Our Journal

Our friends are all heading for warmer weather

2010-06-21T20:55:00.000-07:00

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

2010-04-21T18:00:00.000-07:00

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!

2010-02-18T23:14:00.000-08:00

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

2009-11-09T15:30:00.000-08:00

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

2009-10-16T20:42:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-10T00:10:00.000-07:00

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

2009-10-04T00:07:00.000-07:00

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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Noumea

2009-10-01T21:32:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 2/10/2009 14:00
Weather: Blue skies
Location: Noumea (22 16.967' S,166 38.26' E)
Author: Peter

We arrived in New Caledonia late on thursday night. After entering the reef in the dark we sailed until about 25nm short of Noumea and laid the anchor so that we could get some sleep. We awoke to some breathtaking scenery that was very different to what we had seen in both Tonga and Fiji. The high mountain ranges with their undulating contours highlighted by the long morning shadows reminded me greatly of the rugged hills in Tasmania but with one very remarkable difference; the soil was of a completely different colour, ochre.

This was our slowest crossing yet, averaging only 5.7knots over the 667nm distance. Although slow this trip was extremely comfortable with Kylie experiencing no feelings of seasickness. Whether this was due to the calm seas or the sturgeron she took, we can't be sure.

As we proceeded to make our way into Noumea to clear customs it instantly became clear that we were back in an affluent western country. Modern buildings, modern marina's and lots and lots of shinny cars (mainly Peugeot).

Noumea seemed huge and spread out over a large area, although our perceptions may have been exaggerated by what we have become used to over the past 4 months.

We berthed Jura in Port Moselle Marina. Cleared customs quickly and easily even given some language difficulties. This was our first experience with a country where english is not widely spoken. Throughout the remainder of the day when speaking with the locals if we asked if they spoke english many said "little bit". Translated this means no. We are learning the basic greetings however we will need to be much more prepared in the future when we return as most people do not speak english.

Whilst exiting the marina on our way into town three things became obvious.
Firstly many cruisers were not happy about having to wash their boats daily to remove the red dust that had accumulated on their decks. Surprisingly this dust had made its way across the Tasman all the way from Australia. A small reminder of home.
Secondly, quite a large number(the majority) of cruising boats are preparing to head across to Budaberg Australia and then on to further points in Aus for the summer.
Thirdly if you stand in the wrong spot ie. near a drain, you get a whiff of a pungent stink! The smell is not too dissimilar to the smell of the shit-farm (sewerage treatment works) in St Marys, bringing back some rather un-fond memories from when we were building the boat and the wind blew from the wrong direction.

We spent the rest of the day exploring town. We discovered the French obviously love their food. Their produce is only the best quality and every second person seems to be walking around with a baguette. We found two of the most amazing patisseries we have ever seen filled with pastries, tarts, breads and other delectable's . Pity we could not afford (justify) purchasing more than one item each. More about this later.

men and women dress very well, the women are all made up with perfect hairstyle's, makeup, very well fitting clothes and high heels (wow). Their clothing stores stocked clothes that made Kylies' mouth water. Is it just because you are looking and can't afford to buy that everything looks great???

Our largest difficulty so far has had to do with money. Conversion from Australian dollars to Pacific Francs is a little complicated for me to do in the head. Aus$1 = 61 francs. It feels weird using a 1000 franc note. So when 1000 francs is equivalent to about $16, what the hell do they need 1 franc coins for????? We are not sure why but everything here except for bread is really expensive. As an example a McDonalds cheese burger meal is about $16. Needless to say, we will not be doing our traditional birthday dinner in any restaurant here.

Our stay in New Caledonia this time will only be short due to Kylies bridesmaid commitments. As a result we have been using our time to do some homework for when we come back. So far we have learnt bring as much food as possible as we would be limited to bread and water and what we can catch from the sea.

Happy birthday for yesterday Alex.

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On Passage

2009-09-28T23:23:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 29/9/2009 18:00
Weather: Nice, very nice
Location: South Pacific Ocean (21 27.967' S,169 38.353' E)
Author: Peter

Whenever we are at sea we try to send two emails back home to a select group each day so that someone always knows where we are, how we are traveling and if there are any problems. If we miss an email we feel confident in knowing that someone in our family will start communication with AMSA sooner than later. We think family would be more passionate about this than some stranger. Hopefully this will never happen but it is always good to be prepared when at sea. So here is the one from this afternoon.

"We are definitely not setting any speed records. In fact we are no where near hull speed. Although slow, this trip so far has been rather comfortable. We have had a BBQ lunch each day that's how smooth it is. A bit more wind would be nice but we are getting there. We passed the southern side of Vanuatu around lunch today. Otherwise there is not much to tell. We have seen very little in the way of life since we left Fiji. Perhaps we will get our first glimpse of land before nightfall tomorrow but I'm not counting on it. We are currently at 21 27.967' S,169 38.353' E traveling at 3.5 knots at 250 deg true. If my weather information is correct we should start seeing a little more breeze some time tomorrow."

It has been our smoothest crossing by far, in fact most of the boat is opened up to let air through. Our speed at the start of the trip was around 8 knots but as you can see it has dropped to almost nothing as we pass through a no mans land between weather systems. I have not yet worked out an average speed for this trip but it is dropping rapidly and it feels slow. Many other cruising boats only average 5 knots which is well below our normal 7 to 8. The first fleet boats out to Aus were lucky to average 4 so i can't wait to see what it is in a few days time.

Our days are spent either reading, knitting, sleeping or watching dvd's. With the occasional gybe as the breeze swings. The days are really warm, but we are starting to notice the nights are getting cooler as we head a little south. In Fiji we mainly slept under a sheet. In the last two days I have had to get out a sleeping bag for warmth for when I lie in my pilot birth.

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Farewell Fiji

2009-09-26T15:35:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 27/9/2009 10:00
Weather: Steamy
Location: South Pacific Ocean (19 08.221' S, 174 39.831' E)
Author: Peter

We cleared out of Fiji on Friday afternoon. Once again a simple process, although there is alot of paperwork. As per usual we once again went out for a meal on our last day however this time it was lunch at the "The Northern" and we were shouted lunch by Steve and Liz as a thank you for a mount I had made them for there new radar screen. It was a perfect endto our stay in Fiji, with The Northern being a old colonial club that is apparently rather exclusive. Their prices however were notexpensive and the food was superb. We wish we had discovered this place a long time ago. We know where it is for next time though.

We then made our way back down to Saweni Bay, what a surprise spot this is. The rest of the coast is either town or industrial area but this bay has a beautiful sand beach, is well protected, smooth, has fabulous grip and gives the most amazing sunsets over it mangrove covered western side. While here we packed up the boat to go to sea and gave it a good scrub under water to help us move quicker.

We have now been out at sea for 24hrs. We left with a high situated to our south and half way between New Cal and Fiji. Our first 12 hours were light on the nose but then the breeze started to rotate to the south east and we are now moving well and on our proposed track. Apart from a shower cloud bank last night that produced winds up to 25knts and some confused water our trip has been smooth. Kylie is trying Sturgeron and at this point it seems to be working.

New Cal here we come.

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More guests

2009-09-22T22:44:00.001-07:00

Year Two
Date: 23/9/2009 17:00
Weather: Steamy
Location: Saweni Bay (17 38.438' S, 177 23.572' E)
Author: Peter and Kylie

The weather recently has been rather weird and unpredictable. The usual south easterly trade winds have not shown themselves lately. Instead we have had either dead calm or raging storm (maybe that is a slight exaggeration but not far off). We have seen more rain in the last few weeks then we have in total over the two years of cruising. The perfect weather we had been experiencing came to an abrupt end when our guests arrived.

Alan and Linda Mara, Kylies mum and dad arrived a week ago today. Their short holiday with us has already flown by, they departed early this morning. We feel one week is just not enough. A minimum of two is what we would suggest in the future. One week aboard the boat is just rush, rush, rush. Arriving late in the day and spending a steamy night in Vuda Point Marina the weather gods decided to give Linda a baptism of fire as we made the 30 nm dash the following day. Although the conditions started out fine by the time midday came around, the wind and showers set in. Alan enjoyed the fast sailing conditions and was surprised Jura can go 8+ knots under headsail only. We recorded winds later that day up to 40knots.

The highlight of the day was earlier in the morning when we actually landed a huge wahoo. It was so large that we felt guilty as we knew allot of it would go to waste so the decision was made to return it to the sea.
wahoooooooo

We visited some new anchorages but mostly those we have previously spoken about. It wasn't all bad weather for their stay, we had two glorious days at Blue Lagoon. Alan thoroughly enjoyed the snorkeling whilst Kylie was surprised that her mum went swimming.

Alan and Kylie

finding nemo

Our kyaking adventure around the island

Linda and Alan kayaking

We have introduced another few people to the game of Mexican Train Dominoes and it has proved to be very popular. So we highly recommend you purchase a set of double twelve dominoes with the mexican train starter.

On a side note, it became apparent that we have both become tanned over the last weeks. Kylie was proud that she was browner then her mother for the first time in her life.

somewhere

Blue Lagoon

Jura in Blue Lagoon

Yesterday after a very long drift in little wind we resorted to the motor to get us back to Vuda Point. Peter has been trying to empty our fuel tank of the dirty diesel we got in Tonga, this happened a little sooner then expected with the main tank running out of fuel 10 nm short of our destination. Luckily we carry a spare a twenty litres in a jerry can otherwise we would have been at the mercy of the currents.

We are now preparing the boat for departure and looking for a weather window to make the jump to New Caledonia.

The crew from Twin Image and the Maras

Sugar cane trucks line the road into Lautoka

the best bus we have been on

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Time, it Flys

2009-09-19T23:27:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 20/9/2009 16:00
Weather: Sunny (today)
Location: Somewhere in the Yasawa Island Chain
Author: Peter

The morning of the last night the Davis's spent on board started off nicely. We picked up anchor at Blue lagoon shortly after breakfast so that we could make our way south to an anchorage close to where we were to drop them off. Shortly after exiting the lagoon we were met by a pod of dolphins who decided we would be some fun to play around for the next 10 minutes. This was the first real pod to come and join us since leaving Aus and the Davis family all crowded onto our fine bow to watch the show as they cavorted all around us even performing some aerial tricks.

Dolphin photo

Soon after they got bored with us and left I decided to put the line into the water. We were rewarded almost instantly when a large fish took off with a huge amount of line. With everyone helping to stop the boat and then watching, I proceeded to pull the fish in getting the large Wahoo right up to the back of the yacht. With everyone cheering we went to pull it aboard only to have the clip holding the lure onto the line let go. This would have been one of the largest fish I have ever caught and in our book it rates as one of the top eating fish. Pity it was not to be as it would have fed everyone.

Later that day we stopped in at Octopus for the night only to discover the electric anchor winch would not move. After dropping the anchor manually the Davis family went ashore while Kylie and I went about dismantling the winch to try and find the problem. After a careful search and some testing of wires we could only conclude that it was the motor (something I know nothing about). A good time was had by the shore party exploring the edge of the village, walking the beach and stopping in at the resort for a drink before making their way back out to the yacht for dinner and our final round of Mexican train dominoes. Matthew in the last round managed to pull off the win for the multiple day challenge with Peter D once again showing his dislike for board games by bringing up the rear. He will play if chocolate is involved.

That night it started to rain, then it poured, then it bucketed down and I mean bucketed. When we awoke we were surrounded by dark storm clouds and large sections of the beach which the Davis's had walked on were now washed away. I was started to get concerned given the wind and rain that we may not be moving but at around 11:00 there was a short break in both wind and rain so making the most of it we started to pull the anchor up manually. Wow what a pain but we eventually got there. We then sailed 5 nm around the corner to a little backpacker resort to drop them off. Their time with us flew by even though the boat must have been crowded. They could easily have stayed for longer and we could have shown them more of what life is like for us but they had to go. We hope they had a great time with us and got to see and learn some new things. The boat felt empty as soon as I sat down after setting sail back to Vuda again.

After the best sail all week we arrived at the marina late in the day amoungst a crowd of other yachts waiting to get a berth. We were the second last in line with the boat behind us being turned away saying they were full. Lucky for us we did not miss out. The next morning as soon as the workers arrived I got the local marine electrician to look at our winch. He tested it and then proceeded to pull it apart and removed the motor. The rest of the day was spent doing laundry and relaxing and re-cooperating my cold which had lasted the length of the Davis stay interfering with joining them for many activities. My Day off however did it wonders. The weather continued to reek havoc with more rain and storms.

The next day our winch motor came back having needed new brushes and we set about putting it back together which took near half a day given the humidity caused by the rain. Pulling up the anchor by hand is a pain so we are grateful that the powered winch is working once again. Pity about the expense. I need to learn how to do this job myself.

With the Mara's arriving the following day we decided to spend the night and meet them here.

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Rent a Crowd

2009-09-13T16:54:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 11/9/2009 18:00
Weather: Very Windy
Location: Blue Lagoon (16 56.652' S, 177 21.991' E)
Author: Katherine with some (but not much) help from Matthew

Our family (Peter, Karen, Katherine and Matthew Davis) met Peter and Kylie through sailing in NS14's, I'm 14 and Matthew is 12. About 2 months or so ago Dad decided that we'd go and join Pete and Kylie on Jura during the September school holidays, and although it seemed like the time would never come all of a sudden we were on the plane to Fiji. We arrived on Jura about 4 days ago, the day we flew in. After we caught a cab that actually had SEAT BELTS in it, we spent the night in the marina because it was late and there was no wind.

Jura in Vuda Point Marina

The Davis Family

The next day we set off out of the swimming pool that the Fijians called the marina, and as soon as we stopped motoring and pulled the sails up we discovered that there was no wind. At all. Nothing. I got bored after about 10 minutes and jumped over the side. I'd only managed to make one lap around the boat in the 60m deep water when the call went up that Matthew was going to the toilet. I evacuated the water fast. Good work Matthew. Especially since we weren't going anywhere. At all. Backwards, maybe.

Very little breeze

We eventually gave up and ended up motoring about 10nm of our 28nm journey to Navadra, which was gorgeous, particularly in the sunset and early morning. The coral wasn't great though but the fish were gorgeous. Much to the amusement of Pete and Kylie watching from Jura I attempted to open a coconut. After half an hour of throwing it against rocks and jumping on it, I gave up. Matthew and Mum got sea sick that night due to the massive swell that was rolling into the bay. And someone stole Matthew's bathers during the night. We suspect it was a certain Mr Wind.

The next day bought a gale with it, and we bashed our way into the wind to Naviti. It was a solid 20-25 knots, gusting around 30. It was pretty wild, and as we motored into the bay we saw that the locals had a massive fire burning out of control along the foreshore. By dark they had it under control, though. There was a coral reef in the middle of the bay that we swam over to, and the coral was awesome (and alive, not like at Navadra) but the visibility was shocking. This was the night that Pete introduced us to Mexican Train Dominoes. Dad still hasn't won a game, and has decided that it is the worst game in history. Matthew chose the movie. "Don't mess with the Zohan"... the adults didn't appreciate it.

By the next day the wind had picked up again and Pete gave us 3 choices: stay where we were, go around the corner to the next bay, or make a dash to Blue Lagoon through the 30 knot gale that was whipping the water into white horses. Option 3, of course, say Mum and Dad. We were making a solid 8 knots to windward under just a jib, and getting saturated. When we arrived in Blue Lagoon, after discovering that it was over run by cruise ships, we went to shore to have lunch. Pete then stayed on the beach to rest his coldy/fluy thingy that he had collected somewhere as Kylie, Mum, Dad, Matthew and I went for a hike over the island to find the famous cake shop. Apparently the Fijians have never heard of making a track going from A to B in a straight line via the easiest route, eg: on the flat. It was at least 35 degrees C as we hiked up the hugest mountain in the world. Ok, so maybe it was a hill. Probably less than 50m high. But it was huge! We appeared out the other side of the island in a tiny place where we couldn't tell the village from the supposed resort that was there. We wandered along the beach until we stumbled across the cake shop. We walked into the dark shed, found the cat sitting on the table, ordered and got some huge slabs of packet cake that was quite tasty. The cat cleaned up the table afterwards, and we got on our way.

Blue Lagoon

Pete chose the movie. It was probably even worse than Matthew's... Mum and Kylie both fell asleep.

Today was the most relaxing day I've ever experienced. We lounged around the boat for the first part of the day until Mum and Dad got the kayak out and disappeared around the corner, never to be seen again. Well, they came back eventually but they took their time, going against the head wind. Because Mum and Dad didn't trust Matthew and I to go kayaking by ourselves, I had to go with Mum and then Matthew with Dad.

Katherine and Karen kayaking

Lunch was scones with jam and cream. The Davis' headed into shore for some light snorkeling, but Mum and Dad got cold and had to go roast themselves on the beach. So much for hardy Tasmanian's. Matthew stayed in the water the whole time and got sand through his pants, so he had to go for a nudie swim when we got back to the boat. Well, a nudie swim in his pants (say 'pants' in a British accent).

Katherine and Matthew

Another game of dominoes finished off the day. 2 more days to go...

Dolphins showing off

Sunset at Octopus, last night of the Davis' stay

Jura at Octopus

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Pictures

2009-09-06T18:08:00.000-07:00

hello everyone
we have uploaded pictures for all the Fiji blogs so scroll back through

kylie and pete

Back on the Air

2009-09-05T00:30:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 5/9/2009 16:30
Weather:Overcast
Location: Vuda Point Marina (17 40.882' S, 177 23.195' E)
Author: Peter

Hello everybody, sorry about the long delays but we now have our sailmail back up and running properly on the spare lap top. Because the spare lap top is run on vista we had to wait to get to an internet cafe to get some updates to help it run properly. We found a great place in Lautoka that only cost $1 an hour. We also apologize for any discrepancies in flow, but we have lost all the old journal entries on the yacht so we did not know where we were up to.

Moving on, we dropped Mum and Dad off yesterday after what we think was a nice relaxing week for them both. No one was sick, they got plenty of time to sit and read or catch a fish. They both went swimming, Mum did some snorkeling and they both enjoyed a paddle in the Kayak whilst up in the Blue Lagoon. Dad does however need to remember to reapply sun screen as the sun can do its damage rather quickly.

Izolda snorkelling

In an effort to keep things short we sailed from Malolo Island (Musket Cove) all the way up to the Blue Lagoon in the Yasawa's, stopping at many different and varied anchorages. At least half of this time was spent avoiding some strong winds which put pay to some of our regular exploring ashore. On the numerous beach walks mum did some shell collecting whilst Dad went straight for the coconut trees. He loved to collect the young green coconuts up the tree by poking them with a long stick. He would then sit for a while with the machete cutting their tops off so he could drink the contents.

