Year One
Date: 19/8/2008 10:00
Weather: warm but 25 knots again
Location: White Haven Beach
Author: Kylie

Hello everyone
Well not much to report on really, like most of Australia we have been following the Olympics on television and cheering on the Australian athletes especially the sailors. Much disappointment was felt over the 49er result, Ben and Nathan are both superb sailors and Pete really would have liked to see a gold medal awarded to his former training partners.

Well with race week to begin on Saturday we are preparing the boat, doing the grocery shopping and discussing tactics for getting a good handicap. So far we have decided to ensure we look as 'cruisy' as possible when the handicapper comes to see the boat, this includes having our rubber duck, life raft etc all on deck then of course we will remove them along with the wind generator and extra anchors, chain, dive bottles, mountain bikes and god knows what else to reduce the weight. Our water tanks will be emptied. Mention has also been made of sandbagging the first 3 races so we get a good handicap and then coming out and really performing however I can't imagine Peter hanging back on the start line or deliberately going slow - can you????

Currently Peter is in his diving gear cleaning our friends boat Valhalla. They will be in the non spinnaker division. This afternoon he will give Jura a wipe over to ensure we have no horrible, speed decreasing growth on the bottom then we move into the marina tomorrow. The wind is blowing a gale - doesn't blowing a gale sound extremely windy? We were discussing this a few days ago, a gale isn't actually that windy, 40knots, we have seen that multiple times over the past 7 months! There are many more levels above gale on the scale. Anyway it is particularly windy and has been the last few days. Whilst we are hoping for wind for race week this is probably a bit more then we want. We only have an asymmetric kite and don't think we could handle it much over 20knots, and we don't want any breakage's. Yesterday we broke another ronstan block! It isn't completely destroyed so we will be able to fix it up. Given the small amount of deck gear we have and how simple it all is, these breakage's are getting frustrating. These blocks are all ones that have been recommended to us by ronstan yet they are still not up to it.

Our first race starts on Saturday morning and we race down the Linderman Island and back. Last time we checked there were 89 boats in our cruising division. Apparently we will be broken into two divisions. All the divisions do the same course on Saturday so it should be quite spectacular. The wind really only blows from the SE at this time of year so it will be a work down south to Linderman then the kites will pop for the trip back. It gets quite rough when the wind gets up, especially in wind against tide conditions, hope everyone has strong stomachs :) In our division all races are around islands not marks, and there are 17 possible courses in the sailing instructions. Anyone good with their numeral pennants? Should be great fun. I think Peter is most looking forward to the first lay day when one crew member is allowed to test drive an Audi R8. Apparently this is a car which Top Gear raved about.

Cruising boats are now discussing the return trip south. Our Tasmanian friends on Beagle 3 are leaving Airlie Beach this week so spose once race week is over we will also be hoping for northerly winds so we can head south. We still have a few things to do around this area; we are planning a walk to the highest peak, and haven't got an underwater photo of the huge mauri wrasse so will need to snorkel Manta Ray Bay again yet. Then we will slowly make our way back. We missed alot on the way up and can't wait to get to Great Keppel, Lady Musgrave, Fraiser. With the bank balance looking a bit sad we will need to try and find some work over Christmas. I've decided to stop making plans as we never seem to complete them so we'll just see what happens.

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Year One
Date: 13/8/2008 16:00
Weather: warm but 25 knots
Location: South Molle Island 20'15 51S, 148'50 38E
Author: Peter

It was our wedding anniversary on Monday so Sunday night saw us trolling for a restaurant (seems allot of the restaurants are closed on a Monday) to celebrate with our unexpected payment from last weeks little dive. We had originally planned to have dinner on South Molle Island but Pete and Paula had informed us of some changes to how meals are charged and served which made us change our mind. The Spanish restaurant we had picked at Airlie suffered from a lack of atmosphere so after a big explore we settled on the nice looking local but overpriced Chinese. Chinese being food we no longer get on the boat it was a nice change believe it or not, and the two dishes we ordered were definitely on the different side although very nice. Kylie loved the excuse to get dressed up (wow) and as is usual for most blokes nothing I had on board was good enough. After dinner we took advantage of the wonderfully mild night to walk back to the duck 4.5km along the fore shore boardwalks. Monday morning Kylie got up and made me breakfast, Yummmmm, before we headed off to South Molle for a walk and cheese and biscuits at the lookout. We were so full that the planned dinner got put on hold and we just relaxed watching another picture post card sunset.

Airlie Beach


At the lookout

South Molle has been a bit of a surprise. The walks have been terrific through a variety of landscapes on the small island.







