After ten days in Wellington we had the weekend in Hastings, and then went to Auckland to see Shane’s brothers. One of his brothers, Kim, was getting married at Tapuaetahi – near Kerikeri.

An idyllic spot. As soon as we arrived, that was it. Shane took one look at Kim surfing the waves, he was off to join him using a borrowed board and wetsuit, and I was left unloading the car.

Not a bad spot, with the surf right at the front door.

Kim and Diana’s wedding was the day after we arrived. With it being held at a beach batch, over 100 people coming, and a hangi to set down, there was plenty of work to be done, but everything was well in hand when we arrived.

The wedding day dawned lovely and fine, and everyone had a great time. Here’s the Hegan clan, with Kim and Diana on the far right.

After the wedding we had an overnight stop in Auckland, and then we drove back down to Wellington. Shane was kept busy for three days doing some repairs and decorating at our commercial rental property. I busied myself doing coffees and lunches with friends – so I think I got the good end of the deal!

We had a good Easter, spending it with Shane’s kids, and this last week in Wellington has been spent enjoying the still-fantastic weather here, and fitting a few more lunches and coffees in with friends. Only five more days to go, and we will be back on Enzwell, ready to continue to see more of Thailand before heading south.

Till next time.
Heather and Shane

PART ONE - Penang and Langkawi

2008-03-26T02:59:00.002Z

Early February saw us in Penang. We were lucky enough to be there for Chinese New Year, which was spectacular.

There were lots of celebrations on during the two weeks we were in Penang. Two events were quite memorable – visiting the Kek Lok Si Buddhist Temple, also known as the Temple of Supreme Bliss. It was an amazing sight during the day, but even more so at night as it was beautifully lit up for the Chinese New Year period.

We also went with other yachties to a celebration being held near the marina.

It was like an ‘open home’ – there would have been over a thousand visitors; everyone was fed and provided with soft drink/coffee; there was entertainment all afternoon and evening, including a dragon dance and children doing a drum display; and the evening culminated in magnificent fireworks. It was pretty amazing that we could get to something like this, be a part of the local festivities, and it was all provided at no charge. Certainly a fantastic way for Penang to promote itself to visitors.

From Penang we travelled to Langkawi, stopping for two nights at beautiful anchorages just south of the main part of the island. We only had two days at Langkawi town itself, so hired a motorbike to have a look around the island. Langkawi is duty-free, and fairly laid-back, so has become a popular place for expats (particularly Brits) to settle.

We started to notice the change in the landscape – whereas Malaysia is fairly non-descript and low-lying near the coast, Langkawi has the limestone cliffs that Thailand is famous for.
We checked out of Malaysia at Langkawi, and had about a week to get up to Phuket and check in there.

On the way north up Thailand we stopped at Ko Muk, a beautiful anchorage with lovely clear aquamarine water.

Lots of tourist boats come to Ko Muk each day to visit Tham Morakot (Emerald Cave). It is a beautiful limestone tunnel that can be entered by boat at low tide, or by swimming through the cave.

It is named Emerald Cave for a reason; the tunnel stretches 80 metres in darkness before finally emerging into an open pool of emerald hue! It is truly an awesome sight.

Our first experience at Emerald Cave was somewhat spoilt by the people on a tourist boat who screamed the whole way through the tunnel; we went back to the cave again at the end of the day when all the tourists had gone and experienced the peace and tranquillity.

With spots like this we knew we were going to like Thailand!

Our adventures in Singapore!

2008-02-02T03:37:00.000Z

Our last update ended as we arrived in Singapore and were enjoying everything that we had missed in a while – good coffee (and I actually managed to get Shane to enjoy a
Starbucks coffee – sacrilege I know!), good food, and a nice clean environment. We really enjoyed our time at One Degree 15 marina; it is very modern and new, and had a great gym and infinity pool. A membership there cost $35,000 so it was pretty swish.

The gym had great facilities – treadmills with a screen built in to the front that showed cable TV (headphones provided) and a view over the marina and pool – just the sort of inspiration I needed to start running again after a 13-month break.

As you can see, the marina wasn't a bad place to 'slum it' for a few weeks!

While we were there we met a cruising couple from Aussie who have been around these parts for a couple of years. Ley and Neil are a lovely couple, and have a wealth of knowledge on where to go to get things in Singapore. We spent one whole day walking around the streets near Little India, getting the low-down from Neil and Ley as to where to buy gas regulators, stainless steel items, and get our canopy repaired.

We also found out that Neil is a bit of a music buff and enjoys his jazz, as does Shane. The four of us went out one night to a jazz bar and had a few drinks. To give you an idea of booze prices in Singapore – we had two bottles of a cheap Aussie chardonnay that we would pick up at New World at home for about $10 each – at the jazz bar they were $60 a bottle! We just had to have a cocktail first though!

Given Singapore doesn’t have a lot of natural attractions, a lot of the entertainment and sights are man-made. One night we went to the ‘Songs of the Sea’ at Sentosa Island, a laser-light, water and music show. The accompanying narration and dance was more suited to young kids, but the light and water show was well done.

Singapore also dresses up quite spectacularly with Christmas lights. The display along Orchard Road (the main shopping street) apparently rivals that of Oxford Street in London. There was a free tour at night put on for tourists, to see the Christmas lights from the top of a double decker bus. I enjoyed it so much we did it twice! I have never managed to see the Christmas lights in London, so I suppose given Singapore’s reputation, seeing the lights in Orchard Road was the next best thing.

We spent three weeks in Singapore. We saw quite a few of the sights; I saw a lot of the shopping malls (until all the people at them in the week before Christmas almost drove me to distraction!); and I caught up with some friends I hadn’t seen for a while – Jo-Ann and Terry, and Chris and Svenja, along with an old work contact Tony. It was great meeting up with friends from home who were now living in Singapore. But after three weeks of giving the credit card a hiding it was time to move on to Sebana Cove Marina in Malaysia for Christmas.

So on December 19th we arrived at Sebana Cove. A few of the rally boats were there so it was good to catch up with them again.

Fairly soon after our arrival we met a cruising couple from Iceland – Aslaug and Kari - who I learnt were fairly keen runners. I went for a run with them and passed the test (i.e. I wasn’t too slow!). After that, a run first thing became my daily ritual!

On our third day at Sebana, as we were about to head off for our run, one of the other runners wished Aslaug a Happy Birthday. I didn’t know if I had heard right as it was my birthday that day too! We went out for dinner at the resort that night, along with Patrick and Elizabeth of Labarque. Luckily the cake didn’t get weighed down with too many candles!

Continue reading below as we move on to Sebana Cove and travel in Malaysia.

Our time at Sebana Cove marina

2008-02-02T03:19:00.001Z

My birthday was just the start of a very social week at Sebana.

On December 24 we had our big Christmas dinner. The resort put on a veritable feast with all the Christmas extras – little goody bags for us all, party hats and crackers, and of course, the big guy himself (although being of slight Malay build, he needed a little padding out with cushions!).

Here we are with Father Christmas, Sebana style.

Christmas Day itself was a far more sedate affair. I went for a run first thing in the morning, and then mid morning Patrick and Elizabeth decided to teach the rest of us that very English of games, cricket. Being Kiwis, and keen sports fans, we knew the rules, but it was all double dutch to the Icelandics and Americans present. We had a second session in the afternoon, so everyone was well worn out by the end of the day.

That evening we avoided another huge meal. We had brought some tinned duck back with us from Paris, so had the crew of Labarque over for dinner to enjoy it with us. It was as good as we remembered Campbell (Shane’s brother) cooking it for us two months earlier in our little apartment in Paris!

On the rally we met Duncan and Irene, from the yacht Moose. They were now with us at Sebana. Irene is Dutch, and a tradition in Holland is to have a big Christmas celebration, where everyone makes a present for someone else, and also makes up a poem or game for that person.

We had this celebration on December 26th. It was a 3 pm start, with much eating, drinking, opening of presents, and reading of poems and games. Shane took this photo of us all from above Labarque’s pilothouse, of us all squished in to their cockpit! That’s Irene with the reindeer antlers on!

Sebana Cove was a much more relaxed affair than Singapore. The resort was a weekend type escape for Singaporeans, but has got a little rundown over the last few years. Despite that, the staff were great, and the resort/marina had a good pool. The resort was a few miles away from the nearest town, so everyone looked forward to visits into Sungai Rengit. It was hardly a roaring metropolis, but it had a supermarket, and the ‘meat-man’ came three days a week. There was also a good Indian restaurant, where we went to enjoy a roti chanai and teh tarik (Indian version of tea – sweet and milky, but very yummy) after doing the shopping.

The meat-man provided chicken and pork, and chopped it up to our individual requirements in the back of his station wagon. Here is Maddy from the yacht Tico-Tico getting her chicken; I was next in line ….The meat-man provided chicken and pork, and chopped it up to our individual requirements in the back of his station wagon. Here is Maddy from the yacht Tico-Tico getting her chicken; I was next in line ….

Before we left Sebana Cove, I made a quick overnighter trip back to Singapore to do some shopping.

I stayed with Jo-Ann and Terry; they had other friends staying while I was there so at night J and T took us to the Tanglin Club where they are members and we all enjoyed a Singapore Sling. Not quite Raffles, but I could tick the Singapore sling box this trip!

We stayed at Sebana Cove to celebrate Shane’s birthday, and the following day – January 13th – we headed off, Port Dickson bound.

Carry on below to read about our travels up the Malaysian west coast.

Kuala Lumpur

2008-02-02T03:04:00.000Z

Admiral Marina at Port Dickson was another good stop. Once again, good staff, and a great pool! A lot of yachties use PD as a base to leave their yacht for a few days, and go inland to visit Kuala Lumpur and Melaka. We were no different, and so after two days at PD we set off. Public transport is VERY cheap in Malaysia, so we used the bus for the 2 ½ hr trip to KL. The trip to KL – for both of us – cost 16 ringitts, about $NZ6.

Kuala Lumpur means ‘muddy confluence’, and the city began at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers in the mid-19th century. It is now a bustling city, with many diverse cultures and distinct areas. We booked in to a hotel right in the middle of Chinatown, in Jalan Pentaling. At night the street is full of stalls selling pirated DVDs, handbags, shoes, and all the other stuff that you find in markets in Asia.

At dusk on the first day in KL, we went to the Petronas Towers. When first built in 1998, they were the tallest buildings in the world. (Although they are no longer the tallest individual buildings, they are still the tallest ‘twin towers’.) They are two mirror-image towers, and each has 88 stories in its 1482 feet of elevation. The towers are connected by a ‘sky-bridge’ at the 41st and 42nd floors 558 feet above ground.

The towers were a sight to behold. Given their exterior construction is stainless steel and glass, the towers looked like two crystal columns reaching high in to the sky. Shane was mightily impressed, and that takes a bit these days!

KL has some other fantastic architecture – one building that we both thought was spectacular is the Moorish styled Sultan Abdul Samad building. It was built in 1887, and now houses the Malaysian Supreme and High courts.

We also took the time while in KL to visit a couple of mosques – the National Mosque and Masjid Jamek (the oldest mosque).

Given our dress – we were both wearing shorts and to go within a mosque area ones legs need to be covered – we had to don lovely lilac capes at the National Mosque. We weren’t allowed in to the actual mosque itself. We all look like a swarm of ghosts floating around!!

On our first full day we got up early to go and stand in line for tickets to go up the sky-bridge at the Petronas Towers. The tickets are free, but they only let a certain number of people go up every day, so you have to get there early. We booked to go up late in the afternoon. The views from the sky-bridge were nowhere near as great as we thought they would be. Maybe it was because although KL has a population of 1.4 million the city isn’t as spread out as say Auckland or Sydney, or maybe it was the lack of a harbour, but after seeing the towers lit up the night before, it was a little underwhelming.

That night we ate in Chinatown; great food from a street stall. Good for people watching too!

We left KL the following morning, but not before we visited one last mosque, and went past Merdeka Square. It was there that the Malaysian flag was raised for the first time on August 31 1957, replacing the Union Jack, signifying the end of British rule over Malaya. The flagpole in the square is the tallest one in the world, according to something I read while in KL.

After two days in KL it was time to jump on another bus. We headed for Melaka, the port city on the Mellaca Straits (we still aren’t too sure about the two variations on the spelling!!)

Melaka

2008-02-02T02:53:00.001Z

Melaka has had an interesting past. The Portuguese came in 1511 and colonized the town. The reason being that Melaka was seen as a very strategic location in terms of trade between Europe and China. Just over a hundred years later, the Dutch took over after defeating the Portuguese. In the early 1800s, the English defeated the Dutch, and had their turn at ruling in Melaka. They stayed until Malaya got independence, apart from a brief period during WW2 when the Japanese invaded and ruled.
There are more Malays than Chinese in Melaka, but the most apparent ethnicity has been and remains Chinese. The Chinese are highly visible in Melaka. The Chinese influence on Melaka’s past is readily apparent, and today there is still an active and vibrant China town.

This is a photo looking up Jonker Street (the main tourist street) during the day. At the weekend the street gets closed for traffic, as it is a hive of activity with tourists. While we were in Melaka, the streets were decorated with Chinese lanterns, and at night the buildings were all lit up with red lights. We suspected this is because Chinese New Year is in two weeks. We were staying in a guesthouse just one street over from Jonker St. The guesthouse was very long and narrow, as in earlier times the owners paid rates based on the street frontage of their premises. For this reason, most of the buildings in the original part of Melaka are built like this.

The only relic of the Portuguese era is the main gate to A’Famosa, a fortress built in 1511. The maritime museum includes the Portuguese galleon – Flor De La Mar – that sank in the Straits of Melaka on its way to Portugal; however, the one at the museum is a replica.

One of the most picturesque shots in Melaka is around the Town Square. The Dutch influence is obvious in Stadthuys; built in 1650 as the residence of the Dutch Governors and their officers. It shows the Dutch architecture of the time. Christ Church is next to Stadthuys. It was built in 1753, and can be seen near the centre of the photo. Melaka must also have more museums per head of population than anywhere else in the world! There was the Museum of Enduring Beauty, the Stamp Museum, the Education Museum, the Islam Museum, the Literary Museum, just to name a few…….

And to go from one cultural extreme to the other, Melaka is also famous (??!!) for its trishaws – like rickshaws powered by a bicycle. These are throughout town and are used by locals as well as tourists. All of them are decorated with artificial flowers, and most have streamers and umbrellas. We didn’t go on one – Shane refused!- but I just had to take a photo!

So after five full-on days sightseeing, we went back to PD and left to head up the coast. One thing that has astounded us as we travel up the coast is the amount of rubbish in the sea, particularly plastic drink bottles. They are visible, floating on top of the water, from quite a way off. Everyone is concerned about shopping bags taking so long to disappear, plastic drink bottles are going to take forever. However, that won’t worry the fish. Given the number of fishing boats, in five years we don’t think there will be a fish left in the ocean around here. Oh, and by the way, enzwell has turned more in to a motorboat than a yacht. The winds are minimal, with very calm seas, so we aren’t getting too much practice at showing off our sailing expertise.
We have just spent the last five nights anchored off Pulau Pangkor (Pangkor Island).

Lovely white sand and clear water in which to swim. It is the first time we have swum in the sea since our last week in Indonesia. It has been really hot lately, so it has been good to be able to just jump off the boat and cool off! It is really laid-back on the island, and very cheap to eat out, so I have been granted leave from the kitchen!
We will be in Penang in a couple of days, and will stay there to join in the Chinese New Year celebrations. Then it will be a quick trip to Langkawi, before we head up to Phuket to leave the boat there when we fly home on February 25th. See you all soon!

Heather and Shane

2007-12-15T03:34:00.000Z

Welcome back to civilisation, and it doesn’t get much more civilized than Singapore. We have been here for two weeks now and seen only one bit of graffiti, no tagging, pretty much no rubbish, which after Indonesia is a real treat. Still I suppose a few lashes with the cane will deter most spray-can wielding youths.

Yes it’s been a while since we updated, sorry Doug, nice to see your comments back, we missed you, how’s the Earnslaw?

