30 September 2014

As we sit here on the Jolifou in the beautiful Blue Pearl Bay, it is 8PM (half hour to cruisers midnight) on a perfect evening. Sea is calm, wind is light, a perfect anchorage but for the fact that there are 20 other boats here, most notably a few of the back-packer charter boats from Airlie that arrived late in the day. The serene night air is harshly cut by the techno music and shouts of partyers. Never mind, we were all young once right and there are plenty more serene bays out there. We will sleep well anyway because it’s been a big day.

Hamilton Island Yacht Club

It was wonderful to catch up with Joe and Belinda and the kids Karma and Drew in the marina at Hamilton Island. We decided that the pricey marina fee would be worth it to properly welcome two of our best friends. Indeed, were it not for Joe we would not have the JoliFou so we owe him big, but more than that they are friends that go back a long way and we always enjoy their company immensely. As we pulled into the finger of the Marina the first boat we saw was their Lagoon 40 catamaran “One More”. We had dinner onboard “One More” and enjoyed meeting Katrina and Chris and their lovely daughters Sarah and Emma and son Angus.

Somehow after the nth drink we were talked into returning the golf cart for them the next morning so they could make an early start. This suited us just fine as we partook of a bit of a whirlwind tour of Hammo on the golf cart whilst we awaited the opening of the bottle shop (as you do). In short, the marina area is quite quaint, the resort rather ugly especially the huge block of apartments, the yacht club is stunning with amazing architecture really well done. The over-riding impression is crowds. Golf-carts and people buzzing around everywhere! Probably this is not so bad outside of school holidays, but I found myself really rushing to prepare the boat to leave as soon as possible – we just had to get out of there!

We left the mainsail covered and broke out the Gennaker in the 18 knot South Easterly for a very pleasant reach up to the top end of Hook Island, where we were to meet “One More” at Butterfly Bay. On the way we crossed paths with our friends on Mahiti, who were unfortunately going the other way, on their way to pick up a friend at Hammo.

Of course there were no moorings available any more at Butterfly Bay by the time we got there, but this time we did successfully anchor. We are getting better at anchoring in deep water. It was a wonderful surprise to come across Adrian and his stunning 60 footer “Anthem” which we had last seen in the shed at Joe and Belinda’s boatyard in Newcastle over a month ago where Adrian had been working on it and project managing the refurbishment. The result is a gorgeous boat, which is also aluminium so we feel a bond. Adrian and family and the “One More” gang came for drinks on JoliFou, then we had dinner on “One More” (again).

This morning we finally touched the rock again, on an interesting little slab we had scoped out whilst taking Silus ashore. The whole gang from all 3 boats rocked up (ha ha). The rock was a bit crumbly in places, tried leading the climb and my first cam placement pulled straight out with a shower of rock fragments – hmmmm. Plan B, we setup a top-rope by climbing up a much easier route. Joe and Belinda’s lovely daughter Karma was given first attempt. Karma is a very keen and proficient indoor climber and boulderer but has little experience on rock and the crux was just beyond her reach (literally). Bruce managed to get up and become the first ascender, with no thanks to the sledging from the peanut gallery below. Halfway up a march fly attacked him and had to be killed before continuing. I hereby name this climb “Fly Shake” (16) after the body action that was done by myself and many of the other climbers of the day to prevent a painful sting from a march fly. Lyn shot up the rock straight up the middle, apart from one small slip it was the best ascent of the day. Joe and Adrian also managed to get up, though the judging panel did note some out of bounds infractions. Adrian’s niece Ruby had a very good attempt despite never climbing before, as did young Emma. Karma had a second attempt and came very close despite energetic attention of the march flies.

The 3 boats then set off for Blue Pearl Bay on the North Western side of Hayman Island, just a few miles away. This afternoon we had a nice dive with Adrian and Ruby at the Northern side of the bay, thanks to Adrian filling our tanks with his compressor. In places the coral was stunning, in other places dead. Adrian did the same dive back in 2004 and he says he can’t believe how the coral has degraded since then – a sobering thought. Highlight of the dive for Lyn and I was seeing a huge Potato Cod up really close.

At sunset we enjoyed drinks on the beach with the crews of Anthem and “One More” and were also joined by Craig from “Ocean Star” and met his lovely partner Nelly. Plan is to go out to Bait Reef again tomorrow along with “One More” and Anthem, probably a super early start.

2 October 2014

A Big Day is a Good Day

A big day is a good day. Somehow the fun energetic activity feeds your personal energy and you find yourself taking on more. By the end of the day you are totally spent, but with a glow of happiness fed by the joyful memories of a day well lived. Yesterday was such a day, no doubt.

Silus and Lyn, Off Watch!

We awoke at Blue Pearl at 2:40 AM, for a 3AM start. After some initial struggles with getting the anchor up we finally set off. Lyn had permission to go back to bed and I unfurled the jib and later hoisted the mainsail double-reefed and enjoyed a beautiful sail into the sun-rise in the moderate South Easterly. On arrival at Bait Reef there were just 3 un-occupied moorings available inside the stepping stones – 2 public and 1 private (no anchoring allowed here). We picked up one and then chatted on the VHF to Anthem and “One More” who had left a bit later than us. They were now engaged in a life or death struggle to get to the Reef ahead of each other and a charter motorboat to claim the last moorings! I went out in the dinghy to act as finish boat. Joey was taking no chances and came flying in, full noise, to take the honours and the final public mooring. Adrian had left Anthem with a little too much to do, and had to settle for wooden spoon. I hopped aboard and guided them around to the Manta Ray wall mooring. With me steering and Adrian picking up the mooring there were a few moments of concern as we were quite exposed meters from a lee reef in quite wavy windy conditions. Fortunately Adrian picked up the mooring perfectly first time and Anthem was able to relax on a bumpy but safe mooring.

Lyn loaned her dive gear to Joe and we took the gear up to Anthem with Chris acting as a willing and extremely capable rescue dinghy captain. The tanks were filled and Chris dropped us off in a gully near Gary’s inlet, the plan being to drift with the current along Manta Ray wall and back to the Anthem. It was a spectacular dive with stunning coral and prolific fish. Highlight was a huge Coral trout.