After arriving back at Vuda Point, Mum and Dad took us out to Nadi for a wonderful Indian meal at the Sitar restaurant. I just wish I could cook food that tasted this delicious. The food was smooth with the curries having a nice even blend of spices that makes it so easy to love (all of my curries have more of a bite). I especially liked the Ceylon inspired curry.

We would love to have more visits like this more regularly but we understand the expenses involved. It is just sad to see them go again as it only feels like yesterday that they arrived. Their stay just seemed to fly by.

Since then we have done a little shopping in preparation for our next set of guests to arrive. The Davis's fly in on Monday and we are looking forward to spending a good week of exploring with them. Until then we plan to do a little relaxing ourselves interspersed with some cleaning and maintenance.
One months worth of tropical growth

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wind, wind, wind

2009-08-28T00:03:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 28/8/2009 16:30
Weather: clear but very breezy (strong wind warning)
Location: Naviti Island (17 04.933' S, 177 16.629' E)
Author: Kylie

Hello everyone. As you may have read our sailmail and navigation laptop died last week. What a pain! We have loaded the software onto my laptop and it is working reasonably well. Unfortunately it means we have lost the last message we sent to the blog and have no idea what we wrote.

So I'll start with Eugene and Izolda arrived last Wednesday. On Thursday we hired a car and drove the coast road south past the Coral Coast and around to Suva. The road was not as scenic as Peter would have liked however it was interesting to see the change in landscape as we crossed the mountain range onto the 'wet' side of Viti Levu. In Suva we did the important things such as a museum, gardens and McDonalds for lunch. mmmm cheese burgers

We spent the night in Suva and the next day returned by the same road stopping at an Eco Park. It was a fantastic park by Australian standards and even more surprising to find it in Fiji. We got up close and personal with the rare Fijian Crested Iguana and Peter and Izolda held a small snake.

Peter was surprised by the feeling of the snake, saying it was "not what he expected". They had a great range of native colourful parrots and we also got to feed some hawksbill turtles soon to be released into the wild.

That afternoon we went fruit and vege shopping at the huge Nadi markets. Here was the largest range of vegetables and fruit we have seen since New Zealand. The prices were very cheap and we went crazy purchasing vegetables Peter and I have never tried before eg. ocra.

The grocery stores are remarkably better then Tonga and apart from chocolate we have found everything we like albeit at a price. Small long life cream was $5, but butter was a good price.

With all the food aboard we had a beautiful curry dinner in Nadi. We ordered some mild and some medium dishes however there was little to no spice in either dish and we could have ordered much hotter. The flavour was nice and I had been craving naan bread which i finally got.

From Vuda Point Marina we did a short hop west to Malolo Island and Musket Cove resort. It was quite breezy and the anchorage was very full so we didn't get off the boat. In a few days they are holding a week long regatta and expect over 100 boats, we can not imagine how so many boats could fit in the rather tight anchorage where it is 20 metres deep meaning you should have out 60metres of chain and enough swinging room for each vessel.

The following day we jumped north to the un-inhabited Navadra Island. We went for a walk on the beach and planned to snorkel the next morning. Unfortunately when our lap top died that evening we decided to leave early the next morning and try and catch up to our friends on Twin Image to seek their assistance. We sailed 39miles that day and went through to the famous Blue Lagoon. Tuesday we had beautiful weather and made the most of it ashore. Eugene and Izolda went swimming and snorkeling and Peter and I paddled the kayak around. I had a wade in the water but didn't want to get my hair wet- what a girly thing to do! but I think I have a fair excuse; on the boat we have a shower every few days and therefore only wash my hair about twice a week (at home I'd do it everyday) so that day my hair felt clean and smelt great so I didn't want it dirty again.

We have spent the last few days at Naviti Island. In the anchorage we have had winds up to 20 knots, out in the open water we can see the wind is much stronger. With all the wind we have had no power issues and today we enjoyed watching a dvd before lunch and then everyone joined in for a few rounds of mexican train dominoes- a great game and much more interesting then normal dominoes. Tomorrow we hope the wind has dropped so we can move a little further south again.

Check out the price

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Update required

2009-08-24T23:14:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody,
We have had a problem with our onboard computer crashing. We think its hard drive has failed. As a result we have lost alot of peoples email addresses. So family and friends can you please send us some form of basic email to our sailmail address so we can update them onto the other laptop.
Sailmail is now loaded onto this laptop and is working with basic functions until we can get to an internet cafe to get the latest version so it works properly with windows vista. So please bear with us until we are fully operational again.

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Viti Levu Pt 1

2009-08-21T22:42:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 22/8/2009 16:30
Weather: clear but breezy
Location: Musket Cove (17 46.38' S, 177 10.98' E)
Author: Peter.

A week has now passed and we have a little to catch up on. We left Yadau Island on the 17th having seen none of the rare Fijian iguana's that are special to this island.

Fijian iguana.

We then sailed straight across Bligh Waters to the top of Viti Levu before over-nighting along its north western shores (17 25.215' S, 177 41.174' E). The next morning saw us again on the move however this time we traveled very slowly as the wind was non-existent. The narrow maze of reef channels we sailed through at times felt very close and it was good to know we could turn on the motor at any moment if the need arose. Looking back in time, to when boats did not have this luxury I believe these sailors must have been very skilled and brave to have moved about these waters.

That afternoon we anchored up just off the town of Lautoka (17 35.986' S, 177 26.568' E). This large industrial town boasting a big sugar mill, tall wood chip pile and a thriving port. The port was our first stop ashore as we checked in with customs and updated our cruising sheet. Once our forms were filled out in triplicate with the friendly workers at customs we were off to explore the the thriving dusty town and to pick up some extra provisions for our future guests. The streets were crowded with locals and cars and each shop and street had unique smells, both good and bad. Lautoka was to be our guest meeting point but I felt a change of pickup destination was required. Although the grip in the mud is terrific I made the change because of a number of factors; it was further away from the airport, at times there were some rather nasty smells coming across the water, ash from the sugar cane mill kept falling out of the sky and it was a rather long and unpleasant ride out to the boat for mum. It also meant we could provision at Nadi which had a few more options and choices.

As a result of the change the next day we sailed a further 9nm south to Vuda Point Marina (17 40.854' S, 177 23.821' W) where after another very slow sail we arrived shortly before midday. This marina is somewhat different to any we have stayed at in the past. It must have been some kind of circular pit or mine in the past as once you entered it is lined with concrete like a giant swimming pool. There are also no fingers. You tie one end of your boat to the outside wall while the other is hauled out back toward the centre of the circle by mooring lines. They can fit 95 boats in this way. It is rather interesting to see and seems quite popular as they were almost full the entire time we were there. Also of interest is the long term hard stand. Boats coming up for the cyclone season are first lifted out of the water, their keels and rudders are then lowered into a hole in the ground and the hull of the yacht sat on tires. I assume come that time of year they are also strapped down.

Mum Dad arrived later that afternoon by Taxi at around 15hrs local time, before we spent the rest of the evening getting them squared away.

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mmm Chicken

2009-08-14T23:42:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 15/8/2009 18:30
Weather: Steamy with occasional heavy showers
Location: Yadau Island (16 49.00' S, 178 17.04' E)
Author: Peter.

The waters of Fiji are just teaming with life. We have spent the last two days day-hopping back east and on the way we have seen some interesting sights. We have sailed through small gaps in the coral reefs that at times feel a little too close for comfort. We have anchored off large upturned wrecks. And we have seen some interesting sea life. Yesterday we sailed within six feet of a giant manta ray lolling on the surface his large scopes a cool shade of light blue. We have sailed through large schools of flying fish all launching into the air on mass. My goodness can these small guys fly when there are no waves. They just keep going on and on. Much to my surprise tuna can launch a long way too. I saw a tuna leap vertically out of the water chasing a bait fish, both of them easily reaching 20ft above the water. In the channels we passed our first large turtles making out once again. And today we passed burrowing fish. Back in one of the towns Kylie even got to see her first mud skippers.

You may have noticed the funny title. All our meat has traveled with us for the last few months having been purchased in New Zealand. Given the small size of our freezer that means the majority of meat has been cryo-vacd and stored in our fridge. The longest lasting meat stored this way is beef, so now that we have started the stores in the freezer we once again have some variety. Mmmm chicken.
Photos from Yadua Island

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Taveuni

2009-08-10T23:38:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 10/8/2009 16:30
Weather: Warm but with occasional showers
Location: Taveuni Island (16 41.15' S, 179 53.22' W)
Author: Peter and Kylie.

We have been anchored up off the northwest corner of Taveuni in Rabi Channel. It is easy to see why the area is world renowned for its scuba diving and although we have not done any we can comment about the snorkeling. We have two great snorkels in the area. We both agree it is by far the best coral we have seen. Today's snorkel we swum through an intricate maize of corals that you can swim through and around unlike the normal ones you just swim over. There was so much to explore and see with many new soft corals we have not seen before and a wide variety of colours and structures.

Taveuni is called the "garden island" and this is for good reason. During our explore ashore it was great to see the time and care people and resorts took with their gardens. There tropical plants abound in colour and texture. Between these gardens and the natural bush the whole island has the feel of one great luscious tropical paradise

We also got a phone call from Sue Ritchie today which was fantastic. It really brings home the one downside of this lifestyle. How much we miss our friends. Thanks Sue we do really appreciate it. Although it did cost us money, so if anyone else did want to talk to us just email.

Sorry for the interruption but at this exact moment whilst Peter was writing this blog and I was serving up dinner we had an electrical issue. Sparks, burning smell..... not good. It was a chafed wire connecting the instrument panel to the engine shorting out the instrument panel. As a result the engine could not be turned off at the normal switch! Whilst Peter went about trying to cut the fuel from the engine to stop it, I consulted the manual and after reading the troubleshooting section and getting no closer to finding a solution for the problem I flipped to a page where Eugene had written and highlighted "Emergency Stop". Well that soon solved the issue of turning the motor off. Now Peter had to cut and re connect the chafed wires, soldering them together and sealing up with heat shrink. After many hot sweaty minutes squashed up in the engine room the job was done and Peter redirected the wires and hung them from the roof so we would not have to go through this again. A couple of hours after the initial interruption dinner was reheated and we sat down to a very cold lemonade.

We have since had the most wonderful few days. The best of our trip so far. Being a little bit short on time we deliberated long and hard about starting to head west again. There were many places we wanted to see in the Taveuni area and lots of things to do. Since we honeymooned around here 3 years ago we had wanted to see the rain forests and spectacular waterfalls we had heard so much about. Not to mention the amazing diving this area is renowned for. So much to do and so little time to do it! So on Sunday still undecided if we should hang around for a few more days or start sailing we headed into the beach and walked to Beverlys Camp Ground where we asked some New Zealand guys staying there if they had been to the falls and was it worthwhile. (Just a quick side note: this camp ground looked great, it was right on the waters edge with a boat ramp and snorkeling off the beach. The grounds were clean and you pitched your tent amoungst huge poison-fish trees.) They told us the falls were good and to just walk along the road and hail a Taxi as it passed. So the following day we did just that. We were picked up by a nice Fijian man in a rattley old van. We quickly left the sealed road which only really runs from the town of Waiyevo to the airport. Then for the next 3/4hour we bumped and rattled down a dirt road to the Bouma National Heritage Park. We paid our admission fee and started the walk to the falls, leaving the taxi driver to wait for us to return. There were three waterfalls of which we walked to two. The first fall was only 10 minutes walk along a flat path.

The second fall is a further 30 minutes along and has many steps and a river crossing to navigate. Crossing the river you had the assistance of a rope strung across. Although it was an easy crossing in the conditions we had, one lady in the group in front of us made it look decidedly difficult.

Upon return to the first fall, all hot and sweaty we stripped down to our swimmers and with a little trepidation we entered the cool waters at the bottom of the waterfall. To our surprise it was not that cold and we swam, struggling against the current to swim up and under the waterfall. Peter even overcoming his fear of heights walked up in behind the falls and jumped back into the pool below. The whole area was a vibrant green. The tropical rain forest is cool dark and dense thanks to the high rainfall the area receives. The glimpses of the waterfalls peeking out through the thick green foliage are breathtaking. It is a place well worth a visit.

The taxi dropped us back at the dinghy (we have finally given our dinghy a name- everyones dinghy has a name! Our dinghy shall from here on be known as "Weedy").

That afternoon we slowly sailed south down Taveuni Island to the town of Waiyevo. Although the international Dateline officially doglegs Fiji, the 180 degree meridian cuts straight through where we anchored the boat. We anchored off the Garden Island Resort where we went ashore and inquired about doing a dive with them and also arranged to have dinner at the resort to celebrate our 3 year wedding anniversary. Peter ordered a much wanted vanilla milkshake and we relaxed by the pool. The dinner was beautiful; steak and baked vegetables. Probably the best steak either of us has ever had. Followed by a lime mouse dessert and then much to our surprise they produced a huge chocolate cake with "Happy 3rd Anniversary" and beautiful flowers decorating it.

We spoke with the owners of the resort, Nigel and Carol who coincidently have an apartment in Coffs Harbour. Nigel is also the son of the owners of Matangi Island Resort where we honeymooned. Its a small world. They informed us that a bypass of Coffs Harbour has finally been decided on (Dad- where is it going to pass?) and also of the tragic sinking of one of the ferries in Tonga. Having seen these ferries it came as no surprise that one was un-seaworthy. They had a list to one side and were in very poor condition, however with over 130 deaths it is quite tragic. The ferries transport everything from cars, food, livestock and people between the island groups and we imagine this will have a huge impact on the local Tongans.

Today we enjoyed a wonderful experience diving on a reef in the Somosomo Strait. The dive site is called the Fish Factory and we could see where this name came from as soon as we entered the dive. We went to 26 metres deep and viewed the most amazing fish and coral we have ever seen. Among those we saw were angelfish (not just a pair as usual but a whole school!)little purple and orange fish, half yellow half royal blue fish, a lion fish and nudibrach. It was amazing. We can't wait to come back and do more diving in this magical area.

We have now started our trip back to the west towards Nadi.

Pineapple farm

Taro plant - very popular root vegetable amoungst pacific islands

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Matangi Island

2009-08-06T20:31:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 7/8/2009 16:30
Weather: Warm but with occasional showers
Location: Matangi Island (16 43.83' S, 179 44.64' W)
Author: Peter.

Almost three years ago to the day our sailing journey really started. Although we were building the boat at the time and I had some plans, I was not too sure how Kylie would be with them. 3 years ago at this same island on our honeymoon Kylie and I went for a walk to the lookout and saw a yacht anchored in the horseshoe shaped lagoon below us. A few days later we were having a private lunch in that bay and noticed that the yacht was Australian. Kylie commented "that will be us in a few years time". It was then that a knew we were going to travel a bit further then home waters and it was from this experience that I think Kylie started to make plans.

So here we are back at the beginning. Matangi, as I have said is a horse shoe shaped island, privately owned by a New Zealand couple who run the resort we honeymooned at. It is quite rugged and steep sided, covered in tropical rain forest and is just as perfect now as it was back then. We are out to the far northeast in relation to Fiji waters. It tends to be wet regularly which is why it is so green but it also has some of the best diving in Fiji. Although we don't have time (we will be picking up guests in just over a week back on the complete opposite end of Fiji) to do much diving this time, we have already made plans to come back in the future.

This morning we had eight small goats walking the beach while the local colony of bats were settling back into their roost high up on the top of the mountain. We snorkeled straight from the yacht, Kylie commenting how the coral we snorkeled over was the best she has seen this year.

Tomorrow or the day after we will start making our way back south west. Hopefully finding a good dive on the way. It was great to come back and see this island from a complete new perspective but it is shame we don't have longer to enjoy it.

On a different note our Raymarine C80 plotter, came up with a screen saying navigation malfunction and would not turn off or on. After some time checking it out along with the handbook, we decided to do a restart of the system. It is now working but we have lost all our past tracks and way points. This is a bit of a bummer.

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Fawn harbour

2009-08-03T23:18:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 4/8/2009 16:30
Weather: Warm
Location: Fawn Harbour (16 43.55' S, 179 43.725' E)
Author: Peter.

We set sail back to the east early this morning but thanks to some light and variable winds we have not gotten as far as we would have liked. This however is not a bad thing as we are anchored up in a pretty little spot called Fawn Harbour. The anchorage is perfectly still as we are protected by a major reef to the south blocking out all swell. We are anchored in clear water surrounded by natural wonders. To our north, dark green healthy mangroves meet the water. Straight behind them the heavily wooded mountains rise steeply, reminding me a bit of Coffs. There are a few nice houses scattered low down close to the water otherwise it is clear of human interference. To the west is the coast we have just come along but all we can see are a few small islands. Out to the east we can see the outline of the large island of Taveuni rising up out of the sea shrouded in mist with its peak hidden in the clouds.

Taveuni is the third largest island in Fiji and it was to here almost three years ago to the day that Kylie and I had a wonderful (not) experience in a plane. The island is in stark contrast to its surroundings. The giant monolith stands out as Ayres Rock stands out from the desert. Although much smaller in plan view than Vanua Levu due to its shape and bulk it has a commanding presence. Tomorrow we again make our way further east to Viani Bay the start of the channel between Vanua Levu and Taveuni Island.

It is important in places such as this to get to anchorages during day light hours. Trying to navigate through coral reefs in the dark is rather stupid in our eyes and should only be attempted under extreme circumstances. It is for this reason that we pulled up early into one of our backup anchorages. Although its entrance looks difficult in through the reef, it is not and we would highly recommend this spot to other cruisers.

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Labasa

2009-08-02T21:40:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 3/8/2009 14:30
Weather: Hazy
Location: Lesiaceva Point (16 48.59' S, 179 17.298' E)
Author: Peter.

We left Savusavu this morning and made a short hop around the corner to Lesiaceva Point the eastern most side of Savusavu Bay. We are currently anchored in front of the resort that bears the name of the famous French diver/marine biologist/inventor Jacques (i wont even try to spell his name). This is our start point as we begin to make our way back to the east tomorrow.