From Bali we took a wee trip north, to Paris for the Rugby World Cup. Why you ask, good question. By the time we arrived I (Shane) was down with the bot, the weather was freezing and the rugby, well what can you say. The only up part was that the French were so embarrassed with the win and the ref, call the man a ref?, that they bought us drinks and were quite embarrassed by the whole thing. Needless to say we then got behind the Froggies, “Allez Les Bleus”. Alas, they then crashed and burnt. Maybe we should support Aussie???, (with the new coach….who knows) Despite all that it was great to catch up with two of my bros in a tiny apartment in Paris. We also managed to catch up with two of Heather’s old work mates, Geoff and Simon, and brother Kim in a very smoky pub for the final.

Plus, Heather caught up with a (won’t say old) friend; she had last seen here on a school exchange in Tahiti…..well some years ago (like over 30 years). They were great and took us for a tour of their area including a nice little estate we thought we might buy at a later date, much later.

Thanks again Eric and Dominique. After Indo the budget took a bit of a hammering in Paris, two beers, about $30. Ouch!! Oh, and it was sooooo much fun being there during the first of the metro strikes. Fortunately we could walk to the middle of town from where we were staying in the apartment, but what a mess the traffic was. Now, as most of you would know, I might be accused of tending a shade to the left, but really, those Metro (train) workers, working a 35 hour week and retiring around 50, get real guys.
While the world cup was on NZ must have scored one of the best advertising coups I’ve ever seen. Smack in front of a really big aerial where everyone was visiting (The Eiffel Tower), a huge football shaped pavilion advertising 100% Pure NZ. Very smart

Aunty Helen was there to open it. I was sick in bed so missed the opening complete with the mandatory Haka and blessing but Heath trouped along with Kim and his new, as in just proposed to in Paris, fiancee Diana. After a few days and some good medication I started to come right just in time for Heath to get crook for a few days. Still we did manage to see all the usual sights, The Louvre, Palace of Versailles, etc. Brother Campbell and wife Ande even got me back to the Picasso Museum to try and awaken my love of modern art. Alas, it still lies dormant. We found good lattes still hard to find …but… if ever in Paris, go to Maccas, Champs Ellysses and you can get very good coffee for about 2.5 euros and sit outside for free. Best deal in Paris.

Thence on to Santorini in Greece. We were there about a month after the main holiday season. A lot of stuff had shut down and the following week just about the whole place was due to close for the winter break. Had the odd cruise ship still coming in with the grey brigade, but very quiet. Beautiful town though built on cliff edges.

Now I still can’t get more than five photos on one blog so carry on reading below!

2007-12-15T03:00:00.000Z

Stopped in at Athens for a couple of days on the way back, which was probably the best bit of the trip. Both healthy, costs back to a manageable level and a very interesting city with the Acropolis etc and good shopping and cafes. Went to the movies there and there were about six advertisements pre kick off. Very unusual for us to see adds for smoking but they were there with avengence. All the actors looking very youthful, healthy and loving life. Must have worked because just about everyone smoked in Athens. Same in Paris. Bars reeked of smoke. Athens is also home of the world champion of the silly walks competition, and they take it very seriously. Still it is the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and they have had a few scraps in their time.

And that was the end of Europe.

Getting back to the warm weather in Bali was nice and coming around the corner in the cab and seeing “Enzwell” still afloat was very comforting. Home again. We didn’t hang around too long as we still had a few hundred miles to go before our visas ran out so after a couple of stops, headed off to Kumai at the bottom of Kalimantan, the Indonesian part of Borneo. This is one of only a couple of places in the world where you can see the Orangutan wild…ish, in the jungle. We hired a river boat and crew to take us up the river for an overnight trip.

The first day we visited the conservation station which was set up some years ago to study the orangutan in the wild and has since become well established. Each day the ranger puts bananas and milk out to supplement the orangutans’ diet. Here we saw quite a few orangs come down and grab a feed, nearly all with young ones.

Pretty cool and the babies are always cute.

Staying on the boat in the river that night was really great. Beautiful food dished up by the cook, sitting out chatting and having a couple of beers with the crew of three serenaded by the cicadas and frogs. Now if anyone tells you about the serenity of the jungle, they have never slept there. What a racket. You could not believe the noise those tiny animals made!!!!! Fortunately they only keep it up until about two hours after sun down. Next day we visited a couple more feeding stations and a river village. At the last station the big alpha male came down. This guy was huge! And very full of himself. When he climbed through the trees quite a few branches broke off. And he knew he was kingpin.

Another male was in the trees but wouldn’t come near the feeding platform because he knew what would happen. He didn’t appear too happy about this and snorted and bellowed and ripped branches off the trees he was in. Now this was seeing them, as they should be. Very impressive. When the big fella had his full he moved away about 40 meters and then just “hung” around, literally. The other males stayed well clear but one female came down with her young one and munched away quite happily, goes to show who really holds the power eh. All in all a great experience and certainly one of the highlights of Indonesia.
From there it was time to seriously get bailing out of Indo. Had a rotten trip for the first couple of days, bashing into a sharp chop and fighting 2-3 knots of current meant we were only making about 2 knots over ground at times. It was about then while thinking back to the lovely calm river voyage we considered selling the boat flying to Europe buying a canal boat and making it all very easy. Not a bad idea actually and we may consider it. Still after a couple more stops we checked out of Indo and now sit blissfully in a flash marina in Singapore at Sentosa Island with the gym and pool nearby. Fortunately amnesia is a wonderful thing and the horrid trips are just an unpleasant memory.
Singapore is soooooo nice after Indo. Talk about extremes, just 15 or so miles between them but about 50 years apart. Singers is spotless, as I said at the start, no rubbish, no tagging, no graffiti etc. It really is a very rich country with building going on everywhere. Massive housing, shopping and the biggest casino complex going up here at Sentosa. The main occupation here seems to be shopping which we have managed to do quite nicely. We will leave in a couple of days and head about 50 miles to another flash resort, with golf course attached, at Sebana Cove, Malaysia. We will spend Christmas there; and with that all there is to do is wish all and sundry a very Merry Christmas wherever you are and hope to catch up in the new year (we’re planning a trip back home in February/March.

Shane and Heath.

2007-10-08T12:36:00.000Z

It’s been over two months since we left Aussie, and also a long break between blogs. Finding a decent internet with any speed in Indo has been impossible so this comes from gay Paree. We have left the boat in Bali and hope it will be there (and intact) on our return.

We had a fun last day in Bali contributing to the local police retirement fund. Corruption is alive and well in Indonesia but one comes across it personally when hiring bikes. It goes like this. They pull you over for some minor, if not imagined offence and ask for and International driving licence. We couldn’t produce one, so they start writing a ticket and fine you 200 000 rupiah (about $NZ30) for no licence and another 200 000 for your offence, and you have to go to Denpassar, or, you can pay them now. We had been wised up by a mate prior that the going rate to ‘pay them off’ is about Rp50 000, about $NZ7.50. You open your wallet having already made sure that you only have Rp51,000 inside, and after much hurrumphing and saying sorry, off you go less your money and the cops split the money, three ways in our case. Oh well, the up side is we have had some fantastic meals in very flash restaurants in Bali, and paid about $25 for two mains, two entrees and two drinks.

We have seen and done so much it’s hard to put in one blog, so we’ll split it into three and put some photos in as well. One of the highlights of our journey so far would have to be seeing the Komodo dragons.

Giant monitor lizards that only live in a couple of islands in Indo. Very slow during the heat of the day but they can sprint at about 30km per hour over short distances. They have been known to attack wild buffalo and a couple of humans have met their demise from them so they should be treated with a fair bit of respect.

We saw a couple of small ones on the beach at this anchorage at the south of the island of Rinja, but saw the big fellas in the National Park on the north coast of the island. This anchorage also provided a great feed of big luscious oysters.

The diving and snorkelling here is fantastic with great coral and clarity of water. It’s like diving in an aquarium and with the vis at up to 50 feet plus you just slowly mooch around checking it all out.

Plus in a number of these great anchorages we have gone ashore at night, had a BBQ on the beach with a few other yachties in the rally, and watched the glorious sunsets that you get in Indonesia.

Indonesia has been very diverse. We have covered the whole spectrum, from dirty dusty cities such as Kupang where we started; traditional native villages that hardly ever see tourists; great anchorages with fantastic coral and snorkelling; through to Bali which is full-on tourism and very westernised. Although it has been great most of the time, you do realise that you are in a third-world country, with all the associated issues such as pollution, risk of disease (e.g. malaria), and lack of access to some things that we take for granted at home (clean water and good standards of hygiene).

Kupang was our entry point into Indonesia; it didn’t have anything else going for it really. The local transport in Indo is the ‘bemo’; small vans that you squish into the back of, with drivers – some who look barely old enough to be able to drive – and most with noisy stereos blaring out with the bass turned up to maximum volume. Shane thought he would sit in the front seat on one trip to get a view out the front window; fat chance when this is the view he got from the front seat!

Indonesia has been very diverse. We have covered the whole spectrum, from dirty dusty cities such as Kupang where we started; traditional native villages that hardly ever see tourists; great anchorages with fantastic coral and snorkelling; through to Bali which is full-on tourism and very westernised. Although it has been great most of the time, you do realise that you are in a third-world country, with all the associated issues such as pollution, risk of disease (e.g. malaria), and lack of access to some things that we take for granted at home (clean water and good standards of hygiene).

Kupang was our entry point into Indonesia; it didn’t have anything else going for it really. The local transport in Indo is the ‘bemo’; small vans that you squish into the back of, with drivers – some who look barely old enough to be able to drive – and most with noisy stereos blaring out with the bass turned up to maximum volume. Shane thought he would sit in the front seat on one trip to get a view out the front window; fat chance when this is the view he got from the front seat!

Keep going, there are two more updates below as we can only get five photos per blog;

2007-10-08T12:22:00.000Z

After Kupang it was down to the island of Roti for Shane to have a surf. We went to a village called Nembrala; a really nice spot. The water here was lovely and clear, with white sandy beaches and palm trees…..postcard perfect.

After a few days there it was back to join the rally at Lembata. We did a tour to a village that they call ‘Nature’s Kitchen’, a lot like Rotorua where they cook/steam the food in the ground.

As well as checking out the cooking, we intermingled with the villagers. Here I am sitting with one of the ladies, as she sits spinning her fine wool on to a spool. The locals got quite a bit of amusement out of me; what with my blonde hair I was somewhat of a novelty, and they continually pointed at my nose as us Europeans have quite big noses compared to the Indos. At least I didn’t get my nose pinched, as one of the other Kiwi yachtie ladies did – mind you, her nose was even bigger than mine!!

One of our next stops was at the village of Waimalung on the island of Flores. The afternoon we arrived, some of the locals came and visited us on their small dug out canoes. They were quite fascinated with the yacht and asked to come onboard. Conversing was a little limited, so Shane got his guitar out, and sang a couple of songs. They then proceeded to try and show him up, by displaying their musical skills. They were pretty good too!

Here’s a bike loaded down with the supplies to take off to sell at market. It’s absolutely amazing what can be squeezed on to one small motorbike……..

The last big city we visited before Bali was Bima on the island of Lombok. It was the first time Bima had been a stop on the Sail Indonesia rally, and they went all out to impress. The people were lovely, but again, Bima is just another dirty, grimy Indo city. One of the great things there though was the local transport, horse and cart, which were known as ‘Benhurs’ – don’t ask us why!

As you can see, as well as passengers, they also get loaded up with other things, in this case plastic water bottles. The bottles packed on to the back of the Benhur are like ‘water cooler’ bottles from home, and is how you buy drinking water in Indo. Twenty litre bottles, which sell for anywhere between the equivalent of $NZ 80 cents to $4. In the photo all the bottles are empty, but it was still quite a load for the poor old Benhur. The Benhurs had lots of bells around their neck; riding on them reminded me a lot of the donkey ride I had in Tijuana, Mexico. I don’t know quite how they made it to Indo, but…..

After Bima, we carried on further west, towards the Komodo dragon tourism industry and Bali, and you could sense you were approaching western civilisation again…..

2007-10-08T11:54:00.000Z

We had nearly a week in Lombok. Lombok, we gather, is how Bali was 20-30 years ago. Tourism is happening, but they haven’t quite got it together. Off the north west coast of Lombok are the Gilli Islands; they are supposed to be quite lovely. We didn’t have time to get there, so will go on our return from Bali.

Then it was off to Bali. The rally fleet normally stops down the south of Bali – near Kuta and all the action – but with the number of yachts this year, there just wasn’t room so we were all up north at Lovina Beach. Lovina has a much slower pace than down Kuta. We went to the markets in the nearby city of Singaraja – lots of fresh fruit and veggies, and chickens ready to purchase.

Not quite packaged like Tegel do it, but at least you could see what you were buying! Note Fido hoping to find something of interest below the chicken stand! We had earlier in the trip, bought two chickens at the Bima market. They were quite tasty, and we lived to tell the tale!

At each venue we have been to, the local Regency (government) hosts a ‘gala dinner’, and Bali was no exception. Usually the gala dinners take the format of speeches, dinner, and then entertainment from the locals. Most have been great, but sometimes the dancing gets a little monotonous and goes on a little long.

Lovina was no exception – as far as the format of the gala dinner went – but the dancing was spectacular, as were the costumes. The dancers performed on the beachfront. They were the national champions, and had performed most recently prior to us, to the President. Describing the dancing on the blog would not do it justice, but hopefully this photo of some of the younger dancers gives you an indication of what a spectacle it was. It was like they were straight out of a Cirque de Soleil show.

The following night we were treated to another spectacle on the beachfront. There was a parade of the villagers, taking their offerings to the temple for the full-moon celebrations.

On their heads, the women each had a basket, especially stacked with fruits and other food to take to the temple. The parade was impressive to watch, as was the later dancing and celebrations at the temple.

We did a tour while in Lovina, of the northern part of Bali. There are lots of terraced rice paddies, and beautiful waterfalls. We also visited the processing plant for ‘Bali coffee’, and saw cloves being picked, dried and processed for export around the world. We saw a beautiful temple on the lake, and went to the local produce and clothes market. The locals are still doing it hard tourism-wise after the Bali bombings, and were almost pleading with us to buy their wares.

Lovina was a great stop, there was enough there to keep us busy, and we found a great spot to watch the All Blacks vs Scotland game at the Rugby World Cup. One of the Kiwi yeachties met up with a keen rugby supporter, who owns a resort in Lovina. He invited us around to watch the game, so we sat in the bar at the resort until start time, then 20 of us piled in to one of the villas – as he didn’t want us making a racket in the bar and disturbing all his paying guests! It was a good night, with a good win to the Abs.

After Lovina it was time for us to say farewell to the rally and head south to Serangan (near Kuta) to leave the boat while we went to Europe. We did the trip south in a two day hop. We set off on day two for the last 40 miles of the trip at about 6 a.m. in the morning.

For 180 degrees, right around us on the horizon, all we could see were these small fishing trimarans, most with brightly coloured sails. They had been out fishing overnight, and were returning to their villages on the east coast of Bali. There would have been hundreds of these small boats, and just when you thought they had nearly all passed by, another rush appeared from off the horizon. There are thousands and thousands of these boats around Indo; seeing the locals in them makes you appreciate what a hardy race of people they are.

So after five days in Serangan – surfing, drinking, eating great food, shopping, and inhaling lots of smoke and grit that comes with thousands and thousands of motorbikes being on the road – we are leaving the boat for a month, and flying off to Europe, to hopefully see the All Blacks achieve what they haven’t managed for 20 years…… victory at the World Cup. Paris will certainly be a contrast to Indonesia, but we are both looking forward to it; a change of climate and culture, and to catch up with Shane’s brothers.

2007-08-09T03:26:00.000Z

8 August 2007

Sorry folks but after spending over an hour to upload photos in the internet office with a little mouse running in the wheel to make it go, we gave up so when we get to a faster internet somewhere in the world, its storey only:

First up – (not) a photo of the rally yachts taken from the Darwin Sailing Club. We had to anchor about a mile offshore, as the tides in Darwin are so big. It made for a long tender ride ashore; it took us about 8 minutes! The Sailing Club was in a great location, and it was neat looking out and seeing the yachts at anchor.

