Hello again,

I hope you are all enjoying being a part of our adventures. I decided to do another report tonight because it becomes too much to write in one hit and I want to share with you all the little interesting things along the way.

We have had a good couple of days and although Brian felt a bit off colour for the last two, today he is much better.

As I have shared before we have been getting low on food. With Brian off colour he hasn't had the energy to get the rubber duck down off the yacht's deck, but finally did so last night. Well, a funny thing happened as a result. It was 4.30pm by the time we got into the duck to go looking for a shop, which I might add we had no clue as to the whereabouts of, but off we set. Jervis Bay is a big piece of water with little towns around its perimeter. We knew we were looking for the town of Vincentia but were not sure exactly how to find it. As we set off we discovered another boat with a couple of fisherman aboard, so we hailed them down. The two men aboard appeared to be of Italian or Greek nationality. There was an older man and another, who was obviously his adult son. Brian asked them where we could get some food. The younger of the two took him to mean that we had no food at all. and began to almost panic. "Oh S....t" he said, "Oh S.....t, I havent got any here, Oh S...t what can we do". He offered us a mandarin and a fanta bottle that was half full of water. lol, it was so funny. It took us a while to get him to understand that we only wanted a shop to top our food and weren't desperate. His animation calmed a bit (not that I think this fellow is ever calm) and he said "oh, now I understand, Oh S.....t, are you sure you don't want some of this drink, it's as good as petrol"? We laughed and thanked him and then asked him how to find the shop. It turned out the shop was miles away. Way around the other side of the huge Jervis Bay and it was getting dark. The fellow then suggested we do some fishing and try for squid, then we could have calamari for tea, he said. We agreed this was a good idea but told him we didn't have the proper tackle. With this he insisted on giving us one of his lures, telling us it was a lucky one! As we parted ways with these very helpful men, the father spoke his only words, laughing and pointing to his son he said, "this one is a lively one". I replied that I believed him. We motored away laughing our heads off. They made our day.

We toured around our proximity for about half an hour and took the duck ashore so we could stretch our legs. We had a lovely walk down a bush track through the very lush national park. It was weird walking on land after a week on the boat as the land kept going up and down and neither of us could keep our balance. Very enjoyable though except for taking off the shoes and socks to push the duck off the sand. Man that water was cold.

When we got back to the yacht I couldnt wait to put the squid jig to the test. We had a quick meal and off I went up on deck with a torch. Funny how the cold wind didn't bother me when I was excited, anticipating my catch. All to no avail though.......oh well.......fun trying.

Today we got up early, did our housework, which consisted of washing each other's hair over a bucket, doing the dishes and washing some underwear, which I couldn't hang out because we were taking the yacht to Vincentia and didn't want them to be the national flags of Gentoo. By the time we had done "all" the chores (poor us, what a hard life!!) it was midday and time to get going or we would run out of time again.

Just at that moment the toilet decided to block up and spill all over the bathroom.............yuk, what a mess! Talk about feeling sick. I bailed out and left Brian to it!!! He couldn't fix it, unfortunately it will need to be pulled apart! So in the meantime we are on the bucket brigade ......oooowh The joys of sailing on a yacht!!!!
Brian cleaned it up and said it will have to wait till tomorrow.

So we left the smelly cabin, pulled off the mooring and set off across the bay to where we understood Vincentia was located.

For those who don't know, Jervis Bay is a Navy Port and there are certain rules about where you can go and where you can't. There is always a Navy ship patroling parts of the area and there is a naval academy on one part of the surrounding land........We radioed the Coastal Patrol and asked if it was ok to cross straight over the bay on our journey to Vincentia and were informed that yes, it would be ok. We trusted this and thus, instead of going right around the prohibited area we cut across it. Whilst sitting up in the cockpit enjoying the view I heard a radio message. Not being sure if it was for us, I turned it up, only to find out that we were indeed being called by "Australian War Ship" to be precise. Talk about a shock. Brian and I both thought this is it, this time we may REALLY end up shot!!! We looked at the ship and it was pointed our way and all we saw was the gun at the front. I think the looks on our faces would have been classic. There were sailors all running around on deck; we felt like naughty kids or terrorists or something. They radioed that they were conducting an excersise of some kind and that we needed to give them a 1000mtr wake. This caused a second panic......were they doing target practice and would we be the target of a stray bullet???? Talk about exciting, it was like the real thing! Needless to say we very quickly gave them a wide berth!!!!