On Friday we took a bus ride over to the town of Labasa. The three hour bus trip starts on the south side of Vanua Levu and finishes on the north. Our bus, a rusty relic originally from some Asian country, although a little cramped, did give us an opportunity to see more of inland Fiji. We met our bus at 0930 in the morning and along with a full load of Fijians set out north. We felt bad for the locals who use this service regularly as the windows no longer work -would have been nice to let the wind in when weather is hot, and to close the cool air out when up the top of the mountain but the windows were either stuck open or closed. In addition to the lack of climate control the seats are too small, Kylie and myself only just fit let alone anyone with a big bum, and the seats are too close together. My legs were no where near fitting. This arrangement left plenty of space down the aisle, great back in Asia to pack in a crowd but not so here. From our seat in the front of the bus we got to see a great deal of the country side through the windows, the open door, and the rust holes in the floor.

After rounding the north east corner of Savusavu bay the bus slowly climbs up hill winding its way through some rugged bush up high into the mountains. Every now and then we stop to pick up passengers from the side of the road and the bus slowly starts to become overcrowded. The centre walkway becomes full of produce, kava and personal belongings which makes it hard for anyone wanting to get off to transit this area. The people are however extremely friendly and tolerant as we are greeted with a "bulla" from each new arrival. I would love to explain what the native vegetation looked like but there is not much left and what is still left is covered by some large leafed vine- a weed we presume.

After about 40km we start to descend back down the ridge to the other side where the mountains start to disperse and we begin to enter plantation pine forests before eventually making our way out onto an agricultural plain. We had heard of great crops of sugar cane but these seem to be diminishing. Unlike the big endless fields of sugar cane between Harwood and Ballina back home, we only seemed to pass small pockets of sugar cane some in the process of being cut by hand. As we descended down the last hill towards Labasa it became obvious that the land now looked most suited to some kind of grazing live stock.

We hopped off the bus and received a big shock to the senses. The smells (good and bad), the sight of so many people, and the heat. We had hopped on the bus in the quiet little town of Savusavu and had hopped off in a completely different world. Labasa has a major Indo-Fijian population and because of its influence the whole town takes on the feel of a "Little India". It is crowded, smells of spices and curry, and is full of shops selling the most wonderfully colourful sparkling saris that adorn the many ladies about town. Their clothes are bright, covered with embroidery, sequins and jewels. We had three hours to waste so we went exploring each corner of town before sitting down to lunch. We choose a crowded cafe which proved to be excellent. We ordered two dishes but they were so large one would have been enough. Each dish cost $5 Fijian which equates approx to $3.50 aus.

restaurant we lunched in

After lunch we went back to a few of the shops to get Kylie a sun dress. We thought if we bought one of their clothing sets the top would be great around the boat. The bonus being it came with a stunning scarf and a pair of pants. After many costume changes we decided on a purple top. The girls at the counter also found it funny that a male was helping a female to choose her clothes. We then headed off to a tailor to get some small alterations to the fit which only cost $5. We thought this fantastically cheap but it is only when you read a job advert in one of the windows that you realise why. The advert read "seamstress wanted $1.78 per hour". Our mouths just hung open. Is this normal? Our lunch without tax would have cost almost six hours worth of work.

Our time had come to an end and we had to make our way to the bus terminus. It is hard to describe the chaos present here. Buses, people, dust, fumes, noise, smell, all crowded into a small space. Horns honked, people came from everywhere as work must have finished to join the already overcrowded area of school kids still waiting to go home. We sat on our bus next to an open window to help with some of the heat we were feeling in the bus. Some entrepreneurs walked up and down the bus windows selling peanuts and other snacks for the long ride home. Sitting next to the open window although good in the bus bay was not so good as we made our way back up into the cloud line. When the rest of the bus that had working windows shut them to keep the cold out we could not and froze. We put on everything we had but it still was not enough. Some locals even tried to help us shut the window as they were feeling its effects as well but to no avail. The bus was chockas from start to finish so there was now where for us to move to. At the stop halfway along we picked up so many more people we had people standing in the aisle for a long long time. This plus the boxes and personal belongings all stacked on the floor made for some rather exciting times as people once again tried to hop off.

We arrived home well after dark, and being rather tired and stiff from our long trip promptly hopped into bed and fell asleep.

Labassa bus terminal

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Fiji

2009-07-31T23:33:00.002-07:00

Year Two
Date: 29/7/2009 17:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Savusavu (16 46.63' S, 179 20.05' E)
Author: Peter.

Our first sight of the eastern side of Fiji is somewhat different in aspect to Tonga. The islands in the section of Lao group that we are making our way through are much taller in height and are much more rugged in appearance. Unlike Tonga which is mainly low and flat, here we see mountain peaks and many there of. Also in these eastern islands there is a lack of palm trees, which seem to be so abundant on the islands of Tonga.

Our sail across from Tonga was a simple quick affair with good steady winds and relatively flat seas. We chose to leave just after a low trough waiting for the breeze to swing south. We had planned to get away at midnight but as the breeze was still from the west this was not possible. In the end we got away at 04:00 and made great progress under grey skies for the next two days as the wind slowly rotated to the south east. After 56 hours of sailing we moored up in Savusavu on a clearing morning followed by a beautiful blue sky day.

We were kindly assisted in doing Customs and the like by the friendly staff at the Bosun's Chair which made life so much easier and hassle free. They even arranged our cruising permits for us which included the Lao Group (formally, this was a difficult region to get permission to see).

Savusavu is a pretty little town with a fairly equal looking mix of indigenous Fijians and Indo-Fijians in the population. It is clean and unlike our past experiences in Nadi the locals are all friendly, helpful and in no way pushy. As soon as you leave town everything is uphill. From these hills flow some natural springs, the water from which is extremely hot. Steam rises from the drains that exit the town into the waters of the bay. Some of the locals use the hot water to cook corn that they then sell off on a street corner. The markets here are great with much more variety than we had in Tonga, however without the local market gardens, some of the quality is not as good. The supermarkets also have much much more, with a major influence from the Indian population at affordable prices. Pity they still don't seem to stock the kind of lollies that Kylie loves.

On a side note it is a weird but beautiful world we live in. I was only thinking this morning when I was having a shave how different things can be. Normally guys would have a shave in their bathroom at home looking at themselves in a mirror. Every second day (how lucky am I) when I have a shave I sit in the back of the cockpit and take in the surroundings about me. My scenic bathroom takes in so wonderful a view that unlike the mirror I used to use, changes and varies with each new anchorage. Oh what bliss. We all need to see more of our wonderful planet.

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Cruisers

2009-07-31T23:33:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 31/7/2009 08:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Savusavu (16 46.63' S, 179 20.05' E)
Author: Peter.

During our travels we are starting to notice that there a few different styles of cruisers. In no particular order here are our observations.

The Dreamers:
This seems to be the largest category as far as we are concerned. This is a group of people that dream about going cruising, perhaps they already own a boat, perhaps not but for one reason or another they can't or are unable to do it. We meet so many of these. If you are one of these on the edge, just do it. We love it, it is a fantastic lifestyle (not holiday).

The Fliers:
This group of cruisers all seem to come from the around the world group. They seem to fly into Port, spend a short time there and just as quickly and quietly, sail on back out to the next country. They either seem to be cruisers that are time short, therefore see each country quickly, or they have one goal. To sail around the world. Each new country is just some stop off point to sleep before the next crossing. Tick, been there done that "I've sailed around the world"

The Townies:
This group of cruiser sails from one major town to the next and just sits there. Indefinitely. You never see them anchored in some small bay or at an island. They just town hop. We think it may have something to do with the bars or shopping but we are not exactly certain yet.

The Explorers:
This group of cruiser likes to take a bit more time and see as much of each of their new surroundings as their time limit allows them. They seem to move along slowly like a snail and can be seen frequenting some anchorages multiple times if they like it. They also seem to spend much of there days either in the water or ashore looking about.

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Fiji

2009-07-30T21:44:00.000-07:00

The Fiji Islands in the South Pacific are an archipelago of over 330 islands of which 106 are permanently inhabited. The two major islands, Viti Levu and Vanua Levu, account for 87% of the population. West of the main islands lie the Yasawa and Mananucas groups. East of Vanua Levu is Tavuni Island with the Lau Group further south.

Our Time is Up

2009-07-25T21:44:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 26/7/2009 16:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Port Maurelle (18 42.01' S, 174 01.76' W)
Author: Peter.

It is just fitting that our last day in Tonga is just perfect. Clear blue sky's, warm air, and magical water. We are anchored in 8 meters of water and it is so clear all around that you can see the wave pattern in the sand below and Stripe Faced Unicornfish and a Moorish Idol exploring a piece of green coral just off to our right. Only a short while ago we had a variety of fish around the boat as Kylie fed them the last of our stale bread.

We are now packed up and stowed away as we are setting sail at midnight tonight. Savusavu our point of entry into Fiji is 407nm away if the weather is good and we can take our preferred path through the reef. To make a comparison that is pretty much exactly twice Bass Straight or 2/3rds the length of the Sydney to Hobart Race. We are hoping for a good sail with moderate winds from behind. (Fingers crossed)

Last night we went back to the Crows Nest Cafe for a last hooray at an Indian Night (a special event they put on only once in a while and when they get the right number of people interested). At our table were Carl and Linda off Navara, Jeff, Meryl and James from Miss Molly. We got to experience some wonderful new foods all based around southern Indian food. Again we had a great meal and night on our last day ashore in Tonga.

We are both now looking forward to Fiji and something different. Some of other friends who are already there are telling us to hurry up as they are loving it.

On Friday night we repaid the favor given to us by the crew of Twin Image by crewing for them in the twilight race. Well to say the least it was something different and nerve racking. Twin Image is about 58 feet long and 30 feet wide and she does not turn that quickly. This meant that just before the start we were put into irons trying to dodge another boat that put us behind the eight ball. Sailing through the fleet was at times a little stressful, especially for Richard and then the close finish in the moored boats of the club was unreal. To put it simply, Twin Image only just fits between the moored boats and we had to work and tack within them to get across the line. In the end we finished second to Robyn a Najad 46 sailed really well by its owners. This result did not matter much however as I have said in the past, each boat gets a prize and we got a good one for the kids and Richard. On a side note, 12 boats from all around the world were racing in the small harbour with boats ranging in size from 58 feet to 20 feet. The course varies depending on the length of your boat (handicap system) which makes for an interesting finish. The little 20 footer never really rounds any marks except for the finish line. When the lead boat rounds each of the marks at the extreme ends of the harbour he is to turn and aim at the next mark. Weird but it seems to work.

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A view from the top

2009-07-23T19:19:00.000-07:00

A view from the top - top spreader actually

Having lunch aboard twin image

Peter reviewing the boys school work

the average quality of the cars round here

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

2009-07-22T23:21:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 23/7/2009 16:00
Weather: Windy
Location: Tu'ungasika Island (18 39.46' S, 174 04.30' W)
Author: Peter.

Its a little cooler today as the wind is up. It is only 24 deg celsius and we are dressed warm again. It is actually warmer in the water, 26 deg celsius at the surface and 25 deg at 20m.

Anyway now to The Good, The Bad and The Ugly.

The ugly:
A few days ago I started doing some checks and maintenance as we will be crossing for Fiji in a few days (Monday) and we wanted to be prepared. Part of this involved the engine, so late in the day just after I had finished changing the engine oil I headed up on to deck to cool down and to check the exhaust from the back of the boat. Being somewhat tired after a long day and not thinking straight, I happened to lean on the BBQ, the very, very hot BBQ. Needless to say I now have a ripper of a burn on my arm (you should see its colour now) and a small one on my left side. How stupid. Stop work time Dad.

The bad:
The next afternoon I decided to check our engines impeller (a small rubber part that pumps saltwater into the boat past the engines fresh water cooling system and then back overboard). It needed replacing so I went and turned off the valve that lets the sea water into the boat so I could change it. All was going well until I went to turn the valve back on. It would not move, so silly pete decided a little persuasion was needed and in the process completely snapped the handle off. Now we had a problem. Without the sea water our engine cannot be run as it will get hot very quickly and then cook itself. with no way of moving it I decided to sleep on it but only after calling up Twin Image asking them to stop by in the morning so that I could borrow a large shifter, and calling Carl on Narvara who is a diesel mechanic with exactly the same engine as ours.

Navara - Carl and Linda from New Zealand

The following morning Richard and I started to pull the fitting apart but we still could not get it to move. After some careful thought (during the night) it was decided to remove the valve. The problem here being that once removed the boat would have a large hole in it that would let in water very quickly. This was solved by a few meters of glad wrap wound around the sail drive leg (a good one to remember for the future) and once the valve was out, a wooden plug. We still could not get the valve to open once we had it up on deck and with no spare we decided to drill an opening in it. Not pretty, but it is now back in place and is working well and should see us back to Aus where we can replace it.

The Good:
Where to begin. We have had some great swims lately. Yesterday Both Kylie and I had a rare experience that is so hard to describe. We both got lucky enough to swim with three Humpback Whales. It was just breathtaking, that is all I have. I know that is not much of a description but WOW.

Here is proof, ok poor quality but it is a still from the movie footage Peter took. Hoping to get movie footage up on blogsite

Whales in our anchorage

Kylie swimming with whales!!!

Today I also went diving at Tu'ungasika Island with Richard from Twin Image. The water is just so clear. We were twenty meters down, you could see at least 60 in each direction, the fish and coral were amazing and to top it if we also had a turtle and a whale. Bring it on.

Scuba Taylor, a smaller version of scuba steve

Kylie snorkelling

Peter snorkelling

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Bits and Pieces

2009-07-17T22:46:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 18/7/2009 17:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Ovalau Island (18 45.00' S, 174 04.87' W)
Author: Peter.

We can't believe it. We have just been chased off the island by a very aggressive local. We went ashore exploring when just as we got back to our ducky we ran into a mob of goats. As we went to untie the duck the rather large male came for us causing both of us to back track into the water. He then made his way over towards our duck and rather nicely proceeded to entangle his very circular horns into our painter (rope coming from the bow of our duck) tied up to a coconut palm. It took him about 5 minutes to untangle himself before coming back to have another go at us and almost getting caught up again. It was only after his heard came down to him and then started walking off that he finally left us alone.

We went and did the local friendly twilight race last night. The boats that had wanted to race us earlier have already left Tonga so we missed out on the opportunity to sail against the earlier round winner. It is an interesting race having a start line the width of the harbour. A very relaxed start sequence, originally five minutes but then it got changed to three minutes mid sequence. Marks ranged from laid buoys to large channel markers to 40' charter boats. We were joined by the crew from Twin Image and lead from start to finish thanks to the professional crew. I am rather glad we had no boats around at the finish as we finished between the yacht club and the most inner moored boats. This meant sailing into the very closely packed moorings and bouncing back and forth like the ball in a pin ball machine. Not nice if you had other boats around as the mid fleet did. There is no charge to race each week which is interesting given each boat gets a prize. We won two prizes, a ten dollar gift voucher for a local souvenir shop and lunch for two at the Crows Nest Cafe. Wow what a lunch. Who would have thought you could find food this good in the middle of the south pacific. Thank you to Steve and Tess the owners for handing out such a great prize. We had two of the best fruit smoothie's either of us has ever had. We had the best chicken burger I have ever eaten and Tess who is originally from South India makes a truly amazing curry. We cannot rave about the food enough and we cannot wait to go back.

It is obvious lately that it is school holidays in New Zealand or Australia or both as there has been a major increase in yachts in the anchorages. The charter fleet is now in full swing. They all seem to be enjoying the warmth. Especially those from NZ who seem to be having some extreme weather. A side bonus is that one New Zealand family we met out near Nuapapa have just given us a box of their excess food. Their 9 day charter was coming to an end and they had over catered. What a bonus for us as they had some nice things on board like pastrami, cream cheese and latina fresh pasta. YUM. Thank you very much. Charter boats also mean some entertainment every now and then. About a week ago we watched a charter cat try to make its way into a difficult anchorage after the sun had just set. You should only navigate through the reefs while the sun is high unless you have a good reason. And this was one of those spots. We sat and watched on while he tried to feel his way through the channel to the anchorage running aground so many times I lost count. He even had a few ducks run out to give him a hand but i don't think they knew much more as they all seemed to come off other charter vessels. A couple of times he hit quite hard. I know we should not call this entertainment but well!!!!

Dudley and Tanya took us to our first Tongan BBQ the other day. We both choose the chicken which meant we each got three pieces of chicken, two sausages and some sweet potato. All for $5 pa'angi, about AUS$3.50. The chicken tasted surprisingly like KFC. And neither of us got sick. On a slightly different note the range of foods available here in Tonga is quite limited. Despite this limited range what fresh produce there is here is good. For example the carrots we are getting are much smaller than what you would get back in Aus but they are perfect. They look like the ones you get in fancy restaurants, they are full of flavour, and the are so fresh, just out of the ground and with their tops still on. Still you would not want to be to fussy an eater or you may go hungry. It is amazing to think what you can come up with when you have to.

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Various Pictures

2009-07-16T14:42:00.001-07:00

Biakal sailing in Vavau Group

juvenile something or other

Beautiful Nuku Island

Lion Fish

We would love one of these cats in the future

No maximum person limits here

Locals on a dug out canoe

Sunset in the Neiafu anchorage

mother duck and her swarm

"Tevolo" (mischievous spirit)

2009-07-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 16/7/2009 17:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Neiafu Island (18 39.30' S, 173 58.98' W)
Author: Peter.

The main Street of Neiafu

The markets here in Neiafu. Veges are sold in little piles, each $3.

A local supermarket, not much of a range hey?

One of the larger supermarkets! however it is a little deceiving as there is little inside.

We are back in town again picking up some fresh supplies at the market. While we were here we thought we might go for an explore so we took the bikes ashore. Although the island appears big on the chart it is actually rather small as we found we could ride to each side rather quickly. Our exploration helped us find a real bakery. Yum. Another part of this journey took us to the highest point in Vavau to the peak of Mt Talau. To say it is a peak is a little miss leading as the top is actually quite flat. There is a Tongan story that says a Samoan spirit came and cut the top off the mountain so that he could have a clear view in all directions (sounds rather modern, in a bad sort of way). Anyway it is well worth the ride and walk (up a very steep track) as the views are definitely worth it as demonstrated by the spirit.

Picture back into Port Refuge and the Neiafu, capital of the Vavau group.

While here, I also gave the under surfaces of the boat a well overdue wipe. The new anti foul (vivid petit(for aluminum boats)) is so much better than the old one. It is lasting alot longer and as a result we are both much happier. It is also much easier and more forgiving to clean. Tomorrow is Friday Night Twilight race night so we thought we might finally join in. Every boat wins a prize and it sounds as though it is worth it just for these. Not that I am missing racing or anything either.

