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.

Manatee coasts to Coffs

The weather was kind, seas to 1M, swell 1.5 from SW, wind 10-15 from SW. Dolphins escorted us to the bar.

Manatee sprinted along making fast progress under motor. After settling in and having a coffee or two we decided to hoist sails. OOps are we out of practice or what...we spent a few hours playing and going around in circles before deciding to take them down as the winds were increasing. That's when Marg got hit by the main boom after an accidental gybe. Stoic woman that she is we continued on after ascertaining that there was no internal damage (we hoped). Trial Bay was about the only possible place to get in to the coast, after running through possible scenarios, Marg went downstairs to nap.

Marg emerged near Trail Bay and announced herself fit to continue. Waypoints set on the GPS, course mapped and VMR Trial Bay given our tracking details, we continued merrily to Coffs. Bugger, darkness fell a few NM short of the harbour...if only we hadn't fiddled with the sails!!

OK do we continue on to Brisbane or stand outside the harbour?

Drifting outside the harbour won so we went in circles or just drifted about 15nm offshore. AK kept getting the heebie jeebies as it was her first overnighter and she was stressing about Marg's injury. Marg was stoic.

Dolphins kept visiting, which was very calming, in fact we've never seen so many! One huge school of smallish blackish dolphins put on a show just off our beam, leaping and cavorting through the water. Various groups of large grey dolphins announced their presence by a loud snort before they dived under Manatee and played in her bow wave. We got out our spotlight as the night became very dark (no moon) and we looked out into the vastness of the ocean. We came across a patch of what looked like sea snakes on our first circle, sea dragons on our second circle. We are still unsure of what they were, possibly a long thin fish with a snout...longtoms??

We spent most of the night avoiding thunderstorms, with severe weather lashing the land between Armidale and Coffs. Spectacular but frightening.

Dawn broke, we contacted Coffs VMR who allocated us a berth at the marina...we were in no condition to anchor. Berth number allocated with a port tie up...OK run through how we are going to do this...get the ropes ready. Contacted by VMR, sorry we have to give you a different berth with a starboard tie up...OK change the ropes and fenders to the other side. Enter the marina...oh shit our allocated berth has a very large yacht already in it...quickly find an empty berth before we get into the very narrow confines of the marina. Yep you guessed right....quick, change for a port tie up. With very little sleep AK jogged "nicely" around Manatee without much swearing.

We crashed for a few hours until the marina office opened...when we were allocated a berth with a starboard tie up! Rob the marina manager was great...assisting us to move and giving directions to a medical centre. Marg ended up at the local hospital where she was diagnosed with cracked ribs.

Manatee hails from the land of the gay

First thing on Thursday morning, AK was heading across LUSC carpark when a young male jumped out of a car and called out (officious deep tone) "I want to have a word with you". AK spun around as he came running over "I'm from Newcastle Customs" said he "We saw your flag and need to investigate". He waved his ID under her nose. "Our flag?" said AK stunned. We were joined by another male from the car. "Yes what country are you from?" asked officious one. AK said incredulously "It's a rainbow flag, what country flies a rainbow flag?" Second male(presumably from customs also, but no ID produced) smirked saying "It looks like red, white and blue from a distance". "Oh but from here" said AK politely (ever mindful of the alleged recent trashing of possessions during a search of a yacht by Bundaberg Customs) "it clearly is a rainbow flag!" Ignoring the fact that there was no reason to "investigate" further, officious one decided a few questions were in order! "Where were we going, where was our last port" etc etc. AK answered "nicely" while chiding herself for not being up to date with customs legislation.

Anyway we finished packing Manatee, visited Gwen and Joan and got an early night for our 6am departure.

Gwen and Joan came to wave of us LUSC wharf and then raced to the bar for a final farewell. We departed Camden Haven bar around 0645, rainbow flag waving a fond farewell to the town of Laurieton.

Manatee sings "we're moving on up" North

Since our last post, we've had a busy time preparing to move on up North.

Chris (Wright Engineering) the find of the year completed some work on our dinghy davitts-raising and strengthening.

Chris attaching our amended davitts

Phil and Victoria visited and Phil helped raise our mizzen boom (so many rivet choices-monel being our pick) so that we no longer have a possible deck sweep problem.

Phil & Victoria under our newly raised boom

We met a couple of great gals-hi Rosie and Jan- who were holidaying in the area with their little powerboat and dream of a yacht....well Rosie anyway, come on Jan you can do it!

Over the January long weekend the river was very busy with boats of all types and another Spray pulled in for a few days. Liz and Keith on Najac were inspirational, they have taken Najac to Antartica and have been around Cape Horn 5 times...wow!

the busy Camden Haven on Australia day

The Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence gave us this blessing "Bless AK, Margot, their critters and Manatee. May they all follow their bliss and revel in the freedom of the open seas.” during the blessing of the fleet of the Australian Sailing & Cruising Club over the long weekend. We were there in spirit and Manatee took to the water as a paper mache model.

We've slowly been pulling up our Laurieton roots....

the last dog get together on WashHouse Beach

the early morning get together

the last family barbie at the park and saying goodbye to some of the amazing people who have

befriended us (minus Charles, Linda, Gill & Astrid)

get together of friends

We have been waiting on the LUSC wharf, ready to go as a severe low with accompaning gale warnings hovered over the coast. We have good company on the wharf, with David on his little steelie heading back to Palm Island via Brisbane. We have daily discussions on the weather and Idgi joins him some evenings.

Any day now we will be heading on up!