Southwards at Last

Date: 23rd October 2024

Location: Tipplers Anchorage, Southport, Queensland

Evening at Moreton Bay

So this is exciting. We've started to plan next year's travels. We aim to sail north up the Australian east coast, across to Darwin in the Northern Territories and then north to Indonesia and Malaysia. Indonesia the home of thousands of islands with unpronounceable names that you've never heard of. Of course it's not as straightforward as that. First we needed to sort out Gill's heart issues, to extend our Australian visas and to ensure my UK jury service commitment next April is either met or removed.

Since I last posted Gill has been undergoing numerous tests to get to the bottom of her problem. It turns out the top and bottom parts of her heart are sometimes beating at the same time instead of one after another. It's called bigeminy or trigeminy and is probably not a big deal. Scans show the fabric of her heart is 'pristine' and she managed 11 minutes on the stress machine (target for her age is 5 minutes). It's the electrical messages that have gone awry. She sees a cardiac specialist next week and we hope he says 'carry on as you are' and gives her a letter for future doctors who can't find a heart beat or pulse!

Another ECG.

Super Gill on the Stress Test. 11 minutes!

Meanwhile after a nervous few weeks including visa medicals when the doctor couldn't measure Gills heartbeat(!) we finally have our visa extensions. However instead of a full year until September it runs out in June. That's a problem because we can't make our way up north until April because of cyclones and I'm due for jury service in April/May leaving no time to leave Australia by the end of June. What to do? Either try to get my jury service requirement removed or hope for a further three months extension after June. The former may prove problematic and the latter risks the extension being refused and the need to leave Australia within 28 days. Not ideal.

The "not quite perfect" Australian Visa.

And this highlights one of the main challenges in this lifestyle. The rest of the world couldn't care less about our logistical, weather pattern and medical constraints so we have to carefully negotiate our way through them. Living the dream is sometimes thwarted by events outside our control requiring flexibility and ingenuity.

Meanwhile life goes on and we've finally left the marina to start heading south the 500 miles towards Sydney for Christmas and New Year. But first it was a wedding anniversary. Back off to Rose and Ian's near Noosa for their 50th! Nick, their son and his partner picked us up on their way from Brisbane. Nick is now in his forties and a consultant ophthalmologist. We remember him being born in South Africa when we all worked there! It was a great party and by chance one of their friends is a visa application consultant. She could yet prove useful as is Rose a former GP. Thanks guys and here's to another 50 - well maybe just 20 or so.

Anniversary breakfast.

With most of our tasks completed and just delayed by Gill's medical appointments we planned another visit to the Glasshouse Mountains but this time without the luxury of a hire car. Queensland is about to vote for a new government so the ruling Labour party has made all travel 50c (UK 25p) per journey to boost support in the upcoming election. So it was a £1 bus, train, train and bus journey to get us the two hours to the start of our planned walk, the Yul Yan Man, Grade 5 walk with scrambling. We had a great day. It was a hot, around 32°, walk of 24,000 steps. Bus, train, train and bus back to Scarborough and a well earned meal out in the evening. Excellent.

Scrambly bit.

[Interesting fact as the King has been here in Australia this week: Each state here has a public holiday for the King's birthday. Each state holds it on a different day none of which is his official birthday in the UK. By the way how come Camilla is Queen when Prince Philip wasn't King?].

We held a goodbye party when we were due to leave the marina. Invited were the office staff, the yard crew, the chandlery team and the cruising community. Included were Paul and Penny two Quantas pilots and their two boys on Mach Trimmer. Food was ample and drink flowed. The boys loved it. Then we didn't leave because Gill felt poorly. The following week when we finally departed the boys wanted to know if there would be another party!

Chilling Time.

The journey south was to be broken up by a stop at the famous Boatworks yard where we are due to be re-rigged. To reach there we travel again through Moreton Bay and then on southwards through a network of shallow channels to reach Southport at the northern end of the touristy Gold Coast with its plethora of jetskis, highrise blocks and general mayhem on the water.

