North to Adventure

Vessel Name: Aka Aka
Vessel Make/Model: Catalina
Hailing Port: Bunbury, Western Australia
Crew: Terry & Bon
About: Description: Dubious
07 December 2017 | Geraldton Western Australia
25 November 2017 | Geraldton
06 November 2017 | Carnarvon Western Australia
23 October 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia
09 October 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia
25 September 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia
13 September 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia
07 September 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia
03 September 2017
31 August 2017 | Carnarvon Western Australia
18 August 2017 | Freemantle Sailing Club Western Australia
07 August 2017 | Bunbury Western Australia
Recent Blog Posts
07 December 2017 | Geraldton Western Australia

Leaving Geraldton.....

Tuesday 5th December - Our number 2 grandchild, Ava Lauren O'Connor's 12th birthday.

25 November 2017 | Geraldton

Heading South....SLOWLY!

Hi Today is Sunday 26th November This begins with a continuation of the last one...6th November

06 November 2017 | Carnarvon Western Australia

First leg south....

Sunday night 5 November

23 October 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia

One. Day. At. A. Time.......

Friday, 20 October 2017

09 October 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia

Drifting along......

Sunday 1 October 2017

25 September 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia

Rudderless........

Leaving Geraldton.....

07 December 2017 | Geraldton Western Australia
Tuesday 5th December - Our number 2 grandchild, Ava Lauren O'Connor's 12th birthday.
I am buggered! We went for a bike ride looking for an auto parts store....and got lost on the way back "home" to the boat. "Oh....it should be just up that hill, turn left and there you are....Several HUGE hills, highways without foot paths or cycle-ways later..... we found that we had over shot the left turn and had to back track two more steep hills! My thighs look like the incredible hulk's!!! Luckily we only had a few blocks left to go before Terry got a flat tire. He walked and I rode to the bike shop for repairs. We left the bikes there, went and got ourselves a well deserved ice-cream cone and headed back to the boat for fish & chips for dinner.

Today is Friday 8th November - we are at the marina now preparing to leave. We have done our shopping, laundry, filled water tanks, and I have done some cooking so we can leave in the wee hours of tomorrow (or midnight-ish tonight) if weather stays like it was predicted. There will be at least a 3 day window with great winds for heading south without having to smash into it.

This morning we met Gordon for breakfast to say goodbye - His motor repairs have taken much longer than predicted and the weather report is just too good to pass up. Such a wonderful person and we will miss him....but he said he will come down to Bunbury in the New Year to catch up. He may even catch up with us on the water depending on when he is able to leave!!?!

I will end this now and will post again once we get to our next stop.....

Heading South....SLOWLY!

25 November 2017 | Geraldton
Hi Today is Sunday 26th November This begins with a continuation of the last one...6th November

After hiring a car so we could get fuel, groceries, do laundry.... we were ready to leave Carnarvon Wednesday 8th. We got away at 6:13am. The sail was BEAUTIFUL! A magnificent day! With our spirits lifted, we arrived at Monkey Mia around 5:50pm. Unfortunately we couldn’t tell Gordon that we had decided to go to Monkey Mia before Turtle Bay....and reception was nil! Ooops!