Later in the day a boat left one of the private moorings inside the stepping stones so Adrian came down to get it. I went in the dinghy to assist because we happened to know that you had to pass a mooring line through the loop under the buoy on this one so Adrian would have a bit on doing this with the girls. The rope wasn’t pulling through the loop because of a rusty metal insert and I managed to get my hand stuck whilst trying to free it. Thanks to Adrian’s quick thinking, releasing the end when this happened I escaped with just a few scratches.

What was left of the lamb when the photographer finally remembered she had a job to do!

Drinks under the stars on the One More

Joey doing the dishes after a delicious feast… how come that never happens on JoliFou?

In the afternoon it was the girls’ turn to scuba, with me as the boat boy. Belinda, Lyn and Ruby had a great dive at Gary’s inlet, with reef sharks, beautiful visibility and coral and many fishes. It was the first time Belinda had dived in very many years and she was a bit apprehensive but did great and thoroughly enjoyed it. Then it was dinner on “One More”, delicious slow roasted lamb by Katrina, roast vegies by Lyn. We took our last bottle of KannonKop South African red and it all slipped down really well, yum. The evening ended with drinks under the stars on the front trampoline. Then time for bed, the end of a big day ………..

3 October 2014

Yesterday morning we awoke to find the dive charter catamaran “Wings 3” had moved to the mooring right alongside us. This was highly convenient as they were one of the boats on the dive shop list for tank fills. I asked if we could have our tanks filled and they were extremely obliging, and no charge too – excellent. Adrian has been so generous filling our tanks but his small compressor is noisy and takes about 25 minutes per tank, so it is a bonus when we can save him the hassle by getting the fill done by one of the dive boats with huge compressors and staging tanks which only takes a few minutes. Triathlete Joe came swimming by and stopped off for a very important coffee fix (no coffee machine on “One More”) and we hatched a plan with Adrian to go for a dive at 9.

The previous evening we had two young boys from a nearby catamaran come by in their dinghy asking if we had any ice for them. Seemed a strange request but when we enquired further the answer was “no english” and they were off to the next boat. At “One More” they asked for sugar. Joe sent them to Anthem as he knew that Ruby speaks Spanish. At Anthem, on chatting to Ruby, they said that they needed her help please back at their boat. Ruby gamely obliged and went back to their boat with them. Later Adrian, Claire and Laura went over to the cat also and by all accounts had a great time with drinks and dancing on the deck. The truth of the two boys was revealed. Their dad had bet them 100 dollars that they could not get a girl to come back to the boat with them. Ruby had “helped” them to win the bet! It turns out they are Chilean from Patagonia. They briefly stopped by JoliFou on their way to Anthem for breakfast – a lovely bunch of people.

Adrian, Ruby, Joe and I set off with Lyn as boat girl to the Manta Ray wall area. We wanted to do the pinnacle chimney, which we had missed the day before, so we started the dive near that location. We saw Lyn’s eel from our previous dive here then dived down to the entrance to the pinnacle. We went up the chimney, through the squeeze gulley at the top and surfaced through a small hole in the reef. There were numerous large fish in the chimney and gulley and swam close by us. Then we dove back down the same way and out along the wall towards Gary’s inlet. We spotted 3 sharks. One small white tip swam very close to us for a while and one shark was quite large but a bit further away. We came across an area that was a maze of tunnels, swim throughs, caves and bommies with schools of small colourful fish and many larger fish too – spectacular. This was the best dive we have done so far and we were all very excited about it.

View from above Cateran Bay

Then it was time to leave and head for Cateran Bay, Border Island in the building South Easterly breeze. Joey left earliest as the kids were chafing at the bit for some dry land time. Anthem and JoliFou engaged in an exciting race. With the wind at about 12 to 15 knots at 60 degrees apparent, Jolifou elected to go with full genoa and full mainsail. Anthem put up the huge asymmetric spinnaker, which looked great but was struggling at such a tight wind angle, allowing JoliFou to establish an initial lead despite being 20 feet shorter. Adrian eventually decided that working sails would be better and socked the spinnaker – a process which allowed JoliFou to extend further ahead. JoliFou was averaging about 7.5 knots and surging up to over 8 on the gusts, but with Anthem on the new sail plan her waterline length started to come into effect and the gap was slowly decreasing. Anthem finally took the lead with just a few miles of the 18 mile leg to go and went on to take a good come-back victory – well done 😦

Another day in paradise

Cateran Bay is lovely with a medium sized beach framed by majestic rocks and hills. We joined the “One More” crew on the beach for sun-downers, then it was back to the JoliFou where we enjoyed watching “The Wolf of Wall Street” courtesy of some movies that we copied from Chris. What a different world, we certainly know which one we prefer. It was quite a restless knight with big bullets of wind in the bay form the building South Easterly and some swell getting in to the anchorage too. We were waken once by the chart plotter anchor drift alarm, but it was just a wide swing. I deployed the sea anchor to dampen the motion of the boat and we got some sleep.

4 October 2014

The head is throbbing slightly this morning, but there are others amongst us who are a lot worse off following the mega dinner party of last night. The soothing white sands of Whitehaven Beach and the gentle lapping of small waves against the hull does help to soothe the pain tho, but then the peace is shattered by a helicopter or sea plane – ouch! We are anchored only a few meters off and from the cockpit I can hear the natter of the girls on the beach.

The crew at the top

Yesterday morning we walked up to near the top of the highest hill (mountain?) on Border Island. It was hot work, but the view was spectacular. Then it was off to Chalkies Beach for the night. Chalkies is a gorgeous squeaky white sand beach. It has all the beauty of Whitehaven without the madness.

Dinner and a Show

It was about time that JoliFou repaid the hospitality we have enjoyed on “One More” and Lyn broke out the lamb back-straps and cooked up a storm. With the Anthem crew invited also, it was dinner for 15 and we all had a great feast, including lamb chops from Anthem and salads from both boats. Adrian brought a few bottles of red from his huge fine wine collection which was delicious.

