Down the river to Iluka

On Sunday Marg returned from Murwillumbah so we headed down to Harwood for a 1600hrs bridge opening. After watching the antics of another boat (who appeared determined to pass under the bridge first) for 40 minutes the bridge finally creaked upwards.

We settled on to Harwood public jetty for the night to give Idgi a chance to dig in some dirt and eat grass. The jetty (depth about 3M LWS) is concrete with two wood pilings so it was a disturbed sleep due to fender adjustments. Idgi had a good time until she was visited by a local moggie, when she announced it was time to go!

Manatee goes country

The fishing boats were very active here so we spent a while the next morning drinking coffee and watching them.

Nets out

We set out for Iluka Harbour mid morning and enjoyed the slow cruise down. Coming into Iluka our tender which had been trailing behind broke loose and was brought into the harbour for us by a very kind fisherman.

We anchored in the harbour amongst other cruisers for 3 days waiting for the weather to improve. We took the tender across to Yamba for provisions once but otherwise spent a relaxing time at anchor.

Up the Clarence

We left Yamba and headed up river, anchoring at Maclean. The trip up was uneventful and the girls enjoyed the scenery. The river was murky all the way from the constant rain.

Standing in the rain to watch the fields go by

We swapped sides of the river at Harwood bridge with Pelargic, a yacht from the northern hemisphere.

Pelargic under Harwood bridge

We got out our spare anchor (bruce) and chain which lived under our anchor locker and found water had not been draining properly from the bottom of the locker. So we made use of the council jetty and cleaned off the chain and repacked it. The bruce now lives on deck. It feels good knowing we have a decent spare anchoring system.

We also had a slight electrical problem at Maclean, with the fuses for the charger melting. After mucking around ourselves we eventually enlisted the help of the local auto-electrician who charges us a whole $12 to fix the problem-gotta love country areas! We had been planning to slip Manatee and do her anti-fouling, but as the Harwood slip was booked out for weeks we decided to slip her up north...Maryborough maybe.

It rained and rained and rained. Marg caught a few catfish. We decided we were sick of the cold (we almost got out our winter woolies) so Marg took the car back down south to Peter and Michael at Murwillumbah while AK prepared Manatee to head back down the river.

Tales from Yamba (2)

We've made the most of our Yamba stay, sightseeing and going to the beach.

Another day in paradise-Pippi Beach


Yamba across the river from Iluka


Iluka boat harbour-can you spot the sunken yacht?

No luck with work though, locals get the jobs which is fair enough. The girls have been having a great time, with lots of trips to the beach and the breakwater.

The weather has been really bad, can't remember so much rain for a long time. At times the bar is spectacular. A fishing boat got rolled last week and a catamaran got hit on it's stern by a freak wave which flooded into its saloon. The owner spent a week at the marina drying out. The fishing boat was wrecked.

We both celebrated birthdays at Yamba as did Ruby. Pearl is sure it's her birthday as well. We spent the day at Spooky Beach at Angourie, for a picnic, one of the few fine days we have had.

Spooky spooky Beach



Our day tent, gee it gets crowded

We also managed a few dinners at the Pacific Hotel at Yamba, which has amazing views as it's perched on a cliff. Great food too! The scene at dusk is great, as the fishing fleet leave the river, lights on. Highly recommended.

Yamba lighthouse from the Pacific


The beach below the Pacific

Skooter from Skooter Sails at Yamba is making us a boom tent which will double as a water catcher. We don't want to be reliant on marinas for our water any longer. Our stay at Yamba Marina has been a little strange. It's got great infrastructure, is in a beautiful spot and the folk with boats berthed are interesting and friendly. Pity about staff/management. Seems people are a bit of an inconvenience really (except front office staff who really know customer service). Never experienced such rudeness in our lives, an experience felt by all we talked with. After a wild storm we had, cruisers were adjusting ropes of the permanently berthed (vacant) boats so they weren't damaged as it didn't seem to be in the job description of staff. Strange! Recommended? Hell no!

The guy who was moored near us on Sydney Harbour and warned us about the sand banks, appeared one morning knocking on our hull. Mike on his 53' steelie (Bacchanalia) has been at Yamba preparing for his big trip. What a small sea!

Maclean which is about 1/2 inland from Yamba is Australia's "scottish town". The telegraph poles have tartan strips and on the Easter weekend it had it's "highland gathering". The sound of bagpipes could be heard for miles and kilts were the fashion of the day.

The Clarence at Maclean

There has been plenty of wild storms. The Clarence is a murky muddy slush, so Marg has given up on fishing, much to Idgi's disappointment. Canned fish is just not the same.