We got away from Darwin on 21 July. We had a champagne breakfast in the morning with non-rally cruising friends, and got back to the boat at 10.30 am. The rally start-gun went off at 11 am; suffice to say that the crew of Enzwell were still getting ready and we crossed the start line fashionably late by ten minutes. There were still plenty of yachts still to come behind us – after all, we were in a rally not a race! In past years, rally participants have had to motor most of the way to Kupang due to the lack of wind, but we will lucky, we had great sailing conditions on the first day. We did have to motor at night though. On that first night, we had at least 25 other yachts near to us; with all the navigation lights on it was like we were sailing in the middle of a Christmas tree! About the only thing of interest that we passed were two oil wells during the second night. The burning flame was pretty impressive and could be seen for miles. I found the passage quite rolly at times and not pleasant, so was pleased when we got to Kupang, 75 hours after we left Darwin. We were 23rd boat in, out of 115 odd who started, so we were pretty happy.

Formalities were up first, and we needed to get cleared by Customs, Quarantine and Immigration. We got in to find they had only cleared two yachts, at least 20 were still waiting, and another ten yachts had come in around the same time as us. Nothing in Indonesia works to a schedule or strict time keeping.

There was another small problem in that Customs didn’t have a boat to get out to see us all. After about an hour, they found one boat, so split into about three teams, they started to visit the yachts. We were lucky; they got to us early and did all the necessary paperwork, but then they couldn’t get to the next boat as their boat had disappeared. No problem, Shane told them to jump in our tender, and he became the ‘taxi’ to get them to the next yacht! After we had cleared, it was off to shore to explore.

The first official rally function in Indonesia was three days after we got to Kupang. The Governor of the district hosted a dinner for the rally participants; there were the usual speeches and traditional dancing. Each boat crew was given a gift on arrival – a plaque and woven scarf – and then they called for a representative from each country to go and get a further gift. New Zealand was first; no one went up (we thought someone had been chosen to receive the award) so on the second calling of NZ Shane went up and got another woven scarf and plaque. So, Shane is now the official NZ rep. Here he is with the representatives of all the countries participating in the rally. (no he’s not)

During the days in Kupang we had a good wander around. It is typically third world; dirty and dusty, the seawater is dirty, there is rubbish everywhere; but as it is off the regular tourist trail all the locals are very friendly. Particularly the younger kids. They loved practising their limited English vocabulary on us; everywhere we went it was “hullo mister”, “hullo missus”, “bye bye”. They had very infectious laughs and giggles. The local transport is the ‘bemo’ – a small mini-van with a row of seats along each side inside, and with a stereo system where it is mandatory to have the base and sub-woofer cranked up the maximum possible level. The noise got to us a bit after a while.

Sitting in the front seat of the bemo was good; you could see a bit more. In saying that though, the bemo windows were all covered with big transfers – most of them either soccer orientated or to do with the latest fashion trend – it’s a wonder the drivers could see out the front to see where they were going! Each bemo had a driver and ‘conductor’ – who collected the money. Some of the conductors were as young as 11 – obviously their schooling has given way to learning the art of Indonesian commerce.

We managed to find internet cafes, although they are a lot slower than what we have been used to for years, and firewalls and virus protection are unheard of. Eating out was super-cheap in Kupang; we went to the local night food markets just across the road from where we were anchored and could get nasi goring for both us for $1.50. Suffice to say I didn’t cook in Kupang and we ate out every night! I got an upset tummy – the nasi goring I had for lunch one day was a touch on the spicy side – so I stuck with Western faire the following day. Quite a few people got sinus and sniffles in Kupang; the air was very dusty, and there were burn offs ashore so we would wake each morning to thick smoky air. I got a bad throat infection, but got on to antibiotics straight away and got rid of the worst of it fairly quickly.

There are excellent markets in Kupang. Quite by accident, we stumbled across a very big fruit and vegie market, where all the locals go. We stocked up on fruit and veggies; a bunch of bananas was 80 cents and a bag of tomatoes 20 cents, so as you can see, it is very cheap here.

Kupang has been great and everyone really friendly, but it will be good to get to lovely islands where the water is clear and the air fresh and clean…….

In Kupang there were two tours organised, but we thought rather than do a tour with 300 other people, we would do a tour with only a few of us. On our first day in Kupang, we met Marco, one of the locals. He had spent a year working at Kakadu National Park in Aussie, and his English was pretty good. He offered to organise a tour for us.

So, on our last full day in Kupang, eight of us headed off in a bemo with Marco. On our way to the first stop, we called in at a fishing village where the local fishermen were building new fishing boats.

The boats were made of the local wood, with the bark between the strips of wood for sealing. Shane asked and they also used epoxy – so even though they build the boats in the traditional way, they still resort to white man’s magic! It was pretty amazing to watch them make these local craft; seeing the boats at sea sometimes made you wonder how they stayed afloat. But I guess they don’t have seas like Cook Strait to contend with…..

The first stop on our official itinerary was a monkey cave where the monkeys were roaming free. Some of them were extremely tame and loved being fed peanuts. So much so, they tugged at the legs of my shorts for more! Then it was off to a cave with a fresh water pool. We had to walk across a field, and then down into the cave. It was pretty slippery, so it was down on hands and feet to crawl down into the cave.

The water was a beautiful green and very clear; it was also nice and warm. We were all hanging out for a swim; we hadn’t been able to swim in Darwin (crocs) and the water where we were anchored in Kupang was filthy.

During the day we went to a waterfall for yet another swim; we visited the last King’s widow at her house (what a lovely old lady); and went to some small villages. We passed these kids who obviously get trained very young to take the family’s produce to market. People here seem to work very hard, but are happy with their ‘lot’. The day finished with a meal at a slightly more upmarket restaurant, for which we paid the princely sum of $US11 each. Shane and I both ordered fish; unfortunately it came out covered in chilli sauce and Shane couldn’t eat his at all. I persevered for a while on the side that wasn’t covered with chilli.

The following day we headed south to the island of Roti. Roti is known worldwide for great surfing spots, and we knew a few other boats from the rally had gone there. We went to the village of Nembrala. Nembrala was a complete change from Kupang; the water was lovely and clean, the air was fresh, and the village and houses were certainly of a higher standard than Kupang. We found out that Nembrala harvests a special type of seaweed which is sold to the Japanese and Chinese for use in cosmetics; this seaweed has made the village reasonably affluent compared to a lot of Indonesia. Nembrala has leased off blocks of land - $A30,000 for 30 years. A few lots have been leased to Aussies and Americans. They have built lovely (and thankfully not ostentatious) houses right on the beachfront.

We found one other gem in Nembrala, it has a bakery. The bakery made fresh bread, focaccia, and banana and chocolate cakes amongst other things. We put in an order, and got two loaves of bread, two small donuts, and two cakes for $NZ14. A bargain. Now all I needed to find was a café that made good flat whites…..

Here’s a shot looking out from the beachfront. All the local fishing boats tie up close to shore. You can see us yachts in the background. We are anchored in between the two coral reefs. Shane was able to get up first thing in the morning, take his surfboard in the tender over behind the reef, and surf to his hearts content. Meanwhile I was back on enzwell…. Cooking, cleaning……. A lot of the guys were getting in three surfs a day. Heaven……

You may also note Mr Piggy wandering along the beach. It’s a funny thing here, the pigs are all fat and healthy, but the poor dogs are all pretty scrawny. We haven’t quite worked out why.

On our third day at Nembrala, five of us hired three motorbikes and went for a tour around the bottom part of the island. We saw some beautiful little bays on the south side of the island, as well as more great surf beaches. Some of the roads were a little tricky, so we had to take it easy in parts. On our way back across the island, we came across the local road works gang.

This is how they make roads in Roti. Lay out even sized boulders on the road, try and make the surface as flat as possible, heat up the tar in a big drum in the adjoining paddock, and then pour the tar over the top of the boulders. Fascinating to watch, it just shows how it can be done without the use of big trucks and other first world means.

We have had a great time at Nembrala. It has been wonderful to relax and take it easy, at a lovely island. Unfortunately though, we are back to Kupang to sort some business, and then after that we are heading to Lembata to catch up with the rally.

We’ll update you further along the track in Indonesia; probably when we come across the next internet café.

OK it's getting way too hard. Here are the photos from the second part of the blog.

2007-07-02T02:41:00.000Z

29 June

We left Cairns on 6 June, for the big trek up the Queensland coast and over the top to Darwin.

First stop was Low Isles, two sandy cays just off Port Douglas. We caught up with Di and Brendan from the yacht Sunburn, who we hadn’t seen since last October in Cairns, and got in a bit of snorkelling. Then it was off to Cooktown. We arrived at the start of Queens Birthday weekend, and the biannual celebrations commemorating Captain Cook’s landing there in 1770. Cook spent about 45 days in Cooktown making repairs to the Endeavour after it was damaged on Endeavour Reef, and it is recognised that he and his crew were the first white people to spend time in Cooktown.

Shane was not too interested about seeing a few blokes ponce around in fancy dress, but I dragged him along to the re-enactment and we both enjoyed it. A bit of humour introduced to the show made all the difference. Here is a photo, showing the scene just as the Union Jack had been hoisted, and a cannon fired to declare the land had been proclaimed in the name of the King of England.

We had two lovely sunny days in Cooktown, the first time we had seen blue skies for a while. On the Sunday afternoon we enjoyed listening to a jazz band playing at the Botanical Gardens. When we were walking back to the boat, we came across this interesting scene. We are not sure if the firemen look different here, or if they failed to save this poor family’s house…..

After Cooktown we had a fast sail up to Lizard Island, where we planned to spend two nights. However the winds blew and blew, and we were there for four. Lizard Island is the last stop north during the cruising season for yachties; after spending a bit of time there, they return south when the northerlies kick in in October. Lizard Island is also where Captain Cook went, and climbed to the top of the 358-metre hill, to try and find a way out between the reefs.

Lizard Island has two lovely bays; the southern bay has a lovely resort, and the northern bay is where all the yachties anchor. We found out that the rooms at the resort start at $900 a night, going up to $2500 for the most expensive! There was great snorkelling at Lizard; we saw some amazing giant clams. We also went ashore to the Marlin Bar (the staff bar at the resort) and watched the second State of Origin game (continuing on in our theme of latte-hopping and watching international sporting fixtures…..).

After Lizard we did a 24-hour run, going between the inner and outer reefs of the Great Barrier Reef. It was quite eerie at night; there was no moon so it was as dark as the ace of spades, there seemed to be flashing lights everywhere, indicating parts of the reef and who knows what else; and ships were passing us, that didn’t appear to be travelling in the shipping lanes. All in all a little unnerving……

After a couple more stops, we made it to Escape River, our last anchorage before going “over the top”. Shane put a couple of crab pots out when we arrived, but he misjudged the depth of water and the buoy was below water level. We both set off again in the tender to attach more line, both being extremely paranoid about any crocs that might be lurking in the nearby mangroves. All in all it was a wasted exercise, as when Shane went to get the pots in the morning they had gone!

The following day we got to Cape York, and had the obligatory photo to say we had made it to the northern most part of Australia.

By this time we had met up with two Aussie couples on their catamarans, and enjoyed time socialising in the evenings with them. Jim and Cheryl (Odyssey 9) had done this coast before, so it was good to be in the company of people who knew where to go and what to do.

Then it was off to Seisia, a small settlement just around from Cape York, to get a few last supplies in before we sailed over the gulf. A cargo shop arrives every Monday night in Seisia, having taken two days to get there from Cairns. We arrived Tuesday morning, so the supermarket shelves were well stocked. I grabbed a couple of magazines (New Idea etc) until I saw the price $8.20 each – and promptly put one back. I told Shane I would read every word twice in the one I bought, to get my money’s worth!

Our trip across the Gulf of Carpenteria was not much fun. The first day started off calm, but by that afternoon it felt like we were in a washing machine, stuck on the wash cycle. Although it calmed down a little, it wasn’t a lot more pleasant for the next two days either. I had to summons for a bucket at one stage….. I was pleased to reach Cape Wessel at the end of day three and get that part of the trip over. While we were doing this trip, and for the next few days, most of Australia was having lousy weather. We continually had strong winds and grey skies. We even had to get the duvet out for the bed!

We had a few short hops down the Wessel Islands and along the top of the Northern Territory coast. By this time we were travelling with another catamaran; Grant the skipper is recently from Havelock North and knows my sister and her ex – small world!!! Grant is now living in Perth, and had bought the cat in Southport and is sailing it home with crew.

Grant is a keen hunter and fisherman, so we have all spent a bit of time hunting out crayfish and oysters. We have been successful on the oyster-front (enjoying a couple of nights of Oysters Kilpatrick) but we have dipped out on the crayfish. After a couple of dives, Shane got very paranoid about the crocs, so gave away looking for them. (Shane…… Yeah!! After Grant told me he saw croc tracks on the sand about 500m from where I had the dive. Visibility was about two feet and I kept imagining Mr Croc behind me……...).

Since we left Cape York, we have been ‘buzzed’ about 4 or 5 times by the Coast Watch/Customs planes. This part of the coast is where many illegal immigrants try and get into Australia. The planes call us up, get our details, and then let us carry on our way. One of the choppers got so close to us, Shane managed to get their photo, while they were probably taking ours!

We started an overnight run yesterday morning, planning to get some mileage under our belt and get right up to the channels (that lead down to Darwin) by lunchtime today. I was having a rest early yesterday afternoon, when I heard a noise coming from the deck. I called out to Shane; he checked, and discovered that the line between the tender and the yacht had snapped. Our tender was now floating some 100 metres behind us, bobbing up and down in the 2 metre waves. We had to get the sails down, do a 180-degree turn (all the while trying to keep an eye on the tender’s location) and then motor back to where it was. Despite 30 knot winds and high seas, Shane managed to get a boat hook under one of the side straps on the tender, I grabbed the broken line with another hook, and we eventually attached a new line. It wasn’t as easy as it sounds here either…..! We were dead lucky to hear the line snap and get the tender back. Buying a new tender wasn’t on our shopping list. Well, not for a while anyway……

We are currently one day out from Darwin; tomorrow will also be the 365th day since we left Brisbane on the boat. We have timed our arrival in Darwin perfectly as we arrive tomorrow afternoon (just in time to watch the NZ-Australia Tri-nations rugby at night!). We are travelling in the company of Grant and his crew, and another Kiwi (Frederick) who is in the rally with us. We had planned to anchor in a bay today, and catch up for lunch. And Grant was going to bring over a fresh loaf of bread that one of his crew had baked. But with the lunch stop cancelled, how would we get the bread? There was mention of getting alongside and hurling it across, but we figured we were likely to end up with a loaf of soggy bread. Instead, Grant brought his cat right up behind us, and dropped the loaf into the tender. Here is an action shot just as he had deposited the cargo safely!! The bread was lovely and warm out of the oven, thanks Georgie!

So, as you can see, we have had a busy month. When we get in to Darwin we will be flat out, getting things fixed, buying necessary supplies etc (including all the little yummy foodie things we won’t be able to get in Asia), and generally getting everything organised for when we leave Darwin on July 21st. There is a lot to do, but we’ll do another quick update before we leave Australia.

2007-06-04T06:29:00.000Z

2007-06-04T06:09:00.000Z

It’s been a long drink between blogs. Sorry about that, it’s just that as we have been retracing our steps there doesn’t seem much to report.

We are now back in Cairns having made stops after we left Sydney at Brisbane for a week, plus various other spots for a day or two. We have been in Cairns for two weeks, getting a few jobs done and antifouling the boat. We could have done it in Darwin but as there will be about 150 boats there heading to Indonesia on the same day we think it will be a mad-house so we are getting all set here. Yes 150 or so boats, there are 110 on the Darwin-Kupang rally plus another rally leaves for Ambon on the same day and we are pretty sure there will be some hangers on as well. It’s going to be crazy but we’re sure it will be loads of fun as well.