Saturday 11th November 2017 Remembrance Day
This is our second (blissful) day at Monkey Mia. We left Carnarvon 06:12 Thursday morning and ..... wait for it.............. WE HAD A SPECTACULAR SAIL - ALL DAY!!!?!! No motoring at all!?..........and even managed 8.3 knots for quite some time. Days like that make you instantly forget all of the crappy times.
History: The origin of the name is a mystery but there are two suggestions. Firstly, in 1834 a schooner named Monkey anchored in Shark Bay. Secondly, a pearling boat working in Shark Bay in the late 1800’s had a monkey on board for a mascot. Mia is an Aboriginal name for home.
I am sitting in the cockpit in shorts and t-shirt, with a surrounding view of a turquoise coloured bay. The occasional party of dolphins glide past. They seem to hang around here – they get a snack of fish a couple of times a day for the tourists. There are also several huge pelicans that get a treat of fish too.
We will stay here until Tuesday, when we head around the point to Turtle Bay. Speaking of turtles...I saw three yesterday!?! And during our lunch, we had a MAGNIFICANT sea eagle land on the bow for a quick rest. I have been extremely lucky with all of the wildlife I have seen – and I didn’t have to pay a thing!
Sunday – 12th
We took the dingy to shore. This is a very popular tourist destination. It used to be set up so that only wealthy people could afford to come; but it didn’t do so well. Now there is camping/caravan – chalets, backpackers accommodation, shops, restaurant, bar, visitor centre etc.... it is also a protected marine park.
A couple of sail boats who turned up in Exmouth (just after we left) had met Gordon – (we mentioned Gordon earlier – solo sailor with engine trouble) before heading south. He told us to watch out for them. Apparently they turned up in Carnarvon the afternoon of the day we left....lo and behold they turned up in Monkey Mia. One boat, named “Jack Tar” sailed by Mick McFie; and the other one named “Scaramouch” sailed by a woman named Poppy Moore. She is raising funds for Parkinsons disease by circumnavigating Australia with one to two other crew members who volunteer to help along the way.
After discussing weather and winds we all decided to sail in company, and left Tuesday as planned, got away around 11:15am. We arrived 4:00pm and anchored at Herald Bay on the Peron peninsula. 30+ knott winds that night!
Thankfully Terry had put two anchors out! We got away next morning 6:00am and during the day we managed to get a hold of Gordon to tell him we had bypassed Turtle Bay and were heading for Shelter Bay. Good thing we got him since he was heading for Monkey Mia! We all arrived at Shelter Bay 4:00pm (Gordon joined us around 6:30pm) Much quieter anchorage so we got a great sleep. Left at 6:45am and sailed through the day and night, all the time keeping an eye on each other....as best we could. We all arrived in Geraldton around 3:30pm Friday 17th November. We all met on our boat for tea , coffee and chocolate sharing our stories of that overnight sail. Poor Gordon picked up a ship’s hawser (huge rope for tying them to jetties etc..) on his prop and rudder which brought his boat to a complete stop! He had to go overboard, in the dark, with a torch and knife to cut it free from his rudder. And here I was thinking OUR trip was yuk! I only had milky coffee spilled over me! Terry was bringing me a coffee in bed. When he was putting it on the shelf the boat pitched and coffee went all over the shelf, bed and me......there was however, one swallow left in the cup of which I enjoyed immensely! Mick’s cooked breakfast was splattered on the floor when his boat pitched – although he was able to recover his, Monique (Poppy’s crew) lost her breakfast overboard...AFTER she ate it due to seasickness.
The next morning (Saturday) Jack Tar and Scaramouch left to continue down south. We decided to stay in Geraldton a few days and wait for a better weather window. Gordon is having some work done on his boat so if it doesn’t take too long, we will wait for him so we have company for part of the sail down south. From now on the prevailing winds will be southerlies, so we are hoping for weather windows of anything BUT southerly winds to make our trip as comfortable as possible.
After the two boats left, Gordon, Terry and I went for a coffee at a nearby cafe, then spent most of the day at the fantastic Maritime Museum here on the waterfront. The three of us have been reading books about various historical explorations and ship wrecks that happened along the coast we have been travelling. Phillip Parker-King who for the most part charted the northwest coast of Australia on the Mermaid and Bathurst; The Wreck of the Barque Stefano (which happened right off of Exmouth); the wreck of the Batavia to name a few. Anyway, there are some rather moving displays of several wrecks that happened off this notorious uncharted west coast. Not to mention the 3D film of old photos & and recent discovery of the remains of the Australian Battleship, the Sydney which was sunk in November 1941 losing all 645 men by the German raider Kormoran which also sank with 318 of the 399 crew were rescued.
Each day Terry and I would go for a ride around town on our bikes. It is such a great city to ride around. There are cycle paths everywhere! Tuesday 21st Terry road in to the TV/Radio place to get some information. He comes back to the boat in a right ole state! - chucks a piece of paper at me while grumbling something about Hitler........He’d got an infringement of $50.00 for not wearing a bicycle helmet! We have been riding around each town on all of our stops....on the pathways mind you....I am surprised he didn’t just get a warning, seeing as he was on the foot path, new to town etc... Anyway Terry was wild at the copper’s attitude which made his mood worse. Bloody $50 bucks!?! The rest of the day we did laundry and cleaned up the boat a bit.
Wednesday we rode to shops to get me a helmet – and Gordon had one Terry is borrowing. After we got back to the boat, we left the marina (around 12:15) and are now anchored in a bay in front of the local yacht club. Gordon has his boat out on the hard stand area in the fisherman’s harbour getting the motor worked on, the hull antifouled, and various other things done while it is out of the water. It has been really windy for the last few days.....today (Saturday 25th) we’ve had gusts up to and exceeding 32knots! I have yet to go to shore since we have been anchored because of it.
After looking at the calendar for today’s date I noticed that yesterday (Thursday in the USA) was Thanksgiving. I miss the build up to it because it precedes Christmas but always was exciting in it’s own right. The warmth of the Kitchen with the smells of comfortable delicious food. And Hooray! We get to see our cousins! I am sorry that I didn’t remember to wish my family and Yankee friends a Happy Thanksgiving. I will forever be thankful for my parents who did their best to give me a memorable upbringing and siblings that I love to this day. The sacrifices they made to fix my feet, straighten my teeth and feed & clothe me has not gone unnoticed. I am now also thankful for my Aussie family that my husband and best friend gave to me – 4 beautiful adults whom 3 have given us 9 delightful grandchildren. Yes, I have a lot to be thankful for.
Tomorrow is Sunday and we will take the dinghy ashore, ride to the local bakery for some fresh bread and have a coffee while we are at it. It sure is a tough life.

