We can tell that we are a bit over halfway through the trip because the fridge is a bit over half full of magnets.
Writing from Broome we have covered a little over 9000km and still have three and a half weeks to go. We have had a request for a map, so the map below shows our track so far (the blog is a little behind the map ;-)) and the letters are the approximate locations we spent an evening or two. This plan gives us some time to enjoy the Kimberly and duck into Kakadu on the way back to Darwin. That is the current plan, but the only certainty is the plan will change…
The ‘snail’ (our Apollo Hilux pop top camper) has proved ideal. With the large distances to travel we rarely stay in a camp site more than 1 or 2 nights, so setup and take-down time is important. Setup isn’t much more than sweeping out the red dust, popping the top and opening the stove.
The 4WD won’t get us over ‘serious’ 4WD tracks but has got over some pretty rough tracks into remote campsites.
When the extra diesel jerry cans are full we have around a 1000km range which has been more than enough.
We can be off-grid which often results in quieter more remote camp sites. It has become a running joke how often there is an empty campsite with great views around the corner from the crowded site with showers and ‘toilets’.
We have also tried some caravan parks in bigger towns which has given us the chance to catch up on washing and refill water.
So far the snails only injury was a windscreen that ended up with too many chips and cracks. We replaced that in Exmouth.
Leaving Laverton we opted to head to the coast rather than an inland route through the wheat belt. Our route took us west to Leonora and north to Leinster for the night before we could turn west for the coast.
Leinster was our first mining town catering almost exclusively to fly-in fly-out workforce from the local mines. It worked well for an overnight stop: $20 for a powered site, wide variety of food at the pub, and no reason to linger in the morning.
A visit to Mt Magnet was mandatory to acquire a Mt Magnet fridge magnet for Fi’s fridge magnet collection. Grids on the road announced the start of ‘sheep’ country. We spotted an occasional lonely sheep searching for feed where once there had been grasses. Now devoid of ground cover plants we had perhaps found the Australian desert.
Our habit of searching Wiki Camps for an appropriate overnight stop near Geraldton revealed a highly rated farm stay with a tour of the animals. It turned out they rescued injured and unwanted animals from ostriches to kangaroos. They all expected us to feed them and we spent a pleasant morning learning about their background whilst handing out breakfast.
The coast beckoned and after passing a pink lake we bypassed Kalbarri which was recovering from a recent blow, and made for Denham on the edge of the Francois Peron National Park. Unpowered sites are often ‘a field down the back’ but here we had absolute beach front with an uninterrupted view of our first sunset over the ocean.
Our tour the next day was with ‘Capes’, a local man who had grown up in the area when it was a goat farm and later helped the area gain National Heritage listing. After a short drive and introduction to the area we kayaked through the shallow turquoise waters of “Big Lagoon”, stopping to identify animal tracks, take in the views and learn how the native animals were returning to the area as in the invaders were being removed. Who knew that echidna tracks head away from their destination?
We spent the day like this, kayaking and learning about the area. We saw sharks, rays and fish, and the odd kangaroo. We went for a cooling swim in the turquoise before working out kayaking muscles and getting back to land for a fresh cook up of locally caught snapper and salad. Each time we landed we were introduced to the country as its not good to surprise the country.
The next day was moving-on day and we headed back down the peninsula stopping in at the beach made of shells. Next stop Coral Bay and Ningaloo Reef.
We left the throngs to Uluru and turned right into the Gibson desert. The Outback Way is a million miles of dirt road traversing the continent, with the occasional short tarmac section accompanied by a sign proclaiming a federal government improvement project. Chatting to a worker at one of the upgrade sections he mentioned the dream of tarmac running from Western Australia to Queensland. I asked when he thought it might happen. He smiled and looked away into the desert.
The dulcet tones of ‘Dark Emu’ by Bruce Pascoe accompanied us as we headed deeper into outback. We were amused by the European definition of desert: ‘an area unsuitable for wheat and sheep’. Indeed the south Gibson desert was not sand dunes as one might imagine, but a series of vegetated landscapes. We had grown up learning the carefully orchestrated ‘hunter gatherer’ story taught in schools. In Dark Emu we found a very different Australian civilisation presented in the early explorers journals.
