Sailing with Nine of Cups

Vessel Name: Nine of Cups
Vessel Make/Model: Liberty 458
Hailing Port: Denver, Colorado, USA
Crew: Marcie & David
About: We've lived aboard Nine of Cups since 2000 and have managed to accumulate 86,000+ nm under the keel since that time. We completed a circumnavigation in April 2015 and managed to sail around the five great southern capes. Come along with us for the ride!
Extra:
Visit our website at www.nineofcups.com for more photos and info about Nine of Cups and her crew. We also have a more extensive blogsite at www.justalittlefurther.com. Are some of our links broken? Links break from time to time. Please let us know which ones are broken and we'll fix them. You [...]
05 January 2017 | Chesapeake, VA
07 July 2016 | Us: East Walpole, MA / Cups: Chesapeake, VA
06 July 2016 | East Walpole, MA
04 July 2016 | East Walpole, MA
02 July 2016 | East Walpole, MA
01 July 2016 | Virginia Beach, Virginia
30 June 2016 | Chesapeake, VA
29 June 2016 | Chesapeake, VA
28 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
27 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
26 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
25 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
24 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
23 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
22 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
21 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
20 June 2016 | Charleston, South Carolina, USA
19 June 2016 | Charleston, South Carolina, USA
18 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
17 June 2016 | Intracoastal Waterway from St Augustine to Norfolk
Recent Blog Posts
05 January 2017 | Chesapeake, VA

Happy 2017!

Happy New Year, Everyone!

07 July 2016 | Us: East Walpole, MA / Cups: Chesapeake, VA

Taking a breather ...

Since we'll be off the boat during July and August, we plan to post only three times per week. The Captain will continue writing a practical Blue View post each week, we'll keep you up to date on what's happening with us and then throw in some cruising nuggets as well.

06 July 2016 | East Walpole, MA

Keeping fit

We’ve written before about keeping fit on the boat. David is so much better at a regimented exercise program than I am. I have all the best intentions, but I can always think of something better to do than sit-ups, push-ups, leg lifts and running in place. It doesn’t take much to distract me. Walking, [...]

04 July 2016 | East Walpole, MA

Happy 240th Birthday, America

Growing up in New England, I took for granted just how lovely a summer’s morning can be in Massachusetts. It’s comfortably cool and everything smells clean and fresh. Spider webs glisten with morning dew and it’s just great to be alive and breathe in the new day. Being back at Lin’s house conjures up wonderful childhood memories of summer mornings past. And this is not just any morning … it’s the 4th of July, the best holiday of the summertime in the USA.

02 July 2016 | East Walpole, MA

Leaving Cups and a Road Trip

Leaving Nine of Cups is never easy. We know she’ll pout while we’re gone and so we do our best to make sure she’s as comfortable as possible before we leave. We were whirling dervishes trying to get everything ready.

01 July 2016 | Virginia Beach, Virginia

Hunting & Gathering - Virginia Beach

We had lots to do before leaving Cups. David was intent on getting as many chores done in advance of our departure as possible so that once we return in September, we can spend time sailing in the Chesapeake rather than doing repairs and maintenance. Much of what we needed in the way of parts and supplies, [...]

Walking to Eucla – Part 2

25 March 2014 | Eucla, Western Australia
Marcie
So where did we leave off ... oh, yes, the big Eucla sign. About another 100m up the road, around a bend, the Eucla Motor Hotel came into view. We were hoping for a pub since a cold pint would have helped to wash down the rest of the flies, but we settled for a cold Diet Coke and a couple of sandwiches at the little attached restaurant. No other tables were occupied and the area facing the Bight was roped off. Not very picturesque or romantic, but a welcome respite. There were not many flies inside and it was cool.

Across the street from the restaurant was a children's playground and a very large grey whale. I thought it was kind of mean to have colorful playground equipment next to the whale with a big sign that said "Please keep off the whale". If kids had been riding in a car across the Nullabor Plain for hours, climbing on a whale would have been just the thing to use up some energy. Just walking up the road for 5km had me wanting to climb the darned whale, but I restrained myself.

