Sailing around Australia; Familiarity

Familiarity

Somewhere, sometime ago I heard the saying that it’s so nice to have family come for Christmas and really nice when they leave.

This week we have been re united with some of our sailing family that we started off our sailing around Australia adventure with.

Unexpectedly, yet understandably, it was a really emotional moment to arrive at the same jetty and give both Eva and Brian a great big hug.

Leanne and I have been in the Gippsland lakes for nearly a month now and in that time we have had a good look around. We have experienced the peace, tranquility and the serenity of this beautiful area.

Just when it was getting a little too quiet and we were really ready for some familiar company, our sailing family Brian and Eva on Zofia (AKA the Zofians) arrived.

 Having sailed together for twelve months, from Mandurah to Streaky Bay, we got to know each other very well. That is why we can use the term family confidently. Having been apart for 8 months, we really missed the familiarity of that of type relationship.

Within moments of our arrival into Lakes entrance where Zofia had been parked for a couple of days, the hallmarks of our friendship reappeared very quickly. They were flying a hastily made protest flag, and both wearing costumes with two heads.

There was a protest meeting declared, to be held at the Lakes Entrance Pub later in the evening. The Sail Racing Rules 2013-2016 were discussed at length during the afternoon, fuelled by several beers and a couple of bottles of wine.

Unfortunately for the Zofians, both their’s and the opposing counsel were the only sober members of the convened committee, so several motions put, had to be dismissed as they were incoherent and therefore inadmissible.

What was declared and is now written in stone, is that they are legends for departing Port Linclon in June 2014 and sailing alone to Tasmania. Their tales of hiding from strong winds and cold days huddled in their boat have severely dented the Tasmanian Tourism association’s efforts.

The other thing that survived the protest meeting is, that it is so nice to be reunited and feel the familiarity with the Zofians. It’s has been a while since we laughed so much, even if the jokes are the same ones.

It’s also really nice to understand that we may not stay together for a long time, but we all know what to expect and are comfortable to go our own way, when the family leaves.

 

It's really nice to have the familiarity of Zofia anchored nearby.

Sailing Around Australia; Amazing Coincidences

Tambo River, Gippsland Lakes, Victoria

25/3/2015 Amazing Coincidences

Tambo River, Gippsland Lakes, Victoria

After returning to Lakes Entrance last Thursday to catch up with Stephen and Sharon on Shiraz, we were looking at places to go on Saturday.

As the Shiraz crew are on a mission to head north on Monday, they didn’t want to go too far into the Gippsland lakes and we were looking to go further than we had been so far so we looked at places half way.

We had talked about going to the Barrier Landing Anchorage or even to Boxes Creek for an overnighter, when out of the blue I had an idea. “Let’s do lunch at Metung” I said, “if we can find space on the jetty”.

As in my previous blog, we found space on the jetty, went ashore and had just finished lunch, when a ferry arrived and a hundred or so people got off and another hundred or so arrived for weigh in for their fishing competition.

Coincidentally, two ladies had tickets to Opera at the Lakes. One lives in Melbourne and the other in Bairnsdale. These ladies, after a morning swim, decided that as they make their way over to Lakes Entrance, that a coffee break would be nice. They hadn’t been to Metung for quite a while, so they chose this nice little town as a break in their trip.

After finishing our lunch Leanne was over at the tents watching the fish being weighed. I was sitting at the table right next to the jetty, people watching, when two ladies caught my attention.

One was wheeling a zimmer frame just like my dad now uses. The other seemed to be paying a lot of attention to Easy Tiger, which was tied to the end of the jetty.

Then it hit me like a bolt of lightning. The lady now sitting on her zimmer frame was, in fact, my Dad’s 87 year old sister Delys. My aunt that I hadn’t seen for 14 years!

I also then realised that the other lady was in fact Brenda Smith, my Dad’s partner for 20 years.

After recovering from the shock realization, I literally leapt to my feet and ran over to Leanne, to say “come quick, I’ve just seen Brenda and Aunt Delys”. She looked at me incredibly and then we stormed towards Delys as she sat on her zimmer frame.

“Gee, your very cordial to strangers”, I said after an initial greeting. “my name is Steve Ludemann” . Well, the look of amazement was priceless.

Brenda returned and again, there was amazement. Brenda and my Dad had spent a couple of weeks on Easy Tiger with us at Quindalup a few years ago. Brenda had just said to Delys, that she thought the boat at the end of the jetty looked remarkably like Easy Tiger.  She was right.  

