Thursday, November 25, 2010
Kangaroos to boat work
We are settling in a bit here at Bundaberg to a more normal life, which means it is time to go soon. We take the free shuttle bus to town about 16km away 2 or 3 times a week for grocerys and boat items that we can't get locally. There is a medium sized IGA food store about a 20 minute walk away and a good marine store at the top of the dock here. We have a few friends here we have been socializing a bit with here . Delicado has been helpful with info as they have just finished a circumnavigation and are great to socialize with and share a car with. Shamantha with the single hander Rob has also been helpful and I helped him a bit hauling him up his mast a couple of times. Saleena also just pulled in here a Canadian couple from BC. and we had dinner with them last night.
We saw our first kangaroos last night just before dark while walking to the restaruant. There was a long stretch of forested road and there was two kangaroos near the road in the grass, they watched us a bit then bounded away with huge hops.
The weather here has been cool and rainy with lots of wind, locals are saying the weather is worse than normal for this time of year. We get a nice day then two days of on off rain.
The only boat work that urgently needed doing was fixing a sheave at the mast head that disintgraded making it difficult to pull the main sail up. I put a pulley at top of mast which works fine until I can find a sheave that will fit which may be a problem. Change the engine oil, an easy job and fix a couple of small tears in the main sail. But yesterday we found another problem that was not on the 'to do list'. The galley sink drain corroded out and started leaking so got the local marine store here to bring in a new one for us.
Other jobs that we are doing but not necassary are adding a couple for LED lights and replacing a couple of the older ones that are not bright enough. Getting AIS (for identifying ships)on the boat, right now looking at getting the new Stanard Horizon vhf radio that comes with a AIS dislplay. A wind generator and redoing how my reefing lines are run on boom and a dozen other small jobs. And while Dorothy away back home I will do a overhaul of watermaker and a bit of work on the head. Also do some painting on the topsides. At some point we will also have to do a haulout for another coat of antifouling paint. Just like owning a house there is always something to repair except on a cruising boat you do it in exotic locations, and spent a lot of time trying to source things.
We have booked a marina slip in Manly near Brisbane a 180 miles South of us and plan to head down there leaving here around Dec first.
We saw our first kangaroos last night just before dark while walking to the restaruant. There was a long stretch of forested road and there was two kangaroos near the road in the grass, they watched us a bit then bounded away with huge hops.
The weather here has been cool and rainy with lots of wind, locals are saying the weather is worse than normal for this time of year. We get a nice day then two days of on off rain.
The only boat work that urgently needed doing was fixing a sheave at the mast head that disintgraded making it difficult to pull the main sail up. I put a pulley at top of mast which works fine until I can find a sheave that will fit which may be a problem. Change the engine oil, an easy job and fix a couple of small tears in the main sail. But yesterday we found another problem that was not on the 'to do list'. The galley sink drain corroded out and started leaking so got the local marine store here to bring in a new one for us.
Other jobs that we are doing but not necassary are adding a couple for LED lights and replacing a couple of the older ones that are not bright enough. Getting AIS (for identifying ships)on the boat, right now looking at getting the new Stanard Horizon vhf radio that comes with a AIS dislplay. A wind generator and redoing how my reefing lines are run on boom and a dozen other small jobs. And while Dorothy away back home I will do a overhaul of watermaker and a bit of work on the head. Also do some painting on the topsides. At some point we will also have to do a haulout for another coat of antifouling paint. Just like owning a house there is always something to repair except on a cruising boat you do it in exotic locations, and spent a lot of time trying to source things.
We have booked a marina slip in Manly near Brisbane a 180 miles South of us and plan to head down there leaving here around Dec first.
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Sunday, November 7, 2010
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Australia
We left Noumea on Oct 26 2010. We had a good sail the first two days and then the wind went light and we had to motor some and then sail and motor some more. We ended up taking 8 days to get there with the slow sailing and put about 50 hours on the engine. A couple of big rain squalls came through with little wind in them and then another came during night and had winds up to 40 knots for a few minutes and then dropped to 20. Luckily I had the mainsail reefed when I saw it coming on the radar and then took the sail right down as it hit us. There was another weather system coming and we did not want to delay too long getting there, so we motored more than we like.
