The Last Post

29^th September 2014 Tipperary Marina Darwin

The ankle is mending but not really strong enough to be at anchor in Fannie Bay.

  Sometimes the tide goes out that far that dragging the dinghy even with its wheels on is not an option… and with the afternoon sea breeze chop Merv managed to escape…

.  It was that choppy that day that we were both inside until we heard a tap on the hull with one of the other boat owners returning him.

So we took our last sunset  photo…

 Mandatory last sunset picture at Fannie Bay… There has to be at least one in each post.

…and head around to the marina.  Berths a bit hard to find in Darwin over the wet season but they knew us from last time and have fitted us in. They couldn't have got to know us that well last time or perhaps they were looking for some entertainment...

We almost didn’t fit in.  Just as we were going into the berth the wind kicked up from the starboard and pushed Charisma sideways.  We ended up with both us holding the boat off the stern of our two neighbours.  Thankfully Lockmaster Keith came to our rescue and took over for me so that I could hobble over and drive the boat. A young boy about 10 came running down the dock and tied off the bow for us.  A bit of mayhem in the marina.  The mustang had to have a bit of a sit down….

  Whew… No one died… successful docking.

Now that we are not at anchor the breeze doesn’t flow through the boat so it can be a bit hot.  We’ve dug out the canvas awnings and sort of put them up for some shade…

 As you can see we don’t really have a clue how these are supposed to go up but it sort of does the job and adds impact to the way we entered the marina.  Our neighbours smile when they walk past us. It just one of the ways we spread the joy of boat life…

The front hatch can’t be opened all the way but needs to be supported when in half way open position.  The Mustang has devised a patent pending use of kitchen cutlery.

 She calls it …

.

.

.

.

.

.

Wait for it…

.

.

.

.

.

 a Fork Lift

And without any other comments about spooning in the front cabin we arrive at…

The Last Post…

When I started out on this little jaunt along the coast I wasn’t really sure what I would find.  I had read the books, forums and blogs.  There have been a lot of people that have talked to us and just can’t believe that what I was doing was possible… and there a lot more people out here doing a lot more extravagant passages.   The two almost certainly asked questions are about experience and cost…

For those readers who are looking to have a go you can spend a lot of time reading what should be done and get old waiting to leave the dock.  The only advice you’ll get from me is to get out and have a go. Sure you’ll make mistakes but only experience will teach you what you need to know. There are a lot of nay sayers out there… However, if a boof head like me can survive it then there really is no excuse. 

It’s not an expensive lifestyle.  In fact it has cost a lot less than hitching a caravan to the back of a landcruiser and setting out on highway one… and you have more freedom and see places that can’t be seen any other way. 

It’s been so much fun that The Mustang and I are going back to the start and are doing it again. 

 The Mustang celebrates crew induction with egg carton, da-do ta-do and alfoil.

So this will be the last post which I’ll call…

The good, the bad and the ugly…

The Good

·         Charisma - In the last two years Charisma and I have meandered over 3,748nm.  He has sailed and drunk 960L of diesel at an average of 1.6 litres per hour. This year in the Kimberley he has used a bit more diesel as I’ve had to run the engine to recharge the batteries to keep up with the extra freezer.  He is a solid, almost indestructible boat that has been very forgiving of my inexperience.  I was very lucky to find him even though it took two years of searching he was well worth it. Thanks Bill…

Charisma has been sold. He has been a great teacher and I know that his new owner will love and care for him.  I will hand over the chipping hammer in November.

·         Autopilot – My second crew member. The best decision I made at the original haulout was to spend the extra money getting a reliable heavy duty autopilot.

·         Self Furling rig – as a beginning solo sailor not having to leave the safety of the cockpit was great.  This type of self furling main has gone out of popularity but as a heavy cruiser, any drawbacks with sail shape were far outweighed by reliability and safety.

·         Kapten Boat Collars – Merv’s Moustache turned a tinnie into a liferaft. The best money I invested in the initial fitout and I will never have a small boat without one again. Can’t say enough about this fantastic Australian product.

·         The Middle Percy islands – Where I first really started to understand what cruising the Australian waters is about. If you get a boat go there and give thanks to the cruising gods.