The next few hours were spent catching up and reminiscing.

I knew that Delys lived in a nursing home in a Bairnsdale, near the lakes and had done some preliminary investigating into how to get over there for a visit. (we haven’t had access to a vehicle here).

Joyfully, amazing coincidences combined to solve the logistics problem.

Aunt Delys, Leanne, me and Brenda at Metung Hotel. 

Sailing Around Australia; Loving the Lakes

Paynesville, Gippsland Lakes, Victoria

22/3/2015   Loving the Lakes

For the past 2 weeks our sailing around Australia adventure has taken place inland. Easy Tiger has ventured into the largest inland water way in the southern hemisphere, the Gippsland lakes. Perhaps the best thing we love about the Gippsland Lakes is that there are excellent facilities for boats and, unbelievably, the facilities are provided for free.

We have found many well kept jetties, many with toilets, showers (some with hot showers) and gas barbecues available.

We have found that if we don’t fancy a jetty, there a quite a few swing moorings available for the public to use. Again, these are free of charge.

Also at most of these jetties and anchorage places there are well marked walk trails.

As I write this we are tied on to the Metung jetty. No walk trails or hot showers here, but you can forgive that as the jetty is only 50 metres from the Metung hotel. This is after a leisurely 1 hour motor up the Reeves channel from Lakes Entrance.

This morning we had friends Stephen and Sharon Bone follow us to Metung in their boat Shiraz. it turned out that we arrived and tied on to the jetty just in time, as an hour or so later, the Metung hotel was inundated with fisherman bringing in their catch for weigh-in for the Victorian Bream fishing competition.

This really frustrated Leanne. To see these guys weighing bream at over a kilo each, while every day and everywhere we have been in the lakes, Leanne has been fishing without so much as a bight.

Tomorrow we will delve even deeper into the Gippsland lakes. There is another small town called Loch Sport that is begging to be explored and once we have been there we will head north into the Tambo River.

The Gippsland Lakes appear to be a paradise for “Trailer Sailers", who are a different type of sailing fraternity.  Trailer Sailers are small yachts, mostly around 20 feet (6 metres) long. As the name suggests they can fit on to a trailer and be legally towed to their next port of call.

As we pull up along side the trailer sailer’s it’s a bit like Gulliver landing in Lilliput. The folk aboard these boats are friendly enough but we do have little in common, and I am quite sure they are a bit peeved that we block out their view and in some cases their sunlight.

One place in the lakes that is worth a mention, is Raymond Island. This Island is a short (and I do mean short) ferry ride across the canal from Paynesville. Once off the ferry (the ferry takes longer to load cars on, than to travel the distance) in a short space of time, you come across the Koala trail. By following the signs and keeping a look out in the tops of the trees, you find Koala’s doing what Koala’s do. Sleeping. Most that we saw were sound asleep although one took offence to us tapping it's tree.

So onward we go with our lakes expedition. We have Richard and Family on Sapphire arriving in the lakes early this week and we are really excited to have Brian (b2) and Eva on Zofia (who we left Mandurah with, many moons ago) arriving later in the week.

That reunion will be a hoot.

By then I think we will have had enough lakes loving and will return  to rigors of the ocean once more to continue our sailing adventure.

Leanne found a kindred spirit on one of the "Trailer Sailers"

We were on a free swing mooring here at Duck Arm. Beautiful, serene but no fish!

Raymond Island Ferry. The shortest ferry ride ever!

Spot the Koala.

Oh...sorry to wake you, I know you need 20 hours sleep.

More photo's... really... how much can a Koala bare?

On our way up the lakes this bunch? flock? group? number of swans flew by.

Your Author, Captain Grey Beard

Sailing Around Australia; Trying new things

Box's Creek, Gippsland Lakes, Lakes Entrance, Victoria.

14/3/2015  Trying New Things.

The last two weeks on our sailing around Australia adventure aboard Easy Tiger, have seen us try a few things for the first time. These are anchoring in the dark, a bar crossing, Moreton Bay Bugs, and beaching Easy Tiger.

I keep referring to our trip as an adventure, because in the strictest definition of the word, that is what we are on. It is the unknown outcomes from our bold actions that define the word adventure.

For instance, our passage from Portland to Refuge cove took a lot more time than expected. This meant we arrived at Refuge Cove at 12.30pm with the moon hidden behind clouds. The adventure began by the bold action of motoring straight towards land, guided only by a small flashing light on the port shore of a cove that we had been told was a good place to anchor.