So, the adventures, getting to Brissy was the first one. If you remember “Finding Nemo”, you will know there is a very strong current running down the east coast of Australia called “The Eastern Australian current”. As it runs at up to three knots we were motoring up against it or we would have been going nowhere fast. About 10 pm I was watching a DVD with the headphones on while on watch, and I heard the motor stop. When I take off the headphones I also hear a lot of water sloshing around……….panic!!! So here we are, wind blowing us onto a rocky shore about a mile away, no motor and water sloshing about!! The water…… Our stern gland (that keeps the water out) has been leaking a bit (we got a new one here in Cairns). Water was always dribbling in which is fine because the automatic bilge pump takes it out – but the auto part had packed up. I turned on the manual switch, water gone, first panic over. Good thing about a yacht is the sails, so I hoisted them and sailed away from shore, not quite in the required direction due to the current and wind against us but to safety. Check the motor, no oil, what!! I just changed the oil in Sydney and couldn’t see 5 litres slopping about in the bilge. Go to other tack, boat leans the other way, the oil comes back. Yes I know, how could you trust such idiots to go to sea, well, we are learning. Check the fuel. Twin tanks, both empty, or close to it. According to our calculations, at 350L per tank we should do X miles. To cut a long story short - we carry two 20L drums for just such an occasion and so we motored happily to Southport (Surfers). When we filled up we found that our 350L tanks are actually 320L tanks of which we can’t get to the last four or so litres to use. Yes we learn a little more every day.

Anyway, a couple of days later we were back in the Brisbane River saying goodbye to friends. After a week we pottered off heading for the Whitsundays as our first stop. Due to lack of wind we decided to stop off at Lady Elliot Island, a small coral cay with the clearest water we’ve seen so far. It is the only time we have dropped anchor and seen it go all the way down and hit the bottom 50 feet below.

True to our mission of “Latte hopping around Aus” we wandered ashore for a coffee at the resort and saw they where having a “turtle hatching excursion” that evening. Unfortunately we discovered that it was at the end of the season for the hatchings but we tagged along with the resortees and managed to see three of the little mites dig their way out of the sand and head off in the direction of the light given off by the moon. Given there where about 10-15 of us taking flash photos they had a bit of trouble deciding which light to head to but did make it eventually.

That’s one thing we have seen an abundance of here, turtles. Lots of them around the Whitsundays and we have seen them snorkelling sometimes, us that is, not them, they don’t need snorkels.

Another stop on the way back was at Middle Percy Island. We visited last year when we were heading south and loved it so decided one more visit would be worthwhile. Went for another bit of a snorkel and for the first time I decided to lay the anchor face down instead of its edge. About 6am we woke up to the sound of a glass breaking and the boat was really rocking about. That wind must have really got up in the night we thought…... We were rocking and rolling and the tender was banging the back of the boat all the time. Got up to clean up the broken glass. Holly S…… where the hell are we. One mile out to sea as it turned out, fortunately beside another island and not on it. First time we have really dragged. Don’t think I will adjust the anchor again!!!! (See above ….”How can you trust such idiots” etc).

That’s most of the dramas. We spent a week at Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays catching up with Patrick and Elizabeth on LaBarque who we spent time with at Sydney and Brisbane. Heather managed a spectacular fall leaving a café at Airlie and had the bruise to prove it for some days.

Had a lovely night at Fitzroy with Garth and Ruth – Garth was one of Heather’s old work colleagues. They are there working on the rebuild project for the place and every night move 20 feet from their caravan to the beach front and have a couple of sundowners and watch the sun go down behind the hills. Just magic. As they are working there they don’t need their car and so we had the use of it while in Cairns for a few days which was a godsend while we were in sandfly heaven, also know as the haul out yard.

And so to Cairns. While here we have managed to cross off most of our jobs to do and still catch up with some friends from our last visit here, and watch the All Blacks beat France last night. We watched the game on the big-screen at the casino. To celebrate we went to a really good restaurant on the Esplanade with Helen and Ian and a couple of their friends. They have stayed and worked here through the summer to get more cruising coupons and will head to The Philippines in August.

And that’s about it really. We will leave here Wednesday if the weather is OK and head off to Darwin for July and then we really begin the adventure of seeing the world from our mobile home.

2007-04-23T02:12:00.000Z

Saturday 12 April

A nice shot of Sydney Harbour Bridge to start with......

When we last wrote, we were about to head back to NZ for three weeks to see family and friends and attend to a bit of business.

The first night in NZ I managed to get to see the Hurricanes play at Wellington stadium, and snatch a last minute win from the Blues! Thanks to Helen for getting me a ticket to the game. While I was at the rugby, Shane went to a 40th birthday party for one of his fireman mates at the surf club in Lyall Bay. During the evening he went out on the deck to have a cigarette and felt the full brunt of a southerly wind coming straight off the Southern Alps – welcome back to Wellington’s weather!!!!! To be fair, the weather was pretty good for the three weeks we were home, except for the last couple of days in Auckland.

The trip home went well; it was great to see everyone again after having been away for nearly a year, and we were certainly racing around trying to fit everything and everyone in.

Mid-March and it was back to the boat. Sydney had two major thunderstorms while we were in NZ, but ‘enzwell’ came through them unscathed. We went back to our anchorage in Balls Head Bay, and caught up on all the goings-on from our English friends, Patrick and Elizabeth.

We have had a couple of trips to Manly for Shane to get a surf in. Unfortunately our most recent trip there a couple of weeks ago proved fruitless. We went ashore and over to the beach two days and on both there was hardly a wave to speak of. Later on the second day though, the beach got closed as they were on ‘tsunami alert’ after the big earthquake in the Solomons.

As you can see, Manly isn’t a bad spot to spend a bit of time…..

We had our first lot of visitors in a while just after we got back from NZ. Wendy and Jim came to stay for a weekend. Wendy has been a friend for years, and flatted with me in Wellington for three years back in the mid nineties. They moved to Jim’s hometown of Canberra last year. Over Easter we went down to Canberra and stayed with them. Shane and I hadn’t been to Canberra before, and we were very pleasantly surprised. Canberra is a lovely city – wide boulevards, a fantastic War Memorial, lovely lake in the middle of the city, and at this time of year the autumnal colours of the trees were spectacular. We have to say that Canberra is well worth a visit, and we thoroughly enjoyed our trip there.

We have been busy doing a bit of ‘organising’ in the last month. We have entered the Darwin to Kupang rally which starts on July 21st. Wendy and Jim are down to crew with us, so we will see a bit more of them in three months! It took a little bit of effort to get the entry in, as we had to plan our itinerary through Indonesia for our cruising permit. But we are in the rally, along with 76 other yachts, and the number of entries is still rising! They will take a maximum of 100 yachts, plus on the same day that rally leaves, the Darwin to Ambon rally starts as well so there will probably be about 150-200 yachts scrambling to get out at once. Should prove interesting ????

The other thing we have been busy organising is our trip to Europe in October. Two of Shane’s brothers decided it sounded like a good idea to go to Paris while the Rugby World Cup is on, and hang out there and take in the atmosphere. So we decided we should join them too……. Tickets to the games are both hard to get and out of our price range, so we have our spies out to track down a good sports bar to watch the games, particularly the final in which the All Blacks will come through victorious (she says with fingers tightly crossed…….).

After two and a half weeks in Paris we are heading to Athens and Santorini, and then back to Bali where we will have left the boat. We’ll carry on through Indonesia in November, and probably look at spending Christmas in Singapore. After that, it will probably be to Malaysia, either the states north of Borneo or up the eastern coast of the mainland. We will see how things go, and pick up tips from other yachties on where is good to visit.

But in the immediate future, we are about to head off from Sydney. We are getting the last bit of work done on the boat on Monday, and our last inoculation shots, then it will be off to Manly for the night (and one last final surf!) and out the heads and on to Brisbane on Tuesday. Sydney is starting to get a little cooler now, so we have decided to head off to the warmer climes of Queensland!

It should take us about five days to get up to the sunshine state. It will be the longest trip I have done, but it will be good experience for what lies ahead over the coming months. I just hope that the seas aren’t too rough, and that sleep deprivation doesn’t get the better of me…….. We’ll have a few days in Brissy, and then the next stop will be the Whitsundays.

Not too sure where our next instalment will come to you from; probably Cairns where we (hopefully) will be painting the boat’s bum before we head over to Darwin.

Till next time,

Shane and Heather

2007-03-09T21:00:00.000Z

OK, I think these are the pictures that where missing ???? Some bright spark has changed the system for putting the photos on the blog so bare with us till we get a bit sorted.

2007-03-09T20:55:00.000Z

2007-03-01T22:03:00.000Z

OK Sorry folks, it appears that the photos haven't come through, must be some mice in the new "Blogger" system. We will get them there when we can. Now in Wellington catching up with you all which is a real treat, but......"S..T" it's cold after Aus.

2007-02-27T02:17:00.000Z

At last, dolphins that have a bit of life in them. As son as we hit the NSW boarder, it seems like a new bread of dolphins, more like back home where they come around and ride the bow wave. These ones which where part of a pod of about 15 or so hung around for about 20 minutes. Well long enough that I went back to reading my book anyway. Haven’t quite figured out how they knew where the boarder was but it was great to have them.

Still plenty of coal coming out of this country, leaving Newcastle we must of sailed for over 4 hours through coaliers, we gave up counting at 30 plus, and this is just one of about 4 areas where they export coal, mostly to China but also Japan and Korea. Funny that Aussy is probably one of the more susceptible countries to global warming and here they are exporting one of the main causes. Ah karma. It’s a HUGE topic of the press and conversation over here at the moment what with the big dry. Mind you when the draught breaks so will the interest in global warming probably.

And so it was that we finally made to Sydney on a grey old day. I must admit it’s pretty cool sailing into Sydney harbour. It’s one of those things that not that many people get to do and it really is a magnificent harbour but hell, it’s got some traffic, especially on the weekend.

Still, nothing compared with Singapore I’m sure,s as we shall find out latter this year. We are really starting to get excited about leaving Aus and really starting the adventure. It does still kind of feel like home here, especially when it seem like half the people you met are Kiwis. Meet two more couples today at Manly that have yachts registered in Mooloolaba, Aucklanders and south islanders. Anyway the real offshore will all start when we do the Darwin to Kupang (Indonesia) rally at the end of July. Then up to Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia which from all accounts is just fantastic. Anyway, back to Sydney. We timed it to arrive here for Australia day which is a huge affair here with Aussy flags everywhere and on everybody, hats, shirts, pants, babies etc, etc. Still it was a great day with lots happening. We met up with some fellow yachties we had meet in Brisbane and watched all the events on the harbour, which was a total madhouse, from the safety of shore. They had a tall ships race amongst other events which was really impressive finishing under the harbour bridge, of course. Needless to say there was another fireworks display in Darling harbour that night. It did all give you pause to compare the celebration here to Waitangi day back home. Something is definatly missing in how we celebrate our identity, actually we don’t, that’s what’s missing.

Oh by the way, this is a two parter as we can only get four photos per blog, so carry on with the blog below.

2007-02-27T02:07:00.000Z

Hello again. The couple we met at Brisbane that we did the Aus day stuff with may well feature a few times as they have the same kind of itinerery as us from here, that is back up the coast late April and onto the Darwin rally so here they are, Patrick and Elizabeth, very experienced, been at it since 93.

We often dine and or drink on each others yachts as is the custom with yachties we are finding, very social. Actually we have met several boats who intend doing the same rally so it will probably be a big bunch of friends (about 100 yachts) getting pissed together at each end interrupted with a bit of cruising inbetween. Sounds good to us!

Sydney has been great and we have been very busy taking in the sights. We found a travel pass that gets you around for a week with all buses, ferries and trains in the Red Zone, no not like the one at the rugby sevens, for $33. Great value, so we have taken in the Nautical museum, fantastic, the Sydney museum, great display of the building of the bridge, Olympic stadium, Aquarium, Bondi, Manly, movies, and general café hopping, not to mention the Ice bar. One of those things where everything is made of ice, well nearly everything, the walls and the roof weren’t, buh the rest was, glasses, tables and carvings. Entry included your “free cocktail”, vodka of course which was really yummy.

At the aquarium Heather got really brave and patted a shark, OK so it wasn’t a really big one, nor particually hungry but I’m sure it could of done some serious damage to her nail polish if it so choose!

Most of the time we are anchored in Balls head bay which gives us good access to the train and an easy row to shore, Pat and Elizabeth are here as well. Most of the time it is very calm and we have a peep of the bridge just above the trees.

We have occasionally strayed, a couple of nights at Manly, just a short walk for a surf, and a weekend on a mooring while I assisted on a Landmark course and Heath caught up with her cousin south of the city. It was a pretty rocky mooring but was safe to leave the boat there and is where we will be leaving the boat when we come home, this week. Friday 23rd. Hopefully the weather has fined up at last for us.

Till next time,

Shane and Heather

2007-01-15T00:36:00.000Z

14 January 2007

Happy New Year to everyone – and whoops, it’s been over a month since we last ‘blogged’ so sorry for the tardiness on our part. Christmas festivities and all have a lot to answer for…….. You must all be hanging with baited breath for our next instalment, so here goes….

We are now in the marina at Coffs Harbour on the NSW coast, having come in here to get a couple of things fixed on the boat. On our trip south the engine started overheating (turned out the impeller in the raw water pump was totally knackered) and the hot water cylinder had been leaking for a few days.

Back to what we have been up to. We spent our time in Brisbane – one week at the marina at Rivergate (on the Brisbane River near the Gateway Bridge) and four weeks on a pile mooring next to the Botanical Gardens right in the middle of the city. The week at the marina was necessitated by what we thought were major engine problems. It turned out to be nothing more serious than an airlock, but we used the time at the marina to get two solar panels installed. Shane reckons we need one more solar panel, and along with the wind generator we already have, we should be sweet for power to the batteries. At the marina we also pulled out our small engine (used for topping up the batteries). It wasn’t terribly well and would have cost a lot to get fixed. Getting rid of it has probably made the boat about 300 kgs lighter. Mind you, the cases of wine we have on board have negated some of that!!!

Our time on the pile mooring was great. We met some really nice yachties there, who helped me celebrate when the birthday fairy visited just before Christmas. I had a really nice day; brunch at a local café late morning, a very relaxing facial in the afternoon, and drinkies and pizza at night, followed by more drinkies aboard ‘Irene’ (the yacht of English couple Dick and Pat). Another highlight on the piles was that we have got hot water on the boat! Shane hooked up the hot water cylinder to the engine (prior to that it was running off 110v power) and so now I can do the dishes without having to boil the jug, and we can have hot water for showers (without having to rely on solar showers). GREAT!!!!!!

I insisted that we have a Christmas tree on the boat, and managed to find a small Christmas tree that we decorated with small Father Christmases. They were bought from one of the $2 type-shops and therefore the workmanship wasn’t outstanding. One of the Father Christmases didn’t have any eyes, so in one of his lighter moments, Shane made a white stick and attached it to Santa’s hand!! We had the tree on our dining table, with our presents around the bottom of the tree and Christmas cards hung around the cabin. At least Enzwell was a little Christmassy.

Christmas Day for us was fairly quiet. Lots of phone calls home in the morning (to catch up with friends and family around lunchtime NZ-time) and then we were off for our Christmas lunch at a nearby hotel. When Shane made the booking, he asked what the menu was (we wanted to afford ‘buffet style’ at all costs). They told him it was six-course, and that we would hardly be able to move at the end. They were right! The second course was an antipasto platter that would have fed us both as a main course by itself. We then struggled through the main course and dessert, before conceding defeat. We left the restaurant with a doggy-bag containing courses five and six – which we enjoyed the next day!

SE Queensland has had unusually cold and wet weather over the holiday period, so Wellington, you haven’t got the bad weather on your own. It was 19 degrees in Brisbane on Dec 27th, the coldest it has been on that day for over 80 years. We caught up on a few movies we wanted to see while the weather wasn’t great. We didn’t mind the cool weather too much; better than it being stifling hot. Brisbane is big on fireworks, and New Years Eve was no exception. We invited Marj and Wayne on to the boat – they were our moteliers when we first got to Brisbane, and we have enjoyed their hospitality during the year so it was time to reciprocate. It was like State Highway One in the afternoon and early evening as everyone in Brisbane with a launch headed up the river to get a good vantage point for the fireworks. We decided not to watch the fireworks from the tender – far too much traffic on the river – but instead walked to the Goodwill Bridge ten minutes away from the yacht and had a good view from there.