·         Uncivilisation – Once you get outside the town limits you find that people give a shit about each other.  Advice and help within the cruising community and those fantastic people who make their way through life off the grid was one of the true joys.

·         Company along the way and at various points. Friends old and new, who took the time to share a dream. Very lucky to have the support of those I love and to find someone like minded to share it with is much more than I expected.  Yes…The mustang has the bug and wants to be half of the next chapter… Check out the grin at the end of this video from someone who was afraid of the water and all the beasts that live within…

We both now know that you make your own luck. The Mustang is already looking for the next boat. As we are getting older we want to find a boat with one of these…

 

… a bench seat. We think we can do the same with a Bali day bed…

The Bad

·         The Mermaid Song.   Along the way those who came with me were required to help compose a verse to this. Really is just a string of salty dad jokes…  Here it is in all it’s Youtube glory… (language warning)

Ok here’s the Charisma inspired instrumental version so you don’t have to put up with the bad jokes...

This Blog doesn’t support music so you’ll have to go to you tube

·         Globalstar satellite phones. Basically a waste of money.  We Had signal less than 10% of the time and the time that it was available it dropped out within the first minute of a call and had error battery messages.  More like a toy than an important safety device.  A toy, as in the way that they always break on Christmas morning.

The Ugly

·         Seanovo outboard. So bad that it doesn’t belong in that category and is just plain UGLY… While I have some great feedback on their company service representative in China.  Dean was his name and he went to great lengths to help us get our spare propeller.  It is a pity that the motor didn’t survive past the first 80 litres of fuel.  Larry, their Perth dealer was useless.  He knew nothing about the product he was selling.  Even worse he didn’t care. The corrosion that the motor is showing after only three months is very disturbing.  If it wasn’t still within the warranty period I would have dropped it off the transom in the 100m depths of the gulf.  Seriously I couldn’t possibly include it in the boat’s inventory unless it is listed as a spare anchor although it wouldn’t last long in that capacity either – it would rust away in no time. In the end I sold it on Gumtree for $200.  I've left the ad up as warning for others.

Post Script....
Yes,,, the leg was broken.  Both bones down at the ankle. The orthopedic surgeon says it will take about 16 months to fully heal. So in the meantime we've bought a coaster bus to fit out.  We plan to use this as our accommodation while we drive the east coast looking for our next boat. 

Back to Darwin

Freshwater Bay...

After a couple of days laid out we went around to Boab beach for a run to see if we could manage.

Boab beach. Notice how Buffy the Barra Slayer finds the shade…

I modified my walking stick for beach work with a plastic bottle and gaffa tape…

Week 35 ( How long is a week? )

25^th August 2014 to 2^nd September, 2014 – Honeymoon Bay – Still

For reasons that will become apparent later The Mustang has completely taken over the Blog...

There’s a Tesltra radio phone here so we were able to ring the kids and let them all know we are still alive.  It comes complete with folding camp chair that someone has donated.

 Making phone calls from the only phone near the beach in the Kimberley.

Managed to do a bit of trolling around the bay here, but haven’t caught anything significant.  Here’s a little queenie that was about the best we could do.

 Little queenie... just because you want fish pics

While we were on the phone one night one of the camp guests brought a small snake up to ask us what it was … yes it’s a king brown.  Measured 2.4 metres when they got around to measuring it.  It was found outside the toilet/shower block near the beach shack.  They ended up putting it in a bag and taking it out about 20kms from camp and letting it go again (although there had been some talk of it being cooked up for someone’s dinner).  The Captain’s reaction to the snake was worth seeing – apart from the four letter words he moved very quickly to get away from it.  Wish we had that on video…

Just a little snake …

Its been easy and very comfortable wasting sometime here … we’ve serviced the boat and finally gave up on the new motor for Merv.  It idles fine but won’t rev.  Pulled apart everything that can be pulled apart here, and after two days of fighting with it the hypothesis/consensus of everyone here is that there’s a hole in the crank case between the two cylinders.  Pretty bad after only four months of use.  The corrosion on all the exposed metal parts – including the clamps that hold it on – is also pretty bad.  So bad in fact that I had to break the clamps to take the motor off of Merv.  Nothing else we could do except drag out the spare motor from the wardrobe.  Now we’re down to three horsepower and it sounds like a model airplane motor.  Not only that, but when its running, Merv vibrates like he’s going to come apart at the seams.  The Mustang seems to enjoy it!