Once we got inside the cove, we then had a turn to the left and planned to drop our anchor in the middle (or what our instruments told us was the middle) of the southern inlet of the cove.

As we got closer to the black shapes of the cliffs looming in front of us, we found the flashing light. There were also a few other lights that confused us until we realised that they were people camping on the beach. Nervously we crept towards coast. Then, it seemed liked Alladdin’s cave as the cove suddenly opened up in front of us.

Much more confidently we rounded the bend towards the anchor point marked on our instrument. We got around the curve to see more lights. This time it wasn’t people camping on the beach, it was boats already anchored, right on our mark.

We stopped to a crawl trying to hold our position while we looked around with a couple of torches to find another suitable spot with enough room to not hit anything if the boat swings around 360 degrees on the anchor chain.

In the darkness, the rocks looked very close, the other boats looked very close and our position looked very open to the ocean.

As there didn’t seem too much choice, we dropped anchor in 9 metres of water right where we had stopped. We hoped that the anchor would hold until first light and then we could move into a more suitable position. It was now 1.30am and after 43 hours of sailing we were at least comfortable enough to get some much needed rest.

The morning light revealed that we had in fact, nailed it. We had dropped anchor right in the middle of the northern part of Refuge Cove with stacks of room to swing around on our anchor chain. The morning light also revealed a spectacular anchorage, with sandy beaches lined with huge trees. Several rocky outcrops outlined the corners of the bay.

The next “new thing” was crossing the head of a river where it pours into the ocean, commonly called a “Bar Crossing”.

As you can imagine, the ocean tide is pushing water into the river, the river is pushing out to the ocean, huge currents are created at a “bar”.

Coupled to the science of the bar currents, are the tales from other sailors about the disasters found by boats trying to cross a bar. All this makes for a very nervous crew as we approached our first bar at Lakes Entrance.

We though we had timed it right with very low swell and virtually no wind forecast on the ocean side, and high tide was between 11.30 and 12 midday on the lakes side. We planned our departure from Refuge cove to be at Lakes Entrance at precisely the right time.

Several phone calls were made to the coastguard for information on what the conditions were like and how to come across the bar as we approached from the 2nm off.

The Gippsland Ports web site has 2 webcams running pictures of the bar in real time so we could see what to expect. They also told us to keep an eye out for the lit blue triangle and to line that up with the lit blue line maker in front of it.

As we approached it was all hands on deck. Leanne with the binoculars and the navionics app, me steering and watching our navigation instruments, just look for the light, look for the light.

Through we went with so much as a bump in the water. No trouble at all, first bar crossing done.

The third new thing we tried this week was bugs. Moreton bay bugs are caught in the Lakes Entrance area and sold “off the back of the boat” at the town marina. They look like a very small crayfish that has been run over by a truck and squashed flat. Very tasty, Leanne prepared them in Lemon and Tangy sea food sauce. They are along the lines of Prawns, without the peeling.

After a couple of days on the Flagstaff Jetty, then at the town jetty while we re provisioned, we ventured upstream, into the Gippsland Lakes proper. We had been told about several spots including the Barrier and Chinamans creek. The other place that we would be well protected would be Box’s Creek.

Once we entered Box’s creek, we immediately realised we would have to try the next new thing for the week. We would have to beach Easy Tiger. Box’s creek is a really beautiful little lagoon. Emphasize the word little. There were already three other boats tied on to the banks. Several hundred metres further up there are power lines overhead. So it was find a spot on the bank, head on or anchor unprotected in the middle of the lagoon if the anchor drags…Zap!

So as we had done with all the other new things we sat and surveyed the situation and discussed options. Then with a big deep breath I drove ET straight into the sand bank. Then we took off the dinghy and I scrambled through the trees and scrub to tie the bows to a couple of trees, scratching myself and filling the dinghy with bark, twigs and leaves.

No sooner did I have Easy Tiger secured, than the other boats, all of them, undid their lines and motored away. Now, as we had the pick of spots, I untied the ropes backed Easy Tiger off the bank and did it all again about a hundred metres further around the lagoon.

We have really settled in to Box’s Creek. Today we went for a tour in the dinghy, and a walk around the neighbourhood. We even got the hammock out and Leanne snored in it for an hour or so.

No wonder though. After a week of trying new things, we are due for a lie down.

The Lakes Entrance Bar

Lakes Entrance town marina, fresh bugs for sale.

The leads with the illuminated triangle.

Probably not a good idea to drag anchor!

Beached As!

Box's Creek in the Gippsland Lakes. 

Out with the hammock for a lie down.