Enzwell hosted farewell drinks on January 1, and we set sail the next day to head south. We had five nights on the inland route between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. Because the waterways are inland, and therefore relatively calm, there are a lot of houseboats on the Gold Coast. They look a bit like a Skyline garage on a barge! We saw heaps of them; they looked quite funny after we have been used to seeing yachts.

The Gold Coast would also have to have one of the highest jet-ski per person ratios that we have come across. Some launches we saw were towing a tender, plus a couple of jet-skis. Nothing like taking all the toys away when you go on holiday! We went ashore our last day in Surfers to head to the markets at Carrara. We got back to the tender late in the afternoon, to find someone had pinched one of our oars. I don’t suppose that it’s too bad considering it took six months for us to have something stolen. There was a rave-party/music festival on further up the coast, and it is possible that someone on their way there took it for a laugh and threw it away further up the beach. I had a good walk along the shoreline but didn’t find it. Shane managed to get a surf in while we were on the Gold Coast, but a strong on-shore wind meant that his dreams of a good surf didn’t eventuate. He’ll have to wait until we get to Sydney.

Last Sunday we left the Gold Coast Seaway and were into the Tasman Sea. It was nice to be sailing again! A planned 24 hour trip down the NSW coast to the Clarence River only took us 15 hours due to the strong current we had with us. It meant though that we were coming over the bar entry at midnight – a little scary entering an unknown bar for the first time at night! Luckily it was near a full moon, and the Clarence River bar is one of the best on the coast.

We picked the eyes out of the weather, as the day after we came into the Clarence River, a squall came up, and it would have been fairly scary sailing and coming over the bar in that weather. We had two days at Ilkua, going for a walk through their heritage-listed rainforest. Looked pretty much like dry bush to us…….. It certainly wasn’t how I remember the last rainforest I was in (the Daintree Rainforest in far north Queensland a few years back). We had two nights up the Clarence River anchored in the river at Maclean, which is known as the “Scottish Town in Australia”. To get there (and back), we had to go under the bridge at Harwood. The centre of the bridge lifts up; there we were, stopping traffic on the Pacific Highway between Sydney and Brisbane so that the centre of the bridge could lift up for us to go underneath!

Maclean is a lovely little town; there is evidence of their Scottish heritage everywhere. Each of the lampposts in the main street is painted with the tartan of a different clan. Lots of the shops sell Scottish souvenirs, and the butcher sells black pudding. I was tempted…..!

There are lots of trawler boats operating in the Clarence River. They trawl for ‘schoolies’ – tiny little prawns. Probably the reason they are tiny is that the river appears to be obscenely over fished, and the prawns don’t get a chance to grow big. Due to the boats, lots of birdlike is attracted to the river, to get the pickings of what the trawler boats throw overboard. One of the birds must have mistaken us for a trawler boat, and hopped along for the ride as we were heading back down the river!

Our last night in the Clarence River on Thursday was spent at Yamba, a seaside town at the river entrance. Shane got to have a surf there, and given it was his birthday the following day (and we would be at sea) we went out for dinner in Yamba and went to the movies (Happy Feet).

We left Yamba on Friday and headed south for Coffs Harbour. We have got the problems sorted, and plan to leave here on Tuesday morning. NSW is certainly not as yachtie-friendly in terms of protected anchorages as was Queensland, so we will probably try and do a couple of long trips to knock off the miles. We plan to get to Sydney by January 26 which is Australia Day, as there is bound to be a lot happening on the harbour – including more fireworks! One thing we are enjoying in NSW is daylight saving; it is nice being able to sleep in past 0500 hours in the morning!

We will anchor in Sydney for a while, and then find a safe marina to leave ‘enzwell’ for three weeks when we come home in late February. We’re already planning what warm clothes we will bring home to wear; we have got very well acclimatised to the Australian weather and it is going to be a shock to the system to return to NZ!

That’s it for now – the next blog should come to you from Sydney.

Heather and Shane

We made it back to Brisbane!

2006-12-07T08:39:00.000Z

2 December

We’re back ! Back on the blog and back in Brisbane. We’ve been back for over a week now.. When we last wrote we were in Townsville and had done most of the bad sailing, well motoring actually. Since then the sailing has been pretty good really. A mixture of pleasant winds and calmish seas. Oh, I forgot, coming into Bunderberg was a tad tense. About 35-40 knots astern which was fine until we had to turn into the Bundy river, pitch black, howling wind on the beam with waves crashing over the side, trying to get some sail down and a couple of smaller motor boats puttering in at the same time that we had to watch out for. I must say radar is a great navigation aid in the dark. Still we made it in safely, anchored up the river a bit out of harms way and had a peaceful dinner about 9.30.

Then of course there was the lightning squall that hit us a couple of days later going down the Great Sandy Strait. That was impressive. The night before was lovely and calm but we awoke to a strong southerly, which meant we had to move from our once safe anchorage and head down the strait. As we left, the VHF radio station covering the area said they were shutting down due to a lightning storm. Apparently getting zapped down your antenna while broadcasting isn’t the done thing. We could see the lightning over the bay as well as hear it. It was amazing watching huge bolts strike the ground on the horizon. Unfortunately the horizon got nearer and nearer and it becomes less amazing as it started to hit all around us. When you start to see and hear massive explosions around you, along with sheet rain dropping your vision to about 100 metres, it gets a bit off-putting !! Given that getting a few million volts down your mast when you are sailing isn’t great for the electrics, we disconnected everything we could - batteries, radios, GPS, computers, radar etc. Here we are, lightning belting all around us, heavy squalls of rain and wind, in about 7 metres of water with sand banks all around. Time to drop the anchor and hunker down. After it had passed our immediate area we carried on, the only damage being that the surges appear to have knocked out our electronic wind direction indicator. Did I say the sailing had been pretty good? It’s amazing really because when it’s all over, you really do seem to forget it.

Since that storm it has been really nice. That night we stayed in Garry’s anchorage, which is very protected, and we watched as the lightning storm went on all day and into the night. Very impressive. That same storm brought big winds and storm damage to Brisbane, covered the MCG with hail and brought snow to NSW, it really was an “event” as they say.
The winds were staying southerly for a while so we holed up in a little town in Tin Can Bay where we managed to do our usual, have coffees, go to the markets and watch some sport at the pub. This time the Aussies beat the Poms in the league to put us in the final. (Sad story from then on.) Yet another nice wee town, very protected down the end of a long estuary, even had some tame dolphins that came for a feed every morning.

Seeing as the southerly had blown for a few days, by the time we left with a good forecast there were quite a few yachts doing the same and heading down to Mooloolaba. This was the first time we’ve really been able to gauge how the boat performs compared to other yachts and I must say we were pretty happy. For a 15 tonne plus steel cruiser we were able to pass some and hold our own with others, so that’s good. It was somewhere around here, about Great Sandy Strait, that we passed the 2000 nautical mile mark, so you could say we have sailed around NZ! From north cape down one coast, around Bluff, watching out for icebergs (are those things still around?) and back up the other side. I suppose that only goes to show how big Aussie really is. We haven’t even done all of one state!

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One really nice place we stopped at on our way south was Middle Percy Island (in the Whitsundays). The scene when we arrived was of clear and blue waters, and a lovely white sandy beach with palm trees. Quite idyllic …… Shane tried to climb up one of the coconut trees to get some coconuts; after he had gone to all the trouble he found a ladder under one of the trees further along!! The owner of the island built an A-frame about 50 years ago, and since then it has been filled with all sorts of memorabilia from passing yachties. Some yachts have been there a number of times over the years. It was really interesting to look at the very arty and creative contributions left by some of the passing yachties. The sign out the front of the A-frame says "Percy Hilton".

We stopped again at The Town of 1770 and had three days there – a great spot. Caravan park right on the beach; pelicans swimming by all the time, and the beach a hive of activity all day long with holidaymakers swimming and fishing.

So, now we are in Brisbane, tied up to the pile berths in the Brisbane River with the city a 50 metre tender ride away, all for $50 a week. Fantastic. Not a bad view from the rear deck of the boat either........

The ferries go past during the day and give us a bit of a rocking but it’s quite pleasant really. They stop during the night so we get a good night’s sleep. The object of getting here of course was to see Elton John. He was great. Did mostly his popular older stuff with only about four songs from his new album. He must be a happy old “married” man now as he is a chubby wee thing, but he can still belt out the ivories. Great show with seats really close to the stage. It will forever be known as the “Chunder down-under” concert as about three quarters of the way through he left the stage with no announcement or anything, just up and left. The guitarist said something about he was sure he would be back soon and jammed some music till he returned. He duly arrived back on stage; he said he had to be sick and thought it better to throw up in the toilets rather than the front row. A true professional, not a sign before and not a sign afterwards. Elton was great but Cirque de Soleil was just magical. We went to see their latest show “Varekai” and it does leave you speechless. Fantastic skills needless to say, but all wrapped up in such beauty. Heather has seen three of their shows now, me two, and each time it is a trip to wonderland. I suppose it’s like looking at a great painting coming to life. And for our third form of entertainment this week - there is the movie “Borat”. Entertainment at a whole new level. About as low down in the gutter as you can get and absolutely hysterical!!!! Shane reckons the movie is one of those classics that will live forever. If you have no problem taking the p*ss out of everything go see it. It must be good, several people are suing big time.

Which brings us up to date, apart from that on the last day we were coming in to Brisbane, we sucked up a jelly fish into the engine intake, blocked off the cooling system, overheated the engine which now only runs at about ¾ revs without overheating.

There were literally thousands and thousands of jellyfish in the water - this photo will give a bit of an idea. In some parts of the river, it was wall-to-wall jellyfish, you couldn't see the water for them.

So, it’s off to a marina next week and we will fix the engine problem. It really is one thing after another with the boating life. (We know now what they mean when they say B-O-A-T stands for ‘bring on another thousand……). Good news is we thought the fridge (again) had finally given up the ghost and were pricing and planning how to put in a new one. A couple of days later Shane found it was only a grub screw that had come loose. The beers and gins are cold again!

Fast forward to today - December 7th!……. We left the pile berth in the river this morning, and have moved to a berth at Rivergate Marina to get the engines looked at. As well as the problems we knew we had with the big engine, the little engine (that we use to top up the power in the batteries each day) is playing up as well. We have had limited power over the last week, which means that we haven’t been able to use the laptop much (and get this blog update finished!). We are a little ways out of the city now; close to the Gateway Bridge and right by the airport (should be fun trying to sleep at night with the planes flying by…….). One bit of good news – it took us an hour and a half to get to the marina today and the engine showed no sign of overheating at all. So it might not be all bad news. We are also going to get two solar panels fitted while we are at the marina which will mean we will have lots of power from here on – as long as the sun shines!!!!!! We are on ‘A’ finger at Rivergate; we think ‘A’ here must stand for ‘awfully flash’ as the good yacht enzwell looks really tiny compared to the million/multi-million dollar yachts that are alongside us. There’s nothing like us lowering the tone of the neighbourhood!

The engine fix-it man has just been – and it’s good news with the big engine. It appears that the problem was likely to have been an air-block somewhere, and it has cleared. Not such good news with the small engine – it is not well – but we don’t need to worry about sorting that in the immediate future.

While we were on the piles (and close to the shops) we managed to get all our Christmas cards and shopping done. It’s got to be a record for me, having all that stuff done by 6 December. Now we can just sit back and let everyone else get stressed out with the Christmas rush!

And on that note, we hope that everyone has a great festive season. Merry Christmas and all the best for 2007 from the ‘enzwellers’.

Heather and Shane

2006-10-28T03:03:00.000Z

Our last blog finished with us arriving in Cairns. We ended up staying for three and a half weeks – a little longer than we intended……. – but in saying that, Cairns was a pretty nice place to spend a bit of time.

When we got into the marina in Cairns we had Kiwis for neighbours – Brendan, Di and their two kids Sophie and Finn from Mangawhai. Like us, they are just starting out on the ‘cruising life’. Through them we met yet more Kiwis, Phil and Kate and their two girls. The Aussies can’t get rid of us!

The day we arrived we got told of the great fruit and vegie markets that Cairns has every Friday, Saturday and Sunday. We thought we should go and check them out …… Sure enough, the markets were great, with everything being pretty reasonably priced and fresher than the supermarkets. The bargain hunters arrive at one o’clock on Sunday afto (an hour before close) to get everything at super-reduced rates! As well as the usual fruit and vegies, the markets had lots of fresh herbs, and tropical fruits. Here I am having a browse around the stands, working out what to buy to whip up my culinary delights for the rest of the week.

We spent two weeks in the marina, as the fridge starting playing up; we thought it might require a major effort to fix it. After much gnashing of teeth, two visits from a ‘fridge expert’, and work from Shane to effect minor repairs, we got the fridge sorted. Fingers crossed ………..

Once that was done, we could set about enjoying our time in Cairns. I managed to get motivated and fit in about three runs; we spent quite a bit of time drinking lattes and doing stuff on the ‘net’; we even got to the movies twice; and went to a great pub to watch the Air NZ Cup (rugby) final, and the two first Tri-Nations league games on a big outdoor screen – and after the results of all three we won’t talk any more on that subject!

The waterfront in Cairns has been done up really nicely. The stretch along the beach is called ‘The Strand’ – there are lots of open park areas, shops and cafes, and a great pool complex, which is packed most days. We used to take our books and lie in the sun and read, and it was real easy to then just jump in the pool and cool off. Note the lovely ‘fish sculptures’ at the far end of the pool.

The reason that they have such nice pool complexes at some of the beaches in far north Queensland, is that a lot of the beaches in the main cities aren’t up to much. (Plus there are the additional problems of ‘stinger’ jellyfish and crocodiles). The ‘beach’ along the Cairns waterfront…….

See what I mean! It is just one vast expanse of boggy mud. What you see is mud - there is no water for about one kilometre, until high tide comes in. We saw a guy walking in the mud one day – heaven knows why – and with each slow step he took he was up to his knees in mud – yuck!

Most of the time in Cairns it was unusually windy, even though it was still about 29 degrees. We also got quite a bit of rain. The winds became a real nuisance, they were still blowing from the S to SE, and we needed them to change to the north so we could start sailing south.

Before we all moved out of the marina, we decided we should have a Kiwi BBQ. True to form for a Kiwi barbie, it started to rain just as we were about to start cooking. Luckily most of the BBQs they have in the parks here are under cover! We had a good night ……

As you aren’t allowed alcohol (given we were in a public area) we had to get a little cunning to enjoy an ale or wine with dinner – let’s just say the water in Shane’s pump bottle was chardonnay-coloured!! All our years of training at the Wellington Sevens paid off!!

We decided we had to start heading south, so made plans to leave last Sunday (after having watched the league the night before). We left Cairns late afternoon, knowing that we would be going into the winds and that they were expected to be between 25-30 knots. The trip was to be my first proper overnight passage, so I was a little apprehensive – two hour watches during the night, being in the dark and not being able to see rocks, reefs and other boats made me a little angsy.

It was not a pleasant night…... The winds got up to 45 knots, waves were constantly breaking over the bow of the yacht, and I was feeling a little on the ‘green’ side. I managed the two-hour watches, but only just. Each time I moved I felt queasy, and had to yell to Shane at one stage to get enzwell’s equivalent of airplane sick bags – white plastic supermarket bags, double bagged in case there were any holes! They weren’t actually needed, but I came close….. After 18 hours at sea, we got to Mourilyan Harbour – a small commercial port with a calm safe anchorage. I was extremely happy to get there and get out of the wind. When we arrived, I found I obviously hadn’t crossed my fingers hard enough – the fridge had packed up again. This time it was a bearing in the motor – and a bearing on a ten year old 12 volt motor from the USA isn’t the sort of thing you find in a kiosk at a small commercial port where all they do is load sugar on big ships …. So we spent the next two days frantically eating everything in the fridge and freezer. After two nights at Mourilyan, the winds had abated, and we could make the next overnight trip and get to Townsville. To say I wasn’t looking forward to the trip (given the experience of getting to Mourilyan) would be an understatement. But I needn’t have been worried, as the winds were a lot lighter, and it was a pretty good trip. As a bonus, Shane got the TV working, and I spent my two hours off (when I wasn’t sleeping) watching TV. Aren’t reruns of MASH and Blue Heelers great! It made the time pass by really fast. We got to Townsville on Thursday morning, after 25 hours at sea, and got straight on to getting the fridge sorted.