We're not used to travelling with only two or three metres below the keel at high water and strong currents running but after a couple of days in the now familiar Moreton Bay we managed the first day of shallows before trying to anchor at Jacobs Well. Very tricky. Many boats some on mooring balls, some anchored and everyone changing relative position when the tide turned. Eventually we found a spot only to be advised we were close to a wreck so we re-anchored and awaited the night. We all turned, a smaller yacht dragged onto an old trawler next to us and we were forced to re-anchor in the middle of the channel. We kept watch til 4am and left the anchorage tired and wondering what the following day would bring.

26th October, Bum's Bay anchorage, Southport.

Next day we were due to meet up again with Kevin and Shawna who had spent the season 1,500 miles away back in Fiji with their family. Through another shallow patch with 0.5m below the keel, out into The Broadwater and a sharp turn left up to Tipplers anchorage. What a delightful place. Busy at the weekend but quiet at other times and full of wildlife. And who's this coming towards us? Yes, it's Meraki II. Hugs, stories and champagne as we were reunited after almost a year. The plan is we will stay with them off and on to Malaysia next year. Tipplers was idyllic. A coffee house for Gill, bird life for me, walks along the quiet river and a kilometre away was the mighty Pacific. A great few days before we headed downstream to Southport for a few days to restock provisions and watch the rich at play in their big motor boats.

Calm anchorage at Tipplers.

Silver Gull.

Lace Monitor or Goanna.

Pelican.

Agile Wallaby at dusk.

Peaceful Tipplers anchorage.

The rolling Pacific Ocean.

Our arrival was somewhat marred by a loud mouthed Aussie cussing and swearing that we were too close. Not true but we moved anyway.

Things to do here.. 

- walk to the Seaway, exit to the Pacific.

- watch the Gold Coast 500. Fast cars whizzing around the streets of Surfers' Paradise.

- get documents printed out at Officeworks and post them to the UK.

- fail to get HP64 cartridges for Kevin. Only available in North America.

- watch the boats turn this way and that apparently randomly as the tide and currents swirl us around in 20 knots.

- finally test the new dinghy engine in a long trip across the bay.

Meraki with Southport by day.

Southport by night.

And finally, thanks to Mike for collecting and sending the parcels containing the parts we need for the re-rigging exercise next month. They arrived earlier this week via Leipzig and Hong Kong.

That's it for now.

Moreton Bay

Date: 26th September 2024

Location: Moreton Bay

Brisbane, the third most populous city in Oceania and halfway up the east coast of Australia, lies upriver from and sheltered by Moreton Bay.

Moreton Bay - 155km long and 40km wide

This is where we spent the last couple of weeks. Depths are shallow, lots of shifting sandbars and big ships steaming into Brisbane. But it is also a haven for wildlife and, provided you are ready to move from anchorage to anchorage as the winds shift, as they certainly will, it provides flat water sailing close to our marina (near North Lakes on the map above).

This was essential a shakedown cruise, a sea trial, after all the work we have done over the past six months but also an opportunity to chill out away from the marina.

I could take you through what we did each day but that would be a bit tedious I think so here's a few highlights (and low lights) instead.

One of the best things was finally meeting up with some other long distance cruisers. We've met plenty of people who keep their boats in the marina and take them out for a few weeks at a time, mostly along the east coast here, but very few new people who really understand what it takes to sail long distances from country to country. We did already have a passing acquaintance with Andrea and Tony on Irish Melody but this week we spent a fair bit of time with them and Frank and Nikki on Stars End II. They have all cruised extensively in South East Asia with Frank and Nikki making it as far as India before Covid forced them into a hasty retreat back to Oz. So we learned a lot from them about what next year might have in store for us. Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam etc. It all sounds most exciting. But best of all was being able to discuss visa requirements, living in different countries, fixing boats (of course) and all the other myriad aspects of our lifestyle. We cooked food for each other, we drank together, I showed them how to make soft shackles and we generally had a lovely time together.

Moreton Island, which shelters the bay from the unpredictable Pacific Ocean to the east, is famous for its Sand Hills. Our daughter Jenny tells us they are really sand dunes not sand hills but that's what everyone here calls them so that's what I'll call them. Even the big ones are only 70m or so high but they overlook the almost tropical looking blue waters of the bay - and magical in the early morning sun. 70m doesn't sound very high but for each three steps you take upwards you slide two steps down. So it makes them feel like 210m high!

The summit!

Moreton Bay sand hills with Brisbane hidden in the haze beyond.