The Mermaid Bar also known as Vavua Yacht Club

We have been hearing news that back home it has rained a great deal. It sounds as though the drought is over which is a good thing but Coffs especially seems to be getting more than its share. Here the weather is too good. We have been hoping for some occasional rain but as to date have had very very little. We have been wanting to catch some rain to help fill the tanks so we don't have to use the water maker so much and I want to give the whole boat a bit of a scrub. A few days ago we got our first decent rain but it only lasted a couple of hours which only just helped out with our tanks. The only bonus is that the temperatures are so mild that we both had a shower on deck. It felt unreal to shower in the rain. Lucky for everyone else that no one could see us do it.

You don't need much to live this life style as you can see in the photo below. We have come across two very small yachts both of which have sailed from the UK. The dark blue boat is only 20 feet in length and is a bilge keeler. The light blue boat is only a little larger but I think that may all be in their bow sprit. See you can sail around the world in a Hartley
TS16!!

20footer!

not much bigger

Here is another photo of a sea snake. A small reminder to take more care as I almost stepped on it whilst trying to take photos of cows on the beach.

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The Tongan Princess

2009-07-13T22:29:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 14/7/2009 17:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Vaka'Eitu Island (18 43.28' S, 174 06.03' W)
Author: Peter.

When cruising we are often asked "don't you get bored?" The simple answer to this is no. If you forget all about the beautiful places and different cultures we sail through there is always plenty to do. For example unlike a land based house ours is constantly on the move and is in some harsh conditions. It is important to look after the boat so that you always stay ahead of any possible future problems. That way our self destructing house will continue to look after you. This is not as major as it sounds but does take up spare time here and there. A second example would be to think about something simple like the sandwich that you may have had for lunch today. In our case we cannot just go down to the shops and buy a loaf of bread. If we want sandwiches we have to start off by making our own. Every third day or so we have to mix, knead, and bake our bread which takes time and requires some pre-planning.

So it is the small things you can take for granted back on land that start to occupy your time aboard. Other problems can arise with this lifestyle also. If you think about how much rubbish a house makes each week and then think about what you do with it. It is quite simple when you have garbage collection each week. We on the other hand must try to minimise our rubbish as we may not be able to dispose of it for three weeks or more. As a result you want the least amount possible. Anything smelly gets stuffed into used milk bottles, and then where do you store it? Here in Tonga there is also no way of disposing it like you would find back home in Aus. Most villages burn it. The big towns as we have mentioned before can be somewhat untidy.

This brings us to yesterday and today. Currently in the Vavau group there is a tidy village competition going on. I think this is a fantastic thing and I wish it could be applied to schools back home (are garbage bins so hard to use????). The result has been that the last two villages we have visited have been beautiful. Even the pigs have been put into pens. The only downside was the fact that each anchorage we visited this week was full of smoke as each village burnt off its excess waste. One village created so much smoke you would have been forgiven for thinking there was a major bush fire. On the daily radio sched they have been asking for donations to provide garbage bins for the schools, currently they have none.

We were anchored off Nuapapu Island (18 42'.49 S, 174 04'.20 W) when late in the day a local boat came around covered in kids (sitting on the roof and around the sides of the rickety, decaying boat). The mother on board asked to trade banana's for lollies or biscuits which we had neither of. We did however trade a bag of marshmallows for the bananas which were superb. She then asked if we would like to come and visit her village (Matamaka Village, 200 people, 4 churches that I saw, and the nicest village we have yet seen) and go to church the following day. This was our first look at a Methodist Church and it was somewhat different to what I grew up with. There was alot of singing, a little dancing and plenty of tears. Yes I said tears, in a normal service. Some of the service was translated to English which we "Palangy" were all grateful for.

The kids lined the boat roof and loved posing for pictures

during the church service

It was during this visit that we learnt about the contest and about the Tongan Princess coming the following day to judge the contest. So the next morning we waited along with the two nearby villages for her arrival. It was during this time that we had "our" (we had heard plenty of stories from other cruisers) first "give me" experience. Three teenage boys paddled out in their dug out canoe and hung off the back of Jura asking for Lolly pops. When we responded with "no", they then asked for a drink (soft drink) and this continued. Our friends on Biakal have been asked by kids for money, I think the request or demand was "where's my money?". They just put there hands out and demanded money. Later that day Tanya had her thongs stolen out of the tender. This is also apparently normal.

It was not until after lunch that she arrived so we all made our way over to the village of Nuapapa and quietly sat with the locals while gifts were presented and speeches were made. It was a wonderful spectacle as the whole village sat there on the stone wharf, but we felt a little let down as the Princess never left the boat and Kylie and I were seated up the back, so never really saw her. Kylie was however presented with a frangipani necklace, and we did meet some nice young locals before we toured this village.

Waiting for the princess to arrive

The Princess arrives by whale watch boat

It is a little funny how things are the same yet different. Last year we walked through ruins of war training camps. This year we are walking through the remnants of old resorts. It seems such a waste as it is obvious alot of money was spent back in 1994 to set up todays "old resort" but now what is left is truly lost in the jungle. We have seen alot of this in Tonga, good ideas that have been let go or are still there but very run down.

On a different note I am not sure why I love cruising because I also love and miss my friends and one takes you away from the other. On our wedding day Andrew talked about how I missed Kylie while we were away in Melbourne and how much I wanted to go back home to see her. Right now I feel similarly about Andrew, our other friends, and our families. At times it can be difficult. We were hoping some of you would come and visit us (and help alleviate some of this pain) but we understand many cannot. It is a pity as we miss you all and it would be great to share so many of our wonderful experiences.

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Rocky

2009-07-05T20:27:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 6/7/2009 14:00
Weather: Brilliant
Location: Kenutu Island (18 41.93' S, 173 55.72' W)
Author: Peter.

The whole region of Vavau is the result of tectonic uplift between the Indo Australian plate and the Pacific plate. Each island is based on exposed coral rock and limestone. These rocks are so different to anything we have seen before in Australia. The rocks tend to be a dark grey in colour and have the most jagged appearance I have ever seen. Shoes are a must for all soft feet and the universal boat shoe (crocs) are out in constant use. With weathering, the rocks have become rather holey, and this mixed with their closely packed sharp points would make them easy for rock climbers. You can also see old coral fossils within the rocks. The rock runs straight down to the waters edge where it has been undercut by wave action.

When you walk into the dense forest of the island it seems like it is always Autumn. A constant stream of leaves is falling from the canopy above. On the sandy atolls these decaying leaves seem to be the only nutrients available to future plants. When you sit down and just listen, it does sound a little like it would just after rain when only drips remain. The soil on the islands however does look really rich. It is either a dark red brown clay or a black as black can be granually soil. All the household or village gardens seem to love it.

It is also strange to find so much pumice stone. After working in the garage or with some messy product I would always clean my hands with this stuff. Here it just floats around waterways until it ends up on some beach. Maybe I should do an engine oil change while we are here so I still have access to it afterwards.

We saw our second sea snake this morning. It freaked Kylie out little. The first one was rather small and I spotted it looking through coral while snorkelling at the Japanese gardens. It was surprisingly beautiful being having black and white vertical strips. Todays one was not as attractive, swimming along in the shallows just near where we hopped out of the Kayak at Umuna Island. It was grey with black spots and twice the size of the previous one.

put snake photo here.

I wish we had had the Kayak with us last year. The two person Advanced Elements inflatable kayak we purchased earlier this year with our "Rudd Bucks" has been well worth it. Apart from giving us some bonus exercise it has allowed us to explore areas the duck can't get, and it is rather cheap to run.

The weather here during winter is wonderful. Every day no matter if the sun is shinning or if it is overcast seems to be in the high 20's. We live in minimal clothing, which is also great as it keeps the laundry load size down. The water is also about the same temperature. Although we still snorkel in wetsuits for the protection. Kylie who hates swimming in cold water has had no problem getting in. Only about two hours ago she was having a swim behind the boat.

Whales have apparently started to arrive so in a few days we will head back west a little and start to see them. We are still hoping to be able to get in and have a swim with them. Stay tuned for the photo's if we manage to pull this one off.

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Caving

2009-07-04T23:13:00.001-07:00

Year Two
Date: 5/7/2009 18:00
Weather: Perfect the next
Location: Kenutu Island (18 41.93' S, 173 55.72' W)
Author: Peter.

Kylie swimming in swallows cave...Peter is becoming a great photographer! How blue is this water!!

Over the past few days we have been out visiting a few underwater caves. We joined the crew from Twin Image and headed back to Swallows Cave, this time with a torch. The cave extends alot further than we first thought. Getting out of the dinghy and scrambling across the rocks you enter a large cavern where we could easily see a large group of Tongans having a great feast (in the past they actually did this). What a pity someone had ruined the space a little by using it as a rubbish dump. Looking back down towards the water however it is still worth the walk up into the back of the cave.

Looking back downinto the cave from the feast area

As the sun was shinning we then all dropped into the water inside the cave, which is so clear by the way and there is no way I can describe how good it was. The photo soon to be posted below of the entrance does not do it justice.

The entrance to swallows cave

We then made our way over to Mariners cave. How someone discovered this is a mystery to me. The entrance to the cave is under water, about 1.5m down followed by a 2m swim into the cave. I went through first towing a floating yellow line to help the others behind to find their way. Mariners Cave is very dark cave when you first swim in, the only light source being the swim through, this makes it a very daunting exercise for some. Taking a hug breath and swimming into the unknown, knowing you can't turn back half way. I made my way back out and gave the all clear to everyone else. Ritchie then followed me in the second time before we both came out to convince the girls to follow us in. Kylie after some self psyching and a few practise swims outside followed us both in and we swam up to the back of the cave where we sat on the rock shelf to watch the show. As the surge flowed out a thick fog instantly formed in the cave under vacuum (right dad?) and as the surge then came back in it again instantly cleared. It was just bizarre to watch as it came and went. We all then swam back out, Kylie and Ritchie then managed to convince Megan she could do it. Pity we could not convince Bronwyn. After swapping some of Kylie's gear to Megan she then follow me with Richie close astern back in to see the show. We have some great movie footage of the entrance and exit!

In the fast duck, heading back from the caves

The following morning with the crew from Twin Image we went to another large cave around the corner from swallows. After tying up their duck just outside the cave we all swam in the entrance to another limestone wonder. Off to one side inside the cave was a much smaller swim through (only about 1.5m under water) that opened up into another small cave lit up only by a hole in the ceiling and the light shining through the underwater entrance.

Underwater swim through

Tanya and Dudley

The day finished on a high on board Jura as we had 10 guests aboard (Twin Image, Biakle, and Aorere) for a night of pizza and tall tales. This is the life.

We have now moved off to a quieter anchorage on the eastern side of the Vavau Group.

Apparently it was noted at the yacht club that we were missing from Friday nights race. Why this is the case we are not sure, but we are apparently listed as DNS. We think the top two boats would like a run against us.

We met a boat all the way from Lithuania! The first people to say our boat name correctly and to understand what it means!!!

Andrew and daughter Rasa with us aboard their boat

Peter posing

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Birthday Celebrtions

2009-07-04T23:13:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 5/7/2009 17:00
Weather: Perfect the next
Location: Kenutu Island (18 41.93' S, 173 55.72' W)
Author: Kylie.

Last week we had a few birthday celebrations. It was my birthday on Wednesday and on Thursday the twin boys off Twin Image turned 5!

Peter began the birthday celebrations a day early with a yummy profiteroles cake the night before my birthday. Tanya and Dudley were lucky to be in the same anchorage and tasted Peters superb cooking skills.

The following morning we had a laid back morning (not much different to normal) of pancakes and pressies. We then sailed back to the main town Neifu and wandered the streets, having ice cream and American doughnuts for lunch. We spent several hours that afternoon on the internet (check out all the pics we loaded) then showered and made ourselves beautiful for a nice dinner at a local restaurant. All the cafes and restaurants are owned by foreign locals, ie foreigners who came to Tonga and never left. We chose a Italian place and discovered it was their opening night at their new premises. The meal was fantastic, we shared an antipasto, pizza and pasta. The menu looked quite extensive however on closer inspection most of the pizzas were similar as were the pastas. This we s to the lack of availability of ingredients taken for granted in Australia. But it didn't matter as the food was delicious and very well priced (about AUS$35!!).

The following day we celebrated again with Samuel and Taylor. I made cupcakes and Peter made pikelets plus some healthy salad and we enjoyed dinner on the big cat, make that huge cat. The boys then insisted we watch episode two Star Wars. It was more the big boys who insisted rather then the 5 year olds!

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Photos, Photos, Photos

2009-06-30T21:24:00.000-07:00

We have been on the internet!!!! first time since leaving AUS
so guess what..........there are lots of new piccies for you to browse through. Scroll back through to our arrival in New Zealand.

and here is one for you to all be appauled by

Us tidying up and packing away proviosions prior to leaving Australia
where does all this stuff go???

At last

2009-06-29T22:44:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 30/6/2009 18:00
Weather: Beautiful one Day
Location: Mana Island (18 41.34' S, 174 01.44' W)
Author: Peter and Kylie.

K: We have had a great few days exploring the bay of Port Maurelle. Our hunting and gathering skills have been in full force although not too successful. We have worked out which coconuts to choose from the ground, how to attack them with a machete to split the husk and shell and finally I (kylie) worked out the best technique for plying the flesh out. So we have coconuts down-pat. Our skills at collecting mandarins are improving however it is a bit hit and miss with the taste. We also collected what we thought was oranges (they look exactly like the oranges we get in AUS)however this morning when I juiced the orange it tasted very sour, like a lemon actually! So in Tonga they have lemons impersonating oranges! (They also have lots of men impersonating women- more on that another time)

P: Nearby to Port Maurelle is Swallows Cave. One of two caves that are a must do in Vavau. We arrived with a rather low tide but still managed to ducky in. It is rather surreal as you enter this large cave with crystal clear waters that you can see through to the bottom. 18m away! Apparently in the past, the Tongans used to have special ceremonies in here with food being passed in via a hole in the roof. The limestone formations although not in quantity are quite good except as is obvious, they have no matching stalagmites.

We had quite a crowd in the bay the other day so evening drinks was organised on the beach where we had a great time meeting alot of other cruisers who are in the region. Apart from plenty of long tales, we also learnt a great deal from people with plenty of knowledge.

Yesterday we checked-in, in town. More on town in another blog.

We then headed for Mala Island where at last we got some good coral. There are plenty of great fish to see whilst snorkeling but today was superb. We have seen so many new underwater creatures it is starting to get difficult to keep up. For example pin cushion sea stars, all sorts of new colours of fish that look like Parramatta Eels supporters, and stunning Lion fish.

Pin cushion sea stars

It is Kylies birthday tomorrow so this is only short a short blog. Tanya and Dudley are joining us shortly for a movie and birthday cake. We will do a proper update in a few days.

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Vava'u Group - Tonga

2009-06-26T18:41:00.000-07:00

The Vava'u (pronounced "vav-ah-oo") Group of islands lies 240km (150 miles) north of Tongatapu and is the northernmost of Tonga's three island groups. It is fairly isolated and many of the local people live a traditional subsistence lifestyle, owning small farms and serving most of their needs from what they produce.

Vava'u group is considered to be Tonga's sailing centre. It is a beautiful cluster of waterways and pristine, sparsely inhabited islets, at the centre lies an immense harbour. Neiafu Harbour is a very secure harbour that is protected from wind and waves on all sides. The town of Neiafu is the second-largest in Tonga with a population of about 6,000. It is perhaps the most touristy place in Tonga but also is the administration centre so it is our first stop.

Vavau here we come

2009-06-25T22:26:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 26/6/2009 18:00
Weather: Cold (that means a minimum of 24 deg celsius).
Location: Kapa Island (18 4.03' S, 174 01.86' W)
Author: Peter.

It is a cold day in Tonga today apparently. It is going to be 24 degrees celsius. The locals are all saying get out your winter clothes. Not bad hey. Believe it or not but if this is true the water is actually going to be warmer than the air.

We have been having some big spring tides at the moment and the coral heads are actually showing at low tide. So it was the other day at Ha'ano island when most of the local village came out onto the reef to catch some seafood. Some stood on the edge of the reef casting in handlines while others poked around the reef with long sticks and a bag collecting either octopus or clams. One young boy was even casting a net in the receding waters trying to catch fish. We saw him catch an eel. We also explored the exposed reef but were only hunting with our camera. The sea life was amazing with the largest nudi brachs (probably spelt wrong) I have ever seen (at least 15cm long), and of varying colours, the stand out being the bright orange. We also got our first look at Spanish dancers although as they were in the shallows they were not dancing/swimming.

Nudibraach

We then walked off to the small local village to discover there really was no one left, they were all out on the reef. It appears to us that the smaller the village the cleaner it is, and at Ha'ano the houses seemed much nicer on the whole. On the way back to the yacht we passed some wild mandarin trees and with Kylie on my shoulders we picked a few. Pity they were a bit sour. Hunter gatherer wifee then went and picked a few bananas to see if they would ripen off the tree and gathered a few coconuts. We are starting to become experts at opening these things with the machete we bought at the local supermarket at Lifuka. Overall a great afternoon.

We set sail at 03:30 the next morning for the Vavau group of islands and after an unexpectedly quick trip we arrived at our destination at midday. Kylie slept most of the way so by the time she woke up we were over half way there. We averaged around 9.5knots for the crossing and unlike most other boats, we had relativley smooth seas. Everyone we talk to says they had a rough crossing in a confused sea state. I spent the rest of the day relaxing while Kylie went exploring the bay in the kayak. We caught up with the crew of Navara and Airbourne at sun down.

Going back in time a little the night we had the strong winds into the 40's, up here in Vavau it was apparently a little stronger and in the main port quite a few boats dragged moorings or anchors with quite a few collisions and some damage.

Like we said earlier, today has been a little cooler and it has been overcast so it is no good for snorkeling, so while I did a little boat preventative maintenance Kylie baked bread and cupcakes. We then set ashore in the kayak for a quick look around and some more exposed reef walking.