It was good to know I could manage fine with an overnight trip. Although we have been cruising for nearly four months now, we had only been doing day trips, and we will certainly need to do overnight trips, as well as passages of several days, in the next few months, so it was good to get the first ‘overnighter’ under my belt.

We’re currently at the marina at Townsville, and with a bit of ‘downtime’, Shane went out yesterday morning and fitted in a well-deserved game of golf. He enjoyed it, but managed to come back with two less balls in his golf bag. The fridge is still proving to be a bit of a problem, but as I type this we have our toes crossed as well as our fingers that it is finally going to work properly.

We’re going to watch the league tonight with Pete and Viv (remember them from Shane’s “it’s a small world segment” a couple of blogs ago) and then we’ll head off tomorrow morning. It should take us two days to get down to Airlie Beach in the Whitsundays. We want to get a few longish trips in to knock off a few miles in our trek down to Brisbane. As well Elton John’s concert at the end of November, we’ve also got tickets to Cirque de Soleil’s latest show, Varekai. Quite a few cruisers are starting to head south now, so I’m sure we’ll bump into lots of familiar boats and faces along the way. All we need now is for the northerlies to arrive.

Carry on reading for another segment of the blog……..

Heather and Shane

2006-10-28T02:56:00.000Z

28 October 2006

I had too much to write this time, plus we can only get four photos in per blog article, so here’s what we did one day we were in Cairns.

We decided to get a rental car for the day. I was keen to see and learn a bit of the Aboriginal culture, and Shane wanted to check out the crocodiles. Of course, we picked the rainiest day that we were in Cairns.

First up was Tjapukai, (pronounced Jab-u-Kai, and they say Maori is hard!) Aboriginal Cultural Park, which is in the Barron Gorge about 20 minutes north of Cairns. The Barron Gorge area is the traditional home of the Tjapukai people. A bit like NZ with it’s different Maori tribes being associated with specific areas, the many aboriginal tribes are much the same.

The park has five theatres where we learnt the history of the people, there were song and dance performances, boomerang and spear throwing demos, and didgeridoo playing. Shane was very disappointed as due to the rain, the boomerang throwing was cancelled.

Shane thought the park was average, but I found parts of it great, particularly the skills involved with playing the didgeridoo.

Next up we were off to Cairns Tropical Zoo just up the road.

Not long after we got there, it was “have your photo taken with a koala time”. So here we are, Shane and I, with Tilly the koala.

Isn’t she cute??!! Koalas sleep for 18-20 hours per day (I think I want to come back as a koala in my next life!!). Koalas are amazing in how they manage to stay sleeping in the branches of a tree, without falling out. They have very strong front paws, but their body and back paws are very weak. They also have very poor eyesight and rely on their strong sense of smell to work out if the eucalyptus leaves that they are near are the right ones to eat. There are many varieties of eucalyptus leaf, and only a few are on a koala’s diet. The zoo had recently had a few mother koalas give birth; the little baby koalas were really really cute…..

Part of the reason Shane was keen to go to the zoo was to see a crocodile or two. We thought it best to see them at the zoo first, rather than our initiation to them being a visit on or near ‘enzwell’. Well, we saw a few crocs at the zoo all right……

As well as the ones in the photo, there were some extra huge crocs in another enclosure. The scary part is that when they are under water, you are lucky if you can see their eyes and bridge of their nose, so you have absolutely no idea of the size of them. I did learn though that crocs are relatively slow over land – compared with their speed through the water – so I better start work on my 100 metre sprints.

And of course, what would a visit to an Aussie zoo be without a snake or three. The zookeeper brought out a few pillowcases at the start of his demo, and when they started wriggling it wasn’t too hard to figure out what was inside. Most of them he touched, but with this little sucker he used a pole with a hook at the end.

One bite from this baby and it would be all over within five minutes. I made a mental note to pay a bit more attention to things at ground level the next time I’m walking near any long grass…

After the zoo, we drove on up to Port Douglas, as Shane hadn’t been there before. We had the obligatory wander around the shops, dinner at the pub, before we headed back to Cairns after a pretty full-on day.

S and H

2006-10-05T03:49:00.000Z

OK, get yourself comfortable ‘cause it’s been a while and we’ve covered some ground, or sea, since then.

When last we spoke we were in Townsville and having some drama with water not being on the outside. All in all though it went well, one less area to worry about and we had a good dodger made which gives us protection in the cockpit from the wind when at anchor and hell there’s been some wind. I don’t think we have had more than a couple of days with less than 25 knots. At least it calms done in the evening so we can sleep in some comfort and there is no wind chill factor like Welly. From Townsville we went to Magnetic Island, about 2 hours sail from Townville, a bit like going to Waiheke in Auckland I suppose. This was probably one of our favourite stays. Really chilled feel to the place and the bay we anchored in was very protected from the wind, had a couple of good pubs and cafes. There was also the unofficial Horseshoe Bay Yacht Club, which is one of the shelters set up for getting out of the sun and having BBQ’s etc. Lots of yachts leave a wee plaque as a record of their visit there. So we are now members of the Horseshoe Bay Yacht Club. (OK it might be a bit hard to see, we are top left)

We also met another great couple there, Les and Jax, both Japanese Hawaiians who most recently lived in Whangarei for about 14 years I think. Again, great people with lots of good advice, interesting history and Jax was one mean cook. Magnetic had some lovely walks to more secluded bays, one of which was clothing optional. On the day we went, Sunday, they had taken the option to wear clothes as I think they were mostly day-trippers from Townsville.

From there to Orpheus Island, pretty ho hum, then across the ways to go up the Hinchinbrook channel. At the entrance is the longest sugar wharf in the world with a loading platform at the end. And it is long!!! Over three miles long and it dips two metres in the middle to take account of the curvature of the earth. The problem around here is that the water can be shallow for miles, often being under 10 metres deep over two miles from shore, hence very long loading platforms for coal, sugar etc. Anyway the Hinchinbrook channel was beautiful, a mixture of scenery like the canals in France at one end and at the other, a bit like NZ mountain scenery.

Where we decided to anchor for the night was near the northern end, and we had to go over a bit of a sand bank to get there, necessitating taking a very wide sweep……….oopps, not wide enough. We had a wee rest for half an hour while the tide came in and lifted us up a bit more so we could motor off backwards. The Admiral was not happy. Sorry about that boss. Very scenic though and as we were in mangrove country we decide to try our crab pots. A bit of a story to that but suffice to say…….yum, yum. Our first crab.

Then it was off to Dunk Island. They have a very nice resort there, which is even nicer since Cyclone Larry ripped through the place and they had to completely rebuild the dining, bar area. Supposedly off limits unless you are a guest but we got gussied up a bit and went in at night, well, the NRL semis were on and we had to watch it somewhere. Cyclone Larry really did tear this area apart. Lots of damage still apparent all the way up the coast, none more so than in Innisfail where they took a direct hit. Still lots of buildings without roofs and windows.

Lots of the vegetation looks very bare and is just starting to regrow. It also made the sea bottom change in lots of places especially at openings to river mouths, sometimes washing away, sometimes filling in. Leaving Innisfail, which is just up a river, we scraped the bottom, following the channel and at high tide! Innisfail was another cool little town though and when it’s all fixed up it will be better then new, and when they grow their bananas again, the price may come back from $10 a kilo !!!!!!

So a quick stop at Fitzroy Island (yawn) very rocky anchorage due to wind swell sweeping around the corner, and now we are at Cairns. Another great city with lots happening for the tourists, backpackers and Asian students. Stuff going on in every bar every night, you know, toad racing, wet T shirt comps, live music, outdoor movies at the pub, cheap pizza, the usual things. So we will be here for a couple of weeks doing a bit more on the boat, like rebuilding the fridge/freezer box and the rust, and lattes, walks and chilling out. Presently parked up beside more Kiwis? They’re everywhere! Nice folks though with two young kids they are home schooling, surprising how much of that going on. Great life for the kids, well it must be ‘cause it’s a great life for us.

Till later.

Shane and Heather.

2006-09-12T05:13:00.000Z

Thursday 7 September

Here’s the latest update from our travels.

We left Airlie Beach on 22 August and headed back around the Whitsundays – one of the main reasons being to go to ‘Whitehaven Day’. We found out what it was all about. Every August Hamilton Island Race Week is held. On the lay day, all the boaties (along with most of the backpackers in the area) head over to Whitehaven Beach for a ‘party day’. We had heard it was a 24-hour party, but in fact it only went from about 11 in the morning until late afternoon. Whitehaven Beach usually only has a few yachties, and the daily charter tours visiting for a couple of hours, but on Whitehaven Day there would have been between 200-300 yachts, not to mention charter boats packed full of party goers, beer tents, and loud music. In all, there were probably about 5000 people there!

Here’s a shot giving an idea of how it was wall-to-wall yachts along the beachfront.

Shane and I anchored pretty close to the action, sat on our rear deck, (gin and beer) cans in hand, and ‘people watched’ a fair bit of the day. The water Police were there; we saw them ‘put the bag’ on the driver of a tender, who had been yahooing right in front of them. Nothing like drawing unwanted attention!

Our last night in the Whitsundays was at Blue Pearl Bay, which is on Hayman Island. There I saw some of the best coral and fish that I had seen in all of the Whitsundays.

We continued our travels north up the coast, and stopped one night at Jonah Bay in the Gloucester Passage. It was a beautiful little bay that looked virtually isolated. On closer examination, we could see a few tents on the beachfront. We went ashore for a walk, and met a couple, John and Lynn, who were ‘free camping’ on council land. They camped at Jonah Bay for four months over winter, before they moved on. John was originally from Gisborne. They invited us back at night to sit around the fire with them. We had a good night, with John recounting many a story of his adventures over the years being a crayfisherman, hairdresser (ladies and mens), sailing up to Asia etc. He was in amazing nick for 69! He also told us about the oysters across the bay at Saddleback Island. We went and got some the next morning – oyster patties for lunch, yum! We are finding one of the great things about the cruising life is the many interesting and varied people we are meeting; people we would never have come across in our ‘old life’.

After Jonah Bay we had planned on spending two nights at the Gloucester Eco-resort, which is at Cape Gloucester. Although we caught up with Ken there (a yachtie who we had first met in Brisbane), and met another lovely couple, we were not that inspired with the resort, so only stayed one night.

The next stop was Bowen, a town on the Queensland coast that time and tourism has virtually forgotten. Bowen had a great bakery, with pie eating competition, and internet café, but apart from that, the town is very similar to somewhere such as Taihape. Get the picture? (Apologies to those who were brought up in Taihape!!).

We left Bowen on the morning of 1 September, our plans being to head for Cape Upstart. Cape Upstart is yet another location along this coast that was named by Captain Cook. Shane decided to put two lures out to see if we could get any fish. We had heard the mackerel in these parts were pretty good. We put the asymmetric up (big front sail) and were getting along at quite a good speed. I noticed the lure lines had crossed over and told Shane. Guess what, we had a fish! A nice big mackerel, 87 cms long! That was dinner taken care of for four nights!

While Shane was making sure the fish wasn’t about to make a dive for freedom, there was a loud bang. The halyard at the top of the asymmetric had broken. The sail flopped into the water, causing no end of drag. The fish got dropped on the deck, and while I tried to keep the boat away from the approaching rocks, Shane frantically hauled the sail out of the water and into the boat. It was hard work, but we got there in the end. However, we now had a broken halyard to replace and a sail to dry. We still had the fish though!

The following day was even more exciting (??!!). We left the anchorage at Cape Upstart, planning to spend the night at Cape Bowling Green before heading into Townsville the following day. The winds were quite fresh when we left in the morning, but they really got up during the day. Gusts of up to 50 knots heading up the isthmus of land to Cape Bowling Green, and 3 metre sea swells. Not pleasant, having swells coming up and over the boat all the time, and it was certainly a little scary! We got a gust of 55 knots as we rounded the Cape, and could see there was no protection at all from the weather where we planned to anchor. We decided to carry on and head north up to the next point, Cape Cleveland. We got there 4 hours later; conditions were only a little better so we decided not to attempt anchoring, but continue on to Townsville, just another two hours away. So, after 12 hours in total, we finally made it at 8.30 at night. That was the worst weather we have had to date. Shane told me the following day that the winds we experienced were classed as ‘severe gale force’. That explained why we heard hardly any other boats on the airwaves!

We got to Townsville, and the calm waters of the marina. On day two there, Shane decided to do a bit more work on the rust. There was some in the hull, right in the engine compartment area of the boat. Shane worked on some on the struts, and then turned his attention to rust on the inside of the hull itself. After a few minutes of banging at areas that were under the waterline, water decided to make an unwelcome entrance. An immediate withdrawal from the water was required and so we headed for the one haul-out yard in the area. Back to life on the ‘hard’ for a few days. And if that wasn’t enough adventure for one week, there was more to come!

Shane found a second hole in the hull, way bigger than the first. This meant we had to get welding done in the hull. The job was half done, and Shane thought he would go into the ‘bowels’ of the boat to see how the job looked from the inside. Lucky he did, as the welder had forgotten we have foam lining on the inside of the boat, and the heat from the welding torch set the foam alight. Shane arrived to find foot high flames. The water on the boat had been switched off, so he used the remaining water in the stove jug, and threw a water bottle to me to fill quickly!

We are due back on the water tomorrow, after which we’ll be back to the marina again for five days some of which will be spring cleaning the boat as it has got filthy on the ‘hard’. Hopefully the hull has no more surprises in store for quite some time, and we can get back to enjoying the Australian coastline, rather than making frequent trips to haul out yards! Still while we were out we did the shaft bearing and put on a new coat of anti-foul so the boat actually looks pretty smart at the moment. Lesson learned: never, never, never work on any part of the boat that is below the water line if not near a haul out facility, and only do such work on weekdays. Had the haul-out yard not have been nearby and available, it would have been all hands to the pumps!

Shane busy anti-fouling the boat.

I have encountered one further problem. I managed to avoid contact with the Aussie mossies and sandflies up until a few days. They are obviously making up for lost time, and my legs are now covered in huge welts from where they have attacked. One of the not so pleasant aspects of tropical living……… It was off to the chemist this morning to get some high-octane relief cream………. And I’m now using a new body spray called ‘Rid’ and taking mega-doses of Vitamin B…….

Sunday 10 September
And now for Shane’s “It’s a Small World” segment……

I could make this a very long story and unfold it as it happened however suffice to say, here we are back moored up at Townsville marina, next to us is a boat that I had seen for sale a while ago and these people have just moved on to it, as in last week. He has a “Warriors” flag flying from the stern and so we get chatting and yeah he’s a kiwi. Not only a kiwi, no great surprise here, but went to school with my brother Kim, played in a band with him when they were teenagers, came around the old home and remembered Dad and the house really well. 40 years later, here we are moored beside each other in Townsville! Well bug…er me! Oh and for a short time he also stayed in the same flat I was in at Bondi a lifetime ago with a mate of mine who I was flatting with. So Kev, do you remember Peter Anderton?

Heather and Shane

2006-08-18T06:16:00.000Z

When we last checked in, we were in Mackay and about to head off around the Whitsundays.

First stop was Brampton and Carlisle Islands. The two islands are joined by a narrow sandy channel, which dries at low tide. Most yachties anchor off Brampton Island (where the resort is) but we chose to ‘drop the hook’ (I’m getting very nautical now aren’t I !) off Carlisle Island. There was only one other boat, and it was more sheltered there from the winds. We had two days at Carlisle, and I got to try out my new wetsuit, having a look around the coral. We had a giggle to ourselves as two guests from the resort got transported over for their ‘secluded beach picnic’ option – away from the resort – only to have we two intrepid yachties tromping past them and probably spoiling their little romantic getaway!