We've seen lots of films up here, even going to a short film festival which we loved. Yamba has 2 cinemas, one of which is in a converted Bunnings. The owner/staff are film buffs and it's a pleasure going to their cinema. Great fun when it rains on the tin roof. Well worth the experience if you're up this way.

sea critters we have seen

Marg and AK treated themselves to 'Grants guide to fishes' for their birthdays. It is a fabulous book that was originally written by Ern Grant when he worked for Qld Fisheries. Ern, along with his wife and son spent their time "getting their feet wet" and photographing every form of sea life they came upon. Many editions later, this book is a great resource.

So.... here are some of the amazingly beautiful critters we have seen....

What AK thought were sea snakes, then sea horses, then longtoms were actually dragonfish. Also known as sea moths.

dragonfish

'This amazing little fish grows only to 3". The sandy body is covered with a fine network of dark brown lines. The large wing-like pectoral fins are white margined. It is attracted to ships' lights at night, swimming quite rapidly in the pool of illumination at the surface- and showing how it takes the name of sea moth from its broad expanded pectoral fins."

The flying fish that flew into our wheelhouse had "pectoral fins that have become lengthened to form transparent wings that can become extended...the ventral fins,too,are expanded and lengthened to form a second and shorter pair of wings; and the lower lobe of the tail is broadened into a great paddle. When startled, it makes a low leap that carries it clear of the surface. It extends its wings and makes a rapid side-to-side sculling motion which propels it into a glide."

flying fish

The sound it made was quite extraordinary, Grant likens it to "an outboard motor".

The mahi mahi is also known as a dolphin fish or a dorado. The pic doesn't really do it justice, it was an amazing greenish-blue with gold speckles. AK has read some 'lost at sea' type books, most notably 'survive the savage sea', the story of a family of 5, along with 1 crew member who spent weeks adrift in a life raft and then their dinghy after their yacht was hit by a whale and sunk near Galapados Islands. Also 'adrift', one guy at sea for 76 days in his rapidly disintegrating life raft. Both writers refer to dorados which were the staple diet in both stories. Grant says " mahi mahi will congregate beneath seemingly insignificant pieces of flotsam: small rafts of seaweed, short lengths of rope, even a ladder". Ahh, that explains it, they hang under life rafts too! Steve Callahan, the writer of 'adrift', called the dorados "his doggies" as they hung with him for the entire time and gave him succour, both physically and emotionally.

mahi mahi

Manatee's tales from Yamba (1)

Idgi was the first off Manatee the next day (after lots of sleeping from us all). She quickly stuck her head down neighbouring boats' hatches to see if anyone was at home.

Idgi looking relaxed at the marina

We all introduced ourselves to the people and dog on the boat opposite. Skeeter their adolescent male dog took a liking to Ruby but unfortunately Ruby (and Idgi) didn't respond to his enthusiastic loving.

The marina has lots of people living on their boats who actually cruise. There are also a couple of houseboats who cruise the mighty Clarence River. There are 2 couples who have stopped here on different boats for births. Ginger-Lily was conceived in Guam by her Australian parents who have done lots of sailing around SE Asia. Erik was born in Grafton and his Norwegian family aim to be in Thailand for Xmas. Lots of other people are waiting here for the right weather to continue North.

We have fallen in love with Yamba..it really is paradise. The town is full of very friendly people and the environment is beautiful. Clean beaches and a beautiful river. Prawns fresh and cheap...perfect!

A friendly local joins us for lunch

Pearl & Marg on Pippi Beach

After 3 days we got ready to leave. Cyclone Hamish was off the Qld coast but far enough North (we thought) to not bother us. Raelene an experienced yachtie had a chat to AK and said "Hmm, going tomorrow, you do know there is a cyclone off the Qld coast?" AK assured her that we had seen the weather and the cyclone was moving further offshore. "Hmm" said Raelene "have you sailed up North when there is a cyclone further up?" "Well no". " I have" said Raelene "and I bent my boat! The seas travel south and its bloody miserable. Brisbane is the pits anyway, why the hell are you going there?"

So we decided to stay a little longer. Then in those seas we were keen to get out in, a tanker lost its containers and managed to run over one, spilling muck into Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River. Glad we waited it out.

Dave (the sailor we met on Laurieton LUSC jetty) who we were catching up with in Brisbane, rang. Don't come to Brisbane he advised. It's the pits! No berths for yachts, the pile berths in the Brisbane River where we were planning on staying are full. Waterways is planning to move on those yachts that have become permanently planted on the berths to give visitors somewhere to stay...sometime. He was anchored in the river and experiencing shocking thunderstorms, wash from the ferries and having an unpleasant time. He decided to go further north.

So we decided to stay in Yamba a little longer!

Coffs to Tweed (let's make that Yamba!)