We’ve been sharing our time around the different campers here, letting them loan us their fire each night for us to cook our dinner on. 

The Mustang has been kept busy playing Grandma with all the kids here, including art classes.  She even took an extra trip into town with the boys by herself for some extra retail therapy Kalumburu style (don’t expect much folks!). 

 Art classes

The water here is terrible (very red/rusty) – although they did warn us it was only bore water – and we are looking forward to emptying out our tanks and refilling with fresh water at our next stop.  They have put in a new rainwater tank, and have also just begun digging a new bore as they found a fresh water supply, but this won’t be ready for use before we leave.  

 Sunset last night at Honeymoon Bay

2^nd September 2014 – Honeymoon Bay to Freshwater Bay – 14°00’.832”S 126°11’.024”E

Finally we decided it was time to move on from Honeymoon Bay, and we bade all our new friends a fond farewell (those that were left anyway – it seems like the last week in August is when most of the regulars take off and there weren’t many people left when we did go).  We departed at 6AM and headed around to go past Middle Rock and possibly to Butcher’s Bay before moving on down to Jar Island.  The weather was calm and there was very little wind, so we motored the whole way.

 Find the horizon – very calm conditions across Geranium Harbour

The trip was relatively uneventful.  The water was extraordinarily calm, and there was no wind.  As we were travelling we went through whole clouds of giant purple jellyfish.  They seem to travel in packs.

Purple jellyfish

We used the two way points mentioned in the Kimberley Cruising Club guide to get around Middle Rock.  The way points are as follows:

 1 – 13˚58′.906S 126˚20′.506E

2 – 13˚57′.203S 126˚21′.518E

This isn’t a single rock, but a series that looks like a bit of a reef.  When we went past the tide at Jar Island was at 1.67 metres, so its easy to see that they could be covered with water at higher tides.

Middle Rock(s) It's not there. It's here!

There is a strong current through this channel too, and we managed to hit 8.8 knots as we passed through.

 Flying past Middle Rock

Once we got around the corner we decided not to pull into Butchers Bay.  The water was so calm and it was still early, so we headed across Vansittart Gulf straight into Freshwater Bay.  This is where we intended to empty our tanks and get some fresh water, as there are some spring-fed freshwater creeks there.

As we pulled into Freshwater Bay we spotted several boats from Paspaley Pearls.  There are pearl farms in all the bays around here and these guys certainly keep busy.  There were even two separate float planes that flew in and out on our second day here.  The pearl floats are easy to spot in daylight and there are radar markers surrounding each set so you can get a fix on them if you come in at night, but they do get moved around, so we recommend coming in to any of these bays during daylight hours to avoid any costly mistakes.

Paspaley Pearls ship in Freshwater Bay.

First order of business after anchoring was to check out the freshwater creeks. 

Freshwater Creek at Freshwater Bay

There seems to be plenty of fresh water here (tastes great, just needs filtering for moss), so we’ll start collecting some tomorrow.

There’s also a place called Boab Beach in Freshwater Bay.  There used to be a giant boab tree here, but unfortunately it has since died, and there’s nothing left but a pile of wood.

Boab Beach  

This a pic of the giant boab that gave the beach its' name from 2007 (courtesy Kimberley Cruising Club Guide)

This is what it looks like now.  It's basically rotted from the inside and the burst. Not even much good as firewood!

The waterfall isn’t much here, so it’s a bit tricky trying to collect the water – certainly not as easy as it was at the Berkeley.

Water collection  -Funnel, filter, hose and carry

Typically the sunsets here have been marvelous.

Sunset at Freshwater Bay

There was a small two or three foot croc waiting for me at the creek when I first went there. He was basking in the fresh water pool where we collect the water. His big brother hangs around here too – about a five or six footer, so swimming is out of the question except in the shallow pools up the creeks.

Bro Crocodile - This guy destroyed our last two crab nets!!!