With Tony and Andrea from Irish Melody

Much easier going down.

There are no paved roads on Moreton Island, just a few sand tracks beloved by the 4-wheel drive fanatics. And hidden in amongst the trees lie secluded camping grounds. All seeming miles away from bustling Brisbane a mere 30km away. We took the dinghy ashore on our last morning and climbed Little Sandhills. Just us and a few unidentified birds chirping away. And on the ground the tracks of nocturnal creatures highlighted by the early morning shadows.

Early morning creature tracks.

Wildlife. Anything exciting? Oh yes. Whales? Yes, we saw quite a few whales. Not sure what types they were but we had one a few boat lengths away, several breaching in the near distance and plenty of blows near the horizon. No decent pictures I'm afraid. They are even more difficult to photograph than dolphins. At least there's usually plenty of dolphins and they are on or just below the surface, often playing in our bow wave. But whales only surface every few minutes and are guaranteed to be where you are not looking for them. And anyway who wants to be looking through a lens when you could be watching them without.

No whales here. Looking down on Mehalah from the top of North Stradbroke Island.

Anything else? Of course. Dugongs. Weird looking creatures or what? These are rare mammals that spend their time munching seagrass and pretending to be mermaids. Apparently the old time sailors used to confuse these chaps with them. I'm not sure how. They must have been at sea a long time to have confused them with gorgeous women with tails. At anchor in the evening we would hear them snuffling around and on a couple of occasions we saw them close by, their backs curving out of the water. Here is someone else's video of them swimming off Moreton Island.

Fishing? The less said about that the better. It is forbidden to fish in a fair percentage of the bay as those areas are protected. Where we did fish I only caught one small bream. But walking along the beach one day we met a six year old that had just caught a 4' shark just a few yards out.

As far as the shake down was concerned it was generally a very positive experience. The new, secondhand from a breakers yard, dinghy engine ran very well, our inflatable canoe stayed inflated, the replacement main engine positive lead from the battery ensured Mehalah started better than ever. I shortened the annoying second reefing line that has always been a nuisance, the almost empty gas bottle lasted OK, I made a new snubber line as the old one had stretched over time and Gill's newly painted decks were admired by all and sundry. Only the generator played up a bit. It runs great but is leaking a bit of oil - new O ring required.

I mentioned earlier the changing winds. The currents change too as the tide wizzes in and out through numerous narrow, constantly changing channels. One evening with a strong southerly wind forecast we anchored in one of these channels. We always set an anchor alarm to tell us if our anchor is dragging. This is what a typical pattern will look like as the tides go in and out. A steady arc about the anchor location.

A nice red arc.

And this is what we saw that night. A steady arc (green circle) followed by a rapid move towards the shore (yellow shape). 

Nice purple arc followed by nasty purple line towards the shore.

Anyway we just avoided going aground and re-anchored safely in the centre of the channel for the night.

The weather was due to turn nasty again so we decided to return to the marina in time for Rose and Ian's 50th wedding anniversary. No wind to start with but after an hour a nice 15knot NE breeze kicked in and Mehalah flew westwards. Were we in a race with Irish Melody? Yes when the wind was fresher and we were faster, no as the wind dropped and their lighter boat just beat us back home.

Arty Picture 1.

Arty Picture 2.

Sailing at last and Tassie

Date: 4th September 2024

Location: Scarborough Marina, Queensland

Now that's what I call graffiti. Queensland Railway Station.

First things first. Thank you everyone for all Gill's wonderful birthday wishes. She woke up to 52 WhatsApp messages from all across the globe. Fiji, Spain, Australia, Canada, UK, K2(!) and many others. She spent the next two days trying to reply to them all. If she missed you it doesn't mean she didn't appreciate it. We particularly like Dick and Mary's message. They have just sold their sailing boat in the Caribbean and so are on Stage 2 of the Sailboat > Motorboat > Motor Home > Nursing Home decline!

Right. Lots of pictures this time. The recalcitrant generator is still not operational but at least we think the problem has been identified. A stuck exhaust valve. It's the first time I've dismantled a diesel engine so it was a bit stressful but I learned a lot so it's with J&C Autos for sorting out. It was supposed to be ready two days ago but of course it wasn't and today they are not answering the phone. A nuisance as we need to get an Uber or two buses to go and collect it.

