The Druid User Manual

This has nothing to do with sailing... It's a manual for people who are hiring our bus. 

Stuff you may want to know…

We’ve tried to find or have (badly)made videos of how things work but, there are times when you just have to read the manual.  If there is anything you think we should add please feel free to comment and we will add to this page.

Inside layout of the bus. (Video)

Air bag suspension. The rear of the bus can be raised or lowered by inflating the rear air bags. The inflation valves are on each side down low at the back of the bus. We’ve found that the bus handles best at about 32psi. Both sides should be set at the same pressure. The air bags can be inflated at any service station just like tyres.

Air conditioning. The bus doesn’t have an engine driven air conditioner. To have a cool breeze while you are driving we’ve found it is best to leave the window directly behind the side door open a few centimetres. This will allow breeze to flow through. If it’s really hot you can start the generator and run the rooftop air conditioner with only the forward facing vent open. If it’s still too hot then it is probably time to find somewhere shaded and grab a nice cold drink from the fridge. You did remember to stock the fridge?

Awning. The handle and rafter for the awning are above the side door. The awning can’t be used in windy conditions and should be rolled up overnight. There are a couple of videos you can watch if you haven’t used one before.

Opening and closing Fiamma F45 Awing and Fiamma rafter

Cooking. Using the slide out cook top.(Video) We use paper plates in wicker holders (not the plastic laminated ones). Apart from being better for the environment than detergent, who wants to wash dishes?

Daylight running. The headlights are always on when the ignition is on.

Driving. Driving the bus is just like any manual car. It is however much longer and higher. At 7m long you will need to swing out quite wide when cornering or risk running over kerbs. At 3.1m high cornering will be slower and keep an eye out for height clearance signs or you could end up a Bayswater bridge statistic. Here is a UK video to give you a bit more confidence.

Fuel. The filler cap is on the passenger side and the bus runs on diesel. There is a fuel warning light. When the warning light comes on you can drive for about 30km before the tank will be empty. If you run out of fuel the motor will need to be primed before it will start again. The filler flap opens forward and the tank holds 90 litres.

FSM. The Flying Spaghetti Monster

Gas. The gas bottle is stored under the bed in the latched grey box. This box is vented under the bus so don’t panic if you forget to switch it off while parked, but please make sure that it is turned off while driving.

Generator. This has its own two pages and even a video. Leaving the generator in remote mode for an extended time will flatten it’s battery. Remember to turn off the remote switch or you will get lots of exercise pull starting. The generator uses unleaded fuel. There is a 10 litre plastic jerry can under the bed to refill.

House batteries are charged by the solar panel on the roof. We have gone up to three days without sun by careful use of the refrigerator. The fridge alarm will sound when the batteries are low. If needed the house batteries can be charged when on 240V by turning on the charger switch at the base of the bed (drivers side). 

Kill switch. There is a battery isolator switch just inside the step. When closed it will immobilise the bus.

Power. 240V power is connected by the 15 amp plug at the back of the bus just above the generator. The short lead is to connect to the generator and steps down to 10 amps.

Radio. To run the sound system without running the motor the key needs to be turned to ACC (accessories). There should be no other dash lights on. You can use the remote to operate or turn off music from the bed. The radio has bluetooth and accepts USB.

Refrigerator. This runs off the house batteries and will automatically switch over to generator or 240V power if connected. To get the best results using a 12 volt fridge you should try to keep the fridge full, open the lids as little as possible, only put items that are already cold in and make sure the vents next to the door are kept clear.

Security.  Please lock all doors if the bus is going to be left unattended. Never lock or obstruct the side bifold door when you are in the bus. This is the main escape route in case of a fire. There is a smoke alarm above the bed and fire extinguisher in front of the driver's seat. In case of fire the main priority is to make sure everyone is safely out of the bus!

Shade cloth. Behind the bed headboard is a bucket with shade cloth, tent pegs and a hammer.  When camped, if you peg out the shade cloth under the awning it will help keep the grass and sand out of the bus. The bucket is used to collect the waste water and can be placed under the tap just in front of the driver's rear wheel.

