Heading North Part 2 – Eden to Batemans Bay

As mentioned at the end of the last travel log we spent the first four nights in Twofold Bay anchored at Eastern Bay, beside the woodchip wharf and Navy and Customs wharf.  Once the weather cleared we headed out for some exploring/exercise, which as the photos show ended up a naturalist walk also.

We walked out to Boyds Tower and enjoyed the vistas from a land perspective and watched the dolphins playing in the surf crashing around the rocks.



 

 

 

 

On the Friday morning we slowly motored around the bay dipping in as close as possible to shore to see the sights including the impressive Seahorse Inn from the water. The afternoon was spent scouting out Eden including the Laundromat, I-centre and other services available.

Saturday morning saw us up at 5am for the ANZAC Day dawn service, and then we made the most of our early start and took in the Whale Museum, as well as more washing and a top up shop before the weather closed in. We enjoyed the experience of a thunder storm, including hail, passing right over top of us.

Rylee checking out the rigging and view

Old Tom, the local Orca from Twofold Bay

 

A rain day on Sunday saw us catching up on school,  filling up the water tank with our new cover and planning the next part of our journey, which meant another 5am alarm on the Monday morning to get away early to head to Broulee Island.  This was supposed to be an easy day sail from Eden of 70nm with good SW winds. But as always seems to be our luck the wind died away by the middle of the day and we ended up with the kite up and anchoring in the dark.  One plus was a double hook up of tuna about 8am.  Oliver managed to bring his in but mine was a bit bigger and I lost it and the hook on the end of the lure.  Oliver then cleaned up the fish and it went in to the oven and we had a Hobbit like second breakfast of fresh caught tuna with lemon juice and salt and pepper.

 

The next morning after a leisurely start we set up for the kite again and had an easy sail the next 10nm to Batemans Bay.  Once there we phoned up the bridge operators and found out they have a scheduled opening of 1420, so we anchored off of Snapper Island for lunch then crossed the bar with the in-coming tide and up  under the bridge to anchor in the Clyde River. It was quite funny to think that all of the traffic on the A1 road is held up at least twice a day for the bridge to open up for water traffic.

The centre of the bridge on the rise for us to travel under with about a metre clearance!

 

We haven’t spent any time in rivers before.  Unfortunately we can’t get Division II much past the bridge due to overhead wires, but we have enjoyed the flat water, no winds, and the novelty of swinging to the tidal flow.  We are surrounded by oyster farms and moored river boats for hire.

Rylee enjoying the rope swing at twilight on the river, photo courtesy of Oliver

 

We have done a small amount of exploring as far as our feet can take us, including the local museum and library as well as discovering the local water gardens where we discovered the local flying fox population spends their days.

Bats hanging in the trees at the Batemans Bay Water Garden

 

 

We have also been catching up on a few more jobs, including having Dan cut a couple of holes in the boat to put in new hatches for the forward berths.  This has made a huge difference in lighting and will also assist in ventilation in warmer weather.  He is also working on re-stitching part of the tramps which has deteriorated due to UVs.

We have been looking at weather for a few days now to see when we can get further north, but light winds mixed with a big swell mean that we will be here for another couple of days at least before we can co-ordinate getting back under the bridge with the right tide for crossing the bar, but we will keep you posted as we carry on.

ANZAC Day 2015

A few photos from our ANZAC Day and a sample of the poems and journal entries from the kids.

 

 

Anzac Day

Today I got up at 5.00am to go to the dawn service in Eden. I do not think it was too fancy for being the 100^th Anniversary since the brave men and women from New Zealand and Australia fought.

It was a beautiful sun rise and all was silent during speeches, they made me think about wounds on soldiers and gun fire raining down upon the battalions of soldiers fighting for peace.  Thousands of men died this day 100 years ago.

They fell for us

They died for us

 They caused our freedom

ANZACS

Lest we forget

 

Oliver.

