Category Archives: Coastal cruising
The duty free island of Labuan
Driftwood on the beach
Labuan is only 20 miles from BSB in Brunei and, as it was a Sunday and we wouldn’t be able to check in until the next day, we decided to have a lunch stop at Keraman island. It’s a small island just south of the main island and had an interesting sand spit protruding out into the sea that gave us a nice protected anchorage. The tide was out exposing the beach along the sand spit so we jumped into the dinghy and headed over to it. It had a steep incline to the beach landing and it was easier to jump in the water and wade in, luckily we had gone in swimming costumes. The beach was littered with the most amazing driftwood that had been washed up on the high tide.
Bill brought the dinghy up the beach while Camomile watched
The dinghy was misbehaving so Bill managed to drag it on to the beach so we could walk the length of the sand spit.
There was surf on both sides of the sand spit
Bill and I on the beach
Storm clouds building
At the far end where the two sides of the beach met the sea the waves were crashing into each other and sending up great walls of spray but look behind the waves and note the black clouds forming in the background. We managed to launch the dinghy and headed back to Camomile and lift the anchor quickly. We motored as fast as we could but the squall caught us and we were lashed by the driving rain followed by 40kt gusts of wind as the storm picked Camomile up and propelled her through the choppy sea towards Victoria harbour on Labuan. The visibility was down to a mile or two but with the radar on we carefully inched our way to the marina in the north of the bay.
Lots of contacts on the chartplotter
The AIS contacts on the chartplotter showed many ships anchored in front of us but we couldn’t see them.
There were many ships anchored in the harbour.
Gradually as the storm cleared the ships started appearing out of the gloom. It appeared they were all support vessels of different kinds for the many oil rigs in the area
Victoria harbour marina
By the time we got to the marina the blue skies were back and you wouldn’t believe we’d had a storm.
The next day we had to go through the usual hoops to check in, it took 2 b*****y hours because we had the wrong stamps in our passports. Long story, won’t bore you with it but eventually they cleared us so we could go shopping.
Mission accomplished
As I’ve said before Labuan is an island; it’s a duty free island, what does that mean ….. cheap booze! Particularly if you go to the Chinese shops because unlike the Malaysians they love to barter. By the end of the day we had been back to the boat twice with 14 litres of spirits and 66 litres of wine. This is my supply of white wine for the next 5 months, the red trolley bag is full of red wine in boxes, they didn’t have a very big supply but managed to find some Banrock Station Shiraz and some French Merlot, we bought all they had. We spent the rest of the day finding places to put it all including lifting the floorboards, Camomile will have to have her waterline lifted again!
Sailing north leaving the ships behind us
The next day, with mission accomplished, we left the marina for an overnight trip around the tip of Borneo to Kudat. The rally were there so we would finally catch up.
The Kingdom of Brunei
Finally got internet coverage so I can continue the tale of our adventure.
The east Malaysian coast
After stopping at the island of Pulau Satang Besar we continued on our journey North East. There wasn’t time to visit Kucking and so we motored about 50 hours until we reached Miri (I’m pointing the pencil at it) on the Sarawak coast. We arrived at the marina entrance on 23rd June about an hour before low water and we knew the entrance was shallow. We had a tense half an hour as we slowly edged towards the entrance in a 1-metre swell watching the depth dropping. Fortunately it didn’t go below 1 metre below our keel. Bill had calibrated the depth transducer before we had entered as it had been set wrong. First things first – air conditioning on. The plan had been to check in and do some shopping but the next morning I discovered the marina was right outside the town and a taxi was needed to get there. I managed to get a few bits of shopping in a local shop. After which a plan B was developed and we decided to move on to Brunei. Originally we didn’t think we would have time to visit but after talking to friends who said fuel was the equivalent of 15p a litre the decision was made.
Oil rigs in the distance
We didn’t want to do any more night sailing because this coastline is littered with oilrigs and their entourage of supply ships so a day sail to Kuala Belait was planned. We passed many oilrigs on the way mostly a fair way out to sea but some were closer in.
Some were a little closer
Oil rig construction
We entered Kuala Belait at 4pm and motored up the river for about a mile and a half before dropping the anchor. In front of us was a bizarre sight as this was the base where the rigs were built and there were a row of them along the riverfront. They were a hive of activity until 5pm when it was down tools and home time. It left an eerie silence except for the cicadas chirping in the untouched jungle opposite.
opposite untouched jungle.
Beautiful sunset in our wake
We left at 5am the next morning for the 63 mile journey to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei otherwise known as BSB. There wasn’t any wind so we motored all the way arriving at the entrance channel just after 6pm leaving a beautiful sunset in our wake.
Pink glow over the container port
The container port looked striking in its pink glow as we approached the anchorage. Fortunately there was enough light coming from the land to guide us in.
