or – You are never too experienced to not get left with egg on your face!
By Gill Attersall, Simply Irresistible
Last MHYC Prize Giving Sanna honoured Glynne and myself with presenting to us the Yaffee Trophy, which usually is awarded for a cruise of note.
We can’t say we have participated in a notable cruise recently, although we have a couple on our wish list, however it was explained it was presented for our many past cruises. Now our cruises are completely self-indulgent – not to gain trophies (nice surprise that it was) and on the night we were rashly asked by someone to consider writing up our many cruises for Compass Rose. Now this is REALLY self-indulgent, or could be boring, so here is a summary of high and low lights and please bear with me to the people who have heard this all before, the memories of two old salts and lessons learnt on the way. Otherwise, flick to the next article!
1969 Saw us with a newly purchased 24ft plywood Bluebird and making just short trips to Pittwater and Lake Macquarie. Then in 1971, we headed north with all the ‘high-tech navigational gear’ ie. paper charts, binoculars and my transistor radio for position direction finding of towns!
**No. 1. Lesson learnt Approaching Port Macquarie we hadn’t realised how dangerous the bar was (this is before the northern break wall was extended) or how long the river floods after high. Surfing in on an enormous, unexpected wave the lower Gudgeon pin on our transom hung rudder sheered leaving Glynne with a flailing rudder. Eventually, we had to be pulled in from the northern lee shore by the Carnival of the Pines surf rescue jet boat. As two fishermen had drowned on the bar the weekend before the local press made the most of us. This can be made into a 3-beer story, beware!
Once a new pin and pintle were installed the rest of our trip was great and with no bridge yet built at Tea Gardens in Port Stephens, we took ‘Allambie’ to the top of the Myall Lakes, with push-off sandbanks here and there on the way. We perfected hanging off the end of the boom in a great hurry. It was weird sailing past all the lounge suites situated along the banks ready for the comfort of the local fishermen. One benefit was all our barnacles dropped off the bottom of the boat in fresh water.
With children coming we restricted ourselves to racing on the Harbour, some 3 Ports Races and explorations in the Sydney area. We next had a Hood 22ft and the explorations saw us take her and the children up the Hawkesbury to Windsor, more pushing off sandbanks, and to Port Hacking up to the Audley Weir in The Royal National Park. Great Aboriginal stone enclosure fish traps and long neck turtles in rock pools.
Trip 1 to the Reef. Our proper cruising started in 1989 with Glynne having long service leave and just purchased ‘Simply Irresistible’. This time we were more prepared by attending a series of lectures given by Doug and Valerie Brooker on tips for sailing north.
The terrible rush of last-minute packing up jobs, houses and getting a new boat ready we (being us and our two boys 14 and 9 years) relaxed once sailing, until we approached Smokey Cape, Back then the nautical weather coverage was not as good as now, but this wouldn’t have helped because none of us noticed signs of the worst storm we have ever experienced building up in the south behind us. The fishing boats retired to harbour when reported 4-metre waves on a 4-metre swell, so we headed offshore and heaved to, not daring a harbour entrance. The sea built is all I will say and our plucky boat looked after us. We only thought we lost a boy once!
** No 2.Lesson Learnt. Always keep an eye behind you, not just ahead, for storm clouds building.
We had 3 wonderful weeks in the Whitsundays thanks to good weather and a pilots’ dispute which left the area empty. Back then the coral and fish life had to be seen to be believed.
1992 Saw us doing a trip to Eden and around Montague Island so the boys could see seals aplenty. Leaving the Island, we entered water boiling over with thousands of dolphins as far as the eye could see. It was otherwise glassy calm, so we suggested that Linc, our eldest son, don a mask and snorkel and join them. That was good until he screamed up the snorkel “Shark”! Luckily, backing the boat at speed with the ladder down banging away scared it off.
**No. 3. Lesson Learned. Don’t feed your son and heir to sharks that escort pods of dolphins hoping to pick off the babies that can’t keep up or any injured dolphins, which Linc was obviously imitating.
Trip 2 to the Reef was in 2002 when we were heading for the Whitsundays again but in Lady Musgrave lagoon met a photographer who was putting together a pictorial library of the present state of the coral and fish for the Smithsonian Institute in the States. He needed a skipper, boat boy and cook for his catamaran. We had a fascinating 2 weeks with David Hannan who was happy to lend us his diving gear after he had finished for the day and gave us a few of his commercial C.Ds, such as “Coral Sea Dreaming”. Sells well on the cruise ships apparently. This shell was found on the beach…and it had to stay there, so Glynne said, but would have looked good in our shell collection.
** No. 4. Lesson Learnt. Schedules were made for changing. We were headed for The Whitsundays but managed to grab this amazing once in a lifetime opportunity.
Trip 3 to the Reef was in 2003 when we sailed to Hinchinbrook Passage and enjoyed the amazing diverse terrains of the Island from pine-covered mountains, tropical rainforests and mangroves.
** No. 5. Lesson Learnt. Whilst anchored up a creek we were spellbound watching a crocodile weave its way through the slurry on the water, not noticing we were covered in little black dots. Next day we found these were sandflies and my life was hell for about 10 days. Dunk Island was just magic, a tropical jungle with long hanging vines for swinging on. We visited Banfield’s burial site, the man who “marched to the beat of a different drum”. This was pre-Yazzie cyclone (not sure if it has completely recovered) and we were welcome to walk around the island and drink at the island’s beach Bar.