Every few hundred meters along the Outback Way another abandoned car pays homage to the fragility of modern technology. Shaken out of existence these vehicles are left to rot where they died forming a sort of museum of automotive history. Ford’s from all ages seemed overrepresented although its unclear if due to popularity or engineering.
Our pop-top 4wd Hilux was referred to as a ‘snail’ when we visited a station in the East MacDonnalds. It seemed appropriate as we slowly traversed the landscape carrying our home with us. There are many un-signposted camping areas just off the road. We can sneak into these as the flies go down, light a fire and watch a billion stars appear over the fading carcases of bygone cars.
Camels cross the road ahead and pause to observe us as we slide to halt behind them. The look of bemusement on their faces suggests this may be the first camera toting white snail full of excited waving tourists they had seen today. They meander slowly into the bush no doubt more worldly and with stories to tell the grandkids.
On day 3 we rattled off the last section of dirt road and arrived at Laverton, a type of civilisation with which we are familiar. The friendly staff at the information centre made approving noises at our outback expedition as they served us coffees and cake. The books in the information centre told of early European explorers enduring hardship in the outback, but likely nothing compared to a million teeth clattering, bone jarring, buttock clenching miles in a white snail.
Glossary:
Corrugations – road surface designed to shake vehicles to destruction
Outback Way – parking lot for vehicles that take on the corrugations and lose
Rough Surface – a smoother section of road in an otherwise rough road surface
Floodway – section of road where vehicles travelling at 110kmph meet piles of sand and rocks
Washout – section of road now located downstream
Point of interest – an unusual tree, a wooden cross, a large rock, writing on a burnt out car
Corner – a rare road feature worthy of signposting
Mountain – any land 20m or more higher than the surrounding land
Road train – large red dust storms moving across the landscape
Tyres – temporary vehicle attachments mostly used as road art
Federal Road Sealing Project – a signpost, 2km of sealed road, 50km of road works
Waving – competition to get the most responses from oncoming traffic
Oncoming traffic – 3 hourly occurrence indicating time for driver change
Grid noise – compulsory ‘weeeeehhhhyuuup’ noise made before crossing a grid
Tarmac – a mirage made by heat on red dirt road
Red dirt – stuff coughed up after 3 days on the road
When we last left off, we were just about to head on to the Mereenie Loop Road – a permit only, unsealed stretch of road leading from the west side of the West MacDonnell Ranges, to Kings Canyon. It had varying reviews as to the road conditions, and we had a vehicle that we knew could do it, but the choice was – could we? Yes, is usually the answer in these situations, so off we went, west from a little town called Hermannsburg where we had stopped for a little look and our permit to drive the road.
Our “shortcut” would take us about 3 hours, and would include 200 or so kilometres of corrugations, bolting brumbies, corrugations, amazing scenery, corrugations, more brumbies, corrugations… (if you don’t know what corrugations are, then you are lucky – they are the bone jarring bumps that form in unsealed roads after a time of cars driving over it). So it was a little bone rattley, but Adrian handled ALL the driving like a trooper (I made a note to offer to drive in these situations…), and we stopped at a roadside camp on the top of the escarpment right, at the end of the loop in order to watch the sunset and get some still time, ready for some walking the following day at Kings Canyon.
It was totally fine temperature the day we chose to complete the Kings Canyon rim walk – they do close it when the temperatures get high as it is very exposed to the sun. This part of the world is just stunning and the tourist numbers certainly talk to its majesty. Its not short of beauty, or people! First off on our walk, a huge stair climb and passing people, before wandering over the top of the gorge, admiring views, plant life, bird life and the huge stony structures created by thousands of years of water and weather.
I must admit, we are on a little bit of a timetable and there is a lot to see, so once we had completed our walk, we reapplied the calories with some pizza, jumped back in the van, and drove south to Uluru. We arrived at Yulara (the Uluru “resort town”) a few hours later just in time to grab a spot in the campground, and then head out for a sunset viewing of the famous rock. No time for stopping on this trip! Here are our happy faces part way through our first adventure of the day at Kings Canyon.
Adrian had been here before, so he knew what to expect, but I didn’t! As we rounded the corner and over the small hill that revealed Uluru for my first ever view, I was gobsmacked and just said “Wow” a million times. I didn’t realise how big it really is, and what a presence it has.