BSB yacht club
The following morning we took the dinghy into the yacht club. It had a wonderful colonial feel about it.
Camomile sat and waited for us.
Camomile waiting for us.
Lots of washing to do
I’d heard there was a FREE washing machine, yippee, cruiser price. The lockers were emptied and all the washing was taken ashore; don’t know where the next washing machine will be.
Lovely outlook
Delicious chocolate fondant pudding with ice cream… yummmm
While the washing was churning away we sat and used the free internet service to download emails and facebook then enjoyed a delicious meal.
Lovely swimming pool
They even had a swimming pool but we didn’t get a chance to try that out. We contacted Allan Riches of Sailmail who, its reported, can arrange a fuel run. His van was booked that day but it was arranged for Zahir to pick us up the next morning with our jerry cans and take us first to a supermarket then on to a fuel station. We retired to Camomile for the evening. Sharia law has limited the bar to soft drinks and beer so we opened a bottle of wine on board instead.
Striking buildings
Zahir was a funny little man in his early 30s and insisted on calling us Mammy and Daddy even though we had given him our names, quite weird. It took almost an hour to drive into the city during which time Zahir ‘grilled’ us about out life. We in turn found out a lot about Brunei from him. Contrary to popular belief the people don’t lead a suppressed life, far from it, Zahir was extolling the virtues of the Sultan and how he looks after everyone handing out money to the children at the end of Ramadan and inviting the whole country to his palace for Hari Raya (the big feast at the end of Ramadan, their equivalent to Christmas). Also they have no income tax, no capital gains tax, no VAT, free schools, free health care, all in all they have a pretty good life. The supermarket was bizarre because it was full of English products, some of which were from Waitrose, right down to the price printed in pounds on the products, although they were being sold for the equivalent of twice the price. I managed to get some things that I haven’t seen since Australia like yoghurt mixes for my yoghurt maker, cranberry juice and really nice museli. I filled the supermarket trolley and it was loaded into the back of the van before we moved on to the fuel station. Bill was really pleased because it was B$0.31 a litre which is the equivalent to 15p a litre….. 15P A LITRE! That’s the cheapest we’ve found since Gibraltar, luckily Bill had borrowed some jerry cans from the yacht club.
Chinese temple
As we drove back to the yacht club Zahir took a different route so we had the chance to see a bit of the town. There were some very modern buildings on the way as well as some traditional ones like this Chinese temple.
The water village on the opposite bank of the river
BSB is home to the biggest water village in the world. Founded at least a thousand years ago it has its own schools, mosques, police stations and fire brigade and is home to an estimated 20,000 people.
School on water
A mosque on water
One of the car parks for the water village
On the opposite bank there were large car parks with luxury cars parked in them, many of which belong to the water village residents.
The Sabah coastline
We stayed at the anchorage for a second night so we could enjoy another meal in the Yacht club but the following morning we had to leave. If time had allowed it would have been great to stay another couple of days and explore further but we needed to keep heading north to catch up with the rally. This chart shows us just outside BSB and the rally were at Kota Kinabalu and travelling north to the tip of Borneo so we weren’t far away but we wanted to stop at the duty free island of Labuan first for a little alcohol!
We’re on our way to Malaysian Borneo
Puteri marina from the Traders hotel
Monday morning 16th June we were up early because there were lots of last minute things to do. Turned the instruments on – no depth! Can’t go without a depth sounder; no speed either. Bill had to get the transducer interface box out from behind the panel again to investigate. It turned out to be a locking collar on the cable had come lose because Yap hadn’t tightened it properly – naughty Yap. Bill got it sorted and we continued with our jobs. Bill wanted to do an oil change as we anticipate lots of motoring on the next part of our adventure. That involves moving the stairs and lots of swearing at inanimate objects to curse them into submission! I beat a hasty retreat to the gym with Jackie for one last time. At 11am they came to collect us in the marina golf buggy to take us all of 300metres to immigration to check out. I don’t think they realise that we are able to walk but it helps them to justify the charge of £10 for doing the check out paperwork that consists of writing out the port clearance and stamping the passports.
Goodbye Bill, Zdenka, Jack, Jackie and Jake
At 2pm we said a final sad goodbye to Hokele’a, Soltice and Kite then left Puteri harbour, it was almost exactly 5 weeks to when we had arrived and 8 weeks all but 2 days since the lightening strike. It was like travelling with a new baby with all the new noises Camomile was making. The VHF was beeping every 4 hours because Bill hasn’t set up the NMEA connection with the GPS yet and the AIS kept peeping because there were so many ‘dangerous targets’ around. We felt quite nervous. We were also going really slowly and Bill decided the prop must be covered in barnacles; he couldn’t get any speed out of the engine.