 

THE ANZAC'S

They fought for us

They died for us

We honour them with every breath

And every move

We are free because of them

We are safe because of them

Lest we forget

Paige

 

Descendant of the Lone Pine at Eden, NSW.

ANZAC

WE MUST GET BACK

All the ANZACs What must they think

When their boat is About to sink

We must stay afloat We must stay alive

We must get back to Our families and wives  

All the ANZACs What must they do

When all their enemies Are shooting at you

We must stay hidden We must stay alive

We must back to Our families and wives

All the ANZACs What must they do

When people are Falling from the flu

We must fight it off We must stay alive

We must get back to Our families and wives

All the ANZACs What must they feel

When they got set up For an unfair deal

We’re coming home We stayed alive

We will get back to Our families and wives!

Rylee

Memorial Park at Eden, looking out over the Tasman Sea

Leaving Port Philip Bay to head North – Part 1

 

The time had come to carrying on with our cruising life.  We had spent a couple of weeks in Williamstown and surrounds and then we headed back for a few days to Portarlington to tie up some loose ends and wait for weather to leave the Bay.

We decided that Tuesday the 13^th was a good day to go with the slack tide at the entrance being at 0830 and the weather looking light but from a direction that would help us head east. Originally we were going to leave Portarlington on the Monday afternoon and spend the night in Queenscliff, but with jobs still to be done and only a light breeze, we decided to head to bed early and set the alarm for 0345 for an early start.  The forecast was for light northerlies, but unfortunately these were so light we still ended up motoring to get to “The Rip” at the right time.  We wanted to ensure leaving the bay was in the best possible conditions, remembering our trip in, and I think we got this pretty right.  There was a small patch of turbulence where we just let the boat go where the waters wanted to take her, but there was no swell and over all very calm.  Friends Jan and John were over at Pt Lonsdale seeing us off and we were able to see them through the binoculars.



 

Pt Lonsdale Pier and Lighthouse

Seals at play at the entrance to Port Phillip Bay

 

Once out of the entry we set course towards the end of Wilsons Promontory and sat back to enjoy sailing in open water again.  The children organised themselves for watches from 1000 and we had light head winds for the start of the journey.  We kept the cockpit roof cover up and the windward clear side which made it very cosy in the cockpit and we were able to sit out there for most of the day and into the night.

Unfortunately the wind dropped away in the afternoon with the seas quite lumpy and we were struggling to make our way comfortably.  Over night the winds continued to ease and we tried several combinations of sailing and motoring but by first light on Wednesday we were only at Wilsons Promontory and Dan had had enough of the lack of head way so we made the decision not to get frustrated and push on but change course and head into Refuge Cove.

We dropped anchor at Refuge Cove 0930 on the Wednesday morning with two other yachts already anchored there.  Dan needed some more sleep so the kids and I did a bit of a tidy up, not much was needed though so we did quiet activities until lunch then went ashore to explore the bay. 

We discovered wallaby tracks on the sand, snakes and lizards and lots of birds all within the first couple of hours.  We met Craig, from one of the yachts anchored in the cove and learnt that you could get mobile phone coverage by walking approximately an hour in either direction to the top of the surrounding ridges. We studied the track information from the signage around and made a plan of where to explore in the coming days.  The boys went for rock hopping walks and Paige and I enjoyed reading through the boat names written in a designated area in the camp.

 

For the next couple of days we walked the tracks in either direction from the Cove.  We managed to get enough data coverage to keep an eye on the weather and make plans for the next step.  We saw a couple of other vessels come and go but ultimately enjoyed having the place to ourselves.

 

I celebrated my birthday while there, and a cake baked by Oliver. Unfortunately it wasn’t until it was finished that I realised we didn’t even get a photo of it!

After a few fantastic days of getting back into boat cruising life, school, chores, exercise, job lists, blog entries and meeting new people the weather was once again good for heading out. 

