Final Chapter for Sailing Season 2014

Townsville 19th September

Today is the day we begin the trip home for the summer. Firstly we will spend four days in Sydney visiting Greg, Leisha and Jessica and checking out the new boat. A day or two on Sydney Harbour will bring back fond memories.

Since arriving in Townsville Peter and I have checked out the three marinas available for putting Rene to bed for the summer break. She is now berthed in to her pen in Nelly Bay Marina on Magnetic Island. She looks very secure there, tucked in behind the multi storey apartments and the background range of steep hills, hopefully out of the direct impact of any cyclones that may head this way over summer We have carefully and thoroughly cleaned her throughout and done our best to banish those nasty little mould spores for a few months at least. Peter is flying back to Townsville for most of December so he can help his family celebrate his father's 90th birthday, have Christmas with his family and of course check on his 'other woman' - Rene!

Townsville is a lovely place to visit, especially during the dry season. Being on a dry part of the coast the surrounding landscape is very parched and barren, so the numerous parks and gardens in the city seem to have a much greater impact than in other places. We have visited the Ross River on several occasions and admired the walking paths and parkland along both banks. Wildlife abounds - tortoise by the hundreds, pelicans, lilypad walkers, parrots and many others. Several reservoirs have been constructed along the river making huge billabongs throughout that part of the city.

Ross River

 

Interesting gardens there boys and girls

 

 



Since we were last here the council has completed the large parkland area at Kissing Point. This is an historical precinct with three groups of people represented. The Aboriginal history of the area is shown on the Ethno-Botanical walk, the military history at the Fort, Jezzine Barracks and the Military Museum and finally the early settlers are also represented. The coastal boardwalk affords beautiful views across Cleveland Bay. Connected to the Strand on the northern end completes a wonderful, landscaped, parkland area in the centre of Townsville city that is popular for recreation and tourists. It is a gorgeous spot and well worth a visit by any tourists to this part of North Queensland.

Andrew & Peter - The Strand in the background

 

We have had some memorable times in 2014. Looking back I remember the first day of sailing out of Lake Macquarie, when the day was superb as we sailed to Port Stephens.   During the night a huge swell developed and we found ourselves anchored, with many others, just a little too close to the breaking waves in Shoal Bay. New South Wales taught us the importance of getting it right when crossing bars at the entrances to the huge river and lake systems on that part of the coast. We began to meet many more people than last year, and their pets, so socialising became part of the deal - especially sundowners.  Queensland has the islands and reef. We have visited many islands, but still have many more to explore. Here we learnt about wind bullets, tides, currents and working with and not against them. I am looking forward to next year when we will continue further north and who knows where from there.

For the dog lovers - an interesting sculpture at Riverside!!

 

 

 

Andrew - Nearly ninety years young

 

 

 

C U again in 2015



Magnetic Island & Townsville 1st - 10th September

We departed from Gloucester Island and Shaggers early on Sunday morning in still conditions and motored across Edgecumbe Bay to just off Bowen before any wind arrived. From then on a good breeze blew us north to Cape Upstart where we made the decision to continue on to Horseshoe Bay, Magnetic Island. Cooking dinner was interesting as we had rolly, quartering seas and using one hand for me and one for preparations made things a bit slow and messy. As I was dishing up the meal I happened to look out of the window and nearly levitated as this huge black shape appeared about 50m away. Momentarily I thought we were about to hit something large. It was large and turned out to be a whale breaching. At least half of it came vertically, head first, out of the water. Peter saw it too as it repeated the performance, then followed up with some tail slapping. Maybe it didn't like us being so close, but as we never saw it in the first place and as it was almost dark, we obviously both got a shock. That was close enough for me and I hoped there would be no more whales on our night's path.

It was still dark at 5am as we entered Horseshoe Bay and slowly crept into the eastern corner of the bay and dropped the anchor outside the moored/anchored boats. Then it was time for a proper sleep. This bay is very beautiful and is one of our favourites. We spent three days in Horseshoe Bay and walked over the range on the national park walk track to Nelly Bay where we investigated the possibility of leaving Rene in the Nelly Bay Marina over the summer. We also walked to Balding Bay and spent some time at the coffee shop at Horseshoe.

Horseshoe Bay

 

 



Early morning, Horseshoe Bay

 

 



Townsville's Breakwater Marina had advertised a special deal for "Shaggers" so we took advantage of that and booked in for three nights to fuel up, clean up and meet up with Andrew (Peter's dad), Clive (Peter's brother) and other family members. Meanwhile we checked out the rates for leaving Rene at either Breakwater Marina or the Motor Boat Club Marina in Ross Creek over the summer while we spend some time back in WA. There really was no choice. Nelly Bay was about $1200 cheaper for the seven months so we booked in and made our way over there as soon as our short stay in Townsville was over.