The island of Singapore
This is a screen shot of the chartplotter. The black line is the course we took. The first ‘current track’ is Puteri harbour and the first red cross is the waypoint for our first anchorage. We had decided we wouldn’t go far on the first day and just anchored at the bottom of the Johor straits, which took us 4 hours. It was strange to be out of the marina after such a long time. We were also now without the air conditioning and it was hot hot hot.
Jets flying over us
The next morning we left early and by 9am we were sailing. We were over flown about a dozen times by the Singapore air force, I think they had come out to see us off. There had been regular flyovers when we were in Puteri but usually only 2 or 3 at a time. Today they had all 6 out. 5 were in formation and we think the sixth was probably training them, any way they looked pretty spectacular.
Going round again
We sailed down to Raffles lighthouse, putting in a tack along the way as the track shows (we do sail properly sometimes!) so we didn’t hit the little island. We were so lucky with the shipping because just past Raffles lighthouse we crossed the Singapore shipping lanes, which are normally incredibly busy, sailing, practically unheard of. The next set of 4 red crosses is where we stopped for an hour among some islands so Bill could go over the side to scrape the barnacles off the prop. It really needed it and he said the hull was quite bad too but for now just scraping the prop made such a difference.
The gap
This next screen shot is a smaller scale and from side to side the distance is about 500 miles, don’t take any notice of the numbers along the top, they were Camomile’s current position at the time I took the photos. So the red cross that’s sitting on top of the word ‘Singapore’ was how far we got at the end of our second day out. We had made the decision not to stop for the night because there had been some sea robberies among the islands on the bottom left of the picture, which is northern Indonesia. So we kept going. We spent the next 60 hours, 3 nights and 2 days, going backwards. Not literally, of course, just travelling eastwards towards the sunrise. The first night there was a bit of lightning which lit up the sea in front of us but hopefully we’ve left that behind now. Bill used his time to finish some of the jobs like interfacing the NMEA to the VHF and SSB radios and working out how to turn the alarms off. The new system is very user friendly and we are both learning how things work and teaching each other. After the red cross in the middle, which was marking a tiny island, the wind was much more constant and we put up the cruising chute. Camomile was sailing really well and we had much better winds than we were expecting.
Dolphins
We were visited by a wonderful pod of dolphins half way across. As usual when you get the camera out they become shy but I managed to get a few photos of bits of fins and tails.
Dolphins again
Beautiful sunset
When we reached the first red cross on the right hand side at the tip of the point on Friday morning the wind died. We spent the day motoring to the island at the last red cross on the right hand side. It was Friday evening, the crossing had taken us 4 days and we arrived just in time for sundowners while we watched the most beautiful sunset over the island.
Just as beautiful in the day
Our position is
01º46.8 N
110º10.15 E
Pulau Satang Besar.
It looked equally attractive in the day and as the water was so inviting Bill put his wet suit on and spent about an hour in the water under the boat scraping off the barnacles. Lucky he had his wet suit on because there were quite a lot of jellyfish in there. My much-desired swim was not to be.
Camomile back in the islands again, where she likes to be.
Camomile on the Mend – week 4
The kit arrives
40 days since we were hit by the lightening, 19 days since interim payment from Insurance company was agreed, 12 days since we accepted Aquilla’s quote and paid for the bulk of the new instruments but we are still waiting for most of it. Bill has been really busy fitting what we have so that when the rest of it arrives he can get straight onto it. Thankfully Monday morning 2 big boxes arrived from Aquilla, one contained the new radar dome and the other had the rest of the items we were waiting for but sadly no auto pilot hydraulic drive, still on ‘back order’. Bill agreed with them that we would be ready Thursday for the technician to come and connect the network. This would be a struggle but Bill thought he would be able to do it. Monday afternoon I went on the bus to Gelang Petang looking for conduit and found a little emporium that had what we needed.
Respraying speaker pods and autohelm housing
Tuesday was wiring, wiring and more wiring. Before it got too hot Bill started the day spraying the bridgehead, new auto pilot housing, and speakers.
Respraying the bridgehead
The transducer under the floorboards
Then the floorboards came up. Bill fitted 2 transducers 1 for depth 1 for speed.
Floorboards up for more wires
New course computer
Now that we have the course computer and all the wires that go with it Bill was able to fit this and run all the wires ready for Mr Yap to arrive on Thursday. He sat at the chart table most of the day with his arms in the cupboard but at the end of the day he had achieved it.
AIS and network box
It looks quite impressive, again all the boxes are much bigger than the old system but they just about fit.
All looking very smart
It works!!
All the wires are behind the panel and at the end of the day we have a chartplotter that works with AIS contacts on it. The red boat in the middle is us.