15 to dinner… record to date

A great time was had by all and when the wine finally ran out we broke out the dreaded French white rum. Potent stuff. Some (Claire) failed to heed the warning and treated it like a shot (she is suffering the most today). As the evening appeared to be winding down suddenly Abba started blaring out of the cockpit speakers and Agnetha (Lyn) appeared center companionway, hairbrush mike in hand. The show had begun! Katrina and Laura were soon up there, belting out the lyrics too and soon everyone was singing along. A great night, I haven’t laughed so much in a long time. Poor Chris bore the brunt of the punishment, as on climbing out of the dinghy at “One More” he lost his balance and landed on the sharp point of a winch, cutting his elbow open. Not sure which hurts more this morning, the head or the elbow, we have yet to see him surface.

25 September 2014

Bait reef, moored just inside the stepping stones, the weather is perfect with a light North Easterly wind and hardly any swell, the sun has just set, Silus is sleeping, Lyn is cooking dinner, Bruce is relaxing and typing this blog. All is right with our world.

Airlie Marina

Our time at Airlie in the marina was relaxing and fairly uneventful. Chores were done, package collected from the yacht club. We now have jack-lines and good Spinlock all-in-one harness and inflatable lifejacket, so we will be safer on the way back than we were on the way up here. Highlight of the stay was catching up with some old friends. We had drinks with a Manly skiffies mate Mugsy (Andrew Phillips) and his partner Lizzie on their beautiful Cavalier 46 “Shala” before they set off out to the islands. We will hook up with them again out and about. We bumped into Catssy (Paul Catts) from the offshore Pittwater community who has been up here for some time, currently teaching boat Master at Tafe and repairing his cyclone damaged boat. Had a lovely impromptu drinks and dinner with Cattsy, his friend Emma and Craig from Morning Star whom we had befriended at Lady Musgrave Island. Lyn whipped up some delicious pizzas and evening drinks became a full-scale dinner party.

Old Ragamuffin

Retirement Village for Maxi’s

Airlie is a nice place, but not really that different from any other coastal resort town. It’s ironic that a place with “Beach” in it’s name has probably one of the ugliest muddy beaches in Australia. To compensate they have built a man-made lagoon area, which reminds one of the Durban beach front pools. A pleasant area for people with young kids, but in the context of the nearby beauty of the islands (I don’t want to be rude but) it’s really rather tasteless and ugly. For the young back-packer it is a great place with many hostels and a vibrant night life. There are a lot of tourists and a lot to keep them entertained. Many charter boats compete for the tourist dollar. The most interesting are the old IOR maxi yachts, this place is like the maxi yacht retirement village and it is actually great that these boats have found a use where they would otherwise be long-since dead. Every day the tourists line up to go out on the various boats and returning boats have the mandatory shout of “Yes!” in the marina where they compete to prove who’s guests had the best time.

Tanks… tick!

One essential mission at Airlie was sourcing some scuba tanks. We both have everything for scuba but the tanks we have on the boat are European and we can’t get them filled in Australia (nanny state). So we decided to bite the bullet and buy two used tanks from the extremely friendly local scuba shop in the marina which had come off a superyacht, so not too much use we assume. Lyn also decided to upgrade her fishing gear after some great advice from Craig. So we were fully locked and loaded for action when we set off from Airlie on Wednesday. We had spent one more day than originally planned due to us paying for 3 nights by mistake? (cest la vie).

Shala @ Stonehaven

The plan was to maybe catch up with Mugsy at Stonehaven anchorage overnight, then onwards to the reef the next morning. There were no moorings at Stonehaven so we ended up on a mooring at the nearby small Langford Island, which was a bit uncomfortable when the tide turned and the boat was being pulled opposite ways by tide and wind. Not to worry, it was to be a short night anyway, as we cast off at 3AM. We wanted to make sure of a mooring at Bait Reef by arriving at first light. Negotiating the quite narrow channels between Hayman and Hook was a bit nerve-wracking with no moon, but the Raymarine chart plotter has never been wrong yet so with it confirming my visual observations of cardinal and channel marks it was negotiated without drama. The 3 hour journey to Bait Reef was a pleasant enough motor-sail with a double-reefed main moderate wind fine on the bow and a small seaway that was not too uncomfortable (Lyn may beg to differ).

Arriving at Bait Reef

We arrived at the reef shortly after sun-rise. There were only two other boats there; a small catamaran and the large Anaconda III schooner charter dive boat. We picked up a great mooring very close to the stepping stones which was very quiet and comfortable despite the rushing incoming tide. We had a couple of hours to wait for slack (high) tide before diving which was spent getting out and checking our dive gear. This is something we really should have done at Airlie, especially as we discovered that Lyn’s fancy dive watch/computer had a flat battery and the basic computer on my rig also was not working – whoopsy daisy! Oh well, we would just have to make sure we didn’t go too deep for long and make sure we stayed shallow for the last stages of the dive.

A little to late to check gear Lyn!

Leaving Silus barking like a lunatic down below, we set off on our first scuba dive in a long time. The stepping stones are a really exciting scuba terrain with many walls, caves and swim-troughs and really beautiful coral. We were actually a little disappointed in the amount of fish life, which seemed not to match up with the billing we had read for the place. We did see many interesting fish but not in large schools or numbers. We saw two white tip reef sharks, from a bit of a distance and a large Maori Wrasse, also from a distance.

After surfacing back near the boat a friendly chap from Anaconda III came over in the dinghy and offered us a lift back to the boat. We enquired whether they could possibly do a tank fill for us and he took us in the boat back to Anaconda where they extremely generously filled our tanks for free. What a lovely crew, doing this for us when they really need not have and also not charging us for it. It’s such a bonus to have the tanks filled so we can dive again, especially since there are no other options for filling around us at the moment.

New Look Silus

In the afternoon we took the standup boards for a paddle over and along the outside of the reef. It was flat calm with beautiful visibility through the glassy surface. Took the opportunity to do a bit of a reccy of some of the other dive sites here from the surface. After getting back to the boat the resident scrounger fishes were hanging out at the stern, hoping to be fed (obviously other boats feed them, can’t imagine the enemy would be happy with that). This sent Silus completely over the top, barking like a mad thing and climbing/falling down the back steps to the sugar scoop, which he has never done before. Despite our warnings that he would fall in (yes Lyn believes he understands English) he carried on and a splash soon followed. After fishing him out we hoped that he had learned his lesson but he seemed not to be too put off by the experience. From now on he is wearing his doggy life jacket whenever he is not harnessed on.