Non-alcoholic sundowners were had (if you are seeing a theme of no alcohol, you’re correct – we’re off the booze for a while) and we headed on back to our allocated campsite for the night.
I’m sure you’ll excuse my unwashed, unbrushed hair in this picture – must admit, not a priority – but I’m sure you’re not looking at that.
Walking was again on the cards for the next day – EXCEPT we needed to do the sunrise at Uluru too, so after a decent sleep, we were off back to the rock for coffees, sunrise, and then to do the base walk. Again, awestruck, I walked around the base of this amazing structure, and took a lot of photos. Dreamtime stories abound as does the history and the connection of this place to the Traditional Owners.
Enjoy a few extra piccies of this world heritage listed site.
But its not all just about Uluru at the National Park, there is also Kata Tjuta (The Olgas), and keen to also see this imposing landmass, we drove over to Kata Tjuta on our third and last day in the park, walking the shorter, but no less spectacular gorge walk this time, as the tootsies were telling me they would like a little break.
As much as we could spend a lot more time here, doing all the walks and eating at the restaurants and seeing the cultural displays – our tick tocking timeframe called, and we knew we had some serious driving ahead of us on our next leg. The Mereenie Loop had not put us off driving on unsealed roads, and so we were to complete part of “Australia’s Longest Shortcut” and drive over the Great Central Road (also called the Outback Way) from Uluru, past the Docker River, through Warburton and finishing at Laverton. I’ll hand over to Adrian and his amusing prose for that blog 🙂
Another milestone has arrived in our sailing project.
Addictive, our 30ft fibreglass yacht was the perfect training yacht and served us well coastal hoping up the east coast. This week Addictive’s new owners finalised the sale and will shortly complete the transfer from Brisbane to its new home on the Gold Coast.
Whilst you can cross oceans in a yacht like Addictive, we decided we wanted more comfort and safety to be comfortable cruising ongoing. Our dream boat has been gradually taking shape in Cherbourg, France over the last 6 months and finally has a name: ‘Away’ is expected to ‘splash’ in early July.
Away is not your average yacht. Away is a Garcia Exploration 45 designed to explore the less frequented parts of the world. Being 45 feet long the internal volume is much bigger than we are used to allowing room for some home comforts and a more comfortable ride at sea.
Aluminium construction and water tight bulkheads provide safety if we hit something hard
A lifting keel means we can get into shallow anchorages and are less likely to be capsized by large breaking waves.
Insulation everywhere to keep us warm when it snows.
Hot and cold running water and a water maker mean showers every day without going on deck and hanging the camp shower from the boom!
Ducted heating so we won’t need our little gas camping heater to warm our toes.
Thats the generator in case there is not enough solars, and the space next to it is where the washing machine will go.
France is one of the worst hit countries for COVID which is making our travel there in July very challenging, but we are sure we will find a way.
We arrived into the MacDonnell Ranges after travelling from the Stuart Highway, along Binns Track, an unsealed dusty track that lead us to the Hale River Homestead, our stop for the evening. Hale River is a great place, in the bush with loads of history, bush walks, a bar, pool, great facilities and so we relished a non-alcoholic beverage, a little toe dip in the pool and enjoyed the respite from the bumpy track. Ok yes, there were about a million giant mozzies, so we didn’t fancy staying as long as we would have liked.
The next day we were off again, this time towards Arltunga where one of the first gold mines and inland towns in Australia was constructed. Unfortunately, the traditional owners had been driven off their land due to these developments, and now all that appears to remain are the ruins of the mining town, inclusive of police station, government buildings and mine hardware.
We went for a walk to the colonial cemetery and to a couple of the gold mines. The colonial people here did it hard, and apparently often the amount of gold they found, wasn’t worth the cost of living there. They had to ship in food and water and great expense just to live there in a small, square stone hut with a canvas roof.
After a little while of looking around (and a big chat with the local Ranger who was so excited to see a couple of tourists), we headed to our campsite for the night, the “Panorama” campground in the Trephina Gorge. A quick walk up the dry river bank confirmed our plans for the following day to walk the Panorama Walk on the rim of the gorge. We watched the sunset colours change on the gorge wall as we enjoyed some dinner and took ourselves off to bed.