Bill working in the aft cabin with more wires
Wednesday was radar dome day. Ironically our old raydome was still working but it was analogue and our new system is digital so it had to go. Again the wires were bigger and the connector was too big to go down the A frame arch where the raydome lives. So Bill took the collar off the connector and took out the wires for the lights and horn in the starboard side so that the new wire would just about fit down inside. This was achieved with me inside pushing and Bill outside pulling the wires out with a mouse attached then we had to push the radar wire in and down. The old wire was inside the port side so that had to come out and the lights and horn wire had to go back inside there. As you can imagine there was a lot of huffing and puffing and shouting and cursing of inanimate objects but we did it and the Ray dome was fitted!
Posh new Ray dome
All this was going on through my lockers in the bedroom so clothes stored in the forepeak.
It’s birthday week this week and today it was Bill’s sister Kate’s birthday in NZ. Happy Birthday.
Yap working at the chart table
Thursday was the day the Rally were due in Kucking where we had hopped to catch up with them but we are nowhere near ready to leave yet. Yap arrived from Singapore to start fitting the instruments. As it was shopping day I disappeared for the morning, when I got back everyone was scratching their heads. It seemed there was stuff missing, there were things not working and generally everything was still in a muddle; will we ever get out of here. I managed to get Bill out for a meal that evening because he hadn’t been off the boat for over a week. Bill sent a strong email to Aquilla later that evening listing all the problems which included the fact that we still couldn’t get the SSB to work and the VHF she had brought over was the wrong one and where was the hydraulic ram for the autohelm? The good news of the day was that the little 12v TV (unheard of here) we had found on a UK website had arrived at my brother-in-law’s company and Alan was sending it out for us.
The at Traders overlooking the marina
Friday was a good day because we finally got to use the gym in Traders hotel right next to the marina. Several of us have been asking about it for some time and the marina has reached an agreement with them.
The hole in the cockpit coaming for the new autohelm control
The new autohelm control
Bill worked on the housing for the new autohelm controls in the hope that one day we’ll get our hydraulic ram! The old control had been on the side of the binnacle but Raymarine don’t make those any more so Bill cut a hole in the cockpit coaming for the housing he had made to take the new control. Very cleaver considering it’s humble beginning.
In response to Bill’s email Sylvester and Allyson from Aquila came with Yap in the afternoon to sort out our problems. After their trouble shooting session it was established that the SSB wasn’t working, the wind instruments at the top of the mast wasn’t working (originally we’d thought it was ok but the tests showed it had been zapped), we were short of some wires and connectors, and the VHF was the wrong one so they took it back with them along with the SSB head. The good news was that the hydraulic ram was in Singapore but unfortunately held in customs. Another birthday today, our nephew in NZ was 18. Happy Birthday Will.
New wind transducer
First thing Saturday morning Bill went up the mast to change out the wind transducer.
The new instruments being wired in
Wind and second autohelm control on the starboard side
Yap arrived with missing items and made good progress in the morning with the new instruments in place. Bill worked in aft cabin finishing off the Radar wires and sorting out the wires in the cupboards so I could put my clothes back.
Speed and depth and chartplotter repeater on the port side
By the end of the day all the instruments are working, including the autohelm control even though it isn’t connected to anything yet. We had a meal out that evening when we were finally able to stop.
New autohelm control working
The contents of the food cupboard on the table
Sunday I washed down cockpit while Bill wired speakers in and finished off the last little bits. Camomile is starting to look dressed again. As soon as it warmed up we moved inside and Bill started working on connecting up the Gas alarm. The wires had already been run through the deck locker so Bill just had to get them to the alarm, easier said than done! I had to empty my big food cupboard; the contents covered the table.
A working gas alarm
By the end of the day we had a gas alarm.
Last birthday of the week was our son Thomas.
Happy Birthday Thomas.
Still no auto pilot hydraulic drive!
We’re back on line
Sara, Norman, Bill and Sue on Bill’s birthday
Bill has finally managed to get the website back on line. Sorry it’s been down so long. Lots been happening. We made it safely to Darwin for Bill’s birthday but the next day we had bad news from home that my Mum was very ill. I decided to fly back to the UK to see her even though she might not have been there. Fortunately she started getting better when I got there. Sadly I couldn’t stay long because we are due to leave on Sail Indonesia on 27th July. We will be in Indonesia for 3 months before we move onto Malaysia when we plan to come home for a couple of months for Christmas.
The base of this ‘London bus’ is made of beer cans
Before I went away we went to watch the Darwin Beer can rally. All the rafts were made of beer cans and most of them floated. It was a fun day out with lots of activities going on all day.
Another beer can raft
Any one for tennis?