Shower. Having a shower is a bit of work. To avoid scalding start with cold water then add hot water to suit. Due to the limited supply of water it is best to rinse, turn off water, soap down with a loofah or flannel, then rinse. There is a chamois to wipe down the cubicle after showering so that the toilet is ready for use. The shower exhaust fan is solar powered so there is no switch for it.

Toilet. This has its own page and this video is pretty comprehensive. We don’t use chemicals in the toilet as they are bad for the environment and even worse for septic systems. The best way to avoid smells is to empty the cartridge daily.

Water tank. The tank filler is located on the rear driver’s side. It holds 60 litres. It is a good idea to lock the tank as some people think it’s amusing to put “things” in it. Hopefully this fad is dying out.

Water heater. There is a 5L electric storage tank under the sink. It takes about 20 minutes to heat the water up. There is a separate lit switch above the sink to turn the heater on. We usually do this during the day when there is plenty of sun on the solar panels as it uses a lot of power. Don’t forget to turn off the heater. Leaving it on will flatten the house batteries very quickly.

Water pump. This is under the bed and has its own lit switch above the sink. When the water level gets low the pump may run intermittently while you are trying to sleep. We tend to leave the water pump off unless actively using water.

Shark Bay

Well we've spent two months here and still havent been everywhere.

Rather than give specific coordinates we would recommend that you buy a copy of  " A Small Boat Cruising Guide to Shark Bay." by Hinchliffe and Deschamps.(2017) ISBN 978-0-9945536-2-1.  It's available from the Discovery Centre at Denham or direct from http://publications.hinchy.org/index.html

Well worth the $30 even if you are in a smaller boat and want to explore the bays.

Our time in pictures and videos...
Now we know that you want to see fish photos but we admit to being the worlds worst photographers.  This may explain it better...

The Mustang hasnt come to terms with the teeth on the Mackeral yet.

Here, one we'll call Fish Finger...

Finger over the the lens that is. 

This is about as good as it gets.  We've become expert and at making Fish cakes with the Mackeral.  Only tried bottom bouncing a couple of times...

The bottom catch has been smaller than the bait.  The Mustang was quite proud of this one.

Our favourite all weather anchorage has been at Ant island...

It's part of Useless Loops' holding.

They've put up Tim's Shack as part of their social club... 

Including a nifty fire place and ... 

...undercover dinghy parking.

A great safe spot to bunker down when the wind gets up.  If you have enough chain out when it hits 50 Knotts(100 kph).  Don't ask...

It hasn't been all fun and games though...

"The Guano Boat".  It finally pulled its' mooring one stormy night and has been banished to the furtherest mooring out.

Had to extract and replace some snapped bolts in the crank.

Daily chores.

And have to make sure that your chair wasn't pinched when you went to make a drink.

Around the most Western Point...

The Mustang takes the relaxed approach...

Cape Peron...

and on to Monkey Mia.  Where we ran aground. Leon, who hires out the boats to the tourists paddled out and showed us where to go.  He also cowrote the book that we recomend if you are comming this way...

Ring side seat for the dolphion encounter...

They hung around us each day waiting for their cue...

Tetradon Loop is a shallow bay on the Eastern side of Dirk Hartog Island.  Without the book and a high tide we would have struggled to get in.  As it was...

This is our track in.

Well worth the effort.  Not for the scenery...

...and dinghy rides... 

...and the low tide walks,,,

...and making new tracks, but also you're are guarenteed a feed of... 

...crabs.  

The Mustang was a bit excited.  

We ended up making Crab cakes as well.

The Great Keppel joined us for an explore of Freycinet Bay... 

with his new tinnie in tow...

We didn't put a hole in it.

Lets go up there...

Should have bought some shoes...

What happens when you get to the top...

You still have to go back down to the sand flies.

We found a snapper patch but they were definitely too small.  Between the gulls and the dolphins not many made it back to the bottom...

The dolphins followed(led) us to the spot and just waited...

The Great Keppel points us back to Denham.

We were very lucky to have the use of a mooring at Denham and used it as a base.

Afternoon at the fuel dock.

The locals leave it to the very last minute to head back in.

This little guy was having a tough time of it.  We think he must have dived in too shallow water and was concussed.

The continuing quest for that elusive whale videos resumes...