The islands here in the Vavau group are much taller in height than the rest of Tonga. We spotted the islands at around 20nm instead of the usual 10 or less as with the rest of Tonga. The land goes much higher than that of a palm tree which means we will have some up hill walking to do whilst exploring and we should get some great elevated views back down onto the waterways. The islands also look different as they are now mainly rock down to the waters edge. The trees seem to be the same but with less palms. There are now also more boats around, this being area where the charter boats operate in Tonga. Our anchorage is also just full of Kiwi's. They all love their sailing, and most of them back in New Zealand must own a boat?? Most people we have met this year are Kiwi's!

We regularly see "funded by Australia" all over Tonga.

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Our second village.

2009-06-23T00:17:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 23/6/2009 18:00
Weather: What did that old add campain for QLD use to say.
Location: Ha'ano Island (19 40.30' S, 174 17.40' W)
Author: Peter.

Due to the flu and some poor weather we ave not been able to see many of the villages we would have liked to have seen. We have spent the last few days anchored off Pangai, Lifuka Island (19 47.89'S, 174 21.26'W). Pangai is basically the capital of the Ha'apai group and perhaps its largest island. It was somewhat different from Nuku'alofa in that it is much much smaller and more rural.

The cars however all seem to be in much better condition. We were fortunate enough to catch a local "A" grade rugby match on a very uneven field. The crowd were very vocal, lining both sides of the field along with cars full of viewers parked at both ends. Some kids even watched the game from up a nearby tree to gain a better view point. We had no idea who won, but both the crowd and ourselves had a good time.

On Sunday we once again went to a local church where the singing was again amazing. They can produce such a load sound with just a few people, it is beautiful. This island was much cleaner, but had more live stock roaming around. Pigs and piglets were everywhere and chickens and roosters just seemed to jump from yard to yard. Some tourists thought it a little boring, but Kylie and both like it. We would have loved to explore further on our bikes but two days of rain and one night of winds up to 43 knots put pay to that. As a result we spent one evening aboard the 58ft cat Twin Image for dinner and Star Wars episode one and another evening aboard Jura with Tanya and Dudley Off Baikal. We have been really enjoying the company of both these two boats over the past few weeks as we keep bumping into each other at various anchorages.

Tanya and Dudley off Baikal from New Zealand

Today we moved up to Ha'ano Island in preparation for our jump up into the Vavau group on Thursday. We had a great 7 mile sail under headsail up to Ha'ano before spending the afternoon ashore. I spent at least an hour making sand castles with Sam and Taylor, the 5 year old twins off Twin Image as they really seem to like me. Tomorrow we will spend the morning snorkeling and perhaps picking a few mandarins before setting the boat up for offshore sailing, ready for the following morning.
Twin Image from New Zealand

Peter, Sam and Taylors race car sand creation

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science projects in the background

2009-06-18T21:15:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 19/6/2009 16:00
Weather: Shorts and t shirt
Location: Uoleva Island (19 51.07' S, 174 25.28' W)
Author: Peter.

Sunset at Ha'afeva anchorage. Volcano in the distance

Over the past few days we have done a little island hopping. Its interesting cruising Tonga. If you split the Kingdom up into three main island groups the sailing is actually quite easy. Around Tongatapu, everything is a short 2 hour or less sail away (ten nm or less). Then when the weather is right a short 35nm hop up into the Ha'apai group. Every sail we do in this group seems to be an easy 15nm or less hop (Sydney Harbour to Broken Bay). All with an ever present ominous back drop (more about this shortly). Finally, approximately 100nm sail up into the Vavua group where every thing is right next to everything else. Ie: Really short sails.

The first two regions appear to be mainly flat coral based islands. The highest point of each seems to be whatever a palm or some other tree can grow too (30m). So the majority of islands appear over the horizon at about 10 nm distance. Then there is the exception. Out to the west of the Ha'apai group are two massive stand outs that you can see from everywhere. Both are volcanic in nature. The one to the south being relatively long and flat (yet high) and possible currently active, the other being how we all imagine volcanoes to look. It looks exactly like those paper mache volcanoes everyone makes for science class or fairs except much larger than I had expected. On most days it reaches so far up that you cannot see the top for the blanket of clouds surrounding the top quarter. This was the wonderful backdrop for our next port of call Haafeva Island (19 56.48' S, 174 25.28' W). We anchored in a coral fringed lagoon on the western side of the island where the supply ship docks for the local village. Although not as perfect as some of the other anchorages we have stayed in, it was still nice (Perhaps it would have been better if we could have gone for a snorkel, but I still had cold symptoms and we thought it best not to push our luck). On the eastern side of the island is a small village (one of the powered ones) which again we thought I should not bring my bug too but would have been nice to visit. What does stand out however were the sunsets with Haafeva Island being the closest island to these two monsters looming off to the west.

The weather and time constraints sometimes determine what you can and can't do. So it was with a forecast for strong winds approaching that we sped up our plans to try and see certain islands, and that also saw us miss a few we wanted to see. Our next hop saw a quick two hour sail back out to the east and to the chain of islands strung along the Barrier reef. Limu Island (20 01.65' S, 174 27.78' W) is a tiny little island that although we spent only two hours left us with some nice memories. Again a picture post card, what stands out were the sighting of our first shark, a small black tipped reef shark swimming 2 metres off the beach, the track of a sea snake making its way up out of the water across the sands and into the tree line in the center of the island (this is as close as either of us want to get to one of these poisonous creatures) and some pristine shells.
Limu Island

Heart Anenome

Sea snake track

Beautiful sea shells

We then rushed to Tofanga Island(19 57.44' S, 174 28.21' W) for some protection from the approaching bad weather and winds. Its interesting to note that when sailing the east coast of Australia and plotting on the chart manually you would use prominent land features. Here I find I am sailing from reef to reef and using these points to work out my position and my next course. This feels reel strange but it sure seems easier than using these flat and featureless islands. It also gives you a position fix more regularly as there are reefs every where. I am also glad for a high sun and wind as the breaking waves over the reefs sure make identifying them easier. I'm not sure I would like to move on a dead calm day. I would love to give some form of description of Tofanga Island but that would be difficult given we only spent the night there and two hours ashore before being forced to move on again. I would definitely like to go back here and spend a few days though as there are three islands linked together by small sand spits at low tide and it looks great.

We are currently anchored at Uoleva Island where the sands are perfect for long walks and a resort seems to be under construction just off our bow. I can easily see why they choose this location. We have been here for just a few hours and have just gone for our first snorkel, Yippee. The coral was not great but there was plenty of marine life and some new species for us to look at. We have invited another New Zealand couple over for pizza tonight and are just starting to prepare for that. Tanya and Dudley off Baikal much to our surprise are both very close to our ages! We have only discovered one other boat with younger people, the rest of the cruising fleet being mainly retirees. Not that this is a problem as we have spent many a wonderful time on board a variety of other boats with fanatic people. Our names book is growing with other cruisers at a great rate.

The one thing that has surprised me this year is the change in sea life. Last year we were seeing dolphins every other day. This year I have only seen one pod at a distance. What we do see every other day here is flying fish. Reflective iridescent blue flying missiles. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this earlier but on the crossing over from NZ we found two dead squid and two dead flying fish onboard. How the squid pulled off getting onto deck I would like to know. I have been disappointed by the lack of butterflies so far but the kingfishers we see on some of the islands do make up for this a little.

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Some time to reflect

2009-06-14T20:46:00.001-07:00

Year Two
Date: 15/6/2009 11:00
Weather: Showers clearing
Location: Nomuka'Iki Island (20 16.57' S, 174 48.31' W)
Author: Peter.

We have been anchored up at Nomuka'Iki Island the site of a former prison camp for the past few days in an attempt to let my cold pass. We have done very little except relax, watch dvd's and play games. Later today will be our first venture ashore here as I am finally starting to feel better. Although not the worst cold I have ever had it sure as hell lasted allot longer and as a result gave me some time to reflect. When you are sick at home there is a little more to distract you than when you are sick in a small confined space such as a yacht. You could go have a long hot shower or bath. You could play play station or watch tv all day whilst lying on the couch, both of which are difficult onboard given a limited supply of both water and power. Also it would be just nice to hop on a phone and talk to some friends for some cheering up. You start to worry about spreading the cold to your partner (Kylie) as the space is so small and there is no where to hide and you look at them somewhat bored, even though, just outside is an amazing tropical paradise to explore.

Changing thoughts. The cruising lifestyle brings home a real appreciation of how lucky we are to be Australian. The quality of life we lead is just so wonderful, it's a shame many people just can't see it. Something as simple as shopping for groceries, the choices we have in Australia we just take for granted. It was amazing to see how limited the supermarkets were in New Zealand let alone here. And the fact that most people here in the outer islands are mainly subsistence farming. There are very few shops if at all, let alone much income or money to buy simple every day items. If I read my guide correctly, of the seventeen inhabited islands of the Ha'apai group only five islands have electricity. The remainder have none except for a telephone powered by a 12 volt battery and a solar panel. This is still rather hard for me to imagine yet from our meetings with the locals and conversations with other cruisers they still all seem happy. Both Kylie and I are so lucky to be in a position to be able to do this, to have such great supporting and caring families (my mum and dad are the ones who instilled in me the values that see me here today) to have comforts in our lives and jobs that allow us to do this. I would love to bring some students away so they can see how much harder others are doing it, and perhaps appreciate more what they have and as a result get off their lazy asses. Can you imagine living without power? Every modern cruising yacht we have met has most of the modern power related gadgets of a modern home.

Again changing thoughts. I can't help but be impressed with the job Stuart did when designing Jura. We still to this day get alot of compliments and questions about her. Stuart not only has a good sense of what is needed but he also has a good eye on what looks right. Without a doubt we a have a fast cruising boat(only one boat we left NZ with beat us here and they motored for 59 hours to do it. I think they were shocked to find we had sailed it and only just arrived after them), fast to me means less time doing the boring bit at sea and more time in the wonderful anchorages. Also we are now starting to get a better understanding of what a great ride or motion Jura gives us through the water. I started to think we had it bad on the crossing over from NZ but after talking to other cruisers who did it at the same time we had, we had it so much better. Whilst it felt rough we mainly glided from wave to wave during the second gale that was on the nose. The other boats all complained of their yachts just falling off the backs of each wave. One minute being in your bunk, the next feeling like you are in the air. I do remember this feeling as our previous yacht was similar and Jura moves nothing like her. Even on a moderate swell in our old yacht you never ever wanted to walk in front of the mast as you would just get thrown around. I once even got thrown out of the nav seat and hit my head on the companion way stairs. Jura is just so much smoother than this although she does like to heel a little more. A factor of her narrower water line that I did ask for.

Finally, navigation. Kylie is finding it a little stressful that our GPS does not line up. According to the GPS we are currently anchored in the middle of Nomuka'Iki Island. I have in the past tried to teach her old school navigation with paper charts and pencil, compass, parallel rule etc. Back then she had little real interest but now I think she is starting to appreciate what she needs to learn. We are currently finding our way through a maze of reefs and uncharted bommies that need lots of care and attention. I agree at times it can be unnerving as you make your way through reefs of breakers on each side that are just in the middle of the ocean, but to rely wholly on a GPS would be stupid. Once again we are so spoilt back home that our GPS's are so accurate and our charts so up to date.

By the way I also miss free to all modern medicine just around the corner when I am sick. Even if the doctor does nothing, it is still reassuring to have visited them.

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Tau Island

2009-06-09T23:14:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 10/6/2009 18:00
Weather: The world is coming to an end
Location: Tau(21 01.33' S, 175 00.78' W)
Author: Peter.

Yesterday morning we upped anchored and headed as far north and east as we could in the Tongatapu area in preparation for a small 35nm hop into the Ha'apai Group (middle group) We anchored off a tiny little deserted island called Tau. Once again when you picture the tropics this is what most people see. A coral fringed island of white sands and swaying green palms. A great spot for a romantic picnic lunch. Surrounded by perfectly clear water showing off the spectrum of colours in the blue range from deep blue down to an amazingly clear turquoise. Also in Australia when you beach comb you may find some amazing shells, but we have now learnt they are extremely sun bleached. On Tau we have found shells so pristine on the sands that they look like someone has sprayed them with gloss lacquer. They are just so stunningly beautiful.

Crabs hiding from the sun in a coconut!

Malinoa Island

And then it struck me. I can't believe it and not a school kid in sight. I have come down with a cold, and as many of you know, when i have a cold it is the end of the world. And why is that when you are sick no-matter how big the bed it's just not big enough? I really feel sorry for Kylie (she is also craving a garlic naan to have with the curry she cooked). Instead of setting sail today we just had a day of nothing, watching dvds, reading and knitting. Our power finally got up to full after several weeks of having to run the motor to top the batteries up. We were also able to run the water maker (thanks to the power surplus)we were starting to run out of water. We will now wait to see tomorrows forecast and how i feel before we make any plans to move on.

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Ha’apai Group - Tonga

2009-06-07T16:20:00.000-07:00

The Ha’apai Group in the middle of the kingdom consists of numerous small, atoll-like islands scattered across the sea. Of the 62 islands in the Ha'apai group, only 17 are inhabited. On those 17 islands, there are approximately 8,000 people settled in 30 villages. Linked by a causeway, Lifuka and Foa are the largest and the only ones you can visit without being on a yacht.

Farewell the Capital

2009-06-05T20:16:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 6/6/2009 14:30
Weather: Overcast 26 deg
Location: Pangaimotu (21 007.54' S, 175 09.70' W)
Author: Peter.

My first car was a poo brown Mazda 323 that you could hear coming from at least four blocks away. The drivers seat was held together by the car seat cover, it had cracks in the windshield including two legal "bulls eyes" directly in front of the driver, and some rust in the body. It was also written off twice whilst in my possession by accidents caused by someone else and each time I patched it back together. It was a piece of sh!@# but it worked, it got me around and i was ok with it. That car was heaven compared to what they drive in Tonga. I have seen cars go past and i cant work out what is holding the rust together let alone the car. They obviously do not have to go through any inspection process as i can't see how most of them are still working. It is a testament to the powers of man that cars that are this bad still work. Mechanically you should hear some of these cars yet they still keep going.

Our hire car although not that bad is a good example. Externally it looked ok, some uv damage to the paint and a few dings but otherwise ok. To drive it was another story. The front left CV joint sounded crook. Shock absorbers, what shock absorbers? A few rattles here and there and central locking that just kept trying to come on. We had hired the only car available on Friday which i swear was a Mitsubishi Magna Executive but was badged differently. I checked all the brakes though and they worked fine. Thank goodness you spend most of your time at 40km an hour and the most you ever do is 60. It did however get us around the island for sight seeing and to our excellent farewell meal to the main island of Nukula'lofa.

So after a few stops at the local servo in the morning to top the yacht up with diesel and some time at immigration extending our visa's, we set off with Steve and Liz from Liberte in search of sights around the island.

Steve and Liz from Liberte

Our first port of call being the landing place of Cpt James Cook and where he first met the local inhabitants. Upon reading the information board we discovered he spent about 4 months in Tonga and during this time the local chiefs had plotted to murder Cook and raid his ships. However due to their own infighting on how to go about it, they missed their opportunity.

Our second stop saw us heading for some local caves (which are being turned into a resort). The light filtering through the leaves in the open parts of the ceiling was pretty and the local story that came with the cave was nice but they left us a little disappointed.

Our next stop was to be a natural land bridge, but we completely missed it and almost missed the following most wanted stop. Although a small island, there are no street signs and the map we had had roads that don't exist and did not show a heap of others that do. Another yacht we spoke too said they saw a tourist map the was the reverse image of the island. This all makes getting around a little difficult. I wondered if it was a ploy by the taxi drivers so you had to use them.

Our next stop saw us take in the most spectacular blow holes we have ever seen. Half way along Nukula'lofa eastern shore is a stretch of at least 1km of blow holes, ranging in size from tiny little spouts to guisers throwing water over 10m into the air. And all this on a day when the waves looked rather small. The sight itself as you watch the progression of the wave along the shore and up through the blow holes is one not to be missed and the accompanying noise is rather boisterous. It puts the Kiama blow hole to shame.

After a quick trip back to the boat to doll ourselves up we made our way eventually to the Good Samaritan Inn (like i said it is difficult to find your way around and it was now dark) for a traditional dinner feast and show. This show was heavily attended by locals so i think that gives you a good idea on the quality of what we enjoyed. The show itself was great, with quite a large group both performing the dances and playing the music. A dance was even dedicated to the two Australian boats. Kylie and Steve were dragged up onto the dance floor for some audience participation, and a truly great night was had by all. What a great way for us to finish our stay on Nukula'lofa

Today at lunch, we let go the lines attached to the break wall, picked up anchor and motored a very short distance to Pangaimotu Island. Tomorrow we will go exploring but this afternoon we are happy just relaxing and finally letting Jura's batteries charge back up (we had little to no wind in the harbour and lately have had overcast days).

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Malo e lelei

2009-06-03T18:14:00.001-07:00

Year Two
Date: 4/6/2009 12:00
Weather: Light showers but still 26 deg
Location: Nukula'lofa Harbour (21 08.28' S, 175 10.95' W)
Author: Peter.

Tied up to the Nukualofa Wharf

Many houses in Nukualofa look like this. Very few are in better condition

Corner stores, you only have to walk a few hundred metres to find these. The bars across the windows are because they are open 24hours (god knows why) and the propietor often falls asleep on the job.

Pack Mule Pete!

The Kings Palace

Its a public holiday here in Tonga. Emancipation Day, however not much is going on, on this day they were set free. We thought it might be like Australia Day. Nope.

The formalities here are so lax, we cant believe it. We have a visa for one month but need to extend it to two so that we can see everything we wish to see. Yesterday we went to Immigration to do this just after lunch, but we were sent away and asked if we could come back tomorrow- they were only working half a day! This also happens on Friday and I think when ever they feel like having the afternoon off. We knew it was a public holiday the following day so we asked are you open, to which the reply was "yes come back tomorrow at 9". Ha, we knew they would not be open, now we have to waste some time on Friday when we have hired a car to go and do it so we can clear out on Saturday. We hear stories like this constantly from other boats. Who would have thought it would be so hard to pay them some money. So today is laundry day. We have such a large sack full it is about time we did some.