26 September 2014

A great day or a bad day?

As we sit here in Hardy Lagoon out on the reef the sun is close to setting on another eventful day on the JoliFou. To Bruce it was a great day, to Lyn a bad one. Let me explain.

After an okay night at Bait Reef which started a bit bumpy in a building North Easter but settled to a nice calm morning, we moved the boat this morning “round the corner” of Bait reef from the Stepping Stones to a mooring at the Manta Ray Wall dive site on the Southern side. When the tide went slack enough we set off around 9:30 on a beautiful dive. It started with a shallowish gorge through beautiful coral with plenty of pretty little fish, then opened up to a deep blue drop-off with many large fish. Descending the drop-off we came across a stunning chimney from about 18 meters down up to close to the surface, followed by a narrow gulley through the coral, fish everywhere! Then we swam on the surface over the coral back to the depths and followed the stunning wall back towards the boat. Spotted two largish white tip sharks and numerous other large fish. By pure luck we managed to get back to the mooring line around about the time the air was running out.

Bruce: “That was one of the best dives I’ve ever done, especially the deep drop-off wall.”

(It should be noted here that Lyn is a PADI Dive Master, Bruce has no recent dive training at all.)

Lyn: “Yes it was a great dive BUT it was spoiled for me because you were going too fast and too deep, it’s very dangerous especially when we have no computer” (Lyn was checking depth on her camera). “You need to look at me more often, I was constantly worried about you and trying to signal you to go shallower. I loved the shallow gully and swim-throughs but the wall was poorer visibility and causing you to go too deep. I think I need a new dive partner.”

JoliFou in Hardy Lagoon

We upped anchor and motored eastward to the inside of Hook Reef, where we anchored for lunch. A nice place but not very exciting. After lunch we upped anchor to head North for Line Reef or Hardy Lagoon, TBD when we got there. Hardy Lagoon has a notorious entrance called the “Waterfall”, on account of the fact that it looks like a waterfall when the tide is running out of it from the lagoon to the outside. The 100 Magic Miles guide book recommends only attempting entry a couple hours after low tide or at high tide. We got there just after high tide. The chart plotter doesn’t show the entrance and all we had to go by was the sketch map in the book, which is a bit misleading because we initially completely missed it and had to turn around when we realized that we must have done so. The reason we missed it is that no-where in the guide does it say how extremely narrow it is – it is literally about 6 meters wide (we are 4 meters wide). We were looking for something “clear and unambiguous” as per the guide?

Eventually we figured out what had to be the entrance. By this time it was a couple hours after high tide. We decided to edge towards it and check it out, Lyn on the bow calling the depth and coral heads. “Looks okay, looks good, left, LEFT, BOMMIE, REVERSE!” I slam into reverse, not thinking about the dinghy behind us on a long rope. Clunk! Beeeeeep! The rope is around the prop, the dinghy half sucked under the boat, the engine has stopped!

Bruce thinks: Oh shit, we are stuffed now, close to the reef, no engine, big tide, no wind!

Lyn thinks:  Oh shit, we are stuffed now, close to the reef, no engine, big tide, no wind!

Bruce: “Let’s use the dinghy.” Lyn: “But it’s stuck under the boat!” Bruce: “Shit! Get a knife.”

Lyn grabs her dive knife and Bruce jumps in the water and cuts the dinghy rope so the dinghy pops out. Starts the dinghy, we tie a rope from JoliFou bow to dinghy bow and with Bruce reversing the dinghy and Lyn steering the JF and using bow thruster we pull away from the reef to more open water.

Lyn thinks: Now we are in big trouble. We have no engine, what are we going to do? (Lyn has never been in this situation before)

Bruce thinks: Thank god we are clear of the reef. We can clear the rope from the prop and all will be good again. (Bruce has been in this situation a few times and knows that the prop can be cleared and things will be sorted.)

Bruce dons fins and face mask and dives under the boat with the knife. Actually the knife was not required and managed to unwind the rope from the prop quite easily. Lyn starts engine, tries forward gear, all good…… phheeewwww!

Bruce decides that whilst in dinghy it would be prudent to check out the entrance (and other possibilities) before putting JoliFou close to the reef again. Buzzes around through one entrance which is long and narrow and looks too shallow at the end. Then back through the gap we had first looked at – it looks good – narrow but deep enough and short in length. However, by now the tide is starting to rip out through it quite fast – time is of the essence! Back to the boat and tell Lyn the plan.

Bruce thinks: We can do this, it is tight but short and with good speed and the right angle we will be through quickly.

Lyn thinks: I don’t want to go anywhere near that narrow gap in the reef again, this is crazy!

Lyn: “We shouldn’t do this, I’m not going on the bow to watch this!” Goes down below.

Bruce: “It’ll be fine, I checked it. Hold on, here we go!”

Breathe in, commit with speed, trust the angle, watch the sides and the push of the current closely, we are through!! Relief!

Bruce thinks: Wow, that was exciting. What an adventure!

Lyn thinks: He is a total cowboy, taking a ridiculous risk with the boat, Silus and I.

Lyn is not talking to Bruce. Bruce doesn’t understand why initially but as the adrenaline fades, is starting to realize that he really shouldn’t have done that. The adrenaline was up and it was all rather rash, okay to do this kind of risky stuff with your toys, but NOT with your boat, your home and the love of your life. So Lyn had a bad day, Bruce had a great day (becoming a lot worse because of remorse and Lyn’s anger to him).

29 September 2014

Reef World – Hardy Lagoon

It was a beautiful night at Hardy Lagoon. Very little wind, flat water, a stunning setting crescent moon and bright stars shining unimpeded by the lights of civilization. We slept really well, both of us exhausted from the nervous stress of the afternoon’s events.