We are in Carnarvon and can't get into the anchorage or Yacht Club.  The breeze is still blowing from the South and it seems unlikely to give us the break we need to get back to Geraldton.  So... The Mustang has flown back for appointments and will drive back and meet me wherever I can find to leave the boat.

Geraldton to Denham

9th July
We left Geraldton early, motoring for the first few hours until the predicted southerly kicked in at about 10. Just after we put the sails up and I go to have a snooze to be ready for the night shift, the starboard engine oil alarm goes off. The bilge is full of oil and the motor has no apparent leak???

Out come the tools as I pull the engine bay apart and start pumping out and collecting the oil. As I'm cleaning up I find a bolt from the sea water housing which must have come loose. Maybe this motor was built on a Friday was the consensus.

By the time we had everything cleaned up and were happy that we could carry on the sun had set.

We kept that motor running all night just ticking over to check that the leak didn't reappear.
Night watch....  I don't think you can get tired of sailing ... however, motoring in a boat overnight can be very tiring. With the motor issues I thought it best to keep it running, checking every 30 minutes for leaks along with the usual night watch checks.  We have a kitchen timer that buzzes every 30 minutes. When it goes off whoever is on watch has to check the boat's heading. Then double check the heading and the track on the back up tablet. Do a full horizon check for other vessels. Note any changes in the wind and trim the sails to suit.
When things are going well and you don't have to worry about leaky motors and the noise they make, night sailing is the best because the rest of the time there are only a million stars to keep you company as you go with the sea.

...and then the sun rises.

10th July

This part of the coast is lined by the Zuytdorpt cliffs. Spectacular but the southerly swell runs straight into them and then bounces back making the seas very confused if you are too close. We kept about 10 nautical miles out and had to watch the whales jumping around in the slop from a distance. 

These are the trimmed results of about two hours of vidoes...

.... Apart from when the camera was charging. That's when a young one cleared the water twice less than 30 meters away.

To get through the southern entrance to Shark Bay you have to go through these confused seas. Of course thats when the fishing line goes off...

 So we might as well pull the sail down as well...

Buffy guards the captured fish while we are busy with sails to make sure it doesn't escape.  I don't think she understands the head part is missing.

Anchored up just north of the Steep Point Rangers house 32 hours and 186 Nautical Miles after leaving Geraldton. This little bay is called Gerritson Cove 26d 10.540'S, 113d 13.044'E.

12th July To keep the breeze offshore we moved across the southern entrance to Dirk Hartog Island just West of Cape Ransonette 26d 9.121'S, 113d 12.678'E. This is where the Ferry drops off cars onto the island.

13th July

We moved up the inside of Dirk Hartog to Quoin Bluff 25d 52.743'S, 113d 8.047'E .  More fresh fish along the way. A big Mac smashed my large spoon lure and managed to bend off the terminal tackle before we could slow the boat enough. Bought that lure 6 years ago in Qld and is has probably swam over 3000 mautical miles.   There are dolphins and cormorants almost continually swimming around us eating small crabs. Buffy the Barra Slayer is scared of sand crabs?

16th July.
School holidays are over so it is probably safe to go into Denham. 25d 55.827'S, 113d 31.625'E
Used the water maker for the first time on the way and the tanks are now full. And caught a fish.

Sashumi...



A walk around town...

 and a perfect sunset.

17th July  Dragging...

Dragging an anchor has nothing to do with men in dresses (Should I be worried by how quickly he was able to come up with this photo?) ... it is when the anchor gives up its hold on the bottom and your boat goes drifting across the bay. lt always happens at two in the morning and it is usually raining. It was raining at 2 o'clock this morning.

Actually we were quite lucky. Instead of ending up on the beach, our rudder caught up in the mooring rope of a disused and unloved fishing boat. Poor Merv was left squashed between us and acted like a fender keeping us from being damaged.

The three inches of bird shit on the fishing boat was it's protection so it was unharmed as well.