Bill next to a termite mound
While I was away Bill went a trip with Norman and Sara and our BWR friend Tom to the Litchfield national park where they saw huge termite mounds, saw beautiful waterfalls and sat in lovely crystal clear water.
Beautiful waterfall
Norman and Sara enjoying the cool water
Tom with his 4 x 4
Brampton Island
We stayed in Mackay marina for 4 nights. It was great to be able to catch up with washing and shopping as well as chatting to Norman and Sara about our adventures and theirs. It was strange meeting up in Mackay as it’s almost 3 years since our friends in the Blue Water rally checked into Australia here on their fateful journey home.
Approaching Brampton Island
On Sunday the 5th we were ready to leave after Norman, Bill and I had had one last jog (bet you didn’t think you’d ever hear me say that!) Bill fired up the engine and I released the lines as we reversed out of our berth. Suddenly, without warning, we lost propulsion. It was a strange feeling, like sliding on ice out of control. I called to some passing yachties to take a line, which they were happy to do and bring us back onto the berth. Norman and Sara saw we were having problems and came running. Bill made a quick assessment and found the throttle cable had snapped, fortunately he had a spare. Bill and Norman set about stripping the old one out and replacing it with the spare so that within a couple of hours we were on our way. Norman and Sara were a bit apprehensive as they haven’t sailed for 7 months. They didn’t need to worry because it was a beautiful day, although there wasn’t any wind, and we motored to Brampton island some 20 miles north.
Norsa, Camomile and Inspiration Lady at anchor
We dropped our anchor off Swordfish point alongside Norsa and Inspiration Lady.
Norman and Sara on Oyster beach
On Monday the 6th the 6 of us went ashore for a walk around the island. It was a beautiful day and the walk led us up over the top of the island with wonderful views from the top. We came out on the beach in Oyster Bay where we sat and eat out picnic.
I spotted this beautiful kangaroo
There was a lot of wildlife on the island; I spotted this kangaroo sitting below the path eating the foliage.
A lizard in the undergrowth
These kangaroos were running wild around the resort
I think this is a Goanna, a type of lizard, we saw lots of them in the undergrowth. We continued on our circuit of the island until we came to overgrown resort. We had been hoping for a cold beer at the end of our 8km hike but the resort had closed down 2 years ago and now the only thing that inhabited it were more kangaroos. It was eerie walking among the empty resort buildings and past the deserted restaurants. The beachfront bar still had a price list up.
Beautiful beach in front of deserted resort
Sadly there were half a dozen sailing catamarans that could have been donated to a local sailing school for children to learn to sail in but they lay abandoned on the beach.
That evening we all boarded Norsa for a ‘pot luck’ supper followed by a game of cards; Jackie and Gary are teaching us.
Tuesday the 7th was wet and windy and we all stayed on our boats.
We left Brampton Island on the 8th to sail to the Whitsunday’s.
April Update in the Southern Barrier Reef
Just a quick blog to post some photos of how we finished April.
Day tripper boat moored next to pontoon
Finally got away from Fraser island 19th April and headed for Lady Musgrave island, our first island in the Barrier reef. It’s an atoll with a little island in the middle surrounded by beautiful turquoise water and coral heads. Unfortunately it’s been commercialised with a permanently moored pontoon in the middle of the lagoon next to a large coral reef. Every morning at about 10.00 a catamaran carrying 100 +/- people arrived to moor up to the pontoon giving it the appearance of something out of the film Waterworld. The surrounding water filled with swimmers very quickly, some of them standing on the coral; an absolute no-no.
Too many footprints
Beautiful sunset over ‘Waterworld’
We landed on the island and walked across the beach but it had far too many foot prints for our liking. Fortunately the day trippers left at 3pm leaving the lagoon in peace and enabling us to go snorkelling. There were some nice fish and a fair bit of coral but nothing to compare with Fiji yet.
Anchored among the sandbars
Monday 22nd found us in Pancake Creek, a lovely little spot tucked up inside the creek. At low tide we were surrounded by sandbars, which was good because we sat out a blow there.
Amazing views
On the 23rd we landed on the beach with Jack and Zdenka off of ‘Kite’ for a walk to the lighthouse. We had a wonderful walk to the top and down the other side to the beach for our picnic. The views from the top were outstanding.
Looking south
We are anchored in the creek in the background
Misplaced buoy on the beach on the other side
Walking back up the hill
The lighthouse
The lighthouse had been lovingly restored and we enjoyed chatting to the old caretaker who still lives next to the lighthouse, although it’s now fully manned. It seems there used to be quite a community up there in the 1800s.
The little cemetery still contained some old graves which are now protected by pretty picket fencing.
One of the beautifully kept graves
Bill and Sue on the beach
Back on the beach – but it’s windy again!