Hardy Lagoon is beautiful, but we are starting to realize that if you have seen one reef you have seen them all, at least from the surface. The true beauty of this area is the underwater world, but the visibility in the lagoon is not great for some reason. We had a paddle outside of the lagoon along the sheer reef wall (it drops from 1m to over 50m) and you could see many fishes large and small through the glassy surface. It also gave us an opportunity to scope out the waterfall again. It was becoming apparent that we really had not entered in the right state of tide, as with tide a bit higher it looked far friendlier. We would leave on slack high tide.

The Reef World pontoon is moored just outside the lagoon in the pass between Hardy and Hook reefs and we took the dinghy over to have a look and see if they would do a scuba tank fill for us. The staff were really friendly and welcoming. The tanks could not be filled as the boat with the punters was arriving soon but they invited us aboard too have a tour of the pontoon. Silus was welcome too and a hit with the crew who loved the novelty of a cute dog on the pontoon. It is a really cool setup, with huge fish (the biggest grouper we have seen) hanging out under the pontoon and underwater viewing locations.

Then it was back to the JoliFou to get ready to take on the waterfall again at high tide this time. The exit was hugely more relaxing than the entrance and I think we now will be happy to return, but only at high tide! We decided to take the scenic route down the narrow winding channel between Hardy and Hook which was extremely pretty. Then set sail for the North end of Hook Island in the building South Easterly, a pleasant broad reach with full sails and Lyn enjoying some steering practice.

Manta Ray Bay

All the moorings at Butterfly Bay were taken and after a failed attempt at anchoring in 16 meters depth (I think it was a rock bottom judging by the noise of the anchor dragging), we moved to a mooring in Manta Ray Bay. This is a stunningly beautiful spot though not usually recommended for overnight. With the very small swell it was fine and we had a slightly rolly night but slept well. The rock around the Northern side of Hook Island is stunningly beautiful and with a rock-climber’s eye we were drooling at the variety of possible climbing roots as we set off Southwards. Our destination was Hamilton Island marina, where we would be meeting up with Joe and Belinda with family and friends, who were borrowing a friends Lagoon 40 catamaran for a week. On the way we stopped off at Peter’s Bay, which we had all to ourselves. We had an explore up a dry river bed, followed by a skinny dip off the rocks and warming ourselves on the hot rocks after – lovely.

Then it was onwards to Hamilton Island. More on that next blog.

The beginning of the masterpiece

17 September 2014

We are currently en-route to Brampton Island from Scawfell Island, motoring in very little wind, but beautiful sunny weather. In the end we only spent the one day at Middle Percy because we got itchy feet – always another island to see! We greatly enjoyed the hospitality of the Homestead and then were lucky enough to get an impromptu invite to Steve’s tree-house on the beach where we had delicious goat stew (freshly shot by Steve) with Tim and Greg and Donny. Greg is an artist who is completing a beautiful carved sculpture totem pole to be erected in front of the club.

Best on show?

Next morning we found a place in the club to hang Lyn’s beautiful JoliFou memento which she had created the previous day. In my somewhat biased opinion, it’s one of the best on show now, and appropriately is placed under a Perrier-Jouet champagne bottle as per used in our boat renaming ceremony. Late morning we departed for Digby Island, a short 20 mile passage.

The run to Digby was very pleasant, square before the wind, full sails, poled out jib in about 15 knots. Digby island is pretty enough with a nice beach and a quiet anchorage, but not quite the grandeur of some of the other islands. Our new friends James and Leah of Mahiti and the schooner Argos were the only other occupants. We had a brief fire on the beach followed by drinks on the beautiful Amal 46 Ketch, Mahiti and were generously gifted some beautiful mackerel fillets from the fish that they had caught during the crossing. We had been less successful, although we did have a fish on the line briefly, but it managed to free itself from the hook whilst we created a huge tangle in the reel (we are hopeless at fishing). Not having launched the dinghy yet at this stage, we had a pretty hectic drunken paddle on the standup boards back to the un-lit JoliFou in the dark.

Next morning Mahiti and JoliFou departed early for the 40 mile trip to Scawfell Island. The South Easter had died and we ended up motoring the entire way, which was mostly quite boring, but also relaxing as the seas were very calm. I did manage to get the Gennaker sail sorted and up for the first time and

Always a Joy

although not enough wind to use it, it is now ready to go. The highlights of the trip were when we arrived at the North East side of Scawfell. Firstly we had some dolphins come and play around the bow, with Lyn snapping photos furiously and Silus barking madly (as he does EVERY time we see dolphins or whales). Best of all was the majestic rock cliffs on the North East shore, which we motored around very close in. This place could be a climbing mecca, we saw so many amazing rock climb possibilities, huge slabs, corners, cracks all on what looks like superb rock.

Refuge Bay at Scawfell is an excellent anchorage in the South Easterly winds, with stunning white beaches below the heights of the land. Is it possible this is even more beautiful than Middle Percy? After the obligatory sundowners on the beach, we had James and Leah and the kids (Ewyn and Hamish) over for dinner, cooking the beautiful mackerel – yum!

The not so glamorous side

Cruising has been described by friends of ours as “working on the boat in beautiful places”. During the trip to Scawfell we discovered a large amount of water in the bilge. Alarm bells!! After the initial panic receded we realized it was fresh water, not salt. A leak in the tank!? Investigation discovered that it was a hole in the piping of the galley sink tap, so our water pump had been diligently spraying 300 liters of water out inside the cupboard under the sink and our bilge pumps had been diligently doing their job, pumping most of it out into the sea, lovely. If we were not motoring we would have heard the pumps and turned off the water pump before losing all of our water. Fortunately we had an entire spare tap on board, including the pipes, so I was able to replace it all remarkably easily (which is usually not the case with boat jobs). Whilst the tools were out Lyn requested that the stove top be repaired too – an entire galley make-over in only about 1 hour! After making water for a while and Lyn pumping and sponging out the water from the places that didn’t get to the bilge, the JoliFou was back at 100%.

The wind had turned to the North, though still light, but with a forecast of 15 knots from the North West that night, we decided to head for the next Island, Brampton only 18 miles away, which has a very good anchorage for Northerly winds.