We eventually found Vincentia and what a beautiful sight it is. Once again there were swing moorings, which saved us having to try and anchor on a weed bottom and they are much safer in the wind. We patted ourselves on the back for being able to pick up the boy off the mooring the first time around. We have improved out of sight from the last time when it took us 3 - 4 times. We got in the duck and went to shore. The shops are walking distance to the sea shore. It is uphill but that is good for the extra pounds. We enjoyed walking around the shops and then loaded up with groceries and looked like a pair of hobo's as we walked down the street to the beach pushing our trolley! Once again we had to bare the feet to the waves as we pushed off, but the water wasnt so cold this time. We have had patches of sun today which has been nice. Yesterday was very windy but today has been really good. We were back on board the yacht by dark - well done. Brian didn't even buy too many groceries this time.......we are improving all around!!! Tomorrow we have to go back to the shop, as now we know we can wheel the trolley, we can load up a bit more. We hope to get the washing done at the laundrette as well, however it all depends on the weather. I hope to have a look at a quaint little town called Huskison as well while we are here but need to keep in mind that our aim is to get up north as soon as possible. However I think the weather will keep us here for a few more days yet.

Love Brian and Janxx

Hopefully pics will be posted tomorrow!

Trip Report 2B

Hi All,

This is amazing two reports in two days. I must be either very keen or bored one of the two. Actually it is the first one. We had an absolutely lovely sail today.

We started the day by sleeping through the alarm. We had set it to go off at 4.30am and after laying awake most of the night thinking the alarm was going to go off at any minute we were sound asleep when it did. I vaguely remember hearing it and thinking Brian would wake me up in a minute, the next thing I knew I was awake and it was daylight. I checked the time and then it was all hands on deck. We knew we had a 7 and a half hour sail ahead of us and wanted to arrive at Jervis bay in daylight. As it gets dark at 5pm now we needed to leave Batemans bay as early as possible. It was 6.30 when I woke. We quickly secured everything and were out of Batemans Bay by 7.30.

There was not much wind to speak of so once again we motored up the coast but the day was one out of the box. Blue sky, warm sun and a nice breeze. We stayed in close to the shore and logged on our tracking report with the coast guard. It was great. Brian and I even got out on deck in the sun for a while. Pods of Dolphins joined us from time to time and played in the spray of the boat. There was heaps of them, we couldnt get over just how many there were.

The coast guard told us to give him a call when we got to Brush Island, we said "ok, will do" and then asked each other where it was??? We looked on the gps and couldnt find it so we looked on the map and found the location there but then had to figure out where on the gps it was so we could notify the coast guard as we passed it. Well.......we got it wrong. We saw this rock that looked the size of what they call islands around here and assumed that must be it. We knew it was somewhere between Batemans Bay and Ulladulla and this certainly fit that criteria, so we called it in. The Batemans Bay coast guard thanked us, logged us off and said he would notify ulladulla, asking us to call them when we reached there. After a fair amount of time went by and the gps boat still hadnt passed Ulladulla we received a call from Ulladulla coast guard asking for our co-ordinates which we duly gave him, telling him we were somewhere between bush island and Batemans Bay. A while later he radioed back and said the co-ordinates we gave him were wrong and there must be something wrong with our gps. This put the cat among the pigeons, we did a panic. If we cant trust our gps what can we trust. I spent a long time trying to fathom out the gps and its settings but once again the instruction book was quite general and not specific enough. I have encountered this with the gps instructions before. After a lot of checking and deliberating we once again got out the paper map and realised we hadnt even reached brush island - never mind about having said we had passed it two hours ago. The gps was correct it was the dumb humans operating it that were wrong. Talk about have egg on the face. After haggling with each other over who was going to radio Ulladulla, Brian finally admitted to the err of our ways. It was received ok, I think the fellow was grateful that his confusion was put to rest. We didnt bother to radio in again when we did actually pass either location, we thought we would let water go under the bridge so to speak.

We arrived in Jervis Bay at 4.30pm this afternoon. Calm Water - yay - no more rocking from side to side with everything falling all over the place like it was in Batemans Bay. This place is beautiful. Its peaceful and there is lots to do. There are bush walks, shops and navy excersizes happening. And......talk about fish......well within minutes of hooking up on a swing mooring I found the water around the boat swarming with them. I said to Brian, "Never mind about unpacking, I am going to catch our tea (we had nothing for tea in the cupboard except eggs.) Brian had said a couple of days ago that we needed supplies. He always stocking up and stocking up, so my reply was that we had everything we needed......well.......I dont think I will say that again. I guess if you question the definition of need, we did have it........in the form of eggs and nothing else. So when I saw the fish I was like the wolf dreaming of pork chops at the site of pigs, I was definately having fish for tea. I have never seen fish like it, they were jumping out of the water trying to get the bait!!! I caught two of them on an empty hook!!!! True!!!

