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.

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.

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

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.

 
 
 
 

 
 
 
 

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.

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.

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

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!

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

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 

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