Better news on the fridge front though. The new evaporator plate finally arrived from Italy and Bõsco the Serbian fridge guy sorted it. Result, and great to have a fridge again; the first time since Panama.

Both dinghy engines are working too. More good news.

Then there's Gilly's heart condition. Good news here too. After several ECGs, blood tests, ultrasound and 24 hours on a Holter Monitor the outcome is "do nothing". She has minor bigemini when some of the beats get out of synch. Not a problem unless it gets much worse and anyway it actually seems better now.

The other admin issues we are dealing with relate to us wanting to stay in Australia for another year. We have to report Mehalah's location every three months for up to a year. That year is coming to an end so we have to request a further year's extension (otherwise we have to import her at a cost of 15% of her value). We now have confirmation that this won't be a problem. Our own visas though are a bit more problematic and complicated. Our current one year, multiple three months maximum at a time visas expire at the end of September. We have just received bridging visas as we have to have medicals before they decide whether to grant us new visas. The new visas (19 page application) will hopefully allow us to come and go as we wish for the next 12 months - but who knows?

But the big news is. We've finally been sailing! We had 10 days out in Moreton Bay just outside the marina here. It's a bit tricky. It's shallow, the tides are quite big and the winds come from all directions. Each day we had to check the forecast and find a suitable anchorage for the next day. Very different from ocean sailing. Much more technical but good fun. And everything worked. What a joy. And it was so good to finally be out of the marina.

Soldier crabs.

Mehalah at anchor.

To be honest we were pretty fed up with working every day on the boat especially with the generator giving us so many problems, So we looked at somewhere to go for Gilly's big birthday. We were going to go to Uluru (Ayers Rock) and almost got round to booking flights when I discovered that the accommodation we liked was actually 350 kilometers away from the airport! And anyway the flights were really expensive. So we decided to go and visit Tasmania (Tassie to us now). Flights were cheap and Keith and Lynda who we had met throughout the Pacific had just bought a lovely new house there. So Tassie it was. In the middle of winter. In the winds. In the rain. Tell me again why the flights were cheap?

It's about a three hour flight down to Hobart in Tassie from Brisbane and when we arrived it was cold. For some reason we got an upgrade with more leg room. We collected a hire car and for the first time ever I took out the insurance cover. Without it I was liable to pay $5,000AU (£2,600UK) for the smallest dent or chip. Too great a risk. Off we went. A long drive north to Lanceston (or Lawn-ceston as they pronounce it here). First impressions? It's like the English countryside except there are dead wombats along the road. Green, rolling fields, lots of sheep and very few cars. Tassie's geology, unlike most of Australia, is very varied so again reminiscent of the UK. This was to be a touristy trip so we made our way to Cataract Gorge to stretch our legs after the long drive.

Roadside letter boxes. There's not much to do in Tasmania.

Roadkill. Another padimelon (small wallaby).

Cataract Gorge.

Tassie is about half the size of England but has a population of only 0.5m compared with England's 69m so there's plenty of space for everyone. Six times more sheep than people. Tasmanians refer to the the rest of Australia as "The Mainland". The national clothing is a nice warm checked flannel shirt. They grow a lot of grapes for excellent Pinot Noir wine, as well as apples, pears and soft fruit. The weather is not dissimilar to England even though England is 15 degrees closer to the pole than Tassie (it's that Gulf stream you see).

After a night in Lanceston it was west to Cradle Mountain. Snow on the top and bitterly cold. So cold that Gill decided the walk round the lake required her full foul weather sailing gear. Possibly a bit over the top but she did stay dry. It's all very organised here in the National Park. We were required to sign in for an easy 7 kilometer walk around the lake though some of the longer walks are pretty hardcore. Not for us today though as visibility was poor and we had a nice warm hotel to look forward to. The Park is well known for its Wombats and we were lucky enough to spot one crossing a bridge. Here he is - particularly notable because Emma, our younger daughter, has had the nickname of Wombat since she was very young. Why? No idea!

What we saw.

What we should have seen.

Wombat

Distinctive cubic wombat poo.

Lesser spotted quoll.

The famous Tasmanian Devil.