4^th September, 2014 – Freshwater Bay still

[Mustang takes over writing the blog for now]

Well the water collector has injured himself – hopefully not seriously.  He slipped on the rocks while carrying two 20-litre jerry cans full of water and has stretched or torn the tendons and/or ligaments in his left ankle.  When he returned to the boat he was dead white, shaking and in shock.  I applied ice and strapped his ankle and elevated it.  We had long discussions about whether we should do a  call for help, but he’s stubborn and wanted to give it a day to see how he felt. 

 Injured water carrier

Ouch... One of these things is not like the other...

After about an hour he managed to get himself down below and into bed, and I gave him some panadeine forte and anti-inflammatories and told him to go to sleep.

 Wasted water carrier – isn’t it great having the right drugs!

In the meantime, I cleaned the boat and spent some time watching a couple of lemon sharks and a couple of reef sharks fighting over bait fish.  There’s a crocodile here – about a three metre one – who comes out in the mornings to see who’s turned up during the night, but he doesn’t seem to bother anyone.  Just fun watching him get around and chase the fish.

 6-foot lemon shark 

weeks 34 35

Cape Talbot.  We’ve had to wait out a strong wind warning here for a few days.  The anchorage is not bad…

We are tucked in really close to the beach so we only have to deal with the wind.  There’s little wave and no swell.

The beach is good for scrounge by the Mustang 

.  She’s added about another kilo or two of collectables.

Been catching heaps of these …

… They are like blowies along the beach and have caught the odd one of these…

… trolling using a mini 2 deadly lure near the weed banks on either side of the anchorage at dusk.

The wind has blown so hard that it broke a blade off the wind generator…

… luckily there was a spare on board.  I only managed to drop one nut in the water during the repair.  Had a replacement handy so back up and running that afternoon.  Haven’t had to run the engine while we’ve been here.  The solar panels and wind gen have done the job (thankfully) saving us a bit of fuel.

The wind drops off at sunset each day for a while so we get to kick back at sundown…

… and check out the full moonrise…

On the last morning we had a visitor at dawn. 

… About three meters long and was having a chew on our anchor rope float.  The Mustang had a bit of slingshot practice.  He got tired of being shot at so he left and went up to the beach and waited by the driftwood tree stump I had used the previous night for filleting a fish…  Hmm…  not going ashore while he’s so close.

12^th  August 2014 –Cape Talbot to Governor Islands 13° 56.658S  126° 42.030E

Gave up waiting for the wind warning to clear so came over here this afternoon when the wind dropped down to 20 knots.  Lots of bad British accents and “Thanks Guv’” all the way here…

13^th  August 2014 –Governor Islands to Mission Bay 14° 6.426S  126° 42.852E

It was blowing 30 knots this morning and we started dragging anchor at Gov’na Islands so we headed over here.  Of course by the time we pounded our way here against the wind the breeze dropped, but not till we had dropped anchor. 

… This is the anchorage where we went for on shore to collect some bait.  The water is really clear here, it makes it really easy for the sharks to see our bait …

... and they are getting smaller in these bays...

We spent the afternoon catching up on some boat jobs…

The Mustang got rid of the salt build up and I found I had a spare one of these…

… which has been leaking since I got the boat.  Who would of guessed?

We went for a walked up Beauty Point to where we spotted a marker.  It turned out to be an avgas drum with a cairn on top that someone had put up there.  There are about half a dozen empty drums up there – can’t figure out why someone would go to the trouble of dragging them up there.

Beauty Point

 Not Beauty Point

Our LP gas usage has been a bit more this year.  We only have enough for 2 to 3 weeks left at the rate we have been using it.  The baking is the reason… 

… I hope we can get some more at Kalumburu.

We have started trying to beach cook a bit more  …

… which suits the Pyro but I can’t imagine not being able to boil water for our morning cuppas…

Trolled up a couple of new species…

Stripey Seaperch  and ...

PaddleTail (Red) Snapper.  Both a bit small but of interest. 

This is the entrance marker for the creek at Pago – note this is for the creek, not the entrance to the path for the old mission…

Just West of this is the landing for a walk to the Pago Mission ruins.  There’s a large gap in the mangroves to mark the spot to go ashore.  We went before low tide, so we had to anchor quite away out and walk in.

The driveway entrance feature includes Avgas drum and VB cans.  Buffy shows her appreciation…

On the way there is a community phone… 

…It’s free to call Australian land lines.  How many people do we know that have a landline? Only one.