18 September 2014

Paradise Found

We motored for the first 2 hours then enjoyed a nice reach for the last hour in the building North Westerly. Another amazingly beautiful place, more beautiful than the previous ones? The jury is out, but what seems clear now is that every island has its own charm and beauty. Dinghy Bay is extremely pretty, with rocky shores and pine tree covered hills all around. We launched the dinghy for the first time and managed to get the outboard on with a bit of a struggle before going to the beach for our arrival sunset drink. Popping in at Mahiti on the way back, the kids invited us to dinner (I think Mom and Dad were agreeable too?) and we enjoyed a great night of dinner drinks and chats with our new friends before retiring to JoliFou after cruiser’s midnight (8:30 PM).

Brampton Island has a number of good walking tracks courtesy of the enemy (Parks Board) and we might go for an explore later, unfortunately without Silus. We have had him on the beach here with no problem, but we are not quite outlaw enough to take him into the interior as he may “frighten the indigenous animals so that they get lost”. Clearly our outlaw dog had already irreparably destroyed the ecosystem here because we spotted some turtles that must have been lost and not able to find their home at the adjacent Turtle Bay.

19 September 2014

Ghost Town

Plans changed yesterday due to an un-predicted return of the South East trade winds. After a lovely swim on the beach and scramble/climb up a rock out-crop to enjoy the view, the building wind forced us to up-anchor to get off the lee shore. A pleasant short sail with jib only around the island saw us arrive at the pretty Pelican Bay on the North side. The bay is close to the Brampton Roads which is a shallow coral/sand bottom waterway between Brampton and Carlisle islands. There is a resort here, which has been closed down, but is still in quite good repair. It is quite weird to walk on the beach by the resort and there is a ghost-town feel to it with an air-plane run-way and fully furnished units, but all just a touch past their best.

I was excited to realize that the strong wind and the lagoon-like area of Brampton Roads was a perfect kite-boarding location. James from Mahiti is also a kite boarder so I picked him up in the dinghy and we headed over there with our gear to give it a try. We ended up having a great time in a perfect setting, enjoying an afternoon of perfect kiting, which was totally un-expected.

21 September 2014

Today is 1 month since we left the Pittwater and we will arrive at Airlie later today. A long time for a trip? Actually we arrived at our destination a long time ago. Since our first Island at Lady Musgrave it has felt like we are truly on holiday and not like a journey, except perhaps in the spiritual sense as we relax more and more into the natural beauty we are surrounded with.

I am writing this as we lie at anchorage in refuge bay, Nara inlet, on Hook Island. There is a strong Easterly wind blowing and the boat is still at times, then suddenly jerks to the will of a large bullet of wind. We are right inside the top of the inlet and surrounded by high rock and trees.

A new marketing campaign?

Before departing Brampton Island we went for a long walk with Silus (don’t tell the enemy) mostly in the area of the defunct resort. It is such a strange situation. The resort has been closed down for about 3 years now and most of it is in really quite good shape. The rooms are still fully furnished, with lounges, beds, bar fridges and televisions. There is a gym with exercise machines, weights etc., golf clubs, catamarans on the beach, wetsuits hanging up in the watersports area, tennis courts with nets up looking quite good, a de-salination plant and a huge aircraft runway. A forklift is parked out in the open, slowly rusting away. All of this and the only occupants are kangaroos, no sign of any security or caretaker. Lyn took some good photos of kangaroos on the runway, which we hope to sell to Quantas for thousands of dollars.

Working Remotely

The next destination was Thomas Island, just 18 miles away. We anchored in the bay on the South side near Dead Dog Island (eek) due to the forecast calling for the wind to go North East overnight. Another stunning bay, with just us and Mahiti in residence! It was initially nice and calm, and the Mahiti crew came over for a delicious slow-roasted lamb dinner, embellished by James’s birthday bottle of fine red wine and finished off with Leah’s delicious lemon meringue pie. Who said cruising sailors need to rough it?

Peace at Sunrise

Later, a nasty little Easterly swell started getting into the anchorage. The boats were rocking and rolling like crazy, no real danger but just discomfort and wear and tear on everything that was creaking and groaning as the boat moved. I had a brief sleep, Lyn had none and at 3AM we decided that enough was enough. Raising the anchor in the pitch dark was only slightly assisted by a tiny sliver of rising moon, but it was a hectic time, with the boat pitching and rolling in the waves until we were out of the bay and able to steer with the waves. Lyn went to try and get some much-needed sleep whilst I motored down-wave until we were able to get under the lee of Thomas and later Shaw Island. At first light we found a lovely and completely calm anchorage inside Burning point at the Southern end of Shaw Island – time for a sleep!

Ways to travel to Whitehaven Beach

Around mid-morning we awoke and decided that sleep could wait – exploring needed to happen. We upped anchor and used the strong ebbing tide to sweep us Northwards through Kennedy Sound, marveling at the beauty of Lindeman and Shaw Islands and later the majestic Pentecost Island (another great rock climbing location?). The plan was to go towards Airlie beach but by way of a detour past Whitehaven Beach. Whitehaven is everything we have heard and read about, a glorious long glistening white beach with navigable depth almost to the sand. The Southern end was quite crowded with yachts and motor yachts, not really our cup of tea. We sailed with jib only slowly down the full length of the beach, spotting two helicopters on the beach and one wedding. Yes indeed, it seems the enemy allows you to land your helicopter on the beach, but a little dog would destroy the environment!

No dog on this paddle board!

Arriving at the gorgeous Hill Inlet area we decided to anchor just off the beach and have lunch there. Lyn snuck Silus ashore on the standup board and fortunately there were no objections from the few people on the beach there. I hope we have not irreparably destroyed the place? There were a few boats right inside Hill Inlet, which is a sandy area that dries at low tide. I am quite keen to return and do that with the JoliFou, and also have a kite off the beach there next time it’s windy enough. We will no doubt return here soon, but we needed to find a quiet anchorage sheltered from the building Easterly for the night, so we set sail for Hook passage and onwards to Nara Inlet.