This time we chose a system with more wind to help us power through any swell and enjoyed a bumpy but quick ride from Refuge Cove to Eden, in southern NSW, in 28hrs from anchor up to anchor down.  The wind was predominately from the SW 25-30 knots with some higher gusts on the Monday morning.  We needed to gybe as we were coming into Twofold Bay so zipped off the forward edge of the cockpit cover roof and rolled it back to the targa bar to do so. This was easy to do as it is what we had worked out in the design process that we would need.

Since arriving in Eden we have only been able to explore our closest beaches and short walks due to a nasty weather system further north that has given us lots of rain, but also a swell that makes it unable for us to anchor over by the township of Eden.  We look forward to the coming days being more settled so that we can explore the town, catch up on laundry and get some fresh supplies as well as check out the must see sights.

Hanging out in Williamstown

Leaving Portarlington

As mentioned in our previous entry we spent a couple of weeks in Williamstown getting a cover made for our cockpit.  But it wasn’t all work while we were there and we did enjoy our two weeks hanging out in Williamstown.

We left Portarlington on the Sunday morning and had a lovely sail over to Williamstown to be able to pick up a Victoria Parks courtesy mooring just as the World Cup Cricket Final started.  Unfortunately that didn’t go the way we were hoping, but it was great to be able to see the fire works across the CBD skyline at the end of the game from our perfect vantage point.

And Arriving in Williamstown



Lots to see around us including Navy ship repair...

The Sea Shepards vessel Steve Irwin

Feeding the local Wildlife

and fun and creativity with photography.

We choose Williamstown as this was close to where Custom Yacht Covers was based.  It allowed us to tie up to either Royal Victoria Yacht Club dock, or Ferguson Street Pier for her to be able to get work done.  We spent our nights on the courtesy moorings or side tied on to the Ferguson Street Pier depending on the weather.

One of the many jobs we finally got around to, putting up our sun catcher. Thanks Bourke-Finn Family!

Shipping in the channel can be quite BIG

On the days that the boat wasn’t needed for cover making we ventured up under the West Gate and Bolte Bridges and up into Docklands where there are several marinas that have visitor berths. We went to the Melbourne City Marina where we could stay for up to four hours (often longer) without charge.  These berths seemed very under utilised for their proximity to the city and during our mid week visit we were the only ones there! Within a very easy walk we discovered Harbour Town, a large outlet style mall, the Melbourne Star (a huge Ferris wheel), an Ice skating Rink, Cost Co and free trams into the city.  We also splashed out and played a round of Lazer Tag as a family for our Easter Activity.  I hadn’t done this before so spent a lot of my time being out played by the more seasoned players in the family!

The Westgate Bridge

Dan managed to get several other jobs done as well as helping with the fitting of the cover.  He finished off the generator start panel, which instead of being in a cardboard box sitting under the bed is now situated just inside the saloon door in a flash carbon fibre surround.  He also fitted new LED spreader lights, noise insulation around the generator, new bed base for our berth, new outdoor speakers, an AIS (automatic identification system) and made water tight some damage to our transom.  It was very entertaining on my part to meet him at the Southern Cross Train station to see him and Rylee carrying sheets of noise insulation (1300mmx600mm) among all the mid day commuters after negotiating the buses and trains and turnstiles.  He also had another shopping spree and returned home via bus with back pack and large shopping bags full of exciting boxes of electronics and fittings.

In saying this it probably was nothing compared to him and I returning from the food warehouse Cost Co where we spent over $1000 on bulk food supplies!  It was very entertaining pushing our two trolleys the two blocks, across the tram lines and down the dock to load it all on board.

 

The kids and I went on a big tidy up spree, and focused on an area a day, and managed to donate several more bags of bits and pieces to the local op-shops. I was dreading tidying up the bathroom as it had been bothering me for some time, but once  I got stuck in I only ended up throwing out about three items, and just by putting things away I managed to get it all to fit neatly and in a usable way.