… Found it.  Probably the first time we have gone on one of these jaunts and actually found what we were looking for where we expected to find it

 …well, well, well…

The old oven complete with rusty barrow.

The fresh water creek that the ruins sit beside.

… Camping fees or fine?

Buffy the Barra Slayer was covered in burrs by the time we got back to the boat. A clean up turned into a hair cut…

…I don’t think she minded…

The end result however was not what she expected….   She looks like a Gremlin that’s been fed after midnight.  Never mind…There is only two weeks between a bad haircut...

15^th  August 2014 –Mission Bay to Honeymoon Bay  14° 6.061S  126° 40.896E

 

 

… Honeymoon Bay anchorage. There is a pay phone here but, the bad news is there may not be gas available.  The water is not that bad for bore water so we have done some washing and used their amenities…

…  A nice relaxed bunch of campers, lots of really friendly and helpful people.  We’ve been offered lifts into Kalumburu next week with the school run.

The guys even drop off fish for us on the way back in…

… Fresh fish home delivered.

22^nd August 2014  Honeymoon Bay

We were going to make our second trip into Kalumburu to collect medications that have been flown in for us and to top up with fresh vegies, but the Mission nurse came out to camp last night and dropped off the drugs, so we didn’t need to collect those any more.  However, we did still want to get some more vegies, so I went into town with the blokes who were going in to get some fuel.

Unfortunately there is definitely no gas available either here or at Kalumburu but we were able to convince one of the campers here who was leaving to swap his half-filled gas bottle for our empty one.  They’ll refill the empty at Drysdale when they stop for the night there.  If we are careful we will be able to make it through with what we have now. We now also have a kettle that we picked up at Kalumburu shop for $30 …

… that we can use when the motor is running.  At least we can have our morning cuppa now without having to go ashore to boil water.  No one has died without smoking in the last months but there would be mutiny without tea or coffee.   It will just be better to do more cooking onshore.  It has been colder of the mornings lately… 

.

We have gone and got our own fish as well…

 Anyone know what this is?

Two at once.

 The Mustang adds another species to her list of catches.

We have really enjoyed the anchorage here and have had dinner most nights with like-minded campers.  We gave away our muffin mixes so that we wouldn’t be tempted to use up our gas.  They cooked them for us and served them up complete with whipped cream…

Saturday 23^rd August 2014 – Honeymoon Bay still

Had a quiet day today, not much happening. 

The Mustang spent $40 on the Community phone card to ring the kids this morning to make sure everyone is still alive, then came back to the boat and changed the fuel in Merv.  We ran some methylated spirit through the tank to clear out the blockage he was suffering from and he ran fine, but then we put some more fuel back in and stuffed it up again.  We’ve thrown out the bad batch of fuel now, but he still runs rough as guts for the first hour or so until he gets well warmed up, so we’ll have to see if we can get some more metho somewhere so we can run it through again.  The kiwis camped on the beach here went to town and got us some fresh fuel yesterday (thanks guys!).

We've been adopted by the travelling families at the camp and I was talked into  being a Grandad today – took one of the young blokes out to fish for some squid.  Cheeky bugger caught all of them himself.  Maybe I should ask for some lessons….

Went back ashore late this afternoon to have dinner with the families who have been giving us a lift into Kalumburu tonight.  Lots of rum later – a good time was had by all!

Sunday 24^th August 2014 – Honeymoon Bay... still...still...

Went out fishing this morning but I only managed to catch a couple of ugly baby cod (the Mustang reckons I caught the same one twice) while the Mustang caught a mackerel that we’ll use for bait somewhere.  It’s too small to bother filleting.  Our mates that drive us into town came out to Charisma for a visit this afternoon and had a coffee with us.  Wanted to see how the other half live.  I reckon we’ve given them some ideas about how they can keep travelling for a while (really folks, anyone can do this!).  Going to try to bake some bread tonight on the fire.  We don’t have a proper camp oven, but we’ll see how we go using our big crab pot.  Its got a glass lid, so we’ll put coals around it but not on top.  Should still work a bit like an oven right? 

We will post this on Monday for our last visit to town. We've made pretty slow progress but that's cruising.  We will head a little further west before heading back to Darwin next month...