A blogger at work

Later

As we post this, we have just arrived in Airlie Beach at Abel Point Marina, looking forward to a little bit of luxury. Showers, laundry, get rid of the rubbish, spray the boat down with fresh water, collect stuff we’ve had delivered to the yacht club. Stock up on food and drink, most urgently we have run out of beer and coffee! Airlie looks like a charming place, but I will post more on that later when I’ve had a chance to look around more.

10 September 2014

As I write this it is 3AM, a full moon shines down on a friendly sea and Lady Musgrave island light bears 345 at 10 miles. The Jolifou is at peace, Lyn and Silus sleep down below and we gently bob to the rhythm of nature’s will. We are currently traveling at 1 knot, nearing the end of the slowest planned crossing ever.

A great place for kiting

Our stay in Bundaberg was much longer than planned as we awaited delivery of a new prop hub. The stay was sweetened considerably by the generous loan of a car by our new friend Jarrod, which enabled us to do some shopping, stock up on food and alcohol and I was even able to get out to Elliot Heads for a kite-surf (a great spot for it). The enforced delay also meant we could catch up with Wendy and Rob of Aja who otherwise would have been out of town.

After 4 days on the hardstand it was wonderful to be floating again this afternoon. With a forecast of nice moderate Easterlies for the night, becoming adverse Northerlies the next day, we were left with a quandary for our planned trip to Lady Musgrave. The distance is 50 nautical miles which, at our normal cruising speed of about 7 knots, we would do in 7 hours. You certainly don’t want to attempt entering the narrow un-lit reef pass at night, even with a full moon. Rather than risk having to motor for a long time against the wind the next day, we decided to go while the going was good, but sail really slowly so that we arrive in daylight. Another factor in the decision was that it would be a beautiful night to be at sea and we would enjoy a stunning sunset and moonrise.

Sunset on the way to Lady Musgrave Island

Which brings me to why we are currently doing just 1 knot. It was too hard to sail slow, making for an uncomfortable roll, so we went a little faster at about 5 knots, reaching with just a headsail. Now, within sight of the island we have hove to, which is basically the yacht equivalent of stopping without anchoring. You back the mostly furled headsail (or a small part of it) and sheet the mainsail (3^rd reef at the moment) on hard, helm all the way over and the boat balances at 45 degrees to the wind and waves, drifting slowly forwards and sideways with a relatively comfortable motion over the waves. This is often used as a defense strategy in gales and big seas as the boat tends to ride the waves well like this. It’s the first time we’ve done it on Jolifou and so far I’m very pleased with the result.

11 September 2014

The cay at Lady Musgrave Island

After a trip that gave us a stunning sunset, sunrise, full moon rise and set and whale sightings, the highlight for Lyn was the next morning when Silus did a poo on deck for the first time ever!?? This is a significant event in our efforts to turn him into a boat dog, as it takes a lot of adjusting for a dog to do this and is obviously important when you plan on spending many days at sea. The old dog is learning new tricks!

We timed our arrival at Lady Musgrave for the high tide and entered through the pass at about 9AM, which means we took about 17 hours to do 50 nautical miles = average speed of about 3 knots. The reef pass was pretty straight-forward with the sun a little up and the Maui Jim polarized sunnies on, it was very clear where the depth and shallow coral heads were. Lyn was delighted to be greeted by two huge green turtles as we entered the lagoon.

The turtles leading us into the lagoon at LMI

After an initial failed attempt, the anchor set well and we were settled in one of the most beautiful locations on this planet.

Lady Musgrave Island is really mostly just a large surrounding coral reef with a lagoon in the middle. On the North West side there is a small sand and coral cay with some vegetation, this being the only part that remains dry in high tides. The surrounding reef breaks the waves from the open ocean, but at high spring tide the reef is below sea level and there can be wave action entering the lagoon. The guide says

it is a place best visited at neap tides and calm weather, certainly you do not want to be trapped inside the lagoon on a stormy night at spring tides because if your anchor drags you always will land up on the sharp reef and you would never want to try to get out of the lagoon dodging coral bommies in the dark. As mentioned above there is a full moon at the moment, so it is indeed spring tides.

Lagoon reef pass

The weather is calm and the swell small, however, as per the forecast, and although we get a little bit of surge at high tide at low tide it is the calmest anchorage you could wish for.

The beauty of this place is absolutely stunning. The water is clear and a mixture of shades of azure blue, green and yellow lie all around as you soak in the expansive 360 degree vistas. In the distance the waves thunder on the surrounding reef and closer by lies the pretty little cay, with white sand beaches and green trees. The lagoon is not deep everywhere, there are coral bommies and sections of reef scattered around, which dry at low tide and provide some interesting snorkeling.

Yesterday we caught up with a little sleep before enjoying some snorkeling in the vicinity of the boat. Lyn and Silus took the stand-up board for a paddle to the other side of the lagoon and back, spotting a huge ray on the way.

Exploring the Reef

Today we took Silus to the beach on the cay and had a look around. The surrounding beach is beautiful and the interior is a wonderland of trees and birds. In the afternoon we paddled along the edge of the fringing reef, soaking up the beauty of the coral gardens. A new friend Craig, from a catamaran called Ocean Star came around for sun-downers.

14 September 2014

We are now anchored in West Bay, Middle Percy Island. Believe it or not, this place actually tops Lady Musgrave! We left Lady Musgrave when the South Easter came through at about 9 AM. Whales outside the reef pass bid us a fond farewell to this special place and then it was sails up and motor off. This was our best passage so far with 12 to 18 knots of down-wind breeze all the way. Jib poled out to windward or leeward and no need for the annoying sound of the engine. We saw many whales, breaching and jumping out of the water, not too close though! The trip was punctuated by passing by the beautiful islands of the Capricornia group and later other islands such as Tweed and High Peak. We hardly saw another vessel the whole way, just enjoyed our own ocean of champagne sailing.

Hope we don’t hit!

We arrived the following day at the Percy Isles. Rounding Hixson point we marveled at the beauty of the rocks and sea cliffs, then were greeted by the stunning West Bay where we anchored in really quite close to the beautiful white beach. West Bay is a small bay with a white sand beach between rocks on either side. No coral, just nice sand. There are palm trees at the top of the beach and in the middle is the charming and quirky “Percy Isles Yacht Club” shack. The “club” is an un-manned A-frame shack adorned everywhere with the names and memorabilia of the yachts that have visited.