Our morning gorge walk was spectacular with views over the ranges, finishing with a saunter down the dry river bed back to our camp. This photo was taken standing on the ridge just before we descended into the dry river bed below.
Alice Springs was to be our next stop, so we said goodbye to the relative solitude of the East MacDonnell’s and drove into “Town”. We had picked a little caravan park outside of Alice to be our stop for the evening, so we got all our jobs done, and headed there to wind down for the day and make our plans for our next steps. We’d prefer to move along from Alice, because we like the wilderness and solitude, however we did relish some great great food in town washed down with some excellent coffees. Really rivalled those of the Inner West in Sydney (yes I said it).
Here are our excited faces as we cook dinner and plan our next adventures.
The West MacDonnell Ranges were calling. This is where apparently most of the tourists go (according to the lonely Ranger at the East MacDonnell’s). The West MacDonnell’s have the big ticket items, such as Kings Canyon and Serpentine Gorge, as well as the Ochre Pits and are also on one of the roads to Uluru.
After leaving Alice, we had time to find a roadside free camp with a perfect sunset view.
Our first stop the next day was Serpentine Gorge. The dreamtime stories say there is a snake or monster that resides in the water here, and people are not allowed to swim – this is not a safe place according to local custom. We took some photos (an example included here of the shadowy gorge and pool) and enjoyed the quiet of the place, and moved along to our next stop, the Ochre Pits.
Ochre was an important resource to the Traditional Owners, using it from everything from paint, to curing ailments. These pits represent a rich source of the ochre and the colours are simply iridescent. The photos can never do it justice so I did filter this photo a little so it showed what we saw more accurately. You can see the deep red, the yellow and the lighter coloured ochres here in the vertical lines. The layers are vertical as the land was pushed up thousands upon thousands of years ago to its current vertical positioning.
Further up the road, we were hoping to complete a walk in Orminston Gorge. This gorge leads out to a “Pound” which is a large flat area surrounded by ridges. The walk was estimated at 3.5 – 4 hours, and would take us up the south side of the gorge, around the back and into the pound. Signs warned us that there was going to be swimming in cold water involved due to the unseasonal rain, however I was confident these signs were simply a left over from months before, and it wouldn’t be an issue for us. We continued through the pound, and I was so excited by the thousands of native plants, seemingly placed as if they were a specimen display in a botanical garden. Clearly here – very happy.
Towards the end of the walk, we boulder hopped through the creek bed, and eventually came upon what the signs were warning us about. The swim. We either had to swim across the river, or walk the 2.5 hours back through the gorge, arriving at the car on sunset. So swimming it was, fully clothed and fully shoed.
Making it across, with our pack and electronics dry, we were pretty pumped and headed back to the car (and a cheeky shower at the campsite here) and on to our campsite for the evening – solitude in a river bank at yet another free bush camp. Twas a rather massive day so a fire was a nice way to unwind.
And finally, I have to mention the budgies. They are so cute and we’ve seen thousands! Adrian got this epic shot of these two lovers. Also not to be outdone, my phone shot of the chatter of budgies is below.
More adventures in the west to come as we have plans to follow the Mereenie Loop Track south through to Kings Canyon and on to Uluru. That was a bumpy ride and I’ll have a few choice things to say about it next time.
When we last blogged, we had completed our sail up and down the east coast of Australia, starting in Sydney, heading to Bowen, then back to Brisbane. Since then, we spent some time in Brisbane and on the Sunshine Coast of Australia, enjoying time with family and friends, seeing a little more of QLD, before driving ourselves back to Sydney. In Sydney we had more family and friends time, as well as the huge job of packing up our belongings, putting some into storage, and the rest in big boxes to get sent to France for our upcoming sailing adventures in Europe (more news on that coming soon!!)