So what a perfect day, great sailing, warm weather - yay, dolphins and leather jacket fish for tea.

I leave you with a smile on my face and hope you enjoy reading this.

Love Brian and Jan

P.S. no new pics yet, will post them on picasa in the next couple of days. And I was wrong about how to get to them from this site. Just click on our photo link under favourites to the left of this story.

Friday, 19 June 2009
Trip Report 1B

Hello to all of you, we hope you are well.
We left Echuca on Tuesday the 10th of June, stayed at Traralgon overnight and arrived in Eden at 6.30pm on Wednesday the 11th.
It was dark when we arrived and the weather was cold and quite windy. The dingy had been moored beside one of the fishing vessels and needed water bailed out of it and to be re pumped up. As the weather was against us we opted to stay in accommodation overnight.
Brian's brilliant idea was to stay in the backpackers which are booked through the hotel at the top of the street. Unfortunately we didn't mention we wanted backpacker accommodation and ended up in a room upstairs in the middle of the pub which has no windows, no heating and only one side of the electric blanket worked. I put Brian on that side and turned it onto 3 and when he said he was roasting, I swapped over with him. He was happy to be on the cold side after that and I slept with the blanket on one for the rest of the night. The temp outside went down to -3deg. It was a small claustrophobic room that cost $60.00. Brian says instead of the backpackers we ended up in the rat packers.

Next day's weather was worse. Windy, cold and wet so we went to "The Blue Marlin" budget motel. It was much better. It is 2km from central Eden, is very spacious, and has a queen sized bed, HEATING, a couch to watch TV from and a kitchenette you can cook in, all for $75. Best $15 ever spent. It even had a heated pool. I missed out on using it though as it closed early. This was understandable considering the weather.

We finally got a nice day on Friday. It was still a bit windy but was sunny and a bit warmer, which was a nice change. Brian bailed out the dingy and pumped it up. We loaded all our baggage on it and transported through the waves to the yacht.
Thus our new adventure was beginning! The yacht hadn't changed in the four months I had been home, although I did feel quite disoriented as to where anything was and Brian has gone back to his original filing system of "chuck it in anywhere it will fit". It also took me a while to relax at the deeper level again but feel good since I have.

We had 2-3 beautiful sunny days. Sunday was the best with not even a cool breeze. We met up with Tracy for a $5 lunch at the club and then went to a talk at the whale museum regarding a yacht called the "Spirit of Mystery". The story goes:
6 men from Cornwell England travelled to Australia in 1857 for the gold rush. It took them 161 days in an old fishing boat called a "Lugger", named "Mystery". When they arrived in Williamstown, Victoria the gold rush had just ended! It was the smallest boat to do the trip at that time. They travelled via the trade winds to Africa and then to Australia. They were the only two stops.
The Cornwell Community and two brothers Pete and Andy Goss along with Pete's 14 year old son and an experienced sea captain who was also a family member have replicated the "Lugger" and called it the "Spirit of Mystery". It is an exact replica of the original boat "Mystery", is made out of wood they shaped from trees they cut down and has telegraph poles as masts. One piece of it is from the original boat and another piece is from the famous "Nelson". It looks nowhere near as safe as the modern boats but is a real sight to see. The inside is simply done but very accommodating with 4 bunks that double as seats and very roomy. It even has a wood heater in the middle of it. The Goss family are doing the same sale as the original men did, in as close as possible way they did it. The only differences are the safety gear and shore back up. The original men had no back up, no radio and therefore no outside contact. It took the "spirit of mystery" 121 days to do the same sail as they got caught in a tremendous storm which ended with one of them breaking both bones in his leg. The R.A.A.F parachuted 3 lots of morphine down to the sea for them to use until they could get him to shore and into a hospital. With community support the whole boat cost them $7.50 which was for the plans of a similar fishing vessel. We met up with the crew and looked over the boat at the jetty in Eden; it was really interesting to be a part of it. Pete Goss was the fellow who saved the frenchman that was shipwrecked in the Great Southern Ocean during a race around the world. See our pics of "Spirit of Mystery".

Not long after we arrived back at the yacht that day there was a pod of dolphins in the cove right near us. It was a great sight, they were looking for fish. Needless to say it was a lovely Sunday for us.