Next stop was Hamilton Island to pick up Cushla. As well as being really pleased to see her Dad (and me I hope!), she was also pleased to be in the warmth after her first week of holidays in chilly Melbourne. After spending the night at Hamilton Island, we then set off around the Whitsundays proper.

First stop was Cid Harbour. This is a popular anchorage for cruisers, in that it is totally sheltered from the prevailing southerly swell, and also the first stop on the way up to the best diving and snorkelling areas. We shared the anchorage with at least 40 other boats, so there was always something going on. Here’s a photo of Cush and Shane enjoying sundowners. (For the non-nautical readers, ‘sundowners’ is a well-established tradition called drinking and eating while ejoying watching sun go down. Not wanting to risk the wrath of King Neptune, we have decided it’s best to follow the tradition ….. )

For me boats are fascinating; much like at ‘home’ where you drive past and check out other peoples houses while out for that Sunday drive, I am now always checking out other people’s boats!

We spent the next night at Nara Inlet (at the bottom of Hook Island), and then the following morning it was off to Butterfly Bay. Our friend John had told us that the snorkelling here was great. We stopped on the way at Stonehaven Bay and had a fish. Cushla’s infamous fishing skills were still in evidence …… seven in total – all bream – so that was dinner taken care of!

Butterfly Bay was magnificent for snorkelling. Although Cushla was a recalcitrant snorkeller (still love that word Woody!!!!), she conquered her fears and braved the watery depths. She was rewarded with magnificent coral, metre wide clams, a turtle, along with many many beautiful brightly coloured fish. The snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef and surrounds is absolutely amazing. Here’s a photo of the girls about to head off …..

The wind blowing a steady 20 knots from the south really determined our movements around the islands, but we still managed to get to Whitehaven Beach. It is famous worldwide for its magnificent fine white sand, for those technically minded, it is 98 percent silica, so they say. It’s the beach you see on any brochures advertising the Whitsundays. The water is a beautiful blue, and crystal clear where it meets the sand. We arrived there mid-morning – with only about three other boats and 15 or so people there – but within half an hour all the tourist day trippers descended. At the end of the day the beach was back to just a few boaties which was lovely.

We heard last night that next Thursday a HUGE beach party is on at Whitehaven. Six thousand plus people, beer tents, live music all day, guess where we are going!!!! Sounds like a good party ……

After a hurried farewell to Cush at Hamilton Island, we went back to Cid and Butterfly, then off to South Molle Island, which has a resort on it. As it was our fourth anniversary, we just had to take advantage of the facilities - massage/restaurant/bar/golf course. It was hell….. Another beautiful anchorage, this is the view looking down over the bay.

We are currently at Airlie Beach, on the mainland. It is a real fun town, full of Pommy backpackers, good bars, yachties (as it is race week) and the internet! We are one of hundreds of boats anchored out from the yacht club, and it’s only a short ride into town for a latte. We did say after all that our intentions were to café-hop up the Queensland coast!

We soon discovered that swimming here is a little hazardous!!!!

Shane thought that the crocodile in the photo had a lovely smile, but then remembered the rhyme "never smile at a crocodile".

We are liking it here so much that we have decided to stay a week, to catch up with washing, provisioning, and many other things that need doing. Oh, and watching the rugby….

Heather and Shane

PS. Doug – just for you….. No, Heather doesn’t need a ‘chuck bucket’. She hasn’t fed the fishes yet and doesn’t intend to!!! Actually, she’s coping better than she thought, and only took seasick pills as a preventative measure for the first week or so. Are you still taking them on the Earnslaw!!!!!!! Lake Wakatipu can get so rough, can’t it!!!!!
With love,
Shane

In the Tropics

2006-08-01T11:33:00.000Z

Just a short note to let you all know – it’s official – we are now in the Tropics.
Last Monday, 24 July, we sailed across the Tropic of Capricorn, marked by a dotted line in the ocean. Well, it was on the map anyway …..

It was at about this point that we discovered a stowaway on board by the name of Paddington, or some such other pseudonym.

When we found him, he certainly wasn’t shy, and demanded to have his photo taken going over the Tropic.

We spent our first night out from Gladstone at Great Keppel Island, along with about 30 other boats anchored in the bay there. We thought the island (and the resort) were highly over-rated, but the island did have lovely white sand.

We had lunch at the resort at Great Keppel, well, the seafood pizza that we managed to eat in between fighting off the lorrikeets. Beautiful birds, but quite agressive in their search for food.

We left Keppel at 3 o’clock in the morning, and had a mixed sail heading north, with a stop at the Cannibal Group of islands (I wonder why Cook named them the Cannibal Group???). Next was a stop at Curlew Island.

On our day north from there, we had a very quiet run in to MacKay, apart from passing another 20 or so freighters anchored in the bay waiting to load up with coal. A bonus that day was that we saw more dolphins, and also two whales – a Mum and her baby – and we hope to see a lot more as we hear they are pretty common around these waters at the moment.

The freighters might be a bit hard to see in this photo, but I think you'll get the idea of how they are all lined up on the horizon.

We are now safely ensconced at Mackay and have just finished provisioning for the Whitsundays as we hear it’s very expensive there. We are a bit concerned that we have spent more on liquid supplies than food! We hope the former lasts longer than the latter!!!!

Mackay is really taking off. It’s going the same way as SE Queensland; the population is increasing at quite a rate. The taxi driver today told us 1500 people a month are moving to the city. Shane even noticed the difference in the city from when he was here a year ago.

We pick up Cushla from Hamilton Island on Saturday and look forward to a week cruising with her around the Whitsundays. The weather continues to be lovely and warm (average 25 degrees during the day) and we managed to find a pub to watch the rugby – with sound – on Saturday. Yay – the AB’s. We watched the game with a couple from Bluff – Helen and Ian – who are making their way up the coast in their boat. We are following similar tracks so no doubt will bump into them again.

It’s all been a bit of a rush up to now – having to get to places to meet people by a certain date – so we are now looking forward to a very leisurely passage around the Whitsundays. Clear blue waters, white sand, sun, and leisurely days will be us for the next little while …..

By the way, this is what the boat looks like from 50 feet up, at the top of the mast. If you look real closely at the photo, you'll be able to see the pained look on Heather's face, having winched Shane to the top ......

2006-07-23T11:11:00.000Z

It’s been nearly three weeks since we last updated the blog – when we were travelling up the Great Sandy Straits between the mainland and Fraser Island.

We left the nice sheltered water of the Straits, and headed into Hervey Bay and up to Bundaberg. We anchored for three nights in the river, just across from the public jetty and a five-minute walk to the town centre. No visit to Bundaberg would be complete without a visit to the distillery – so we did the right thing ….. As you can see, Shane paid homage to the big Bundy bottle!

The tour itself was not that exciting, except to learn how much rum that place pumps out! (At their cannery, they produce 1500 cans of Bundy mix per minute!!!) More to our liking though were the two free tastings at the end of the tour – Shane liked the rum/coffee liqueur, and although I am not a rum drinker, I didn’t mind the ready-to-drink rum and ginger beer mix. After two quick drinks, and it being only three o’clock on a Sunday afternoon, pedalling our bikes back to the marina became quite an effort!

Kim (Shane’s brother) arrived and after a couple of extra unplanned nights in Bundy (to get the boat batteries checked out) we left town. We had a night at Burnett Heads (up river from Bundy) and the following day left early to track down some surf and do some fishing. Kim had brought his brand new surfboard over and was keen to catch some waves. The locals had told us either Agnes Waters or 1770 were the places to go.

Shane and Kim did a spot of fishing on our way out of Bundy. Here is Kim proudly showing off his first catch – the photo was taken just prior to him throwing it back into the tide and saying something about it being good luck to throw your first fish back.

Good luck obviously wasn’t with him that day; he never caught another thing, and we spoke to the locals later and the particular fish he had caught was apparently quite a tasty morsel!

Our next stop was The Town of 1770 – yes that’s right, the town has got a number for a name! It was where Lieutenant James Cook (he obviously hadn’t made Captain at that stage) first discovered Queensland back in May 1770.

The entrance to the ‘creek’ where the town is has sandbars on both sides, so one can only enter at high tide. We arrived at 4 pm; high tide was midnight (and it is best not to try and navigate between sandbars in the dead of night!) so that meant we had a rather uncomfortable night bobbing in the surf out in Bustard Bay. (Our experience was they left out the ‘a’ and put a ‘u’ instead!). Kim and I were both a little green around the gills, and Shane was designated chef for the night. Kim and I weren’t up to cooking duties; we both struggled to eat much. That night would have been my most uncomfortable to date ……

Noon the next day finally arrived, and we could enter over the bar and get to the relatively tranquil waters of 1770. It wasn’t long before we were in the tender and off to visit the café ashore for a coffee fix. We could just about have waded over at low tide – well I exaggerate a little but we only had about 20 feet of water to cover …..

1770 was a neat little place; a great caravan park right on the beach; and that quaint feel about it that seaside towns in NZ had 30 years ago. The locals told us not to tell everyone about 1770 – as I’m sure it won’t be long before the developers move in and all the original baches are demolished and high rises take their place – and 1770 won’t be the same. This view of the sunset on our last night shows you one reason why the town has a lot of appeal. This photo is exactly as it was taken – it hasn’t been altered at all – so it gives you a true idea of how spectacular the sunset was.

After three nights at 1770 (where unfortunately it only fined up on the afternoon of our last day) it was time to head north. We had an overnight anchorage at Pancake Creek, and then it was off to Gladstone to drop Kim off to head back to NZ. The weather forecast for our trip from Pancake to Gladstone didn’t sound that good (I still had vivid memories of Bustard Bay!) so I wasn’t looking forward to that day, but the anticipated bad weather was a non-event. We had the wind behind us and made good time to Gladstone.

Gladstone is one of the industrial centres of Aussie. This fact was evidenced as we came into the harbour – we counted at least 26 huge tankers lined up waiting to get into the harbour so that they could load up with coal and head off to back to China. The city is better than we remember from our first visit (back in April when we were boat-hunting).

Yesterday morning Shane went up the mast. This entailed me having to winch him up. It seemed to take me forever (I started to wish I had spent more time doing weights at the gym!) and I got some idea of how hard the grinders worked in Team New Zealand. There was one slight problem – when Shane was at the top of the mast, he broke the lens on the navigation lights. I knew this meant only one thing – he was going to have to fix it, and I was in for another session on the winch. All I can say is that I now have stronger arm muscles, and the second session wasn’t as bad as the first!

We went to the local Leagues Club last night and watched the All Blacks-South Africa game. We have done quite well on the sports watching front – we seem to be near civilisation when all the major games are on. All I’ve got to do now is make sure that Shane has us in port for next Saturday night’s All Black-Australia game!

We’re leaving Gladstone in the morning, and making our way over the next ten days up to Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays. Cushla (Shane’s daughter) flies in to meet us there, and I certainly am looking forward to a relaxing few days cruising around the azure blue waters (well, that’s what they look like in all the travel brochures!!). I’m sure Cushla is looking forward to some good weather, after what Wellington has been having lately.

And here I am at the Cook memorial in 1770, looking forward to our next leg of the journey.....

Until next time ..
Heather and Shane

enzwell

2006-07-07T06:06:00.000Z

What a day….

We left Mooloolaba at 4.30 am and arrived at Garry’s anchorage at the back of Fraser Island 13 hours and 75 miles later. Lovely clear crisp morning when we left and 35 knots plus when we arrived at Wide Bay bar, with 2m swells which was no problem till we turned into the wind to drop the sails. “Where did these bloody big swells come from” and “why didn’t I close that front window?”, water everywhere, and then as we enter the bar entrance which is a very precise waypoint, well three waypoints actually, the ‘C-map’ crashes and we are left with bugger all guidance. Exciting is one term but not the one that springs to mind. I wonder if that water coming in the front had anything to do with the C-map taking a rest? Still we obviously made it. If anyone can “Hecan” eh Mannie.

Heather was great, she had/has real concerns about her sea sickness but coped fine including being able to have a wee lie down for a couple of hours.
Getting here has been a cycle of ups and downs with lots of stress getting things done in time to depart and lots of achievements along the way. Staying at the Manly marina was very enjoyable meeting lots of helpful and nice people. Having done so much work on the boat I do have a much better understanding of our new home, and it is a helluva boat.

Our first day out was a very easy three hour motor to Moreton Island and play in the sand hills, massive big hills just made for yahooing down, which we did with a mate John who had sailed out in his “cat” to farewell us. Day two was a very cruisy motor sail to Mooloolaba and then day three, here we are. Tomorrow a wee 20 mile potter up behind Fraser Island to a resort where we know they will have the final State of Origin game, well they better, then a few relaxing days to get to Bunderberg where my bro Kim is flying in to meet us for a week on the boat which will be great.

That’s it for now folks, it’s off to have another wee chateau cardboard, very big here and very tasty, still they do have a wine glut big enough for a glass for everyone on the planet….and we are doing our share. It’s 7pm and we’re shattered.

It’s a new day. We came up the Big Sandy Strait yesterday, sandbanks everywhere which you can’t see, so you follow the channel markers, such that they are and we still scraped the bottom twice. Arrived at the Kingfisher Resort on the back of Fraser Island about 3 pm and went straight for coffees. Last night we went over the island a bit to, yes, The Dingo Bar, to watch the final State of Origin match. What a great game and we were in the right place to see the Maroons win. A real backpackers bar, reminded me of a ski bar, very “rustic”. Speaking of ski bars, I assume you guys are off to a flying start with truck loads of the white stuff. Us, well, this morning we awoke to water gently lapping the boat, the sun shining, dolphins lazing around which they do a lot of here, and fresh muffins and coffee. OK I lied about the muffins.
This is what it was all about.
enzwell

We've begun .....

2006-07-02T10:24:00.000Z

We’re about two hours out of Mooloolaba, by which you should gather we are now sailing on the water and our ‘real’ adventure has begun.

The two weeks we though would be in Brisbane (from when we arrived to when we thought we would have a boat) turned into three months, but it’s all been worth it.

We left Manly on Saturday morning 1st July, with Jan and Arnold waving to us from the pier. Arnold is the only man I have ever met who has towed a 16 foot ply surfboard to Bells Beach, in the 50’s, and that’s towing it behind his bike. The man is a qualified legend, and his board is now on display at the Melbourne Surf Museum.

True to form, as soon as we wanted wind, there was none, so we ended up motoring all the way over to Moreton Island. We spent a nice afternoon and evening with John. He came to join us on his catamaran ‘Jacana’. We all ran down the giant sand dunes together. Shane had fun jumping off the tops of the dunes and crashing onto the sand below!

We cracked a bottle of ‘bubbles’ – amongst others (thanks Wayne and Marjorie for the chardonnay) – on our first night to celebrate our first day on the water.

As I type this, a pod of dolphins is playing off to our port side. Every day we have been out on the water we have seen dolphins. I keep calling out to them “hey, Flipper, Flipper” to encourage them to keep swimming alongside us for a while. They don’t, so maybe I’ve got their names wrong …..

Tonight, it is fresh fish for dinner – courtesy of the great white hunter (Shane!).

At Mooloobaba we hope to catch up with Vaughan, who used to be the Nurse at Telecom; earlier this week we caught up with Niki McNickle and her hubby Ian at Manly (thanks for the drinks and hangover Nik!) so it is quite a week for catching up with my old Telecom workmates.

The sky is blue, the sun is shining brightly, and we both think we can cope with this lifestyle for a little while yet. As you can see, Shane is still hard at work!

An update now that we are living on the boat

2006-06-17T04:00:00.000Z

We’ve been living on the boat now for nearly three weeks, so I thought it was time the blog got updated.

We moved on to the boat on Monday 29 May. Here we are moving onboard with our (then) possessions, plus our recently purchased kayak.

The previous owners left heaps of their gear (and junk) on the boat, so we had to go through all their stuff, decide what was going to be kept or thrown out, and then sort out where everything (their gear and ours) was going to go. That’s one thing you learn fast living on a yacht – you have to be really organised as far as storing things goes, and the saying “a place for everything, and everything in it’s place” really applies.