Before we head to France we wanted to see more of Australia outside the capital cities. So we hired a campervan and have a couple of months to see as much of central and northern Australia as we can. Here’s Fi in Darwin when we picked up the van. Both Fi and the van appear clean here – oh how much will change in the coming week…
Picking up our 4WD campervan in Darwin, we drove south to visit Litchfield National Park. Stopping at the Wangi Falls, we managed a quick walk to visit the waterfalls which were stunning, before cooking dinner in the dwindling light. We are pretty used to mosquitos and sandflies from our recent sailing adventures, but nothing prepared us for the onslaught of tiny gnats and mozzies that were attracted to our internal lighting. This would end up being a theme, given we are here at the tail end of the wet, and the bugs are keen for a feed of tourist meat. Its okay, it means we are learning to eat when the sun is still up, go to bed when the sun goes down, and get up at dawn. Oh, and that the fan we bought in Darwin is worth its weight in gold to keep the humid hot air moving.
We drove through Litchfield National Park, admiring the magnetic termite mounds, and passing landscapes. We stopped at Florence Falls for one night, and enjoyed an afternoon swim in the waterhole, complete with waterfall shower. That evening, we cooked and tidied up, and were inside listening to our favourite sailing podcast before the mozzies even realised we were there.
Our next adventure was to be Kakadu. We set out from Litchfield, driving the 6 or so hours to Jabiru where the Kakadu visitors centre is located. Alas, the big wet season this year would foil our plans again, and almost everything in Kakadu is closed. We decided Kakadu would need to wait until the end of our trip, so we found a place to kip for the evening, and then high tailed it south, putting in a big day to get to Mataranka and the thermal pools.
Floating in a thermal pool, at 34 degrees is a delight I recommend all partake in. Floating on my back, I stared at the canopy above, as the water filled my ears and drowned out the sounds of the other people. We stayed in the pool for a few hours, and the next morning also had another quick dip before heading further south.
The Devils Marbles were the next stop, a spectacular landscape, red ochre, flat, except for these giant structures. We managed a walk around the these structures, respectfully at a distance of the particularly sensitive cultural areas. The photos can never do it justice.
Happily, we stayed awake after dark enjoying each others company outside the van, watching the sun set and the masses of stars light up the skies overhead. No mozzies 🙂 and the temperature dropped to such a point we both needed the extra blanket – ahhh to be in the drier, cooler climate. We’ll revisit the top end once the dry season is a little more set in we’ve decided. At dawn, we watched the sunrise while and I sipped on my freshly ground soy latte (you can take the latte sipping, left leaning inner westies out of the innerwest, but you can take the… you get the idea) and then we packed up ready for another big day driving south to get to our next exploration area – the Macdonnell Ranges.
In the coming weeks, we plan to explore the Macdonnell Ranges, Uluru and head West into WA. Keep up to date with us on our instagram (@fiandadrian) and also our facebook.
Some of you may be aware that Adrian and I have grand plans of sailing the world starting with a move to France where our new boat is being built. This is scheduled for July 2021 in Cherbourg in northern France.
Our priority for our remaining time in Australia is to see as much of the country as we can. In Addictive, we had planned to sail north and see some of New South Wales then Queensland and eventually get to the Northern Territory and around the top into Western Australia. Unfortunately, COVID-19 border closures put a dampener on that plan and we stayed on the beautiful east coast for this season and we are certainly not complaining about how lucky we have been.
We didn’t get to sail to the Northern Territory, so we are planning to fly there and live in a van for 2 months before our big move to France. Which means our beautiful Addictive is up for SALE!!
So here’s what we are doing: we have moved into an AirBnB on the beautiful sunshine coast of Queensland for a while to enable us to sell Addictive. Our car has been transported to Brisbane so we can move our belongings off the boat. In early March we plan to drive to Sydney to visit friends and family and pack for France. Then in early April we go to Darwin, and borders allowing, travel through Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia finishing in Adelaide.
As an unexpected bonus in late March, we have accepted an opportunity to sail to Lord Howe Island, 3 days off the NSW coast. It will be a different experience heading out into the Tasman on a luxury catamaran and we hope that the COVID issues won’t scupper that opportunity.
So, there are some logistical challenges approaching but nothing Adrian and I can’t handle. We’re super proud of our achievements in Addictive and think she is an absolutely fantastic boat for sailing up the coast and we hope she gets to do it again and again! And if you know anyone who would like a super solid Jarkan 925 that has a history of racing and cruising, tell them to give us a call!