First leg south....

06 November 2017 | Carnarvon Western Australia
Sunday night 5 November

I went to post an update and instead of hitting "Ctrl C" I hit "shift C" by mistake and lost everything I had written for the past few weeks. I am NOT HAPPY! So, this will be short and sweet......I WANT TO SCREAM!!!!!!!!!!!

We got our rudder in Sunday 31st Oct. Monday a friend of Terry's was up in Exmouth for a week and loaned us his car for the day - we shopped, got gas, fuel and did laundry. Tuesday we organised the boat and left the marina by 12:30 that afternoon. Goodbye Exmouth!

The trip was horrible ..... the seas were so confused it was almost as if the universe doesn't want us to do this trip or something. We both were really crook (sick for you yankees) I wont go into details this time .... just that it was 50 hours of hell. not kidding!

We are in Carnarvon now preparing to go to Turtle Bay for a restful anchorage (hopefully) for a few days.

By the way, today is Monday 6 November already!

One. Day. At. A. Time.......

23 October 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia
Friday, 20 October 2017
Today is my mama’s 87th birthday! Wow! Good on ya mom! You are a star. To mark the day, the weather is very hot and humid without much breeze. I am going crazy with my extra body heat on top of it - which makes me a firm believer in internal combustion causing the body to overheat, burn and end up in a pile of ashes. We rode to town earlier than usual to avoid high heat. We got a wonderful letter from our number 7 grandchild, Levi. He is 6 and just a DARLING boy. So thoughtful as well as clever. He used a different coloured pen for each paragraph – it sings with colour! And to top it off, there was a wonderful large picture of an ice-cream cone with rainbow colours just like the ice cream he had at the Bull & Barrel festival in Dardanup earlier in the month. He drew it to show us what it looked like. They stayed at our house to save driving etc. which made us miss them that much more!

Sunday, 22 October 2017
Last night we went for a ride (wearing our head lights) since it was a magnificent clear, cool evening. Terry showed me something I had never seen before. When you shine a light onto the sand up here, you can see little diamond-like lights sparkling all over the sand.......those sparkles are the EYES of little fawny coloured spider!!!!!! Yes! I said SPIDERS! The body (including legs) are only about the size of my fingernail. Surprising since the light their eyes omit is so very bright! While he was showing me this.....my headlamp shone on a huge - H.U.G.E. black spider nearby. As we were discussing what type of spider it was; admiring at just how big he was (without being a tarantula) and what he was doing, blah blah blah...HE DISAPPEARED!!! INTO THIN AIR! It was SO EERIE! Poof! Gone! Then Terry found the little entry to his hole he’d escaped down. After getting a thin blade of grass, he put it slowly down the hole and all of a sudden this “door” came across the top of the hole! It was the infamous black, trap-door spider! Thank goodness we didn’t see any others since I was beginning to feel creeped out! After such a hot and humid day, the cool night air was lovely – a beautiful evening indeed.