** No. 6. Yet Another Lesson Learnt. Dinghying in to the beach at Cardwell township, Glynne spotted a sign halfway down the beach which faced inland. We were in knee-deep water and Glynne waded slowly in and left me holding the dinghy while he went to read if landing was allowed. The sign said, “A large crocodile has been seen in the area. When alighting from a dinghy do so quickly”. We had recently been watching a crocodile and we should have been aware.
Trip 4 to the Reef, 2007. Once again, we seemed to stall at Lady Musgrave, the Town of 1770 and Pancake Creek. Though we did spend time in Gladstone, Maryborough (being shown round the town by Mary Poppins) and Grafton for the Jacaranda Festival, all places well worth a stop.
I suggested a delivery crew with me ‘swanning’ in to Southport to pick up the boat. 3 friends put their hands up and I had a busy time cooking meals for the trip for 4 and finding stowage on a 10-metre boat for clothes, computers and wet-weather gear. This needed quite a conjuring trick. However, as the weather produced 30-knot winds, two of our crew left in Coffs due to time restrictions. In good weather, Coffs can be just a one stage hop for the skipper and me. Our other crew, Richard Underwood, stayed on until Tin Can Bay, where he took all the tablets his wife had packed for him for the duration of the trip, so he could tell her he’d taken them omitting but not every day! We did enjoy his quirky humour and he enjoyed the long sea journey.
** No. 7. Lesson Learnt. Only take on crew who are extremely flexible re time. Our trips take from 3 to 6 months, not that we expect crew to stay on that long.
Trip 5 in 2014. Furthest North was Hardy Reef north of Hayman Island. We attended the Shag Island Rendezvous, which was great fun. On the way back, a good friend joined Glynne at Southport and I did swan home at 25,000 feet! Ross was a great choice as crew because he kept a cool head when “S.I.” was hit by lightning off North Solitary Is. and was sinking until Glynne discovered the lightening had blown our Speedo out of the boat, thank you MHYC for insisting bungs are ready at all skin fittings. Though I think the hole needed more than a bung but it was a good start!
** No. 8. Lesson Learnt. With a storm around put all electronic gear in the oven, which then acts as a Faraday cage. Plus, don’t turn off your engine (thank you Ross) as you might not be able to get it started again, without battery power, if you need it to get in somewhere.
Trip 6 in 2017. As luck would have it most of the people we had offered time on the boat in the Whitsundays, over many trips, decided to join us this year and we were hot-bedding the boat for the 6 weeks we were there, however, it was lovely showing people the area, although to us the coral and fish was somewhat depleted from earlier years.
**No. 9. Lesson Learnt. We have always had a black ball to put up in the rigging for when we stop to let others know we are actually anchored. However, in the Burnett River at Bundaberg next to the mooring area and with our engine out of action, for some reason we had forgotten. We were way out of the channel but that didn’t stop a 45ft. steel ketch under autohelm holing us above our waterline and ending up in our cockpit with us jumping for our lives. Glynne now has a conviction in Queensland for not following maritime rules! We still don’t know what they did to the invader.
**No. 10. Lesson Learnt. During torrential rain, the Mary River, which flows into the Great Sandy Straits, was flooded up at least 10 metres and we we tranquilly anchored in a mild ebb off Kingfisher Resort, a couple of miles opposite the mouth of the river. Suddenly, the ebb had turned brown and was flowing at a huge rate. We started to drag as the anchor chain/rope had wrapped itself around the keel. We survived (another story) and our theory as to where all this water came from is that as the tide outside the river fell, at some point the flood waters, which were now higher than the tide, came rushing out and across to the Kingfisher shore. As this was happening, a trawler sank off Bundaberg killing all the crew (a memorial is on 1770 headland) so maybe the outside of Fraser would have been equally unpleasant. Strong winds made the Great Sandy Straits a little rough unless you could get into Gary’s or one of the shallow creeks.
FINALLY (so far!) Trip 7. We enjoyed having Dallas on board to Laurieton, though this time we were plagued by mechanical problems. Later on, the joy of this trip was having our 3 Queensland grandchildren and our son join us at 1770 to sail out to Lady Musgrave Is., just about my favourite place on earth. The first night we anchored off the lagoon and in the morning we were surrounded by whales having a right old frolick and calling to each other. The young ones loved exploring the island, seeing coral, fish and having the experience of swimming with turtles.
We have also been lucky enough to sail the French coast, Ballierics, Cuba, Holland, Italy and some of the Malaysian Rally.
This all sounds like lessons learnt on the way but I haven’t told you about all the too many to mention magic times, watching a mother whale teaching her young how to do tail waggles out of the water. The phosphorescence on dolphins at night and the Disneylandish effect of them jumping out of water in-front of the boat. Finding deserted islands on the way north, having an enormous Māori Wrasse follow us round Kelso Reef, watching a plane land on Lady Musgrave Lagoon and one on Airplane Beach at Bustard Head. I have to thank my skipper for forcing me often out of my comfort zone but making me feel safe 95% of the time. So many magic moments, so get out there, enjoy your own moments and learn your own lessons!
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