The sandflies aren’t going to get me
We left Pancake Creek late on the 24th for a night sail to Great Keppel Island. During the night we passed Cape Capricorn, which is situated just above the latitude of the Tropic of Capricorn. Which means we are back in the tropics where we’ll stay, apart from our trip back to the UK by plane at the end of the year, for the next 2½ years. The next day we landed on the beach for another walk. Great Keppel is known for it’s sandflies, not wanting to be bitten again I arrived prepared.
Each spear head had as many as a dozen butterflies on each one
We had a lovely walk. The island has lots of butterflies attracted by the long spear-like plants. It was magical walking among them, I haven’t seen so many butterflies in one place before.
Eating our picnic looking out to sea
We continued up through the bush onto the ridge of the island and continued right along to the lighthouse, where we sat and ate our picnic on the edge of the helipad.
Look for the little newborn goat in the foreground
On the other side of the helipad were some goats and if you look closely at this photo you can see a little white one in the foreground which had been born that morning. It was wobbly but seemed well.
This stone said ‘Rest your legs, dream a while’
Wonderful views
On the way back to the boat we found this little resting place overlooking one of the bays. The chairs had been painted to blend in with the surroundings and cemented in place so that some joker couldn’t through them over the cliff. It was a beautiful spot.
Inspiration Lady
Sunday 28th saw us sailing to Island Head creek alongside our Canadian friends Jackie and Gary on Inspiration Lady. Jackie and Gary had stayed with us on Camomile in Sydney for Christmas while Inspiration Lady had stayed in Brisbane. They were now joining the great exodus heading north for the Indonesian rally in July. It was nice to have some company.
Bill on the helm
After an overnight in Island Head creek we sailed to the Percy islands the next day. Jackie and Gary went to Blunt bay and we anchored off of South Percy. It was very remote, even though it’s only about 40 miles from the mainland, and very very dark in the evening.
Camomile waiting in the bay
The next day we went for yet another walk (the islands are quite small and each one has different features). South Percy was totally uninhabited so there weren’t any tracks to follow. The grass was only ankle deep but spiders and snakes kept running through my thoughts. We reached the top of the hill to be rewarded with a wonderful view across the bay and Camomile sitting in the middle waiting for us.
View down the other side
Looking down the other side there were some delightful little bays but they were exposed to the strong winds.
Red soil of the landslip
The soil had some great shapes in it
Through the middle of the island there had been some sort of land slide exposing the rich red soil underneath.
Sand art created by the crabs
We walked back down the hill onto the beach, completely untouched except for the ‘crab art’. The little crabs collect balls of sand as they burrow into it and push it out onto the beach creating amazing pictures which get washed away at high tide. The hole beach was covered in their artistic patterns.
Watching the crabs
Camomile in the bay
We walked right along the beach enjoying the solitude before getting back on board for a night sail to Mackay for my birthday.
Heading north through Mooloolaba and Fraser Island
The entrance to Mooloolaba harbour
The first week in April brought strong winds that delayed our departure from Moreton bay until Saturday 6th April when we were able to sail to Mooloolaba, I love that name. We spent the weekend anchored in the harbour. Monday morning we contacted the marina and got a berth for 2 nights. It was great to use the showers, washing machines, etc. The marina was also close to a huge shopping mall so we were able to restock the boat. Lawries boat services was next door to the marina and after talking to Kieran the manager, we arranged for Camomile to be lifted at 3pm and held in the slings overnight on the Tuesday. While Bill jet washed the hull I scrapped the little barnacles off. Bill scraped and greased the prop and also managed to get a coat of antifoul on the keel. The hull still has the Cuprotec coating, which seems to be holding up although Bill has had to repair it in places. We don’t have any photos because we had to work quickly before it got dark plus it rained most of the time we were out. Kieran arrived at 7.30 in the morning to put us back in the water for our second night in the marina. More rain.
Bill found another tool box
Thursday 11th we went back to anchor out in the harbour to find our friends Dave and Jacqui on Jackster had arrived. It was great to catch up. They were interested in hearing about the storm as Jacqui had been a tower of strength texting me throughout our ‘ordeal’. With more rain falling we took the bus to Maroochydore, another lovely name, for a mooch around the shops and Bill found another big toolbox, this one had a beer fridge!!
Looking down on the beautiful beach from Point cartwright
There were strong winds blowing all week but on Sunday evening it was forecast to drop so, after a fantastic walk along the beach in the afternoon, we motored out of the harbour at 9pm with Raven I and Far Star for an overnight sail to Fraser Island. It was an uneventful passage, we managed a couple of hours sailing before the wind died completely. It’s been such a problem travelling up this coast, there’s too much wind for 6 or 7 days then it drops completely for a day or two before building up again. We have to watch the forecast constantly and as soon as there’s a weather window drop everything and go.