The yacht club on Percy Island

Memorabilia from past yachts visits

A big plus of this place is that Silus was able to legally go ashore which is unfortunately a rarity in the nanny state where the government feels that everything needs to be a national park that must be protected from little dogs. I’ve never seen him run so fast as when we let him free on that pristine white beach. A spontaneous gathering of the crews of the 6 or 7 yachts at anchor developed on the beach with drinks and snacks appearing miraculously.

View of the bay from the yacht club

After a long, much-needed sleep, this morning we went exploring along the rocky coast-line South of the bay. The rock is amazing, with quite a few good looking climbing possibilities (for our rock-climbing friends). We were wearing thongs so despite the temptation we decided that it was best to be safe and didn’t bite, but we may yet go back with the climbing gear. We came across a beautiful white sand beach between the rocks and couldn’t resist a skinny dip!

Silus’s nemesis ‘The Goat!’

Further on we saw one of the resident goats, which Silus had to chase of course. We climbed some really steep sand dunes to the top and then looped back through the forest at the top of the cliffs. I think the legs will feel it later!

The pristine beach

This afternoon we are doing the walk up to the home-stead where we hope to buy fresh fruit and veg and honey which they make locally. We are told that you can get Telstra connection up there, so we are hoping to be able to post this blog if possible (we haven’t had connection for some days now).

Our plan was to spend just the one day here, but we may well extend a bit because I can’t imagine the National Park islands to the North being better than this.

Silus and Lyn on the rocks on Percy Island

It’s been somewhat a story of delays. To some extent this is the nature of cruising sailing as you are heavily dependent on the weather, especially if you want a comfortable trip! Our departure from the Pittwater was delayed due to Lyn having a bout of the flu plus some bad weather.

Roughing it out of Newcastle

As planned our first trip was just a short hop up to Newcastle where our good friends Joe and Belinda own the Mid Coast Marine boatyard and we took the boat out to do a few maintenance tasks. We were supposed to be there for just a day or two, but the weather had other ideas with the east coast low keeping us pinned in the Newcastle corner for almost a week. Anyway plenty of time to do the tasks and catch up with our friends.
We eventually left Newcastle in a not entirely perfect weather situation of strong South Easterly wind and huge swell. The going was quite rough, not what Lyn had hoped for on our first overnight trip! Bruce had to hand-steer for a very long time and had an entirely sleepless night after we noticed that two of our mast stays (D2 stays) had come unthreaded and were swinging in the breeze (and bashing against the mast). The next morning conditions had smoothed up a bit and Bruce was able to go up the mast and re-secure the stays (fortunately they are not essential for keeping the mast up!). In light of a forecast for even stronger winds and bigger swell overnight, we elected to stop in at Coffs Harbour.

Coffs entrance the next day

The tallest mast in the marina!

Silus and Bruce off watch

Radioing Coffs Marine Rescue for advice on the harbour entrance in the big swell, we were assured that it was fine. In the middle of the entrance this huge feathering wave appeared out of no-where and Bruce turned the boat as fast as he could to avoid being taken by it! Got washed sideways, rolling like crazy before being able to turn in again, chased by another set of waves breaking down the breakwater! Scary stuff, Lyn says it’s the most frightening experience she has ever had. Managed to get the boat safely docked in the marina and went for a much-needed drink!
We were again delayed in Coffs for a couple of days as there was no way we were venturing out of the marina until the swell had died. Not such a hardship as Coffs is an awesomely beautiful place. We departed on the back of a dying swell and a beautiful moderate Southerly wind, enjoying a day of champagne downwind sailing. The wind faded that night so we motor-sailed through the night and the next morning. We were now off North Stradbroke island and later Morten Island, motoring in almost flat calm, sunny with numerous dolphin and whale sightings along gorgeous coastline.

Whales off Morten Island

Dolphin escort

Around midday the wind started building from the North and we sailed and later motored from Cape Morten to our destination of Mooloolaba. The last 3 hours were pretty hectic with strong wind against the out-going tide making for rough conditions, plus some moments of stress wondering whether a zig-zagging container ship intended running us over.

Looking North from Mooloolaba

Mooloolaba is a beautiful spot and we enjoyed 2 nights there waiting for the wind to turn South once more. We were now sailing in companionship with Peter from Haven 111, whom we had met in Coffs and realised we were travelling at a very similar speed. The plan was to sail outside Fraser island and stop at Lady Musgrove island. After a great day of windy downwind sailing we had a look at the Wide Bay bar entrance and decided that it would be okay to enter the Sandy Straights (inside Fraser island), so the plan changed and we spent the night anchored at White Cliffs, half way throught the Sandy Straights.

Western Fraser Island

The next morning we set off for Bundaberg, doing a bit of a loop in Hervey bay in search of whales, which are supposed to be prolific in this area. Must have been a bad day because we saw none, but did greatly enjoy the beauty of the western coast of Fraser island. The wind faded and we were motoring towards Bundaberg when suddenly we lost drive. The engine was revving but we weren’t going anywhere! Bruce stuck his head in the water with a face mask and confirmed that the prop was still there, but something was wrong with the connection between engine and propeller. Fortunately the wind had filled in from the North East and we were able to sail into Bundaberg and onto a marina dock. Thank goodness this happened where it did!

Bundaberg lift out

So, we are now in Bundaberg, out of the water at the boatyard and awaiting deliver of a new propeller hub, which turned out to be the culprit. This is not such a bad outcome and will only cost us a few days and a few (quite a few) dollars, but is better than a lot of other things that could have caused this problem. We have been fortunate to be loaned  a car here by a new friend so will enjoy the weekend seeing the sights of Bundaberg and maybe getting in a bit of kite surfing. We hope to leave on Tuesday or Wednesday for Lady Musgrove perhaps? Who knows?

So this is cruising sailing:-

• Moments of absolute beauty, joy and happiness.
• Moments of sheer terror, moments of stress.
• Much of this happening in a state of dreaminess caused by lack of sleep.
• Always an adventure!