Last Sunday we went to the local, very large Catholic Church (yes Mum and Dad, I went). It was Kylie's 1st experience of church going so she was a little excited. The church itself is massive with high ceilings and the biggest stage I have ever seen. We estimate it would seat well over 1000 people. There are churches on every second corner, the Tongans' being very religious. The bells ring to say mass is 15 minutes away and they all come dressed up. Some wear suits but most wear a combination of traditional clothing (woven mats worn about the waist (ta'ovala')) and their Sunday best. Although the service was conducted in Tongan it still followed the same progression as other catholic services I grew up with so I knew where we were up to and what should have been happening, we just could not understand any of the days particular messages. The majority of the mass is sung, and there appeared to be at least 3 choir groups in the front rows of the church. The sounds they produced were just amazing to listen to (this would have to be the best mass I have ever been too) but could also get a little distracting because at times I felt it more like battle of the choirs. Their voices however were stunning, their harmony magic, and the overall sound better than anything I have ever heard including that choir show on Australian tv.

Sunday is truly a day of rest in Tonga (we have never heard it so quiet at day or night). We have actually heard it is illegal to work on a Sunday here.

Over the last few days we have spent half a day doing some preventative maintenance. Each day some new yacht arrives, each one looking more battered than the next (there are now 4 Australian boats here!). We have seen quite a few shredded headsail's so I thought it prudent to check all stitching and then spent 3 hours hand sewing just to make sure we don't end up looking like these other boats. We also pulled apart one halyard winch and gave it a well needed service and I checked the rigging which needed a replacement split pin in the forestay.

On the other days we have been exploring on our bikes, each day discovering new things to see. We have also done a little extra provisioning whilst here and will tomorrow visit the local markets to pick our final fresh produce as the local Asian community has some excellent fresh produce from their market gardens. Yesterday we bought Bok Choy that was better than anything you buy in the supermarket back home in Aus.

Every pile is $3

The decorative Tongan cemeteries.

Our French guest Florian has moved on to explore some other islands. His itchy feet looked a little bored here in town as we waited for our new friend Steve to fly back in from Australia with a replacement stereo/dvd player unit for us.

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Second Crossing

2009-05-30T17:55:00.001-07:00

Year Two
Date: 28/5/2008 10:00
Weather: 26 deg celcius
Location: Tongatapu (21 08.28' S, 175 10.95' W)
Author: Peter

After our second major crossing we were starting to wonder what we had let ourselves in for. Our first crossing from Australia to New Zealand saw us sail through one gale and days of squalls with winds consistently up in the thirties and a maximum wind in the fifties. By the time we arrived we were both extremely tired and had had enough and we had a fast crossing (seven days). We had left Australia on a great forecast but the high pressure system on which we had hoped to ride the front edge of across the Tasman Sea decided to park itself in the Great Australian Bite. This in turn caused a set of three lows to also stall directly over New Zealand creating the squally conditions as they circled one another.

Our second major crossing from New Zealand to the Kingdom of Tonga again saw us leave on a positive forecast. Along with 4 other yachts heading for Tonga and a few more heading for Fiji we left on the back of a low with strong gale force winds from the stern. We then headed east of the rhumb line towards the Kermadec Islands for the forecast south easterlies that were to take us then quickly up to Tonga. Again the forecast was completely wrong. After three days of running in 30+ knots we then had a day of no wind. This was again followed by another unforseen low pressure system, giving us winds in excess of thirty knots but this time on the nose as we now found ourselves on the wrong side of the rhumb line sailing straight through the centre of the low (maximum wind 41.3 knots). By this point in time we were really starting to wonder if this is what ocean crossings were always like. Finally as we approached Tonga and we thought that the journey was over the wind again completely stopped and we bobbed around for an extra 12hours before we started to move again and finally made it. Apparently another fast crossing at 8 days.

Since our arrival we have gained some hope after discussions with fellow cruisers. Those on the crossing with us, and many more sea miles under their belts have commented that they have never had two gales in a crossing before and how rough this crossing was. Others here who are "in the know" have commented that we have done two of the hardest crossings possible (I am not sure) and come through well with only some very minor breakages. They have said that the Tasman Sea is renowned for bad weather and the winds around New Zealand for being notoriously bad.

They have all said that they usually spend most of their time in winds between ten and twenty knots (heaven) and it was rare to see wind over twenty-five. All this gives us heart that the rest of the journey should be nice and that we have just had a few difficult crossings. We also now have four months in which to forget.

On a side note after our depressed feelings after each crossing and our discussions with fellow cruisers we are contemplating heading back to Australia this season. The advice we are getting says this is a better option than getting slammed again while trying to beat back into New Zealand and then back to the tropics next year. Also New Caledonia and Vanuatu are easy sails from Australia (apparently).

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Arrival in Tonga

2009-05-30T17:55:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 31/5/2008 10:00
Weather: Beautiful
Location: Nukula'lofa Harbour (21 08.28' S, 175 10.95' W)
Author: Kylie

We are now Mediterranean moored in the small boat harbour at Nukula'lofa, on the island of Tongutapu in Tonga. Mediterranean moored means that we dropped an anchor in the centre of the harbour and then took lines from our stern to the shore pulling our transom towards the shore. It looks a lot like parallel parking at the supermarket except no lines are marked on the water. This is the first time we have ever come across this type of mooring and as is to be expected we struggled a little bit with it thanks to the outboard motor throttle needing a little lube. Luckily for us we were helped out by the neighbouring vessel Liberte (fellow Australians), and a number of other cruising guys.

We arrived in the harbour at 5.30pm local time, hoisted our yellow quarantine flag and Tongan courtesy flag and waited for the following morning to go through the process of customs. Formalities are quite layed back and are also not very organised, it was difficult to find out what and who we were supposed to visit however by midday we were all sorted having filled forms out for customs, immigration, health and quarantine. Health charged us a Tongan $100 fee that we think is really just a bribe, as some boats are made to pay and others are not. We also paid $25 to quarantine however they didn't come and check the boat and just asked for our rubbish so we were able to keep all our vegetables which were worth more than $25 anyway.

After all the formalities were over with we had the usual cleaning and checking for things which needed to be repaired etc. We unpacked our bikes and set them up in the cockpit, then rowed the 3metres to shore. Steve aboard Liberte was very helpful and rode into town with us and showed us around. The ride was easy, Nukula'lofa being nearly dead flat, although the potholes and bumpy surface made for a sore butt by the end of 16km of exploration. The Tongans are very poor by our standards, most of the cars they drive would not pass our registration- vans have no side doors, there is more rust then car in some cases, and the car fumes are terrible. They also pack so many people into the cars, no seat belts obviously. Yesterday we passed a Toyota van that was chock-a-block full of watermelons, from the rear to the back of the drivers seat to roof height!

The peopled do however appear to dress very well, especially the school uniforms. All the children are in immaculate uniform some being quite elaborate and fancy yet with a traditional style, equivalent to our private school uniforms (except no hats). Once school knocks off the kids all hang around socialising around the town, no one seemed to go home after school. Another strange thing was they don't carry bags or backpacks let alone any books for that matter.

There are several medium size supermarkets selling food, clothing and lots of junk really. They have some of the brands we know in Australia but each store varies greatly in stock and price. There are also these small roadside stores with a woman behind the counter and a display of longlife food on the shelves behind her. Apparently if you can't find something you want just keep looking in all the stores until you find it and we have also been advised to price check before we purchase. In terms of fresh food there is a large outdoor market where locals have set up stalls selling their produce. There is not a huge variety, mainly they all have the same stuff for the same price. Obviously watermelon, cucumber and sweet potato grow like weeds in the area as I have never seen so much in my life. Watermelons are grouped by size and have a torn cardboard sign denoting their price $3 $5 $6. The conversion rate is about AUS$1 = Tongan$0.66 (all prices quoted are in Tongan), although we haven't checked our bank account to find out the exact conversion, either way watermelons are cheap. Sweet potato is sold in woven baskets; looks like there is about 10 sweet potatoes per basket. I am not sure what we will do with that many sweet potatoes. Cucumbers are ridiculously cheap. When you walk into the market cucumbers, green beans, tomatoes, mandarins and I can't remember what else are arranged on the tables in little piles, each pile is $3. Guess how many cucumbers you get for $3….. six massive ones! Pity we don't like cucumber very much.

We found bread shops (only white loaves of bread, no grain or wholemeal and only $1.50 per loaf), a hardware, electronic store, lots of cafes and heaps of internet places (very slow apparently), many churches (we can hear the bells ring in the morning from the boat). Our most important find was a New Zealand ice cream store, yum.

The bike riding is a little hairy, however the cars are considerate and let you in and give way and the speed on the streets rarely gets above 30km/h. Actually the bikes are really handy as it is a very long walk to town.

We are planning on spending the next week in the harbour. Steve on the boat next door is flying back to Australia for a few days and has offered to purchase a new DVD player for us and bring it back so we are going to wait here and watch over his boat whilst he is away. Florian, the backpacker we have on board is going to visit a nearby island so we will get a few days of privacy. Then we will head north up to the Ha'apai Group.

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Tongatapu - Tonga

2009-05-27T19:23:00.000-07:00

Tongatapu is the southernmost island in the Tonga nation. It is the main island of Tonga where the capital Nukualofa is located. It is the most populous island comprising approximately 66 577 residents, 68.3% of population (in 1996). Tongatapu is also the home island of the king, (he has palaces in all the capitals of the major islands groups, but the late king's official residence (now of the queen-mother only) is the Royal Palace, Tonga)

Out at sea again

2009-05-19T16:07:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 20/5/2008 10:00
Weather: Cool and 25knts
Location: South Pacific Ocean (33 35.51' s, 176 11.78' e)
Author: Peter

Yesterday we set sail again for the Kingdom of Tonga. We left Opua after a very short 8 day stay. We hired a car for 2 of these days to help with provisioning and to do some local sight seeing. In total we probably only covered a semi circle of about 100km in diameter to the north of Opua getting as far as the very scenic Doubtless bay, a rather nice place to have lunch. We also visited some of the oldest buildings in New Zealand near Keri Keri which again reminded us greatly of Tasmania. Last but not least we drove to a nearby forest to see some Kauri trees. These trees just get so fat so quickly. Not so tall just fat. We can see why they were logged so much given the amount of timber one tree would produce. A small one we saw was quoted at having enough timber for over 10 houses.

Our hire car

Doubtless Bay

Back in Opua (a caravan park for yachts from around the world) we also picked up a third crew member for the passage across. Florian a 24yr old French man. Also for those fisherman out there, the sea life just at the marina was amazing. Walking down the marina finger at night you would just see schools of fish everywhere, and the snap crackle and pop you hear through the hull was the strongest I have ever heard. It just goes to show how over fished the east coast of Australia is becoming.

Jura V is now the most loaded she has ever been. Everything is packed so tight as we are trying to carry 5 months worth of food as we hear that finding supplies in Tonga is not good. In the wind strengths we currently have it does not seem to have slowed us down any.

Sorry this one is so short but we have not done that much given the time it takes to purchase and then pack provisions. And writing about that is rather boring anyway.

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NZ

2009-05-13T12:44:00.000-07:00

Hello from Opua, Bay of Islands, New Zealand!

Yes, we made it across the ditch and are now at the Opua Marina freezing our arses off. This cold weather is as bad as Tasmania and a rude shock from the warm (admittedly wet, rainy) Coffs Harbour.

We departed Coffs around midday on Sunday 3rd of May and were waved off by my family. We enjoyed a comfortable and fast ride as far as Lord Howe Island. The breeze from the SSE at about 18knots and we sailed on a close hauled course under slightly furled jib and double reefed mainsail. We experienced some ups and downs in pressure. In the log book Peter notes, "Wind doing weird things, 20knots then 2 90 degree shifts. Wish it would just settle."

For the first day and a half I was fine, no sea sickness however as the swell and wind increased so did my discomfort. In the end I learned to love the maxalon and gave up on the kwells. Yesterday we went to the pharmacy in Pahia and asked for "the seasickness pills that you can't buy in Australia". Multiple people have recommended these pills which you only have to take once when you first wake up. The lady in the shop showed us "sea legs" which she said were the equivalent of our kwells. We looked at them and said no, do you have anything else? We got out the phone and checked a msg but there was no name given for the pills. After much discussion with her she eventually said, "we do have these ones we make up ourselves, we can't advertise them though". So NZ$60 later I now have enough for 20 days. You take a white pill and half an hour later follow it with a blue pill. Apparently no one gets sea sick so I'll see how it goes. It would be nice to be able to help Peter out a bit more.

So the crossing wasn't the easiest passage for either of us but particularly for Peter. He noted in the log " After a great start the breeze last night was all over the place in direction and strength. A lot to do so not much sleep." Massive rain squalls hit us hard and we went from 20 knots to 55 knots! And we think our gauge reads under! Often Peter could see the squalls approaching and the radar often backed up his ???? and he would go on deck and try to reduce the sail before the wind and rain hit. We were unprepared for one rain squall and Peter was pondering going on deck to reduce sail when we broached under reefed main and poled out headsail. The broach was too much for the pole and it folded in half! There was some small damage to the luff and leach of the headsail and a lost batten. These squalls continued for most of the trip and we were glad to see the New Zealand coast albeit for a very short time as the visibility decreased. During the entire trip we saw 4 vessels, 2 off the Australian coast shortly after departure and then nothing until we were coming down the New Zealand Coast. We kept in regular radio contact (morning and evening skeds) with RCC Australia and also emailed daily updates to our families.

We were prepared for the trip to take 10 days and hoped for less. In the end we sailed in Opua on Monday morning and tied up on the customs wharf at 9am. We slowed ourselves up at times so we would arrive on a weekday to avoid paying double time to the officials however we later found out that unlike Australia, customs and immigration and free in New Zealand. In Australia it can cost you around $450 if you come in on a Sunday, so that was a nice surprise.

Customs and immigration was extremely simple. We declared everything and they took very little of our food. The only things they were interested in were fresh fruit and veg, chicken and eggs, and anything that may grow such as seeds ????. We had pre-prepared cooked meals for the voyage and thought we would lose what was left however the man was very nice. He said normally we could keep any Australian beef or lamb in its original packaging and our pre cooked meals would have to go however he let us keep them.

The Bay Of Islands is on the east coast of New Zealands North Island. Opua is a small quaint fishing village that used to be a bustling port. There is a marina, yacht club, charter vessels and a general store along with a huge marine industry including a slip way and hard stand, chandlery, sail makers, boat repairers, pretty much anything boating you could need. It is a popular arrival and departure point for cruisers like us and there are many boats sitting waiting for the right weather to head to Vanuatu, New Caledonia, Fiji and Tonga. We have already met two vessels heading to Tonga and hope to travel with them.

Yesterday we caught a private shuttle service to the nearby town of Pahia. It is a holiday village really, cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops, banks and many tourism operations. There is a woolworths although it is really more like a iga store with just a small selection of products. We took our provisioning list with us and started the huge shop. We plan to take as much food as we can fit as we know there are limited supplies in the areas of Tonga and Fiji we plan to visit. We anticipate that we will be able to purchase plenty of fresh fruit and vegetables and maybe some bread and other basics but we know that the meat in Tonga is very poor quality and we won't be purchasing meat. Yesterday we spent NZ$300 in woolworths and probably are not even half way through the list. With little to no public transport in the area we have decided to hire a car for two days, looks like it will cost about AUS$100 and we can then go to the town of Kerikeri where there is a butcher and a larger grocery store and also do a bit of sight seeing in the area.

Today we are having some repairs done to the boat and will probably have dinner at the Cruising Club tonight so we can meet some new people. A lot of the boats here have already been to Tonga and Fiji so there is a lot of information we can gather.

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NZ here we come

2009-05-06T16:51:00.000-07:00

Year Two
Date: 7/5/2008 10:00
Weather: warm smooth seas and 15knts
Location: South Pacific Ocean, Tasman Sea (32 25.46' s, 163 30.11' e)
Author: Peter

We cleared customs and checked out of Coffs Harbour Australia at midday on Sunday the third of May. After a few hiccups in the harbour, namely forgetting to reconnect reefing lines after the twilight series, we got away on a close hauled course averaging 8knts. The breeze stayed SE for the next three days with intermittent squalls each evening and around Lord Howe Island requiring lots of sail changes. We Passed Lord Howe after two days and 6 hours of sailing and would have enjoyed the stop for a break but at this time the wind was up, it was raining and just on dark. Not a good time to enter.

Since then the breeze has slowly been rotating to the SW except during those nuisance squalls. We are expecting some stronger winds just as we reach the northern tip of NZ but are hoping the forecast is wrong. We will then sail directly to Opua in the Bay of Islands to clear into NZ. We were planning on ten days to cross but we are well ahead of this as long as we don't get another six hours of no wind like we had this morning.

Thankfully the seas so far have been kind. We have passed two whales, a pair of spinner dolphins, a few albatross and some mutton birds. Otherwise not a great deal of wildlife so far. The Tasmanian coast is still amazing in my eye's for this. Our only other entertainment has been chatter on the VHF around Lord Howe. We have not seen another boat since the first 10nm where we passed 3 yachts heading to Queensland for the season and 1 large ship heading north.

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2009-05-01T21:04:00.000-07:00

Yes we have been extremely slack over the last few months with updating the blog but the time has once again come and we are about to set off. Tonga via New Zealand. Our first big ocean crossing!! The night before we set out and I have no nerves yet but I know they will arrive later tonight or tomorrow. Kylie says they have already hit.

During our stay in Coffs we have not only spent time making some money but the yacht has seen some upgrades. Externally we now have a bow sprit, mainly for getting the anchor tackle further away from our plum bow. The side benefit being we can also rig asymmetric spinnakers or code zero's (I wish) further out from the bow. We have also seen some minor signage changes to comply with our international registration. You will also notice that our registration denotes Sydney. This is because Coffs Harbour, although one of only 5 ports of entry into NSW from overseas is not recognised. Even stranger is there are other ports you can use for registration that are not one of these 5 ports and some around Australia are even land locked??

Inside we are starting to become one of those boats we were once jealous of. We have turned the ice box in the kitchen into a very efficient fridge. Its power consumption is so far ahead of the pre manufactured one we already had. If we had the money i would be tempted to remove the old fridge and and just build one from scratch as we had done in the kitchen. Put simply our home made one has much better insulation properties resulting in less running time.
We have also removed one of the toilets and installed a 2.2kg washing machine in its place. While travelling last year we regularly had problems getting clothes to dry due to the humidity or temperature. The spin cycle on the machine is there for a god send.

We have also constructed a new doorway for when we are off shore. The wash boards are good but to get out if you were shut in required firstly partly opening the hatch then removing all the boards. Once outside you then had to put it all back in place to keep the water out or take a risk. The new door simply swings open. All we now need to do is turn the handle, open the doors, step out then shut them. Quick simple and hopefully effective.

It also reminds me of hospital doors (its new nickname).