The entrance to the Sandy straights leading to Fraser island has a notorious bar across it called the wide bay bar. To avoid it would mean a 24hr passage at least around Fraser island so we called the VMR to check the condition at 9am. They were reporting rough conditions but no breaking waves so, after taking the entry waypoints from them, decided to cross it. The bar itself was fine, although we had 3 metre waves around us; the worse bit was travelling along the inside of it. As it’s name suggests it’s a wide bar and it’s very important not to cut the corner off and we followed the waypoints the VMR had given us but there were hugh waves breaking across the shallow part of the bar making the passage feel like we were in a washing machine. It took half an hour to reach the calmer water inside when I was able to radio back to Far Star and Raven to let them know what it was like. As they are both single handers they were brave to come over but we all survived and proceeded to motor up the Sandy Straits to Garys Anchorage. There wasn’t a breath of wind there but unfortunately it enabled the dreaded sand flies to fly out to the boat and Bill and I were badly bitten overnight.
The pool at Kingfisher resort
The next day, Tuesday 16th, we motored up the Sandy Straights to Kingfisher resort, a favourite of ours with its yachtie friendly facilities of a pool, shower and nice café that sells delicious lunches. We stayed there for 3 days waiting for the start of the wind to take us north to our first island in the Barrier reef.
Family Reunions in Queensland
We made our way up the Brisbane river late on Wednesday 13th March ready for the arrival of the family the next day. The following evening we excitedly waited outside Kate’s hotel for her arrival. Bill’s sister was flying into Australia from NZ with her husband Barry and the teenagers, Will and Daisy. We hadn’t seen them for over a year and were really excited. It was late by the time they arrived dragging huge bags with them for their 10 day stay. We just had a drink with them then left them to settle in.
Will, Barry, Kate and Daisy in the gardens of the Southbank
The next morning I went for my little run-walk ending up at the hotel where we all enjoyed the hotel swimming pool, which fortunately we had to ourselves. We all walked into the city for lunch and around the gardens on the Southbank. They enjoyed their second night in the hotel in Brisbane then checked out and joined us on Camomile for a cup of tea before exploring more of Brisbane. After spending their second day in the city they were picked up by cousin John and taken out to Boonah, a couple of hours outside Brisbane, for three days.
Catching the train
On the Sunday we got up early and caught the train to Ipswich where John picked us up to spend the day altogether. John would have been Bill’s father’s cousin so he’s Bill’s cousin once removed … we think!!
John and Helen’s home
They have a lovely home high up in hills behind the city surrounded by about 20 acres of land, complete with their own lake.
Daisy and Kate in the canoes
Helen’s lovely garden
Kate and Daisy decided to have a paddle around in the canoes. Helen has a beautiful garden which she spends long hours in.
All ready for our guided tour
Beautiful countryside
Koala sitting high up in the trees trying his best to ignore us
After lunch John took us for a walk around his land where we were fortunate enough to see a koala sitting high up in the trees trying hard to ignore us. Our first wild koala in his own natural surroundings, we were really lucky.
Kangaroos
On the way back to the station John drove through an area where he knew there would be lots of kangaroos, so I enjoyed watching them too.
Bill and Barry with champagne to celebrate
On the Tuesday the tribe decamped to their apartment on the Gold Coast where they were to spend the second half of their holiday. We packed a bag and joined them for two days. Also to arrive was Susan, John’s sister, who had brought along a selection of photos of the family, young and old, from her collection. We were able to show some of our collection too and we spent an evening puzzling out family connections.
The family gathering
So for the benefit of the family at home we have from left to right cousin John (also Nan’s nephew), Bill, John’s wife Helen, Kate, Barry, John’s sister Susan and Sue. Barry cooked us a wonderful meal.
Wednesday 20th Bill and I were dragged kicking and screaming to Wet’n’Wild!! Only joking we all choose the water park out of the 5 available. Cousin Susan decided to join us, brave lady. Fortunately it wasn’t very busy because the school holidays haven’t started yet but that also meant that some of the rides were closed. I enjoyed the ones that you sit on something to slide to the bottom but tried one of the flume rides that you slide down on your own back and managed to wrench my shoulder so decided against any more of those. Bill very bravely joined the kids on some of the ‘sudden drop’ rides – very brave.
John and Helen
We all left on Thursday to allow Kate and Barry to enjoy the rest of their holiday with Will and Daisy. John had come down from Boonah on his BMW bike while Helen had driven down with the others in the car. So she was able to give us a lift back to the station to catch our train back to the city and Camomile. Thank you John and Helen and Susan for having us, we had a wonderful time meeting you.