Anyway the Cradle Mountain hotel was excellent and the food was great. For some reason we were upgraded to a room overlooking the bush rather than the car park. Not that we could see anything in the cloud. Next day we escaped before the forecast snow and ice arrived and set off on a very long day's drive to the far southwest of the island where Keith and Lynda live. This time it was nothing like England. The entire western third of Tasmania is designated wilderness. Our route skirted the eastern edge. What can I say? There are a lot of trees. Logging, hydroelectric power and salmon farming are three of the main industries here and all of them are controversial. And then there's mining too. After two hours of driving without seeing a house and only two cars we arrived at Queenstown. For a hundred years this was a gold and copper town. To be honest it's a mess. Barren hills and a lunar landscape. It's closed now and there's a bit of an alternative feel to it. But 70 years ago it must have been very remote and lawless, a real frontier town.

Anyway after a couple of stops on the way we finally made it to Surges Bay and Keith and Lynda's place on the Huan river. Wow! They spent almost a year working down the east coast of Australia and onto Tasmania before deciding this was where they wanted to be. They sold a two bedroom flat in Sydney and with the proceeds bought a three acre, river frontage, modern, three bedroom luxury house. Itiki, their 44' catamaran bobs on their mooring which you can see as you lie in bed in the morning. Absolutely stunning. They moved in two weeks ago and we were their first visitors.

Keith and Linda's back garden with Itiki at anchor.

Idyllic.

Our time with  them flew by. After a delicious roast lamb dinner we slept well. Next day we drove to Bruny Island via the ferry for Gill's actual birthday. Delicious oysters at a small shack, a climb to view the raging Southern Ocean, a birthday lunch plate of local cheeses, smoked padimelon (small wallaby), olives, another oyster each, smoked salmon, sourdough bread, biscuits and preserve, all washed down with three local taster wines. Delicious. We needed some bread which we collected from a roadside fridge once we had shooed away the instagramming Chinese tourists. Next it was down to the far southern end of the island (next stop Antarctica) to admire the old lighthouse and for Gill to take a paddle in the chilly Southern Ocean with menacing clouds approaching.

Back to Surges Bay and our final day with Keith and Linda. South again, this time on the mainland to find a walk. Well, we found the start of it. But the tide was in and after hacking through the bush for an hour we retreated and, because the sun was out, put on our swimming gear and braved the sea. We all managed to dip our shoulders in. Gill said she went for a swim but I'm not sure three strokes really constitutes a swim.

Traditional Tasmanian shirt modelled by me.

VERY chilly.

The furthest south we've ever been.

Wild coastline.

The Southern Ocean - cold!

Lighthouse at the end of the world.

Birthday lunch.

Birthday present.

And so to our final day in Tassie. A day in Hobart, the capital. The town was quite interesting though not at its best in the rain. We walked to The Royal Tasmanian Yacht Club where the famous Sydney to Hobart yacht race ends and had a coffee. But it was rather stuffy and not our sort of place. The local scallop pie though was excellent.

Mmm. Hobart's speciality. Scallop Pie.

The Royal Yacht Club of Tasmania.

However, you can't visit Hobart without spending some time in Mona. Mona is an art gallery like you have never seen before. Buried deep beneath the sandstone it consists of four, or is it five or three levels of rooms filled with the most esoteric art works. Giant word boards, UK miner's strike re-enactment video, the inside of a brain with neurons, 62 different plaster casts of vaginas (I kid you not), a room empty bar a woman who talks rubbish in your face as you pass through, another room full of flashing images reminiscent of the screens in CERN. Wowzers. What a sensory delight! What an amazing two hours.

Back to the Victorian hotel. And amazingly we were upgraded again. Twice. This time we ended up with the bridal suite.

The following morning it was back to the airport and another short flight home to Brisbane. For some reason this time we got given free food! We left Tasmania in stormy near freezing temperatures and arrived back in Brisbane to find summer had arrived.

Update: 9th September.

The generator is fixed! We're leaving the marina on Wednesday for a couple of weeks before making another trip to Noosa for Rose and Ian's 50th wedding anniversary.

The generator - in less happy times.

And Gill has finished painting the deck. Good job Gilly.

In progress.

Sunset at Scarborough.

Gooday from Oz.