It has also had the best range of butterflies yet including the most beautiful one I have ever seen. Pity it would not cooperate for a photo as I have never seen anything like it and my poor literary skills cannot describe it well enough. It was however the size of my palm with front wings allot like that of a dragon fly, clear and black and elongated oval in shape with the most fluffy red, white and black tail (back wings) which reminded me of the frilly fluffy backs on some turn of the century dresses. See Pirates of the Caribbean and Kira Knightley.

On the 8th of the 8th 08 we were joined by Pete and Jess to watch the Olympic ceremony, although not all of us made it to 2 in the morning. Not bad I spose. The following day we even got to see pre recorded piece on Nathan Outeridge (and Ben) which shocked us greatly given the coverage sailing normally gets. Good luck guys.

Yesterday afternoon a strange yacht picked up a mooring nearby which looked really familiar. After quite a few strange glances over the next few hours on my part as I tried to figure it out I grabbed the binoculars for a closer look. "Oh my god" I exclaimed to Kylie. As many of you know Jura is not the first yacht we have built. Almost twenty years ago now my father, Mike Rettalick and myself built two Roberts 37 shells side by side. This was one of the shells we built, the one Mike fitted out (the other became Juru Daina). It looks very different in the hands of its third owners who have spent a bit of money having it refitted by a company in Port Sephens who have done a magic job. It is great to see it in such loving hands and it was such a joy for me to see one of them again after such a long time. I even got to fill in John and Bruce on a little of its history. I only hope that Juru Daina is in such loving hands today. I would be over the moon to see her again after the ten years of pleasure she gave me.

Bundy On

A little while ago we also met some other Shire (more important Heathcote) sailors up here exploring on their South Coast (Magnum) 28 Tosca. The same type of boat as the teacher who really got me involved in sailing has, bringing back even more old memories. Believe it or not, but they are also retired (IA) teachers. They have trailered the boat all over Australia.

To finish off we have been asked allot lately how the boat is going. It is performing well above my expectations looking after us superbly and in comfort. We have not had a problem in a long time and any we did have appeared to be teething or inexperience. The new main is awesome!

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A map of the area so you know where we are talking about :)

Kylie.....sunsmart


Peter.....it does get cold up here!


Goannas at Whitehaven Beach. There are lots of sandflys there too, kylie has the red welts to prove it.


The underwater world.....just waiting for some clear water to get some better pics.





Peter snorkelling


Andamon - friends have put their brand new cat into charter for a few years


Beagle 3, friends we met in Tasmania, now cruising the whitsundays with us




Tosca - new friends from HEATHCOTE, Sydney, small world hey

Year One
Date: 4/8/2008 12:00
Weather: Perfect
Location: White Haven Beach
Author: Peter

Over the past few weeks we have seen a steady stream of whales arriving in the Whitsunday area. We are now surrounded by the enormous animals. Each and every day we seem to see pods of whales on the move, or doing the biggest bombs I have ever seen as the really big males breach. Two days ago we even had the privilege of seeing a tiny (still huge) new born getting taught to breach by a full grown adult. The cute factor was just through the top of the scale as it propelled itself skyward with all its might but still only managing to get half air borne. The camera is once again getting a really good work out.

About 8 whales crossed close to Luncheon Bay whilst we were moored there. They weren't doing any spectacular flips or anything but it was fantastic to see them so close and in such a large group.

We have all heard whale song while watching documentaries on television, a few days ago while snorkeling at Luncheon Bay off the top of Hook Island I got my first listen into these sounds with my own ears each time I dove under water. Needless to say it is so much better live. After exiting the water we could still here the louder noises through the hull of the yacht. Believe it or not it is a peaceful sound to go to sleep too. We look forward to each meeting now and have great expectations of what we will see over the next few months while the remain here with us.

Yesterday while making our way towards Border Island we happened to overhear Tranquility a charter boat with their anchor stuck at Chalkies Beach. There discussion with the charter company including a cost of $400 plus dollars to get a diver out to them to untangle their pick. Thinking this was a little exorbitant we radioed them and offered them our help as they were near where we were going. Two hours later I was on the bottom looking at the their chain wrapped around a rock the size of two family cars stacked on top of each other. They had done such a good job of it they were definitely going nowhere and had broken their bridle during the night as the chain pulled tight and started pulling their bows down. They weren't the only ones either as I saw at least another 3 anchor chains wrapped around the rock in various stages of growth. Pity I couldn't find their anchors. A few more spare on board would have been good. To say thanks the British family even gave us $100 when all I wanted was a air fill for my tank. Not bad as that will now allow us to go out for dinner for our wedding anniversary in a few days.

Tranquility motoring away from us after our successful rescue mission.


You know a turtle is near when you hear a "pffff" sound as they breath out. A bit like a whale actually.


Stonehaven, the most amazing place for sunsets.

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