We have also added a boom brake to help control the boom. I wont bore you with photo's of that.

So once again we are back onthe blog regularly so that family and friends can keep up with our latest news and where we are.

a NEW new plan

2009-02-05T14:24:00.000-08:00

I've uploaded our NEW plan, check it out and make plans to visit us.

http://yachtjura-our-plans.blogspot.com/

Also I have uploaded some information on travel to Tonga and Fiji.

http://yachtjura-be-our-guest.blogspot.com/

only 63 days until we can leave Australia!!!

new bowsprit

2009-01-26T14:48:00.000-08:00

look at the new bowsprit jura has! not finished yet but looks good hey.

We hauled out at Coffs slipway for 4 days. Jura was re-anti fouled and had a few minor additions.

Peter has all these plans for little modifications/additions so he has been working endlessly on the boat down at the marina. Actually he just left to go work on the boat now. He has been out at our friend Grahams house using all his woodworking tools and machines, thanks Graham.

On a different note we had a fantastic time at dreamworld during the week. Marisa and Anthony drove up to Coffs on Wednesday night. We sailed Thursday afternoon and came very close to taking our first line honours. Friday morning we left very early for the drive to QLD, only to realise they arn't on daylight savings and Dreamworld doesn't open until 10. We had a two day pass and could move between Dreamworld and Dreamworlds water park White water world. Friday was great because it wasn't too busy and the ques were shorter. We even managed to get Peter on all the high scary rides. I think I was more scared then him.

so whats the plan?

2008-11-25T16:17:00.000-08:00

Hi Everyone
Thought I should let you know what we are up to and what our plans are.... we have stopped in Coffs for the next few months as the bank account was looking seriously poor. We have moved in with my mum and dad and are hoping we don't push the friendship, all is going well so far. Peter is working casual at Toormina High School which is the local and he has work lined up until the last week of school. I've got a job at woolworths (hehehe) as a stacker which starts on Saturday presuming something better doesn't come up. I have some freelance work lined up after Christmas and am waiting on a call regarding a second interview with a design company (fingers crossed as it would be much better then Woolworths).

We are planning to hang around here until the end of March. Peters brother Luke and partner Jade are getting married mid march so we will be able to go to their wedding and see all of Peters family which will be great. We are then hoping to leave for New Zealand and continue the trip as planned.

We are enjoying living back on land with no water restrictions and a supermarket just a few minutes away. Peter is frustrated with the year sevens he is teaching and seems to be coming home from work a little grumpy each afternoon but otherwise all is well.

We are enjoying a bit of twilight racing with the Coffs Yacht Club. So far we have placed 3rd each race. The two lead boats are more racing boats then ours. We had a colourful run-in with one boat that didn't know their rules but since then we have kept our distance and we have managed to start on time which has improved the results some what. Last week we had about 20 knots from the north at the start, the start line is in the harbour between the jetty and a bouy. So we reached out the harbour and rounded Muttonbird Island. It was then a work north to McCauleys Headland. We learnt a new club rule which states that you can not increase sail area during the race so we started with a reef in the main and when the wind dropped and began rotating we couldn't pull out the reef. Luckily the rest of the fleet suffered the same fate. A storm came through and we finished with a 36 knot gust from the west. We have moved Jura to an easier berth to get into and out of which is decreasing our stress a little.

I am still loading pictures onto the blog site (only a few months late but anyway) stay tuned.

Quick Update

2008-11-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

Hi everyone

just a quick message to say we are back in Coffs now. We ended up sailing straight from Fraser Island to coffs, the weather was a beautiful N/NE. It got up to about 30knots at one stage and we ran under poled out headsail.

Dolphins escorted us into coffs at about 6am last Monday. Jura is now tied up in the marina but still getting regular use as the twilight racing has begun :) Actually I better get going cause we start in less then 2 hours. Last week we placed third after almost missing the start. Tonight Peter wants to put the light air jib on.

bye
Kylie

A little dissapointment

2008-10-19T17:13:00.001-07:00

Year One
Date: 20/10/2008 09:30
Weather: Perfect
Location: Deep Creek Fraser Island 25'30 52S, 152'59 14E
Author: Peter

Thanks to the wonderful people over in America and the great things they have done to the world economy we are now having to head home to find some work. Because of this I have been looking forward to Fraser Island and its world heritage list status as a great way to finish off cruising this year. One last hoorah I suppose.

When we first came to the bay I was hoping the male whales would still be around so we could have an up close and personal experience, as tends to happen in this area as the males come to you to investigate. A man (hippy) we met further back up north on the island who comes here every season says "the whales purpose in life is to fix peoples hearts". I was really hoping for this experience and can only hope we can get it the next time we are here. I was however greatful that there were still whales here and we still had a great time watching them.

Finally the other day after entering the great sandy straits we started to find walking tracks and 4WD tracks leading inland. Great I thought, this is exactly what I wanted. While anchored at McKenzie Jetty Ruins (25'24 53S, 153'00 55E) and walking some of the shorter tracks around to an old WWII commando training base and disused logging camps around the foreshore we discovered a path leading up to one of the lakes 10km inland. So the next morning we packed lunches and the bikes and headed to shore to finally see what I came here for, the Lakes and rain forest. Upon opening the bike bag I was shocked to discover my rear wheel was missing 7 spokes and the rim was now distorted. The bike was un-ridable and I was now stuck unable to do what I wanted the most. 10km on foot each way was to long to leave Jura so we headed back to the boat and upstream to Deep Creek the site of a disused log loading site.

Deep Creek is a very pretty little anchorage with 2 old wrecks rusting away hidden in the mangroves. One a steam powered vessel and the other a sexy old barque over 100ft in length (they don't draw lines like that anymore). Ashore more tracks, but again no bike to explore them. I feel gutted and I don't even know what happened to the spokes that caused the problem. Not quite the way I wanted it all to end.

Oh well I hope Tangalooma is good and I suppose there is always next time. I just feel sad that I'm so close yet I can't do anything about it.

Still beats being at work, especially on a Monday.

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A change of plan

2008-10-17T00:12:00.001-07:00

Year One
Date: 17/10/2008 16:00
Weather: Clearing. Windy
Location: Mooan Point Fraser Island 25'14 00S, 152'59 39E
Author: Peter

We have been taking short little hops along Fraser's western shore over the last few days with very little to report. The sand island is beautiful but it is difficult for us to get inland as the bush is so dense. There are 4WD tracks heading inland every now and then from off the bay but these are also of little use to us without a vehicle as any sites are well inland and it would not be safe to leave the boat for extended periods. The weather also has not been kind this week being mainly overcast with occasional showers. This does not mean we have not had a good time however as we have done plenty of whale watching (stay tuned for the photo's I took from up the mast) and some walking ashore.

How amazing are these!!!!

So this one isn't a spectacular photo but it is the proof that I(Kylie) went up the mast to view the whales too!

John and I swam in the stunningly clear water, which is a perfect 24 degrees. The other day we drifted along in little breeze and you could still easily see the bottom 14m down. At the arch cliffs (named for their shape resemblance to the Sydney Harbour Bridge)I found the remains of a young whale. Even a young whales skull is as long as my old Mazda 323. Back on the mainland Kylie and I had a very educational explore ashore at Pialba where we got to learn about, and check out a huge flying fox (bat) colony. Off the beach at Pialba looks like a great place to come and sailboard or kite surf.

John was meant to stay with us through to Brisbane however his wife Jenny has found a house they are both interested in so our plans changed a little and we spent last night in a marina at Urangan so that John could catch a flight this morning. I feel a little sorry for John as the weather during his stay was not great and we could not even provide him with a perfect sunset. Although his week was not as activity pact as we would normally have it we think John still had a great time and the whale experiences probably made up for the bad weather.

Urangan Pier

For those of you who don't know, yesterday was my birthday and to those of you who sent messages, thank you. Tegan I'm not sure where you sent the email but we did not receive it. Well not much to share about the day as we were up early to get into the marina before a front came through. We then caught a bus that wound its way into town before doing a little shopping. John picked up a book bargain and we had to walk fast past McDonalds to resist the temptation of yummy hot chip smell. After checking out the movie theater as it was now black, windy and raining (my show was not on till late and there was no way of getting back home) we hopped back onto a bus and followed the forshore back to the marina for coffee and smoothie's. John and I then went exploring the marina fingers checking out ideas for bow sprit's while Kylie baked a cake. We finished the day off well with a perfect meal at the local cafe (my steak was local, perfect and three times the size of what I would normally eat. I tried, I failed) The rain still poured down so after some tv and cake we all went to bed. Kylie did really well given the weather and change of plans. Thank you Kylie and John for a entertaining day.

Back on our own we are now preparing to make our way through the Great Sandy Straits before we head back out to sea and then down onto Morton Bay.

Our friends Pete and Jess have arrived back home in Eden and Ron and Suzie are now somewhere near Sydney. See ya all again next time.

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Oh what a feeling

2008-10-14T15:58:00.000-07:00

Year One
Date: 13/10/2008 20:45
Weather: Clearing
Location: Triangle Cliffs Fraser Island 25'01 49S, 153'12 04E
Author: Peter

Cruising is all about those special moments and its amazing how many of these moments there are and how varied they can be. It is impossible for my poor literary skills to effectively describe my surroundings to their best, but they sure leave me with a great feeling inside. The feeling I get anchored off the Triangles at Fraser Island just after the sun has set, the full moon already risen and above the horizon and the first star blooming in a still blue sky is one of tranquility and calmness. Ashore the light is mystical where pristine teal waters meet the pure white crystalline sands at the shore before abruptly changing pitch and steeply rising in the clotted cream sands of the sand blow that forms the cliff. Astern I can still hear the splashing of a baby whale as it leaps into the air and falls back to the water in a large crash sending a curtain of white spray into the air. Its mother calmly watching as she floats on the surface nearby.

What a perfect way to end the day. A kookaburra laughs somewhere in the distance to bring it all together. Then from away down the beach two bright lights rocket northward, some noise follows as a 4WD rushes back to its campsite for their evening meal. And true to 'The Castle' I think to myself "hows the serenity".

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Fresh fruit and vegetables

2008-10-09T23:52:00.001-07:00

Year One
Date: 10/10/2008 15:45
Weather: Rain and wind
Location: Burnett River 24'47 04S, 152'23 01E
Author: Peter

After a certain amount of time away from the mainland and food suppliers it really is funny the things you start to crave and miss. As we have said before, things you normally would not crave like hot chips, or ice cream, or fresh juice. On the morning of the 6th after breakfast we made a snap decision and took advantage of good winds to sail for Bundaberg. After a perfect sail half of which was under big bird we arrived late in the afternoon and anchored near the entrance to the Burnett River. The next morning we motored the 5nm up the sugar cane banked narrow winding river, past the Bundy Rum factory all the way to Midtown Marina (25'51 78S, 152'21 08E)in the centre of Bundaberg. We arrived to a very balmy 29 degrees celsius and allot of humidity as a change was expected and the cloud was building up. The rest of the morning was spent doing some boat cleaning and a months worth of laundry before we headed into town for lunch and an air conditioner. It sure is much cooler on the water.

Bundy surprised us with its size and traffic. It really is a large town with plenty of history and historical buildings. It also has the most churches I have ever seen in such a small space. They are just everywhere and if Adelaide considers itself the city of churches it needs to take a close look at this town. That evening we made chicken burger's for dinner with fresh lettuce. Yep that's another one of those things we crave. When we left Airlie lettuce was $5 dollars a head so we left without it but now they were back down to a respectable $1.29. Yum.

Tuesday morning saw us awake to a much cooler (25 degrees celsius) overcast day, and the we set about the business of re provisioning as our next guest John Cronan was arriving later that day. After a few hours we had a very full shopping trolley including fresh fruit and vegetables, so we pushed it the 2km back to the boat and were grateful for the cooler temperatures before we stowed it and ate a lunch of Vienna Sausages on fresh knot rolls washed down with local Bundy Juice. Kylie then took off back into town, while I finished up some boat jobs and waited for John to arrive, before we all sat down to some fresh local pineapple for afternoon tea followed by a very short walk before the rain set in. We finished the day off with a meal at the local RSL club directly behind the marina.

The next morning saw us picking up some more fruit and our meat order before making our way back upstream to where we are now awaiting the wind to abate so we can head out to Fraser Island. We feel a little sorry for John as it can get a little boring when the weather is not nice and you are stuck in such a small space.

Last week back out at Lady Musgrave we continued spending time snorkeling and walking the Cay. We did not get to dive as Kylie still had some slight symptoms of a cold and could not pop her ears properly. The snorkeling however is still so good that we were not disappointed and I even experimented with some movie footage on the under water camera so you can all see what the sea life is like. Although I did it on the worst water quality day we had during our entire stay and in the area where all the tourist boats go so the coral was not as good as some of the other spots. Kylie and I both even got to swim with a large group of green sea turtles which had both of us grinning from ear to ear. They swam beside us, less than a metre away. On the last day we also got to see them up close on shore as some of the females spent the day resting before heading back out into the water. It is truly a magic place at this time of year and we can't wait until the next time when we can come back.

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Tropical paridise

2008-10-02T16:51:00.001-07:00

Year One
Date: 3/10/2008 07:30
Weather: Lovely
Location: Lady Musgrave 23'54 17S, 152'24 17E
Author: Peter

When you picture a tropical lagoon what do you envisage? More on that later.

We left Cape Capricorn on Sunday with a perfect 12knot northerly but as we had forecasts again of southerlies over 25knots for the next few days we headed for Pancake Creek (24'00 63S, 151"44 24E) another 35nm further south. We arrived early in the afternoon but were surprised to find another 15 boats already at anchor and another 5 still on their way. It felt like school holidays back in the Whitsundays although this anchorage was much smaller. As we arrived at low tide and Pancake Creek is a shallow narrow river we stayed in the outer anchorage for the night. We had a little bit of a rolly time for about one and a half hours either side of high tide when the water gets high enough to cross the sand spit at the entrance. The following morning as predicted the southerlies returned and while all the other boats now used the high tide to get further up the river to the other more protected anchorage, we remained as the swell now rotated to the south giving us a calm anchorage and we wanted to get away as soon as the weather permitted. (and no, no pancakes were harmed in the making of this story)

We remained here until Wednesday morning when we planned to take advantage of the last of the south easterlies to reach the 35nm out to Lady Musgrave. Pity the weather forecast was a little wrong as the trip ended up being a 48 nm work with current assistance. We still arrived as planned with the sun high in the sky and entered our first coral cay. The lagoons entrance seems tiny near low tide, especially with a cross wind and once inside you wind your way through the coral bommies to the anchorage. The entrance was a little nervracking but once inside with the sun high the bommies were easily spotted against the pure white sands of the bottom.

Although we have only been here now for a day and a half it has been fantastic. If you ever get the chance to come here either on your own boat or via the high speed cat, you must do it. Although I have been a little disappointed with some of our cruising up here I am most definitely not with Lady Musgrave. When I pictured tropical paradise this was pretty much it. We are currently anchored inside a tropical lagoon situated 35nm off shore at the southern end of the great barrier reef and it is picture postcard perfect (just wait for the photo's). the lagoon is surrounded by a coral reef in the shape of a capital D and is approximately 1nm in length. In its south western corner is a little 10 square kilometre island. The water is so clear that although we are anchored in 8m of water the bottom looks like it is just there even with wind blowing on the surface.

Yesterday morning we went exploring the island which at this time of year is covered with sleek grey terns (sheer waters). Entering the tree line is like something out of the movie "the birds" with terns everywhere. They seem to fill trees and they cover the ground in big groups, including the pathways. When we first got there Kylie spent the first 10 mins huddled in close to me and walking slightly slouched for fear of being swooped (I think she must have had a bad magpie experience somewhere) but although they sometimes flew around us no swooping occurred and she eventually calmed down, to a degree. We made our way across the island to its far shore where there were plenty of school holiday campers before walking around the sun bleached white shores of the island back around to the duck. Whilst on our walk there were turtles everywhere in the shallows just off the beach. At any one time it was easy to see at least 9 turtles no matter which way you looked. On the most part they seemed ok with our presence although I think some of them were a little pre occupied with each others company.

On our arrival back at the duck we discovered the tourist boat had arrived so we decided to avoid the crowd and head back to Jura, where Kylie decided she would like to spend the afternoon reading while I went back for a snorkel. As I entered the water off the beach I was surrounded by full grown adult loggerhead and green sea turtles. The design in our saloon table is based on green sea turtles. At first they were a little skittish but as I just floated there they soon became accustomed to my presence and they just floated along with me although a little too close for the camera to get them fully in shot.

I spent the next half an hour with them before swimming out a little to the coral and clearer water not stirred up by the waves at the shore. Once out it was like swimming in someone's pool, you could just see so far, and the fish life is just amazing. I have never seen so many different fish in my life. It is so much better than any aquarium, and this is how I imagined the GBR to be. To see fish I have never seen before is just great, including a gorgeous Moorish Idol (Scar from finding nemo), orange socket surgeon fish, smooth flutemouth, and many more along with one very large ugly and spiky octopus.

I can't wait to get back in today.

To be continued.

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Killer dunes

2008-09-26T21:52:00.000-07:00

Year One
Date: 27/9/2008 19:00
Weather: clear, sunny, 28 degrees C, a little breezy
Location: Yellow patch, Cape Capricorn
Author: Peter

When we were living back at home I would spend an hour or more most afternoons after work either swimming or riding my bike through the Royal National Park. When you live in a space the size of a small boat exercise becomes a little harder, so as a result there is no doubt I am a little tubbier. It comes as no surprise then that as soon as a cruising boat gets somewhere its occupants can't wait to stretch the legs, and we are no exception. Over the last four days we have been anchored at Cape Capricorn doing some exploring ashore while sitting out a little wind offshore. To explore anywhere ashore, the first thing you have to do is climb one of the many 40m plus, caster sugar grade sand dunes. These sand dunes are so steep and soft, the second you bump one you can watch sand flow as if it is water.

I am now so out of condition that even part way up the sloop it feels like I'm having a heart attack and you can't stop or you will slowly slide back down. Crickey they are so bad that if everyone had one of these at their front door (like we do at the moment the world would be a much healthier place and no one would need a gym.