But it wasn’t all work as the kids and I went to Science Works with friends we met when they sailed into Portarlington, and we also enjoyed a meal at their home during the week as well as farewell drinks and celebrating the new cockpit cover on our last evening in Williamstown.  The boys also discovered the local skate park after asking the Information Centre volunteers where it was and spent a great deal of time there perfecting their tricks on their scooters.  We also enjoyed watching some of the local youth during a competition run by the local council, but it didn’t do my heart much good watching these young men do backwards and forward flips, land them and keep on rolling!!

It was also a pleasant surprise to catch up with friends from Melbourne that we met in Whangarei when Dan did some work for them on their boat.  They joined us for morning tea one day, and they were very generous sharing with us their experiences of sailing around this part of the world. 

Melbourne at sunset

Early morning Hot Air Balloons over Melbourne CBD.

Once the cover was completed it was time to for some decision making.  Unfortunately the weather wasn’t going to allow us to leave the bay and head east for several days, and we had some jobs that we needed to do that required a car and some local knowledge, and as we still hadn’t sold our vehicle we decided to head back to Portarlington to tie up a few loose ends.

Over the weekend we were there we managed to sell the car, pick up a few last minute supplies, including an order from the butcher and last minute mail/packages from Portarlington Post Office as well as a trip into Geelong and I also topped up the cruising kitty by doing one last shift at work.

We had a lovely meal with two other families on the Friday evening and had a revolving group of visitors on the Sunday afternoon.  The kids managed to catch up with friends from school and sailing and it was really great to see many surprised faces around the village when they weren’t expecting to see us!

The Outdoor Living Space.

One of the big jobs we wanted to get done before heading away again was a permanent cockpit cover.  For the last 5 or so years we have had a system of Bunning’s tarps to help keep us sheltered from the sun and rain with varying efficiency.  We lost the last one in a howling westerly while trying to stop the boat taking itself to Mornington so it was time to find the right person for the job.

 

 



 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan contacted a few canvas workers from around the Geelong area, but none of them were able to complete such a big job.  We finally found Sue from Custom Yacht Covers who came out to Portarlington to see us and was able to give us a quote we were very happy with. 

 

 

 

The cover was probably not the norm for what most boat owners want or need but we had lived with many prototypes so knew what was going to work for us.  Also Dan had built PVC piping into the boat to run the track through so that we didn’t have track screwed and glued into the boat.  This may or may not have made it easier but it a decision that was made way back in 2007 so we had to go with it.

We also wanted a cover that could be zipped forward and aft to allow for the cover to remain up in most sailing conditions, a water collection system and clear sides that could enclose the whole area, but zip in several places to allow access and ventilation.  During the process we also decided we needed a peep hole to be able to see the mast and sails from the centre of the cover.  Phew! What a list, but Sue was very patient with us and listened to our needs, and we soon had a plan.

 

 

School and work finished on the 27^th of March so on the Sunday with a lovely breeze we headed over to Williams Town, near Melbourne CBD to start work first thing Monday morning.  Dan needed to cut the track in the tubing and make a couple of extra wider areas to feed the cover into and then we threaded through the bolt rope which the zipper would attach too.  This took a couple of goes, with a smaller rope in the end but once this was done the template for the roof portion of the cover could be made.  It then took a couple of days for Sue to make the actual cover and this was fitted on the Thursday morning, which was very quick work we felt.  A couple of days later due to other commitments and weather we were able to pattern up the side panels and work out where zips and bungee buttons were to go.  Another couple of days to make in and around Easter, weather and work and we were all done by 5pm the next Thursday.

 

Instantly we were amazed at the difference it made.  By stopping the breeze coming through it made the inside of the boat warmer.  We have expanded our entertaining area and we have had a few sails now and only once unzipped the roof cover after the main sail was up so that we could gybe.  The water collection works well and we have caught enough to help with the laundry.

If anyone out there is interested in getting any canvas work done in the greater Melbourne area, check out www.customyachtcovers.com.au or check her out on FaceBook http://www.facebook.com/customyachtcovers

Email Address

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