Our friends are all heading for warmer weather

Winter is here and we are not cruising for the first time in a couple of years. We are watching our friends sail through Coffs on their way to the warmer queensland weather and I think we are both getting jealous!

No cruising news from us

I'm afraid we have no stories of great cruising adventures, no beautiful places to report on and no immediate plans for the cruising life. We have however had a remarkable year to date.

We have purchased a home with loads of potential, in the area we love and now have started the cycle of mortgage repayments and renovations.

Peter is working fulltime at Orara High School. He hit the jackpot and got a fulltime job when fulltime teaching jobs are almost impossible to get in this area.
I'm working as a marketing coordinator for a local real estate company and whilst it isn't the most challenging position it pays the bills.

Here are some pics of the house in its condition when we purchased it. In the past 6 weeks we have made some major improvements so I'll post some more pics shortly.
On a cruising note, you may remember the catamaran Twin Image we sailed around Tonga and Fiji with. Here is a link to their blogsite. There is a very interesting albeit a bit terrifying story called "I need the Bolt Cutters"

High and Dry in Coffs Harbour!

One
Jura has been up on the slips having her yearly scrub down, repaint and beautification.

Two
We have bought a house!
Check it out: http://www.northcoastprojectsales.com.au/view/property/residential/boambee/901

So the cruising life has been put on hold for a while, but this is our dream home- Well it has the potential to be our dream home with alot of hard yakka! It is in the Middle Boambee valley, 5 minutes south of Coffs Harbour. 3 bedroom brick house with granny flat downstairs on 6000 square metres (1.5 acres).

Three
I have a full time job working as a marketing coordinator at a real estate company. Peter has a 3 month block of work at a local high school.

Yesterday we took Jura for a spin, taking part in the twilight race. It was blowing a good 25knots and all onboard had a blast. Our crew consisted of my dad Alan, brother Rhys, houesemate-to-be Joel Barker, cruising friends Tanya and Dudley who we met in Tonga, Sean from a yacht on our wharf (Sean is in a wheelchair!) and local sailmaker Peire.

Other news includes:
We won the NS14 national titles at Manly Queensland over christmas.
We are currently living at my mum and dads whilst Sydney friends Joel and Amanda live on Jura.
Joel and Amanda will be living with us at our new house.
We take the keys for the house on the 4th March.

Thats about it.

Sydney soon

Just letting you know we are coming to Sydney in a few days and again in December both by car. Send us an email if you would like to catch up. We will be there from the 15th - 22nd Nov and again on the 1st - 19th Dec. Peter is working at Endeavor High during December.

see you all soon

Kylie and Pete

oh yeah and the flood did not affect us too bad. We had to wade through knee deep water to get to the marina and the car seems to have leeked a bit so it is smelly but otherwise all good.

Home again

Year Two
Date: 17/10/2009 14:00
Weather: nice
Location: Coffs Harbour
Author: Peter

We are home. We arrived at midday on thursday after a colourful sail. When planning a passage, you can check alot of different places to find out what weather you can expect. These are usually good for the first three days but after that anything can happen. Once again this was the case with the last 200nm into Coffs becoming a bit of a mixed bag. Our journey started off as a work which was then supposed to turn into a reach as the breeze rotated to the south east. Once we left, this occured much slower than expected and we only really had the reaching conditions for a day. Then about 200nm out from Coffs the effects of a complex low system in Bass Strait started to play havoc with our finish. First the breeze swung to the north and then really started to build. For 26 hours we were once again were sailing upwind in 35 knots. Then after dark it increased to 45 to 55knots for 4 hours. At this point in time we were running under bare poles due south making no progress towards Coffs. We were we still moving at 11 knots, while the wind strength was 60% stronger than the prediction. The following day it was supposed to abate but we found ourselves sailing upwind and tacking in 25 to 30 knots trying to get home. Very frustrating when you just want to get there!

The final sunrise then saw the wind stop resulting in us motoring the last 30 nm. Our welcome home was fantastic though as a pod of dolphins led us home with one of them doing long backward/upside leaps just off our port bow. As we approached the coast we also passed at least 8 whales with one mother and calf putting on a powerful display of breeching. What a great way to end.

