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.

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

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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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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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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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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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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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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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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