We got to the bay with Bundanberg about 3am in the morning so slowed down so we did not have to go up the river to the town in the dark. Then the wind came up to about 20 to 25 knots making it hard to go slow so hove to as best we could. As daylight came we motored the mile up river to the Bundanberg port marina and anchored by the Quarantine buoy as we were told to do on the radio when we checked in with VMR Bundy. We were not allowed of the boat until customs and Quarantine visited boat. After a few hours we were told to come to the dock and customs came and did there thing which took an hour and then Quarantine came and took some food stuff of our boat and charged their $300 dollars making Australia the most expensive place to check in the world probably (Visa was $200 dollars each got in Fiji). We will probably stay here for a month and then go up the river to Bundaberg townsite or down to Brisbane. Now it is just great to be finally in Australia.
The boat is in pretty good shape to keep on going if we needed to, just some minor maint items to do. But I want to do a few upgrads and improvements while we are here.
Info:
We followed the red/green channel markers into the Burnett river, no drama in the windy conditions. The first channel markers were missing their red, green paint so we were a bit confused if they were the right markers, again the chart plotter helped. you could not see the triangle or square until you were close. Above article covers customs and calling ahead. The Quaraintine anchorage is right beside the marina, just downstream of it. We anchored at
24 45.551 S 152 23.294 E then moved into marina when told to.
Is shallow, we ran aground at a very low tide going down the fareway between slips, is soft mud. (6ft draft). You bounce around a bit in the marina when it is blowing 20knots outside. Probably not a great spot to leave boat over season. Several people did haul their boats out on the hard for the season and flew home, and that should be fine. Prices seemed good for that and its a separate secured area.
We got to the bay with Bundanberg about 3am in the morning so slowed down so we did not have to go up the river to the town in the dark. Then the wind came up to about 20 to 25 knots making it hard to go slow so hove to as best we could. As daylight came we motored the mile up river to the Bundanberg port marina and anchored by the Quarantine buoy as we were told to do on the radio when we checked in with VMR Bundy. We were not allowed of the boat until customs and Quarantine visited boat. After a few hours we were told to come to the dock and customs came and did there thing which took an hour and then Quarantine came and took some food stuff of our boat and charged their $300 dollars making Australia the most expensive place to check in the world probably (Visa was $200 dollars each got in Fiji). We will probably stay here for a month and then go up the river to Bundaberg townsite or down to Brisbane. Now it is just great to be finally in Australia.
The boat is in pretty good shape to keep on going if we needed to, just some minor maint items to do. But I want to do a few upgrads and improvements while we are here.
Info:
We followed the red/green channel markers into the Burnett river, no drama in the windy conditions. The first channel markers were missing their red, green paint so we were a bit confused if they were the right markers, again the chart plotter helped. you could not see the triangle or square until you were close. Above article covers customs and calling ahead. The Quaraintine anchorage is right beside the marina, just downstream of it. We anchored at
24 45.551 S 152 23.294 E then moved into marina when told to.
Is shallow, we ran aground at a very low tide going down the fareway between slips, is soft mud. (6ft draft). You bounce around a bit in the marina when it is blowing 20knots outside. Probably not a great spot to leave boat over season. Several people did haul their boats out on the hard for the season and flew home, and that should be fine. Prices seemed good for that and its a separate secured area.
Stuck in the mud
While in Noumea we shared a car rental with another couple on Delicado. We drove amost to the north end of the island exploring and then came down the beautiful NE coast and we also tryed a road that would save us some time that was a red line on map and suppose to be a good road. But this road slowly turned into a narrow dirt road with the odd mud hole but soon the mud holes got larger and then running full speed at one got stuck in the middle so everyone had to get out and push and the car would not budge. After a bit we decided to push it back and got it out and tryed again and got through the mud with just the driver in the car so giving the car more clearance. Soon there was a large creek that went right across road and it was too deep for the car so we had to turn back, so our short cut cost us 3 hours. We stayed in a small cabin in a campground for the night making it a two day trip around the island. The island is not particularily wonderfull, the islands are better except for theNE coast which is great.
We met another Canadian boat Toketie and they are BCA members like us had had a visit with them on there steel boat. After lots of exploring and buying more food in Noumea it was time to leave for the last big passage which is crossing to Australia. This can be a rough passage and is about 780 miles so will take about 7 days.
We met another Canadian boat Toketie and they are BCA members like us had had a visit with them on there steel boat. After lots of exploring and buying more food in Noumea it was time to leave for the last big passage which is crossing to Australia. This can be a rough passage and is about 780 miles so will take about 7 days.
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