Addictive was to be our sailing practise boat for Sydney and surrounds. It was only later we came up with the bright idea of living aboard a very small boat. She was setup for weekend cruising and racing.
To turn her into a comfortable live aboard boat we had to upgrade some systems to improve safety and comfort. This is what we chose to do:
Improving Safety
Safety starts with coffee. Being left leaning, inner city, latte sipping people, we could hardly accept anything less than fresh espresso. Luckily Fi found this stove top espresso maker and a manual grinder to keep the standard of latte’s suitably high. We never leave port without a strong coffee in hand.
If the boat sinks, the idea of being in the water chatting to the sharks whilst awaiting rescue was enough motivation to find space for a life raft. The life-raft provides safety from marauding sharks using a thin layer of light weight plastic.
We bought the best anchor we could find (Australian Sarca Excel) to replace the existing large lump of rusting metal. There are few things worse than lying awake wondering if the anchor will hold. We have never regretted spending the money on the anchor and have at times (Double Island Point) been shocked how well it holds. At the time of writing it has set and not dragged 100% of the time.
We steer using a tiller but hand steering for hours at a time is tiring and even harder at night. We added an auto helm that will steer the boat in whatever direction its told. Its clever enough to understand the roll and pitch of the boat and steer appropriately. So far its managed to steer in all conditions even when we were surfing down waves coming into Bundaberg. The only thing it’s missing is a name…
Adding Power
Imagine you buy a litre of milk and there is only half a litre of milk in the container…’Well sir, the container has the potential to carry 1 litre but there is only half a litre of useable milk in it’…insane, yes, but this is how batteries are sold. A 100Ah lead acid battery only has 50Ah of useable energy (really). However, Lithium batteries are really good and you can use 85-90% of the advertised energy in them (did I really say that?). So the simple way to increase our power storage without rebuilding the battery compartment was to switch to Lithium batteries. They have performed really well and 200Ah (170Ah useable) gives us 2 days usage without any charging.
Our only option to charge the batteries was to run the engine which didn’t do much for the ambiance of beautiful quiet secluded bays. We added a large 300W solar panel that fully charges the battery by lunch in Queensland where its sunny every day.
The solar panel needs to be mounted where its not shaded which on our boat meant putting it on an arch over the stern. We got some quotes for stainless steel arches that would have required a second mortgage, and ended up building our own which has proved to be adequately robust.
Now we had some watts to play with, we added a small portable freezer (ice for the gin and tonics, and fish storage for all the fish we catch), an inverter (turns our 12V into 240V for laptops, coffee grinders, power tools, but not quite enough for the hair dryer…ooops), numerous 12V USB sockets to charge our social media devices, and some fans to blow dry Bernie after a swim.
Toilet Alternatives
The boat came with a basic marine toilet that could flush directly into the surrounding pristine anchorage. There was also a black water storage ‘bag’ under the main bed that wasn’t plumbed to the toilet as the previous owner had concerns over the potential pong.
After a couple of attempts to improve the toilet we changed tack and installed a composting toilet. Basically a box of compost and wee bottle. Sounds a bit basic, but it doesn’t smell, doesn’t need to be emptied often and freed up a huge amount of storage space that was previously taken by plumbing.
Cooking options
We have a metho stove, but we rightly predicted that we would run short of fuel when a future global pandemic would result in hoarding of metho to make hand sanitiser. Our aussie solution was to add a a gas powered Webber Baby Q on the cockpit rail and enough gas to run it continuously through the next pandemic.
Where are we?
There was a basic chart plotter installed which we supplemented with a couple of iPads running iNavx and Navionics charts. This gave us redundancy and chart viewing in the cockpit. We added AIS which tells you when other boats with AIS (ie the big ones) are going to crash into you. So far it seems to work really well and we haven’t crashed into any major shipping.
AIS devices are also activated on our life jackets should we fall overboard. Being visible on the chart makes it much more likely we will be located and recovered, especially at night.
Other upgrades
We added a rod holder so we could look like those people that catch fish.
We used to wash the deck using a bucket to get sea water. Now a saltwater pump allows us to hose off the deck and clean mud off the anchor. Its filter ensures there are no unwanted jellies when we wash up in salt water (or give ourselves a cooling outdoor shower).