Instead, I contented myself with taking pix of David standing next to the Eucla mileage sign. In essence, we were half way across the Great Australian Bight and half way across the Nullarbor Plain. In other words, pretty much in the middle of nowhere.

We followed a sign pointing behind the restaurant to a wonderfully lush garden patio and a pool area overlooking the Bight. Birds chirped; bright flowers bloomed. We could barely make out Nine of Cups, bobbing gently, beyond the road we'd just climbed. Eucla is the only place along this stretch of highway that dips to the coastline for an outstanding view of the Great Australian Bight.

Here we saw a small sign which touted the "Nullarbor Nymph". According to Wiki, in 1971-1972, there were several supposed sightings in the area of a half naked woman living amongst kangaroos on the Nullarbor Plain. Locals produced a grainy amateur film showing a blonde, white woman wearing kangaroo skins and holding a kangaroo by the tail. After further sightings were claimed, the story was reported around the world, and journalists descended upon the town of Eucla, which at the time had a population of 8 people. The incident was eventually revealed as a hoax, initiated as a publicity stunt, but folks still talk about it and obviously market it. We looked in vain for Nullarbor Nymph postcards, but found none.

We noticed a small sign that read "Museum" and surprisingly found the door open. It was a one-room affair with a collection of Telegraph Station memorabilia, pictures of Edward John Eyre, local pioneer artifacts and some tombstones that were salvaged from the encroaching sand dunes. This was it. We had seen all of Eucla.

As we exited the tiny museum, we met Rassa who had been working in the restaurant. She asked if we were passing through and we told her we had sailed in and were anchored by the jetty. She perked right up. "We saw the sailboat anchored there and wondered who it was. We're lucky if we see one yacht anchored here a year." She then proceeded to offer us a ride back to the boat or at least as far as the abandoned telegraph station, the ruins of which still stand among the sand dunes. We gladly accepted her generous offer. We chatted as we drove and talked about heading to Twilight Cove, an anchorage we knew little about further up the coast. She stopped the car, turned around and headed back up the road to her home. Her partner, Paul, was a fisherman who had fished the Bight for the past 27 years. He could provide us some firsthand information about Twilight Cove. Talk about luck! Paul immediately produced a well-worn chart and his fishing notebook and proceeded to give us lots of information about Twilight Cove as well as other anchorages, depths, lats/longs, hazards. It was like manna from heaven.

After many thanks, we headed back down the road with Rassa to the Telegraph Station where we thanked her again and headed off onto the sandy path. It seems in the 1890s, a rabbit plague passed through the area and ate much of the dune vegetation, causing large sand dunes to encroach upon the township. The original town was abandoned, and a new townsite established about 5km (3 miles) to the east and higher up on the escarpment. The crumbled remains of telegraph station, a few leaning telegraph poles and one old foundation is all that's left.

As we looked at the huge sand dunes drifted around us, their tops blowing off in the ceaseless wind, we could understand how after so many years, they could reclaim the town.

All the while we made our way down the trail, we always had Cups' mast in view. Though we wandered off the path occasionally, we headed for the mast and finally joined the sandy beach road which led to the jetty.

Trudging our way back to the dinghy along the wrack line, David spotted a very unique purple sea urchin shell. They're so delicate and fragile and yet it made its way across the bar and up to the beach unscathed ... definitely a keeper and a wonderful souvenir of our visit to Eucla. The surf was up a bit and we were soaked through and through by the time we launched the dinghy and muddled through the rollers. We were tired, wet and exhilarated when we arrived at Cups. A fine day on the Nullarbor Plain.

Lots more pix at JustALittleFurther.com
Comments

About & Links

SailBlogs Groups
SailBlogs Friends
LONG WHITE CLOUD
Leu Cat
Carinthia
SANGARIS
Migaloo
Asylum
Tiger Lilly
Thorfinn
Hello World
Halekai
Tender Spirit
Valiam
Talacam
MACCABEE
Annecam
HooRoo
Echo Echo