Marg's ribs felt a little better, most of the bruising had gone down, so it was time to continue North. Motoring, not sailing. Her ribs weren't that good! We left Coffs marina around 11oo on Monday with a nav plan of 27hrs till the Tweed River. The wind was still from the SE at 10kts and the swell was 1-1.5 from the south. Pretty good conditions. We expected to be abeam Yamba at roughly 2200hrs.

Jacki and Ruby were tethered upstairs in the wheelhouse, Pearl took up her position on the saloon couch and Idge settled in the v-berth. Lots of shoals around the Solitary Islands gave us a rough ride. More than pretty rough...AK was at the helm and had to hang on to avoid falling over. The fridge door sprung open and disgorged its contents. Pearl thought all her dreams had come true...but she couldn't get her balance to fossick. We contemplated heading back to Coffs but after giving ourselves and the sea time, things settled and we continued North.

After a few hours we realised that the water pump was continuously whirring...what the? The hot water tank was heating up and then emptying through the overflow pipe. First time its happened. 700 litres of water (our entire fresh water tank) was discharged into the bilge...yikes. After a brief discussion AK disappeared into the engine room to attempt to remember (always difficult in a stressful situation) how to stop the fresh water engine cooling system diverting to the hot water tank. The brain whirred in unison with the water pump...this valve and that. Done. Better pull the fuse on the pump before it burns itself out. Done. Bloody hell, what else can go wrong!

Night fell, we were joined by many dolphins at dusk, always a reassuring sight. Our nav plan had us travelling at 15nm offshore. Although we have radar, GPS and do our chart work, we remain cautious of the coast at night, as well as fishing nets which are impossible to see in the dark.

We decided as this leg was giving our stress levels a shake up, whoever wasn't on watch would nap in the wheelhouse rather than downstairs. What else could go wrong? Well we could get stuck in the East Coast Current, which we had read wasn't strong on this part of the coast. Guess it's all relative, but I'd call 3-4 kts pretty strong. At times we were doing less than 1kt...but at least we weren't going backwards! And we had company...a tanker was starboard for the entire trip!

Marg trawled this trip and caught a mahi mahi. A flying fish managed to "fly" through the open wheelhouse window...what amazing creatures. Their fins really do look like wings. We found another on the deck at first light.

Just before dawn we decided to call it a hard leg and enter the Clarence River to head for Yamba. Contacted Yamba/Iluka VMR to get a bar report, who were informative. "Gee the sea looks rough, but I guess you'd know that....the bar is calm!" Calm it was, but the river is confusing. Again VMR assisted by giving us directions to Yamba. We also had to stop and get a fisherman to point us in the right direction!

We decided to head for the marina, even though there are great spots for anchoring, as we didn't have any water and we were exhausted. We remembered a bloke who was moored near us in Drummoyne saying to be careful when we navigated the Clarence to Yamba as he had got wedged on a sandbank in the shallow water. Remembering this we both looked at the depth sounder to see that we had 0.1m under our keel. Marg swung the wheel and she managed to avoid the sand. Hallelujah.

The marina allocated us a berth that was reasonably easy to navigate in to. After tying up we fell gratefully into bed. What a trip! 25hrs to Yamba.

Manatee chills at Coffs

The Coffs marina

We all spent a very pleasant week at Coffs taking our nightly constitutional to Muttonbird Island along the breakwater where the girls were very careful to not step foot above the high water mark as it was national park!

Idge being careful to not step foot on National Park!

AK was in her element as the marina was below the circuit for Coffs Airport. What bliss, sitting on the deck watching aircraft on finals (usually).

under the circuit...bliss! (spot the aircraft)

Marg had a fish off the jetty, caught nothing, but you should have been there to see the ones that got away!

A friendly dolphin at the jetty. Maybe that's why no fish were caught.

We ate our way through some fantastic restaurants, which were about 30 mins walk away from the marina so we didn't feel tooo guilty. If you're up around Coffs, "Watermark" is highly recommended, for fresh food cooked imaginatively. The waitress couldn't help herself in telling us that the restaurant was owned by two women (who were life partners).

The yacht club had a great view and we spent a few pleasant afternoons on the verandah watching the sea.

View from yacht club verandah

On one of our walks we saw a catamaran being pushed from the beach by a group standing in knee deep water. We later found out from the skipper that it is 53' and he dragged while trying to anchor. For quite a while it looked like they were going to be beached ( a crane company turned up, how's that for a small town grape vine!), but the cat was finally turned so that it's outboards could be started. This is the spot that VMR recommends for anchoring, and until recently had Waterways courtesy moorings. Waterways has removed ALL it's courtesy moorings up this way.

The beach minus catamaran.

It was a very pleasant week, the water was warm and the air was clean, and Marg's ribs felt a little better.