A few days ago, we were in town (on one of our routine bike rides) and I felt like buying some cinnamon to put on my oatmeal in the mornings. You KNOW things are getting bad when buying cinnamon is so exciting! Now, I must mention that I am a very lucky woman because my dear Terry delivers coffee to me in bed every morning, then after that, oats for breakfast with the desired 10 or so almonds lovingly tossed in. We sit in bed, drink our cuppas, then eat our porridge while watching the news to start our day. ANYway, the morning after my cinnamon purchase Terry asks if I’d like some on my oats. “Oh yes please..... just a few good sprinkles” He had to ask where it was but ended up finding it. He sat down next to me and we were silently listening to the news while stirring and munching on our oats. He asked if the cinnamon was nice and I said “well it tastes different to the cinnamon I get at home but I am sure I will get used to it...” Each bite I was in a cloud of confusion – I said to Terry that “I get a Dutch brand at home so that could be why the difference in taste” Some time later I said “I recognise this taste but I don’t think it is cinnamon” and then “this is very strange but it reminds me of an Indian dish” I couldn’t finish it but ate the majority. About 20 minutes later Terry broke into peels of laughter! He hadn’t had his glasses on when he’d made us brekkie, so sprinkled cumin on my oats!!! He said he saw “min” and assumed..... Man did we laugh! Why I didn’t question it right away I will never know! Sorry Exmouth! I thought your cinnamon was so inferior! Haaaahaaaaa

Tomorrow or the next day we are hiring a car again so we can go back to (Jurabi Turtle Centre) at night to see where three different, threatened species of turtles nest. They always come to the same place every year to nest and lay their eggs. I will write more on this subject after we have been there.

It looks like the rudder will be finished and up here by the end of this week. Hooray! Then we will have to get a couple of divers to put it back in. Will update soon.

Drifting along......

09 October 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia
Sunday 1 October 2017

Hello!
Well it looks like the rudder shaft has been bent backwards causing it to snap. Therefore it isn't the fault of the guy who welded it but happened when we hit that sandbar in Mandurah. (Terry had to apologise to the welder!) No wonder the steering was wonky and the autopilot was out so many degrees! We were extremely lucky for it to stay together enough during our time in all of those rough seas, cliffs and reef!!!! To get a new one (which we have to do) will be VERY expensive....one quote came in at $12,600 something!?! ..... so we contacted our insurance company and are waiting on one more quote before they let us know if they will cover this....or have to send an assessor out to look at it.....etc.etc.etc.
This morning we said goodbye to the wonderful couple I had mentioned earlier; Chris & Natalie Hale with their two boys Josh 10 and Sam 8. Such DARLING polite boys. (ALMOST as good as ours but not quite!) They bought a sail boat in Brisbane and took 6months off to sail it home (to Perth). They stopped in here for a week of rest and reprovisioning. A few days later, a solo sailor came into the marina with engine trouble. His name is Gordon and we all got along so well. Chris and Nat hired (rented for you yanks) a car and offered to take us into town to get our gas bottle refilled. It would have been a bit awkward on the back of the bike so was much appreciated. We only use gas for our stove and oven so keeping two bottles means we rarely run out altogether.
There is a club house up from our boat called Exmouth Game Fishing Club (EGFC) which opens for drinks and meals on weekends. This last Friday all seven of us went up for a drink and a meal. We had a fabulous night - great company; delicious, reasonably priced food; and a spectacular sunset to top it all off.
Since the Hales were planning to leave Sunday morning (today) we all decided to watch the footy grand final game together in town at one of the pubs called the Pott Shot Hotel. We got a taxi to pick us up and managed to score a table outside in the shade with a perfect view of the screen! I saw this young guy come up where we were and sat down approx. 2 rows in front of us. He looked so familiar to me....I just KNEW that I knew him.....only to discover that he was my favourite footy player in "my" team The West Coast Eagles!!!!!! Jeremy McGovern! I mustered up the courage (after the whole game was over and I had had my allotted 2 light beers) to go up to him, say "hello you are my favourite player" and I got my picture with him. He stood up and I instantly shrunk to a dwarfed size old lady dribbling out the side of my mouth! (that's what it felt like anyway!) I had no idea I was such a football (Aussie rules) groupie! It was a fantastic day! Sam and Josh were impressed even if my HUSBAND was not!

Monday 9 October 2017

I just realised that I havent posted anything for a long time. That must be because nothing much has been happening. We received a second quote for the replacement coming in at $6,000 cheaper than the first. So we minimise the time waiting, we decided to pay for the replacement outright and then deal with the insurance company later. They sent an assessor to see the rudder, but we havent heard anything yet. The work began last week so hopefully in two more weeks it should be ready to be sent back up for insertion.

Our days have been passing by rather quickly believe it or not. We have been doing jobs on the boat that we hadn't had much time to do before our maroon-ment! (just made that up!) Terry has fixed three pumps; repaired flat bike tyres, cleaned out hatches polished the stainless steel all over the boat; all with a fishing line out the back! I cleaned out the fridge and defrosted the freezer; washed out some of our undies, scrubbed the shower amongst other odd jobs. We manage a ride into town once a day too keep our joints oiled!