We dropped sail inside the harbour before making our way in and clearing customs with a minimum of fuss. We are both happy to be home. We are not sure what next year holds for us, we just know no matter what we need to work to fund what we do next. As I can't get work over January we plan to spend the time on Morton Bay to save on Marina costs,so we may see some of you there.

on our way home

Year Two
Date: 10/10/2009 18:00
Weather: rough
Location: Coral Sea (23 37.380' S, 163 57.433' E)
Log: 10530 nm
Author: Peter

We have left New Caledonia and are currently on our way back to Aus. We have been sailing upwind now for the last day and a bit and it is not the most comfortable with a big sea running from the south west and 25 knots over the deck. Not quite what we had planned for. It is suppose to lighten and rotate towards the south east but we will wait and see.

Our last few days in New Cal saw a change in weather with a few showers. This put pay to our plan of scuba diving but we still had a great time enjoy a few walks and a bath in a hot spring. We can't wait to return as there is just so much to see and do. We only just scratched the surface but we loved what we saw.

On a side note we were on the move towards Noumea when we got another tsunami warning. They evacuated the east coats of New Cal up onto higher ground. Where we were there was little we could do so we were greatful when an hour and a half later the warning was cancelled.

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Peak hour

Year Two
Date: 4/10/2009 13:30
Weather: slightly overcast and cool
Location: Baie Nord (22 20.033' S,166 52.673' E)
Log: 10300 nm
Author: Peter

Wow what a change of scene. We have been cruising some quiet anchorages and small communities for the last few months. Then comes the shock of New Caledonia on a Saturday morning. We woke up early to the sound of a constant stream of boats passing us. Still being tired from lack of sleep after the crossing we both tried to ignore it and stayed in bed. A few hour later when we did get up wow, what a sight. This country must have a high boat ownership per capita, and everyone seems to be out using their boat. We set sail into what looked like Sydney peak hour, with boats everywhere, setting off to take advantage of the weekend. I have seen the traffic of boats heading from Pittwater to Refuge bay during the Christmas/New Year period and this had nothing on a normal Saturday here in Noumea. As we exited the harbour area and were still limited in sight I could still count 38 boats on the move just near us.

From our 1st impressions New Caledonia is certainly an exciting cruising ground. For future guests, this would be a great place to come and visit us. There are many anchorages and things to see and do, via small hops (sails). The waters are so smooth given almost all of the cruising is inside a protecting reef. The scenery changes constantly and there is an abundance of sea life. The only downfall would be the cost of food.

Someone once said "you don't notice something until it is gone". Although this may almost always be the case, we did not notice certain things were missing until they returned. For example there have been next to no bird sounds in either Tonga or Fiji but here in New Caledonia there is a symphony each day and evening and it is so relaxing to listen to it from the shores, cabin or hammock.

We have now set ourselves up in the Baie Du Prony for the majority of our short stay as it offers a wide variety of the things we like to do. Today we went exploring up a small river to its head, where a lovely little fresh water river cascades across the yellow rocks into the salt. It was such a peaceful spot we just sat and enjoyed it for a while. Back at the entrance to the river we went ashore to explore the overgrown ruins of a penal settlement. New Caledonia like Tasmania appears to be littered with these old ruins always in very scenically beautiful positions. Unlike Tasmania however the ones we saw today, although still obvious, are well entrenched into the bush and are not set up as tourist attractions.

Penal Colony Ruins

Baie Du Prony is about 30nm east of Noumea. Like Broken Bay it is a large bay with a few tributaries ranging off in different directions. It is surrounded by bush and New Cals colourful soils.








Just around the corner near the entrance to the large bay is a large mine and ship loading facility and off in the distance to the west on top of the range you can just see teens of two bladed windmills that make up part of some large wind farm.

Wind turbines on the hill


So far we have seen three different coloured beaches in the bay. The expected white ones, the pitch black ones, and now a yellow one that makes your feet look like you have used bottled fake tan.

On a side note, all those friends that emailed us about the tsunami, thank you we really appreciate it. Luckily for us we were already in the best place we could be when it passed us. Out at sea in a depth of about 5000m. As a result we did not even feel it. Had we been at anchor somewhere though the early we receive the news the faster we can get to somewhere safe.

The native plants resemble what we see in Australia


A fresh water cray

Also on the crossing over from Fiji Jura sailed passed 10 000nm. For us a reason to celebrate.

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