Hooks… we added about 1000 hooks and there is still never a spare one to hang stuff on.
An old Porta Bote (read foldable dinghy) is our tender. Its fast, tough (read croc proof) and stores easily on the deck. However it takes 20 minutes to assemble and we have sometimes not gone ashore to avoid the effort of constructing and de-constructing.
Some things we didn’t add:
Radar – we think the combination of AIS and gazing out into the night is adequate. Radar would add a level of safety but requires lots of power and expense.
Water maker – by the time you add the cost of the water maker, the power upgrade, power generation upgrade and the room it takes, we decided to buy a couple of jerry cans instead. Also strapping jerry cans to the deck makes us look like intrepid long distance travellers.
Electric anchor windlass. We (ok, mostly Fi) pull the anchor up by hand. Once we got used to it we decided we didn’t need an electric windlass. Its good exercise and hasn’t been as difficult as we thought it might be (easy for me to say).
Making it feel like home
In many boats of this age the foam mattresses have a compressed dip so you know where to lie, and slight damp musty aroma. For our comfort and sanity we installed a custom made sprung mattress which is engineered specifically for the marine environment, and is simple to take apart and clean.
We were gifted a 12v aromatic oil diffuser which we use regularly when at anchor or port. It helps to keep mozzies and sandflies away with some beautiful Australia scents of teatree and eucalyptus.
Carpet has protected the floor from sharp claws but also makes the boat quieter and more comfortable.
Fi has collected magnets from destinations she has visited which we attached to a ‘magnet board’ at home. We have replicated this in the boat with a magnet board for the trip.
A mini printer has allowed us to print a photo from each port we visit and create visual timeline of our trip. Its a great way to reminisce about the early part of the trip and a reminder of just how far we have come.
Combine all this with a few throw cushions and blankets and we have a homely space with everything we need to adventure comfortably.
Leaving Bundy was very different to our arrival. Early morning and calm seas with just few fishing boats zipping about the shipping channel. As we turned south we barely saw another boat until Fraser Island was coming into view. There were a few rain clouds that we dodged by staying away from the coast.
As Fraser came into view the wind filled out and we sped along the Fraser coast. The northern half of Fraser had been burnt out by bushfire and we soon spotted the helicopters and planes water bombing the fire front. The planes entertained us by skimming the water and then flying low overhead to douse more flames. Our first choice anchorage looked a little exposed to the northerly wind and quite close to the advancing flames. As there was still light and wind we headed further into the sandy straights to anchor for the night.
Several other boats had anchored in a similar area which was located just before the shallow section (where we had run aground on the way north). Just before high tide we joined the procession of boats through the shallow section and on to Gary’s anchorage. More tide meant no bottom scrapes this time.
Gary’s anchorage had fewer boats this time but more sand flies. The next leg of our trip through the Wide Bay Bar and down the coast required careful planning to get a safe combination of tide, wind and swell. Leaving Gary’s before dawn meant we enjoyed a spectacular sunrise as we motored to a couple of hours to the start of the Wide Bay Bar.
The coast guard provides way points through the bar, but its still a nervous experience with breaking waves close by. The tide against us flattened the waves, but slowed our progress and it was over an hour before we made it to open water.
We sailed past Double Island Point remembering the our mis-adventures there on the way north. We were again surprised as the yachts following us didn’t overtake us and some even slowly disappeared behind us as Addicitive chewed up the miles towards Mooloolaba. Bernie caught up on some zzz after the early start. The narrow entrance bar to Mooloolaba harbour was being dredged but still had plenty of depth for us even at low tide.
The marina at Mooloolaba is across the road from the beach, next to the fish shops and a short walk into town. When we thought we might stay there over xmas we discovered everyone else had the same idea and they were booked out. Some yachts are booked in up to 12 months in advance.
A suitable day arrived and we reluctantly left Mooloolaba, negotiating the early morning paddlers, and sailed south passing the shipping lane and entering Moreton Bay. The wind picked up as we crossed the bay, but our progress was slowed by a large tanker inconsiderately passing the shipping channel right in front of us. As we motored into the marina, we realised that this might be our last sail of 2020 as we plan to spend some time over Christmas and New Years in Brisbane and surrounds.