Will and Daisy are both taller than me now
We took these pictures before we left, not sure when we’ll see them all next. Bye guys, good to see you. x
The Redgrove’s and the Tomkinson’s
Camomile’s new friend, Rocco
Camomile ready to go
We were weather watching once again and, this time, I wanted something like perfect sailing conditions to restore our confidence on this first passage since our force 10 trashing. I was confident in Camomile as she is a tough old bird and all her hardware, with the exception of the dinghy and outboard had been brought back up to scratch. It was the human-ware which needed to get back in the saddle to repair the psychological dents and scratches.
Looking over the harbour wall to see what the conditions were like – no, not going yet!
Monday the 4th March brought the kind of windy conditions we would have normally contemplated at a push but it was not right for this occasion. Tuesday was less windy but the swell was still large and so it was Wednesday before we finally bade the nice folks at Coffs g’day, thanked them for all their support, especially Graham for the loan of his car, and headed north on the 166 mile passage to Southport. Sue was so so brave and pretended not to be apprehensive but after a few hours of rolling around and being pressed back by the adverse current her butterflies got the better of her when both breakfast and lunch made reappearance on the lee deck. (sick with fear more like. S)
The high rises of Surfers Paradise
Motoring at first with the single reefed main up for stability the southerly wind eventually struck up and after one false start we were able to twizzle the two genoas, finally starting to make some headway against the current which must have been running at more than two knots plus. We passed Byron Bay, the most easterly cape in Australia, and pressed on back into Queensland.
I was apprehensive on the approach to the Goldcoast Seaway as it is not far from a place called Surfers Paradise and, like most entrances hereabouts, is shallow. This might make it a paradise for surfers but it can also make it Yottie Hell in onshore conditions.
All was well though and we dropped our hook in the quiet, shallow Broadwater protected from the sea by its massive sand bank.
Camomile dinghy-less
The following morning it was back to business and we headed up the Coomera River to the City Marina where several of the local dinghy suppliers were based. I was particularly interested in a Sirocco ex display model which was heavily discounted as it had some marks on it. Perfect! Arriving at the showroom though I was devastated to be told it had just been sold. We spent the rest of the morning looking around other suppliers but it was really starting to seem that the new tender was going to cost well above the insurance cover.
Beautiful riverside house
Returning down the river to the anchorage at Broadwater we admired the multimillion houses lining one side of the river which came in all possible styles and sizes with swimming pools, moorings at the bottom of the garden and, a little strangely we thought, meshing around the balconies which we assumed was to keep the sun from the fair skin of the Aussie elite who occupied these palaces.
Some of them were unreal
Most with pontoons at the bottom of the garden
Sitting back at the anchorage on Saturday afternoon and back on the internet I was surprised to see the dinghy I liked had been re-listed and thinking this was a mistake phoned up to ask “is it sold or not?”. I was elated to hear that the sale of earlier that day had fallen through so arranged to meet at the shop the following morning. We hauled up the anchor straight away and hotfooted it back up the river arriving at the marina just before dark.
As I was securing to a mooring buoy though I suddenly noticed that I was surrounded by a fine buzzing noise. I looked straight up in case I was under a power line (not good when you have a mast) but there was no sign. I peered out into the gathering gloom and saw that I was surrounded by the biggest mosquitoes I have ever seen. Suddenly the mesh around all the houses balconies made sense and we went into MosCon 5 locking down the boat and setting out on an extermination spree down below where some intruders had already penetrated. They were the size of sparrows, fair dinkum!
Shaun and Bill unloading the dinghy
The following morning we put Camomile alongside and went off to find her new tender.
Launching the dinghy
Mission accomplished
Shaun was quick and efficient so within an hour we were back with a shiny new inflatable which was duly introduced to Camomile and they were both told to “play nicely” Guess who?
Bill with the new dinghy that’s going to be called Rocco and is a boy.
Sue had the first sit in Rocco
And guess who had to have the first go in him too!
Rocco on Camomile’s stern
So with the dinghy davited, again we motored back down the river to the anchorage. We could now get ashore and it was great to be mobile again as we rowed to the beach that evening. We walked across the sandy spit by the Broadwater to walk along the beach where the surf pounded the shallow approaches.
Mike delivering the new 15hp Yamaha
Rowing is all right but it is overrated when you need to travel a proper distance so it was anchor up the next day and into Runaway Bay marina where we could unload the bikes and cycle to the outboard suppliers. After cycling more miles around Labrador than our bottoms are used to and some thorough interrogation of the local suppliers we became the proud owners of another outboard motor which was duly delivered to Runaway Bay Marina the following morning.
Wahoo!
My turn to play wahoo! The boys are really going to enjoy having a go with this one too.
Camomile was finally complete again so we were all set to make our way up to Brisbane where we were planning a family reunion with my sister Kate and family and our Aussie cousins.
Mission accomplished.
Camomile 