Here is a photo of us the first night on the boat. Enjoying some ‘bubbles’ at sunset to celebrate ………

Wednesday 31 May was like Christmas morning! Our seven tea chests containing all our gear (that we hadn’t seen for three months) arrived. It was really exciting coming across things we had totally forgotten about; but also a little despondent realising some things should have been left at home, and things at home should be here! I was also a little worried how we were going to fit everything on the boat, but once a couple of tea chests were empty I knew it wouldn’t be a problem. Tin Can is certainly a very spacious vessel.

‘Tin Can’ had a bit more rust than Shane remembered from his trip back to NZ, and it has proved to be quite a mission to get rid of it. Every morning last week, Shane disappeared into his ‘hole’ in the forward cabin, and for much of the day there was a mighty racket as he used a needle gun to remove the rust from the hull and the anchor well. He emerged at the end of the day looking like a chimney sweep – grime and dust from top to toe. He became quite despairing with the job in hand; at one stage there was even the utterance “do you get the feeling we have got a lemon?” Happily, a visit from the local engineering guys put his mind at rest. One look at Tin Can and their response was “we’ve seen more rust on Navy ships” and “this is nothing at all”. After that, Shane felt heaps better (and I have to say, so did I!).

Shane has been doing all the interior rust removal and painting this week, and also doing the prep-work for next week. I have been doing more of the “run around” jobs.

The boat goes into the marina work yard for three days next week for some new steel to be welded in. The rust was so bad in the anchor well, the steel that was left was paper-thin and in fact in some places, Shane went right through the steel with his needle gun rust removal (fortunately above the waterline).

We did have a break from hard work a couple of days last week, and we took the boat out into Moreton Bay. On the second day, John came out with us. John is a fellow Wellingtonian living here in Brisbane on a boat. I knew John vaguely from my dragon boating days in Wellington. On the day the three of us went out sailing, there was very little wind in the late afternoon and at one stage we were becalmed. Unfortunately that meant only one thing – we had to sit back and enjoy and ale or three, and some fresh Aussie prawns, until the breeze picked up again. Gee, this is a tough life!!

Life on board (albeit it in the marina) is just like living in a small flat, but we have to be a little more organised and flexible. To do the washing, I can’t just go and throw everything in the washing machine in the laundry at I did at home, and then peg it on the line. I have to hope that I time my visit to the marina laundry when everyone else is not there, and then I have to rig up lines on the boat to hang out the washing. The boat looked a little bit like a Chinese laundry the first washing day, but fortunately we have got plenty of space on the rear deck.

Hopefully we will have all the work done on the boat inside of the next two weeks, and then we can head off into the bright blue yonder. In the meantime we are enjoying all that Brisbane has to offer, not to mention helping keep their economy afloat by spending lots of money in the local marine stores, Bunnings, and hardware stores. Oh, and also the local cafes and coffee outlets ……… The weather here is fantastic – still shorts and t-shirts – and we are enjoying the sports (all the rugby is on TV here and we watched the second State of Origin on Wednesday). All the Brisbanites were certainly happy after a great win to tie up the series. We are heading into the ‘big smoke’ tomorrow night to watch an AFL (Aussie rules) game; let’s see if we can work out the rules. We had a good afternoon on the last Sunday we were at the motel. We took Doug’s advice on the blog (thanks Doug!) and went to the Story Bridge Hotel and listened to the great dixie-jazz band that plays there. They were so good, and it was such a cruisey afternoon, we hope to get back there again before we leave Brisbane.

Everyone here is really friendly and they go out of their way to be obliging and helpful. We have enjoyed our time in Brissy, but at the end of the month we’ll start heading up the coast, in time to meet Shane’s daughter who flies in to meet us in the Whitsundays in early August. Our days are certainly busy at the moment, but hopefully we’ll soon be able to sit back and relax a little…… I am certainly looking forward to many gin and tonics on the deck.

To finish off this little chapter - we have just had some good news. Maritime NZ have accepted our registration, so we are now “all legal” – ‘Tin Can’ is no more, and from here on in, ‘eNZwell’ sails the ocean waves. We are getting all the signwriting done next week! We will do the necessary dancing on the deck, and offer the requisite gifts to Neptune, so that good fortune follows eNZwell and her crew……..

enzwell

2006-05-26T05:01:00.000Z

It's here !!!!!!!
We were on our way out to the marina to check out the berth when the owner rung to say he had arrived, at least a day early, so YE HAH. Let the adventure begin, well, begin with cleaning, rust killing, scrubbing etc. Anyway it's here and we will move on to it Monday then we can give you a proper update. Oh and of course Heather hadn't seen it before and thankfully the admiral is happy.
Till later Shane and Heath

Killing time!

2006-05-19T03:30:00.000Z

While waiting for the boat to arive, it left on Wednesday, here are some shots from the past and from the present. The room has been our home for the last seven weeks. The boat is the last New Zealand view of Tin Can, soon to be Enzwell. Heather sailing the Cook strait and one of us looking not our best at our farewell .
A few shoots around Brissy.

2006-05-12T04:59:00.000Z

It’s been three weeks since Shane last updated the blog. We’ve got a yacht, but we haven’t…… Let me explain! We have paid for the yacht, but unfortunately it is still in NZ. The current owner was getting the life raft serviced last week just prior to leaving NZ, when he discovered a problem. A part needed replacing, and it had to be sent over from France. The part arrived, that problem was fixed; and then something else was found to be wrong. So another phone call to France, and yet another part is on its way over, so hopefully the boat will be en route to us here in Brisbane by the middle of next week. Shane is starting to get a little restless – he just wants to get on the boat. At least with the delays I have had time to catch up on research and reading about life onboard a yacht.

With the delay in the boat arriving, it has given us time to get out and about and enjoy Brisbane. On Anzac Day we went down to the local ‘beach’, which is called Streets Beach. It is not a traditional beach as we Kiwis know it; Streets Beach is a man-made beach on the Brisbane River, on the site where Expo was held in 1988. As we sat on the beach on Anzac Day, I said to Shane “I wonder how many people are on the beach at Oriental Bay” (in Wellington) …..

This is Streets Beach – as you can see, not a bad spot.

Most days of the week, and especially at the weekends, the beach is packed. There is lovely white sand, but I found the water a little cool! I must be getting old as it is warm tropical waters, or the Rotorua hot pools for me these days.

We are living just down the road from the official Brisbane ‘lookout’. This is where all the tour buses stop for their customers to view Brisbane River and the CBD. This is the view they get.

Just below the lookout, to the right, is the location of the famous rock-climbing cliffs at Kangaroo Point (not that I’ll be giving it a go - I’m not good on heights).

Another landmark here is the Storey Bridge. It is one of the oldest bridges in Brisbane (if not the oldest) and you can do bridge climbs like those done on the Sydney and Auckland Harbour Bridges. The bridge looks nice at night, all lit up.

Further along the river is the Riverside Outdoor Centre. The centre runs nighttime kayak trips along the river and we are going to give that a go next week. This is the view we will get of the city.

As of yesterday, we are officially paid-up members of the Easts League Club. For the princely sum of two whole dollars each, we could join for the next year. We can enjoy all the club’s facilities, including subsidised meals and drinks in the restaurants and bars. But more importantly, we can watch the rugby (league and union) on the big plasma TV screens, while relaxing in nice comfy chairs. Particularly good timing with the Super 14 semis coming up! The League Clubs here are fantastic, the facilities leave most pubs for dead. The Easts League Club has over 20,000 members, and it certainly wouldn’t be one of the biggest ones around.

So as you can see, we are making the most of our time in Brisbane, and enjoying everything that life here has to offer. Hopefully our next blog will be written from the comfort of ‘enzwell’ – in 2-3 weeks time.

enzwell

2006-04-22T00:21:00.000Z

After considering 30 plus boats in two countries from Picton to Tutakaka and from the Gold Coast to Gladstone, plus considering boats in Vanuatu, LA and the Caribean, here it is………. home. And as it turned out it is at home , well Whangarei actually, but he will deliever it to Brisbane for us early May. Are we HAPPY!!!! This boats comes with so much gear it’s ludicrous, from windvane steering to water makers, yes two of them, one fixed and one portable one for the life raft, just serviced. It’s got acres of storage not to mention the 7’8” long rear berth for us. Your one’s fine as well and you have your own private head and good storage. So, here’s some photos of the soon to be “ENZWELL”

Now I must admit that the photos are pretty complimentery, it’s not that it’s that bad, but the photos don’t pick up little marks and stuff. It does also need a bit of work on some surface rust areas topsides and in the bilges, but it has been surveyed and it’s all managable so I guess we’ll be out with wire brushes and stuff in our spare time, and we do have a bit of that.

Brisbane continues to be hot and sunny, we check the weather forecasts daily to see if it’s going to be fine and 26 degrees or fine and 30 degrees. Got some transport in the weekend. Brought one mountain bike for $20 and the owners of the motel we are staying at had an old one left behind so gave us that. Thanks guys. It was a bit sad but after pumping up the tyres and fitting a new brake cable, away we went. It makes such a difference to be freely mobile and Brissy is a great city to bike around, very little wind or hills. Could be a bit tricky cycling with suitcases and luggage to the boat though, maybe we’ll lash out a get a taxi. So about four weeks and we should be on the water.

First week down....!

2006-04-08T00:22:00.000Z

One week today, seems a lot longer but that’s how long we have been in Aus. Don’t know if NZ was trying to hang on to us but they keep us in for another two hours due to someone breaking the plane. Our arrival in Brisbane was greeted by a fantastic lightning storm, another omen perhaps…..no just a regular occurrence over here apparently. Mighty impressive though with big grey rolling clouds being back lit and forks of lightning streaking through the sky and into the land. Fantastic.

So far we have seen about 15 boats around the Brisbane area and over 35 in total including NZ. What we have is probably four distinct possibilities, two of which are somewhat more than we where intending to spend but are really nice and something we would be happy to live on. Many were not, a lot of home built and fitted out boats, and they looked like it, some were single men’s homes, and looked like it, and some had more precious items stored on board than we had tucked away in two homes! This weekend it’s about deciding which lucky punter is going to receive our incredibly pathetic offer. It appears the standard is to offer about 20% less than asking and not to move much on that.

The weather has been great if not a tad hot but often with a nice cooling breeze, especially in the afternoon. We were shocked last night that it was actually cold. We had gone away for a couple of days with a rental car and were definitely in need of a jacket, left packed at the motel. People have been all really accommodating and helpful, from bus drivers to brokers. People do seem more chilled out than in NZ, maybe it’s the weather, maybe it’s the news? Have noticed that the news is generally more positive, like it’s very hard to hear what the dollar is doing, as in going down. They would rather talk about the footy, now that’s serious and worth talking about!
Also noticed a distinct lack of personalised number plates, or boy racers, and that’s got to be a good thing!

The intrepid travellers ....

2006-03-29T02:12:00.000Z

Here is the Hegan clan saying a fond farewell at our going away kneesup. Yes they do look very distraught don't they!
From left rear Courtenay, Leon, Cushla and Mathew, front, the Admiral (Heath), Skipper (Shane), not properly dressed by this stage, and Jessica.

So, almost there, fly to Brissy on Friday afternoon. Hope to have some boats to look at Saturday so who knows, we may be resident on the water in a couple of weeks or so.

Had a great couple of weeks touring the South Island making sure we saw everything before we left the country. Really lucked out with the weather on the west coast, just fantastic. The weather has such an impact on our experiance of places, so, the west coast is great and Stewart Island SUKS. Rain, hail and bloody cold. Thanks to everyone that has been putting us up for different nights and thanks Kim for teaching me to catch snapper, yum yum!
Now I have finally worked out how to put photos on this site, via Picassa, we should be able to keep you better up to play with events.
Ciao, Shane

enzwell

2006-03-09T05:25:00.000Z

Heather here ….. This is my first opportunity writing on the blog so I’m going to make the most of it!

It has been a frantic last 2-3 weeks. First there was the farewell party at home - we hired naval costumes so we looked the part! The party went really well, but it was peppered with a tinge of sadness as we won’t see some of our friends for quite a while.

After the party we both had our last week at our respective jobs, so it was more farewells. Then we had a week to move out the house, get everything that we needed to into storage, and pack the tea-chests for freighting to Brisbane. With that all done we could head off on holiday and relax for a bit…..

Only now does it feel like our adventure is starting. We are holidaying around the South Island for two weeks. We went to a wedding at Lake Tekapo last Saturday, and then drove through the very picturesque McKenzie Country down to Queenstown. We went out on the Earnslaw on Lake Wakatipu, and did the Farm Tour at Walter Peak – a great day out. We are down in Stewart Island at the moment – it sure knows how to rain down this end of the country. We head up the West Coast and on to Blenheim, and in a week we are back up to the North Island to farewell our families.

We fly to Brisbane on March 31 and we will be looking to buy a boat as soon as possible. That’s when the interesting part will start for me – I will be on a steep learning curve to become adequately knowledgable for what lies ahead. The one thing I can say though is that as yet I’m not missing not having to go to work each day!

enzwell

enzwell

2006-02-17T20:20:00.000Z

So Australia it is. Saw a couple of likely candidates in my short trip and generally the boats do seem a little cheaper. I must admit though that one of the main attractions is not having to cross the Tasman, a very shitty piece of water most of the time. Now all we have to decide is where in Aus. We would like to start in Sydney as we like it as a city and it would be great to spend some time there, however, Queensland has lots more boats for sale and although we are happy to travel about, we are talking fairly large distances, not quite sure how far it is from Sydney to say Townsville but it's a hell of a long way!
On the home front we are all but ready to depart, sold most everything but the bedroom suite, TV, a couple of chairs and odds and sods which will go into storage. Working out the best way to draw money down while away as it can be very expensive. Last night had Heather's Toastmasters group farwell dinner which was great, tonight a big farwell party at home and on Thursady the big work farwell at the pub. Funny leaving a job after 31 years plus? I find it a bit strange that there is no real emotion yet. I suppose it's because I really am complete in my leaving, not bitter about the way the job has gone, everything changes, and we feel like we are moving to something as opposed to leaving something. For better or worse I generally seem to focus on what's ahead rather than what is behind, that's my excuse for a rotten memory anyway.
Till later. crew.enzwell@gmail.com

2006-01-25T08:01:00.000Z

Here we are!

enzwell

2006-01-25T03:02:00.000Z

Geez there's a bit to sort out! The house and the flash car are sold, the resignations are in and the hunt is on for a boat. Seen about 15 in NZ so far and off to Brisbane on Monday to have a look there. They look great on the net so I will see how than pan out in reality. After that we can decide if we purchase here or there. Starting in Australia would be so much easier. First and formost is we won't have to sail across the Tasman, a notoriously shitty bit of water. Given it would that about 12-15 days, we would met at least two cold fronts and or depressions, I'd have to take on a couple of crew and fly Heather across and have to meet Cat 1 requiremnts for the boat and the skipper before we leave, why bother? If we buy a boat in Aus, none of that is required, we start our adventure in relatively good water and just day hop around the coast up to the Great Barrier Reef giving time to get
used to the boat and living on it, and hopefully Heather to get her sea legs. Now she does have lovely legs, they just don't do too well on the ocean at the moment, actually the legs are fine it's the stomach that revolts and does a hasty exit. Anyway, the only down side to buying the boat in Aus is if we bring it back to NZ we are up for GST (Grab, steal,Take..tax), still we don't have to bring it back to NZ but can return to Aus and sell there at the end, whenever that is.
So, after Tuesday, I should have a good idea of where we can get the best deal.enzwell

It starts!

2005-12-13T01:06:00.000Z

"Better to die with memories than dreams"

So, here we are, that's Heather on the left and Shane on the right. The houses are sold the resignations are in, well they will be soon and the planned departure date is mid March. Oh and what's the plan...........well.........we are going to buy a boat,about 40-44 ft and set off around the world, westwards. Leaving from either New Zealand, our home town, or Australia, from there up to Indonesia, Thailand and eventually get to Santorini in the Mediteranian for Heather's 50th, which is needless to say some considerable time away, well, years anyway. So, stay tuned, check in for a peek occasionally and see how we get on!