Peter has taken the injector fuel pump off Rene and brought it over to Townsville to have it fixed and then he has the wonderful job of putting everything back together again. To reach this part of the motor he had to take off the entire exhaust and manifold system and the water pump before removing the injector fuel pump. It has kept him busy for a few days travelling to the island and back, organising a fuel pump specialist to do the work and ordering parts. It sounds like it will be ready by Thursday so he will have the job completed by the time we leave for WA. Whilst researching where to leave Rene for the summer we discovered that the Magnetic Island ferry cost $5 per trip for those in possession of a Senior's Card and if you buy a book of 10 tickets. This helped convince us that Nelly Bay was the place for us.

Unfortunately, we have decided to cut our sailing season short by a month or so because the tenant in our unit in Perth is vacating and we want to do a quick renovation and try to sell it before the Christmas break. We are both over dealing with the various problems associated with rental properties. Our plan is to fly to Sydney to see Greg, Leisha and Jessica for four days, on 19th September, then fly to Perth on 23rd ready for a session of painting, cleaning and gardening.

 

'Friends'  showing a great deal of interest in me putting on my shoes

 

 

 

 

Crab art, Balding Bay

 

 

All the other crabs just put their little sand baubles in a pile around the holes, but this one obviously has a bit of crabby imagination.

 





'Shaggers' (Shag Island Cruising Yacht Club) Rendezvous, Goucester Passage 26th - 31st August

 

Shag Island, Gloucester Passage

 

We spent three days in the Abell Point Marina stocking up and preparing Rene for the trip to Gloucester Passage and the Shag Island Cruising Yacht Club 2014 Vice Commodores Rendezvous. Just before we left Peter discovered that the fuel injector pump was leaking diesel into the bilge. That caused some angst and grinding and gnashing of teeth. Peter spoke to one of the mechanics at the marina and he advised us to sail on to Townsville and get it fixed there - quite complicated apparently. So, on Tuesday, I went with Sue and Dave from Duet to purchase a few last minute items before we departed. The day was beautiful, but almost no wind, so progress was slow for the first hour, then the wind began to pipe up and we enjoyed a delightful sail for the rest of the day along with half a dozen other yachts. We anchored in Edgecumbe Bay just adjacent to the Eco Resort. Many boats were already anchored there and many more had anchored off Montes Resort in the Gloucester Passage. All up one hundred and seventy boats arrived to participate in the Rendezvous. We enjoyed sundowners on the beach in the evening.

 

Lunch at Eco Resort



Wednesday saw a steady stream of boats coming to join those already there. Peter and I went ashore and walked around to Montes to see how the preparations were going. Ric and Val, Sue and Dave (Duet), Chris and Maureen and Peter and I met at the Eco Resort for lunch and later we joined a whole pile of people for a game of Botchie under the trees. Needless to say neither Peter nor I were on the winning team, but we all had a lot of fun.

 

Peter Julie and Andrew

 



On Thursday we decided we needed a decent bit of exercise so Peter and I walked south along the beach and over the rocks for a couple of kms. There were some very expensive houses nestled in the bush along this part of the beach. In the evening we participated in Happy Hour at Montes as an introduction to the Rendezvous. We caught up with Milton and Jenny (Magnetic Attraction) and Di, Russ, Evan and Helen (C Dragon) from Townsville.

 

Montes - Just a few dinghies on the beach

 



There was no shortage of activities and entertainment to participate in during the four days and three nights of the Rendezvous, but the two that I really enjoyed were the sausage sizzle on Shag Island and the' Hands Across The Blue' dinghy raft up for prostate cancer. Shag Island is very small and hundreds of people congregated there for lunch, in strong winds, on the tiny spit of sand and rock, the only flat part on the island.

Sausage Sizzle, Shag Island

 

 



'Hands Across The Blue' for Prostate Cancer dinghy raft up was my favourite activity. The aim of the exercise was to have all the dinghies assemble and raft up to make the shape of the prostate cancer logo on the water. A helicopter flew over to take photos etc for the media and once all the dinghies were in place it would have looked amazing. Anchored nearby was a large motor boat with a broad back deck and a band entertained us and later the dignitaries spoke from this platform. Everyone took drinks and nibbles and thoroughly enjoyed the atmosphere and self satisfaction of being a part of a large co-operative exercise that raised money for a good cause. I couldn't help thinking that I was very lucky to be me - sailing around this beautiful part of our coast, going where I pleased, the weather was perfect, the setting stunning and the company wonderful. In other places in the world people are killing and doing despicable things to each other. How lucky am I? Shaggers was fun and I hope we can do it again next year and meet up again with some of the lovely people we have met this year.

We made ready to leave for Townsville on Sunday and just before we pulled the anchor Ric, Val and Tiger motored past and waved goodbye. They are now on their way south to eventually end up in Pittwater where they base themselves. We will miss them, but hopefully will catch up again next year on the water.

Decorated boats at Shaggers 2014