Last night we went up to the EGFC for a fish and salad burger which we split. It was nice and tasty! In the evenings we have been gorging ourselves on the BBC series "As Time Goes By" with Judi Dench and Geoffrey Palmer. Very funny and heartwarming with extremely good acting. A "must see" for those of you who havent seen it. Especially YOU my mama!
Oh! And the answer is NO - not one fish has been caught off of the back but it's like lotto - gotta be in it to win it!

Time for our daily bike ride. Once we have heard more on the rudder front I will keep you all informed

Rudderless........

25 September 2017 | Exmouth Western Australia

Saturday 23 September
Ahoy me hearties!! Still grounded....down but not out! Terry went for a ride around to the other side of the marina and found a shipwright (David Ross) who came with “his” diver on Sunday to get the rudder off. Funny, that after all of their tugging, grunting and groaning they found out that the rudder (although 100kg minimum) is buoyant! So if it HAD snapped off while sailing, at least we wouldn’t have lost it. It was broken right on the weld where it had been (supposedly) fixed. The diver also found Terry’s wrench & glasses while down there too which was a bonus! Yes, Jo! He’d lost them again..... David took the rudder and dropped it off the next morning at the transport company. Unfortunately, it didn’t leave until the following morning – which meant that they wouldn’t receive it until Wednesday. Thursday we get a call from Steve (the shipwright from Fremantle we were sending rudder to) saying he hadn’t received it yet. We call the transport co. – they tracked it down saying it was sent to incorrect address!?! Instead of 181 it was sent to 151 – ANYWAY with the week nearly gone it arrived later that day (Thursday). That night Sue and Rob had us over for dinner. When they were travelling in Sri Lanka, Rob took a cooking class there – so we were treated with the most delicious fish curry we have ever tasted! He topped it off with fresh mango sorbet for dessert. We had a lot of laughs – to the bladder breaking point! which lifted our spirits immensely!
Since we have been stuck – we have been riding into town everyday for exercise (as well as to get supplies, people watch, explore different streets, etc...) The distance would be a 6km round trip – assisted or hindered by varying winds. It has been keeping us sane as well as getting us fit.
The next day (Friday) Terry gets a text and pictures of the rudder from the welder (Darren Goss) who repaired it originally, guaranteeing that it would be “as good as new” ..... assuring us that “we had nothing to worry about” after said we were sailing around Australia and crossing the Tasman sea to NZ..... The text stated that “Rudder has about 3 to 4mm bend in the shaft and appears to have hit something” .... Terry phoned him to discuss that it had snapped right along his weld to which he replied it was a “design fault with Catalina” and that he “didn’t have x-ray vision” to be able to see inside the shaft, blah blah blah. We don’t want it repaired by another weld....we want the whole shaft replaced by a new one. As Steve hired this Darren to do the original repairs, Terry needs to discuss it all with him – this is a long weekend (Queen’s birthday!?) so NOTHING will be happening until at least Tuesday. AAAaaaaagggghhhhhh!!!!!! HOW FRUSTRATING!
But wait! There is more!?! I was doing my addictive code cracking puzzles and Terry was watching the early edition of the news....when I heard a “ker-plunk” I yelled to Terry as I ran up the stairs only to see the bubbles of what was Terry’s bike heading down to the bottom.....we leave them on the jetty between us and a dive-come-whale watching charter boat. They had just taken off for an evening cruise. Along with the strong winds their bow thrust had shaken his bike into the water. Luckily I heard the splash....With our quick thinking and team work we managed to hook it out of the water with a makeshift gaff hook on a pole with a weight off of the dive belt to make it stop it floating. It took a few attempts but worked so we thought we might patent the device, become millionaires and buy a bigger boat! Ha! After a good rinse with fresh water, and another lanolin spray it seems to be as good as new – time will tell!
Each day ticks by with many things to make up our days: rides into town, people watching, reading, cooking, eating, scrabble, T.V. reading, cleaning, washing, reading, dvd’s, naps, etc... we have met a lot of nice people too. In fact there is a young couple with two children from Perth here on their boat that we are catching up with later this arvo. (afternoon for you yanks). We even heard the whales splashing down one still evening while outside. There were lots of them! Today, Tuesday 26th, is cooler and we even had a bit of rain. Hopefully we will hear something about the rudder today......OMG! Terry's phone rang as I typed that!!! and it is the shipwright dude ..... watch this space.

Aka Aka's Photos - sbdnrajuz

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