By three am we had managed to retrieve our anchor, unhook the rudder, save Merv and make our way out past all the other boats and anchor again...  25d 56.057'S, 113d 31.306'E

3.20 am we dragged again. Reset the anchor then downloaded and set an anchor alarm app.
The rain stopped about 4...  25d 56.099'S, 113d 31.181'E

8.00 am we were discussing what our options would be to try and find some sand to anchor in that wasn't taken up by other boats when the anchor gave way again.

We tried two other places ( 25d 55.851'S, 113d 31.631'E and 25d 55.808'S, 113d 31.491'E  )to get the anchor to hold but it just doesn't want to dig through the weed and set. There are a lot of disused moorings here that we could use but there is no way of knowing how close they are to failing...

We finally have managed to get the anchor to set in a sand patch but haven't been game to leave the boat until I can dive on it and visually check that it's in the ground.  25d 55.778'S, 113d 31.381'E

A boatie at Geraldton had warned me about how difficult it can be to find a good anchorage here...hmmm

All in all, a fun day!

We are going to use Denham as a base and probably stay around here for a month, maybe going as far as Carnarvon. Maybe.

It's ok here. Although...

...some of the fisho's think its cold.

We've been keeping busy...

I've fixed the trampoline mat...

The Post Office here will receive mail and packages for us, so I can order some replacement parts.  This is what cruising is about. Going to nice places and fixing your boat...
 See...we're flat out....

Perth to Geraldton

June 24th
We left Mindarie at 3am.

First mate keeping as warm as possible for the early start.

We put our first reef in the main when wind came up. Half main and quarter jib into 25knots at 60 degrees off the northerly wind.

The whales were putting on a show. This about as good a photo as we got.

They were breaching away from the boat.  After sitting at the front of the boat trying to get a decent photo I said to The Mustang, "You'll never get a decent photo".  Of course as she was putting the camera away one came up right next to the boat.  She got a good photo of the netting.  Those buggers are big, but they're sneaky.

We anchored (twice to make sure) just West of Green Islands at sunset. 30d40.891S, 115d6.525E

June 25th
The wind had picked up fom the east and the anchor had dragged leaving us only about 20 meters from the beach. This meant we had to move at sunrise...

Sunrise exercise raising the anchor still in her PJ's.   

We then went over and reset it just north of the fishing shacks at Grey 030d38.984'S, 115d7.572'E.  At least if we drag again there's less to hit.

Boat work at Grey....

and sunbaking...

...and walks on the beach.

June 26th

The ancorage got a bit rolly so we thought we'd better head to Jurien for the rain the following day. What a mistake. Started off with 15 knots on the nose which quickly turned into 30 knots.  The waves were really sharp up to 20'.  We'd lurch off the top of one and bury the nose into the next. Very uncomfortable... 

The Mustang and Buffy find somewhere relatively confortable.

The autopilot couldn't cope so I had to manually helm after we lost the netting for one of the trampolines.  Even lost one of the cheap tablets that we use for backup navigation.  It hit the floor after coming down a particularly big wave.  Meanwhile, I was doing my old man of the sea impersonation.  The videos never really show what a sea state is like.  However, there was only us and the whales out playing that day...

"Get out of the way!"

Finally made it to Jurien.  A long day.  We don't fit in the pens so we've been allocated one of the service jetties.  Deserved a good day off and The Goodie lent us her car and even cooked us a home meal...

Roast pork with The Goodies

Thanks again for your generous hospitality.

29th of June
Left Jurien at 5 a.m.  and motored all day.  Wind was on the nose from the north east with swell from the Southwest.  It was lumpy but not too uncomfortable.
We tied up to Port Denison town jetty for an overnight stay with permission from VMS Dennison.  Managed to tangle a dock line at the back of the boat and crushed Son of Merv against the dock.  Nothing serious so went for a walk up the hill... 

then retired to the pub for dinner.

30th of June
Motor sailed up from Denison to Geraldton. Very uneventful day.  Sea state was a bit crap to start with but got an extra knot by using the jib.  We are going to stay in Geraldton whilst a storm front passes through.  There are quite a few other yachts in the marina doing the same.

Waves coming over the groynes. Glad we came in here.

Adding the broken tablet to the scoreboard

Tidal surge at Geraldton boat ramp

A walk round town.  

We've even visited the museum while waiting for the wind to turn around for the next run to Shark Bay.