The most beautiful dune in the area is that of yellow patch. Although the surrounding sands are all white, this one dune stands out like a saw thumb due to its mustard yellow colour (orange when you wet it). Its about 300 long, way over twice our mast in height and stretches off into the bush towards the ocean. In the evening light its colours transform and it changes its appearance with each movement of the minute hand. It was also a little nerve racking getting Jura into the small river at high tide, as we had to cross a few shallow bars while trying to follow the very skinny deep water channel up to the face of the yellow sand. Cats would be much easier here and anchoring would be less painful as you could take the bottom and dry out instead of doing lots of maths to figure out where you can a can't anchor.

The "small" white dune off the anchorage at Cape Capricorn

Storm Season started a few days ago, and we were expecting one that thank goodness did not eventuate. The ones hitting Brisbane further south have been rather destructive with strong winds and large hail so we are hoping our luck continues and we keep missing them. I have had small hail before whilst on board and that was bad so I would hate to think about orange size hail, or lightning.

The front that helped intensify the storms also has kept us aboard for a couple of days while the strong south easterlies blew through. After some cleaning we spent some tough days watching telly, playing play station, reading books and baking bread. We are now awaiting some good weather so that we can head out to the reef to spend some time at Lady Musgrave before making our way down to Fraser Island for some whale time.

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Every days a Saturday

2008-09-22T01:44:00.000-07:00

Year One
Date: 22/9/2008 19:00
Weather: Lovely
Location: Great Keppel Island
Author: Kylie

15/09/2008 Scawfell Island: Pete woke up, heard wind, and decided it was time to leave...he didn't look at the clock however...it was an early start -2am! We slowly sailed through to Digby Island where for the first time in many months we had an anchorage to ourselves. We left for The Percy Islands the following morning.

Digby Island

There was very little breeze and we drifted along asisted by the current. At times we were travelling at just 1 knot or less. We are not complaining however as the lack of wind made for some fabulous whale photographs.

The Percy Islands

What a fantastic yachting history this place has! Late afternoon saw us anchored in West Bay, Middle Percy Island along with quite a few other boats. We had heard some stories about this place, someone had said "there is an A-Frame on the beach and boats have left little souvenirs with their vessel details". That's a gross understatement. We did not expect to see quite the number of vessel plaques and signs that were present….there were thousands. I don't think you can imagine this until you see the pictures. Some people obviously came prepared with pre-made signs, other had written on coconuts, t-shirts, thongs, alcohol bottles, buoys, fenders, driftwood, plates, can openers and god knows what else. Every inch of this structure was covered up to 3 deep with signs. People listed their names, vessel name, sometimes a description, picture or painting of the vessel and the date/year they visited. Those lucky enough to have been there on multiple occasions had added to their sign over the years. And if that wasn't enough near the A-frame was a smaller shed that dated back even further. I think the oldest sign we saw was from 1961.

We spent several days at Middle Percy and learnt a little bit about its history. There are several dwellings on the island and currently they look a bit rundown. There is a Queenslander style homestead, a treehouse near the beach at West Bay and the Rondarval built by the Hicklings family. We did a walk to the old homestead (about 7km loop in soft sand). Some very creative person had created timber painted signs along the way with little poems about courage and information on the wildlife in the region.

The treehouse

Here is a short history from information board on Middle Percy Island
Captain Matthew Flinders surveyed the Percy Isles in September 1802 and commented favourably on its natural assets. He mentioned evidence of the nomadic aborigines who in 1830 killed two white botanists visiting Middle Percy. In 1860 a Gladstone man named Jimmy Joss settled here as the first permanent resident. He helped build Pine Islet Lighthouse in the 1880's. In 1918 he was taken away, too old and too ill to stay…supposably leaving 1500 gold sovereigns buried beneath a special rock. Colonel Armitage obtained the first lease and settled with his family in 1887. He grew coffee and raised sheep and cattle. The lease changed hands several times from 1918, until the White family from Canada bought it in 1921. They built the present homestead and ran the island as a sheep station until 1964. Andrew Martin bought the lease in that year and began catering to the boaties needs. He built the A-frame, the treehouse and planted the coconut trees on the beach.

We are told that recently there was a big legal dispute over the owner of the lease. Apparently when Andy became too sick to continue living on the island a man convinced him to sell the lease for 10 pounds. Andys family has fought and we read on a sign in the A-frame "Finally the court case against Colter, who conned "the island" from Andy Martin; has been successful. Cathryn (Andys cousin" has taken over the running of the Island and caring for the ecology as Andy wished." Next year the lease ends, National Parks have expressed an interest in controlling the island and have offered the current leaseholders a conservation lease in inhabited areas. We are hoping this doesn't affect the A-frame but it almost certainly means the palm trees will be removed.

Middle Percy Island has a natural lagoon, there is a very narrow entrance at the end of West Bay. We are told at high tide we could even get Jura in there! This time we just investigated it in the dinghy. The tides around here are huge, changing by about 5metres!

I had my first real swim all year off the beach in West Bay. It has been quite a strange cool winter and I am a bit of a woos so not including snorkelling and diving I really haven't been swimming up here. (We are now anchored off Great Keppel Island and we have been swimming everyday)

Sunset at Percy Island

The weather has been much warmer lately and a light north-east breeze has been blowing most days. Many of our fellow cruisers are using these conditions to make their way south at quite a phenomenal speed. We have been left behind, however we were surprised to meet quite a few boats still heading up to the Whitsundays. We met a lovely couple, Bob and Gill aboard a 16 year old aluminium catamaran. They had lots of advice and we picked their brains about the dos and don'ts of cat designs. For those who don't know we have plans to build a cat sometime in the future (we are talking many years away…don't think I could go through the building stage again this soon)

Catamaran "Bellatrix". Does this boat look 16 years old? So far ahead of its time!

I have been trying to think what day it was we left Percy Islands…what day is it today??…mum said to me recently "everyday is a Saturday for you guys" and she is right, its really hard to keep track of days especially since leaving Airlie Beach 2 weeks ago, there really has been no need to know the day. So it was (just checking the log book) 19/9 which would have been last Friday. The wind was too good so we picked up anchor, pulled up big bird and sailed away from the Percy Islands. We were heading back to the coast to Island Head Creek. Many people had mentioned this as a good anchorage so we thought we would have a look. It also happened to be about half way between Percy and Great Keppel. The wind died on us for a while and we had to motor to avoid hitting the most inappropriately positioned island (there are little islands popping up everywhere). We came back into phone service and received a msg from Pete and Jess saying where are you? They had left Airlie a week behind us and stopped at Shaw Island to beach the boat and apply antifoul. It turned out they were already ahead of us having made a direct line south but they were only a few miles ahead and planned to anchor only a bit further south of Island Head Creek. They planned a much faster trip south so we wanted to catch up one last time before they sped off. We both anchored in Port Clinton for the evening and the following morning we were woken by them at 6.30am as they left to catch the tide south. We motored out after them and with little wind we then bobbed making just 1knot south. That is 1knot of current no actual speed!!! They motored away over the horizon. Around midday there was wind again and we flew big bird and main getting up to 9knots at times. They were experimenting with a new kite and we ended up catching them around North Keppel Island. We both anchored in Great Keppel as the sun went down and had dinner together. The next morning they were off again and we have sat here exploring now for 2 days.

Caravanserai anchoring atGreat Keppel

One thing I have to mention is all the whales we have seen. We have been surrounded by pods whilst sailing and at anchor. I have managed a few good pics of mother and calf doing tail flicks in unison and a few big belly flops pics too.

Today we went on a massive walk and I think I will need to spend tomorrow recovering. We duckied to shore intending on walking to the lighthouse on the eastern side of Great Keppel by our calculations we expected about 4-5km each way but as usual the path was not too straight and the lighthouse was over several big hills. Turned out to be about 7km each way and it is really hot walking. You don't notice the heat on the boat but as soon as you step ashore it is much hotter. We made it back after much grumbling by me and whilst the views were quite spectacular the lighthouse turned out to be little more then a navigation light. It was short, reasonably modern and not worth walking all that way for.

Coryn, hope you had a great birthday and didn't fall over too many times. Mum, the doughnuts turned out pretty well, need to cook the next batch a bit longer they were a bit doughy inside- good first attempt though and very easy to make. Much easier than hoping into the car and driving somewhere to buy them and much better tasting than anything we could get from the Great Barrier Reef "supermarket."

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Back at Scawfell

2008-09-13T22:37:00.001-07:00

Year One
Date: 13/9/2008 15:00
Weather: Beautiful one day, perfect the next.
Location: Scawfell Island
Author: Peter

Yesterday we sadly left Newry and set sail for Scawfell Island. Shortly after leaving, whilst filling out the log book I called out to Kylie to keep her eye out for whales. Inside the boat I heard the loudest whale song I have ever heard and thought they must be close. Much to our delight a small pod with two calves entertained us for the next half hour. We had a few more encounters like this over the course of the rest of the day.

Back at the Newry's, our last two days were spent exploring either on foot or in the duck with Kylie "i don't like walking back along the same path" taking us on another of her bouldering excursions as we made our way around the exterior of Outer Newry Island. These excursions seem to be nice and we certainly see some interesting things but they are very tiring and hard on her knees. Whilst trolling behind the duck Kylie managed to catch a small cod and mackerel both of which we put back. We even spent a lazy morning just relaxing on our own private beach on Rabbit Island. Wow.

A catamaran from Coffs Harbour. This is our favourite cat design, best looking cat we've seen.

Our sail across yesterday saw us catch an Australian Spotted Mackerel, which our guide listed as good eating, so guess what everybody? We had fish for dinner last night. It was edible!!! There was even enough uncooked fish left for at least another two dinners, so stay tuned for more fish experiments when it comes back out of the freezer.

We have just spent the morning relaxing, and I have been for a snorkel, although my sinuses are still stuffed and I cannot dive under the water. To me Scawfell is the most beautiful island we have visited in the whitsunday's and as such is a great spot to say farewell to the region.

As soon as the winds turn in our favour we will be headed 60nm SSE to the Percy's.

And by the way mum, I even managed to read Matthew Reilly's "Ice Station" in just over twenty four hours. Not bad for me. I must be slowly speeding up.

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At the Newry Islands

2008-09-10T21:33:00.001-07:00

Year One
Date: 11/9/2008 14:00
Weather: Magic
Location: Newry Islands 20'51 10S, 148'55 83E
Author: Peter and Kylie (almost healthy)

Well after re provisioning at Cannonvale we are on the road again. Having spent quite a while in the Whitsundays we still have not done everything we wanted to do. Lucky we will be back in future years and will be able to complete our "to see and do" list as well as being able to head further north.

After two short hops to Happy Bay Long Island, and Burning Point Shaw Island we now find ourselves at the Newry group. The poor weather during race week has gone. It has been absolutely magic ever since with beautifully clear warm days and light SE/NE breezes helping us get south.

We are currently anchored in Port Newry a narrow passage between Newry and Outer Newry Islands. Three large and three small islands all National Park make up this group. The islands were once a part of a mainland mountain range. Since arriving Kylie has seen her first dugong (I am so jealous and hoping for another appearance), we are surrounded by some kind of large mackerel (over a metre) doing giant leaps into the air as they chase the bait fish, we have small Qld dolphins swimming by and last night two turtles were making out in the shallows of the beach off Newry Island.

It is beautiful ashore but different to the island just north. For starters there are mangroves, which we have not seen for a while, and the island is much drier. There are sand beaches, mainly copper in colour. Newry Island had a low key resort on it up until 2001 when National Parks took over the island. The abandoned old huts are still visible today, with informative plaques describing the history of the area. Unlike other resort islands in the Whitsundays, this island is not covered with weeds, having instead a wonderful array of grass trees as undergrowth. Walking through the bush at Heathcote when we lived there I thought there were allot of grass trees but that is nothing compared to here. There are just so many it is difficult to see anything else getting a chance to grow through. Around the area of the old resort is a wonderfully flat grass area set aside for camping. This would be an amazing place to spend a holiday camping, and being so close to the mainland it would be an easy tinnie ride out. We are so surprised that no one was here unlike Tasmania where there were allot of campers, even in some extremely cold places.

The beach on Newry Island with the old resort bar (shed) on left

View towards the mainland

Walking tracks

It feels good to be somewhere different again and one that has some walking tracks. We will be here for at least another two days exploring some of the other islands, and Kylie is hoping to catch one of these monster mackerels so she can hold it up for a photo. The only problem being, I'm not sure if she could hold one up!!!!

We are both still suffering a little from the flu, but are much better than we were. This one has hung around for allot longer than normal and we are not sure why. It has affected what we do each day as our energy levels are still not up to their normal levels.

This is great place to visit, so if you are one of those ninety people that checked our blog out last week (thats right our blog hit counter registered 90 hits...don't you guys have a life?????? hehehe), give some thought to visiting the Newry's if you get a chance. By the way, who are you all? And why have more of you not come up for a visit?

By the way we will be having dinner ashore tomorrow night at one of the many picnic tables taking advantage of this wonderful weather. Are you jealous now? Best view from any dinner table I know.

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Pics

2008-09-10T16:32:00.000-07:00

Nara Inlet

Some pics that missed the upload last time

So whats the plan now?

2008-09-06T19:18:00.000-07:00

Well tomorrow we will leave Airlie Beach and start our journey south.
I have created a map in google maps. Click the view larger map then click on the anchor symbols to see the name of the islands/anchorages.

View Larger Map

First stop is just a few hours away, LINDEMAN ISLAND. We would like to do a short walk to the lookout on Mt Oldfield.

We plan to visit another group of islands called the NEWRYS.

Nestled close to the coast north-west of Mackay is Newry Island, part of a group of hilly continental islands that form Newry Islands National Park.

From there we will probably shoot back out to Brampton and Scawfell Islands, both were a favourite stop on the way north a few months back.

I am particularly looking forward to Lady Musgrave Island

Then it looks John Cronan will be visiting us from Bundaberg to Southport.

A few more pics

2008-09-06T19:11:00.000-07:00

Check out all the pics of raceweek and Southmolle Island(go back a few posts)

Cid Harbour

Recently we caught up with Lee McCourt and her brothers family.

Race week

2008-09-02T23:40:00.000-07:00

Year One
Date: 03/9/2008 14:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: Nara Inlet
Author: Peter (a little under the weather)

As many of you may know we have spent the last week racing. We had a crew of dinghy sailors fly in to help crew Jura for us. We arrived two days early to prepare the yacht and to spend some time enjoying Hamilton Island. Pity the weather decided to go bad so any plans for a swim went out the window.

Pete and Paula off Valhalla, organised for us to go and play trivia on the second night, and much to our surprise we won the night and quite a few prizes which we enjoyed later, including a delicious meal and cocktails at the Steak House.

Hamilton Island for those who haven't been there

Hamilton Island Resort- unfortunatly the weather wasn't nice enough for us to really enjoy it

The fleet ranged from the maxi yachts such as Wild Oats 10 and Wild Joe down to Sonata 7 trailer sailors. We were divided into about 10 divisions. There were 3 cruising divisions, and after a little indecision we were placed into the 1st of these. Our division included friends on Van Diemen a 66ft clipper, a 55ft ex-racing boat, many 50-60ft boats and a few smaller then us. We were surprised to see many of these boats looked more like race boats with aramid fibre sails and a huge crew in matching outfits!

cramped

Race 1 was around Lindeman Island and was a little rough which saw our fairly inexperienced Vicky get a little sick. This was her only race but we hope it does not turn her off. This race also saw some confusion within the fleet of 225 yachts. With a few general recalls in fleets starting ahead of us some yachts got confused and started early. We believe around 6-7 of our division started 15 minutes early. Much to our disgust nothing was done to these boats and their results stood which ultimately affected our final result (my only disappointment with the whole regatta).

Race 2 saw us head for the Molle group with gusts up to 30 knots. Our little boat performed admirably as we finished around and ahead of much larger yachts placing 2nd on handicap.

The 3rd race headed south around Spitfire Rock, with a choice of return either side of Hamilton Island. Our initial plan was to head to the west of the island (the leaders went this way) however the breeze was much better east so after some discussion we went east. This decision proved to be correct and by the end of the race we were leading the series in cruising division one.

Our competitors...do these looking like cruising boats to you?????

A few sailing pics,look how crowded the start lines were. Downwind starts arrrgggg what a nightmare. As you can see our little yellow kite got swamped by the big boats and they didn't know their rules either.

Most of our races started and finished in the narrow Dent Passage, good for spectators, nerve racking for boat owners.

Tuesday was a lay day so while everyone relaxed I got to drive an Audi R8 around the airport test track. Like everyone else who got a drive the experience was awesome, and probably my only chance to ever drive a car like this.

Race 4 was a painful course of follow the leader, with next to no work or run, favouring the much larger yachts in our division. Place over the line corresponded with position on handicap.

The big boats start

BEWARE of planes landing

Thursday again saw a lay day and the fleet head round to White Haven beach for a massive beach party. Our crew had a quiet BBQ ashore before some of us headed over to the festivities that Kylie and Sue described as one GIANT schoolies party. The yachties appeared well behaved while the ring in back packers were a bit wild (just ask Kylie what she saw). Still it was a good day and White Haven looked packed with hundreds of yachts anchored just offshore and the RAAF performing overhead.

Race 5 took us back towards the Molle group and after some good sailing we again managed a great result, keeping us second overall. The final day racing took us north around all the Molle Islands. This race was once again bias towards the larger boats who managed to miss most of the increasing tide and decreasing breeze. Although trying our best and looking good at the end of the run, we could not beat the tide and ended up with our worst result, placing us equal third overall but losing on a count back. Still we all had a great time, and it made me feel great that our yacht was keeping up with yachts much larger and with sail wardrobes of racing yachts. The amount of attention Jura got on the wharf also made us feel great. People were coming from other fingers just for a look or to ask us questions, as well as giving Jura plenty of praise.

Olympic Sailors are welcomed

During the regatta the Olympic sailing team flew in and Kylie and I got to catch up with some old friends who we think did superbly over in Beijing.

We would really like to thank Neil Tasker; Our sail maker (Barracouta Sails) jack of all trades and super crew,
Darren Eggins; Fore deck,
Peter Davis, Peter Smith, Jess Wyers and Ian Lisle; Cockpit Crew
Ian and Sue Ritchie; bits of this and that.
Vicki; Shore crew

Darren enjoying a 10minute jet ski courtesy of the Trivia Night

Darren couldn't leave work behind...you know you are meant to be on holidays don't you?

The only down side was the flu that was passed around during the regatta, many of our crew suffered from and I now have.

On a side note we would like to congratulate our friends Pete and Paula who not only won their division but also won the car. Well done.

Packing up was a massive job. This is just a small part of the gear we removed from the boat!!!

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