We spent the next two, cold windy days getting ready to sail. Our plans were to be moving off toward Bateman's Bay on Wednesday, the first stop on our trip up north for the winter. The weather was looking good for a few days from then on for sailing. Brian fuelled up the boat and arranged for his car to be safe. He was to leave the car with friends but finally decided to leave it in the car park at the port. He says it has been ok till now so will probably be ok again. We loaded up with groceries and checked the onboard water supply. Tuesday night Brian pulled the motor off the dingy and secured it to the yacht and then started tidying up. Wednesday morning he arranged the outside sails on deck and winched the dingy aboard whilst I secured everything inside. As Brian has been a bachelor and likes to have everything he wants at his fingertips, there was a lot to do. Everything has to be put into a cupboard or placed in containers on the floor and tied down.

Finally at 11am on Wednesday morning we set sail out of two fold bay and into the big blue ocean. It was a sunny day with a 10knot SE wind. It was quite fresh and cold. We soon found we didn't have enough wind to keep the sails full so we turned on the motor and motored up the coast. I was excited and I am sure Brian was too, we had planned this for a long time. We had lodged a tracking sheet with the Eden coastal patrol and told them we would call Narooma as we were passing, so all was a lot more prepared and safer than the last time.

As we left the bay a group of seals were playing in the swell of the sea. They had been bothering local fishermen for about a week, pinching their catch but we enjoyed seeing them.

After we settled down and got used to sailing again we took turns at being at the helm for two hours at a time. We used the new auto pilot which was fantastic. It reads the compass reading off the gps and keeps the boat going at that degree. This meant that the one on watch didn't have to steer the course, they just had to keep watch. The other one tried to get some sleep as it was a long 24 hour sail.

Through the night at a time when we were both on deck, we both got a surprise to see a meteor spear through the air and land in the sea on the horizon. It was white light with a green ball and red tail. The sky lit up like green lightening and it was very fast but was the highlight of the trip. We got a little bit of rain through the night but not much so we were ok.

The most disappointing thing for me was that I got a virus and was sick twice. The pain and queasiness before I was sick was terrible, so I was relieved when I was finally bilious and was good for an hour or so each time. I managed to still relieve Brian as it kept me occupied. It was a virus that has been going around and definitely not sea sickness. I hope Brian doesn't get it now but it is quite likely. I have felt very tired and washed out since. (Karly stop mossing me)!

We arrived in Batemans Bay earlier than expected due to motoring. It was till dark, so we floated around until daybreak when we were able to see our passage into the bay. There are a lot of Islands called the "Tolgate Islands" they are more like massive rocks with trees growing on top. We are anchored in the bay behind one of these islands which is called "Snapper Rock". As I speak Brian is trying to catch a big fish with a little hook. He is catching little fish but not big ones. It is a big bay which goes into a river. You have to cross a bar to get there and it is quite hard so we decided to stay out here.

Yesterday all we did was sleep and read. Brian cooked himself a big meal of bacon and eggs but I didn't eat until last night - so far so good. It rained all day yesterday so was a nice day to catch up on sleep. The boat sways from side to side when anchored and rocks you to sleep, although today we are a bit sick of it.

It has been a beautiful day here today, a bit warmer with a bit of sun. Brian tried fishing earlier in the day but all he caught was crabs and even they got away. He says for all those laughing that he doesn't have crabs now!! I have less clothes on than I have been wearing since I got on this ship. Instead of four sets at once I only have on two. This is a good sign that it may actually be warmer where we are going. I bought a fur lined hat and scarf and Brian says I look like an Eskimo.

This was written on the 19th and we ended up having to stay longer due to windy weather. The weekend was sunny but still cold. We got a few showers but not much. Yesterday we were having fun trying to catch squid. Even in heavy rain we didnt give up, there we were, one on the rod reeling them in and the other on the net hanging over the side head down trying to secure them ahhh.....but they are smart. They didnt barb themselves on our futile attempts to hook them and let go just before they got into the net. At the end of they day they had eaten most of our bait and we had mince meat again for tea!!!!! Needless to say the correct squid jigs would have outwitted them.

I will leave you with these cheery thoughts and say goodbye until next time. We hope to leave here tomorrow and head up to Jarvis Bay which is 52 nautical miles - about a day sail.

Love Brian and Jan xxxx

P. S. To see more pictures please click on links and then select the link for picasa Brian and Jans pictures Batemans Bay pictures. At any time you can see pictures we post by clicking on picasa Brian and Jans pictures link.