Showing posts with label again. Show all posts
Showing posts with label again. Show all posts
Tuesday, 14 March 2017
Three meerkats back sailing together again
November 11-12, 2015
It was now time for our stay in Abbel Point to come to end and after topping up fuel, water, fresh food and wine supplies, we cast off and set sail for Stonehaven on Hook Island. It was fantastic to be sailing with Marc again.
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| Marc settled straight back in aboard almost instantly. |
We first met Marc when the three of us crewed aboard the Bennetau 57 Nae Hassle from Cairns around to Darwin then beyond on the Sail Indonesia Rally of 2011. We shared awesome adventures travelling together all the way to Thailand, the full story of which is told in our book, Stuff it. Let's go sailing anyway!
Below is an extract from the book which explains how we crewmates became the three meerkats.
“On the domestic front the crew’s relationship with the owners could have best been described as strained. Not even sourcing a feed of fresh lobster generated as much as a thank you from Milan while at least Colin acknowledged how well Karen had cooked and served our tasty treat.
On Nae Hassle the master cabin is located in the stern, just below the cockpit. Colin and Milin regularly headed to bed early in the evenings rather than engage in conversation with we underlings. We were expected to follow suit rather than make noise in the cockpit and disturb them. As a result we three crew dutifully locked up the companion way and retired to our cabins, sort of. Karen and I occupied the port side cabin in the bow while Marc had the starboard. Being a big 57 footer, both were very comfortable and much larger than you would usually find on a yacht. Both also had a large hatch in the roof to reach the deck above.
Envisage if you can the sight of a head emerging from a hole in the yacht’s foredeck. It timidly rotates through 360 degrees, nervously scanning the surroundings for any danger in sight before being followed shortly after by another doing the same on the other side of the boat. Said heads then disappear rapidly below. Satisfied no evil owners are waiting to pounce, three bodies then scurry out through the holes and emerge on deck with a bottle of wine or two, plastic cups and, sometimes, even some nibbles. Envisage this and you will understand why we nicknamed the bow ‘Meerkat Manor’.
By this stage of the trip we three meerkats emerged from our burrows most evenings and spent many very pleasant hours discussing philosophy, bitching about our owners and solving the woes of the world while enjoying a drink and the tropical evenings under a sky full of brilliant stars. If only we could remember next morning all the solutions we came up with the night before and sometimes re-entering the burrow after one too many was not as controlled as the exit. It’s amazing how much noise a person can make when instead of dropping onto the edge of the bunk they miss and land as a tangle of arms and legs on the deck with a loud thud and uncontrolled giggles. What happens at Meerkat Manor stays at Meerkat Manor so no names.
The constant challenge of keeping up Meerkat Manor’s wine supply evolved into a great game. Despite the fact that Karen and I had actually bought and paid for the 180 bottles of wine that we had loaded onboard in Australia, Colin and Milin regarded them to be now ‘Ships stores’ and their property. As such they were tightly rationed with a glass or possibly two with dinner the norm. The bottles were all wrapped in newspaper and secured in hidey holes under the decks all over the boat. With great delight we took every opportunity to relocate bottles from the deepest recesses to our cabins while leaving the front rows in place. Karen was particularly adept at mounting successful raids while below alone on her perpetual galley duties and Marc would of return to his cabin to find the ‘Wine Fairy’ had deposited a bottle under his pillow.”
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| Marc, Karen and Rob in Penang, Malaysia following the 2011 Sail Indonesia Rally |
We reconnected with Marc in London in mid 2012 and embarked on a joint venture which saw us sailing the Jeanneu 43DS Alcheringa around the Mediterranean together for two seasons.
Now another two years on we were reunited under sail again. This time for the trip back down the Queensland coast to Brisbane.
We enjoyed a gentle, light airs sail across to Stonehaven where we again picked up one of the well maintained moorings provided there to protect the coral bottom.  |
| Alcheringa in the Straits of Gibraltar |
Now another two years on we were reunited under sail again. This time for the trip back down the Queensland coast to Brisbane.
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| Marc on the bow as we come into pick up a mooring at Stonehaven. |
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| Abbel Point to Stonehaven, Hook Island - 15.9 Nautical Miles - 3 Hours 14 Minutes Average Speed 4.9 knots - 7.7 knots |
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| Meerkat Manor has moved from the bow to the stern. |
Once our unexpected guest departed, we dropped the mooring and motored the very short distance over to show Marc Langford Reef and it’s sand cay that emerges at low tide. We didn’t stay long but were able to hand feed a school of huge fish that circled the stern competing for the next morsel.
Next it was around to the northern side of Hook Island and into the delightful anchorage at Butterfly Bay where we picked up the mooring ball closest into the shore and fringing coral reef.
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| Birds nesting on a marker just off Hayman Island. |
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| Karen had the sketch pad out as always |
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| Sea Turtle beside the boat in Butterfly Bay |
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| Beautiful Butterfly Bay |
We had a fantastic snorkel in the clear waters surrounded by fish of all sizes and colours and masses of beautiful coral. Butterfly Bay really is one of the best snorkelling spots in the whole Whitsunday Islands. It is also extremely well protected from the prevailing south easterly winds. Not that it was much of a concern for us this time as the breeze had not reached double figures all day and dropped out completely ensuring a very peaceful night’s sleep for the three tired meerkats onboard.
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If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Sunday, 19 February 2017
In print again Cruising Helmsman Magazine
Some of our adventures on Alcheringa have made it into print again in the October edition of Australia's number one sailing magazine, Cruising Helmsman.
The magazine's website says 'This month we also take a focus on one of the most important parts of cruising: food. Practical articles include how to build a food dryer and sow your own seeds; plus capturing and storing water. There are also recipes galore and plenty of foodie humour when provisioning overseas.'
The foodie humour is where we come in with a four page article about some of the fun and games we've had buying and preparing food in the Mediterranean.
The October print edition should hit the newsstands around Australia this week or it is available as an electronic edition via the website www.mysailing.com.au Cruising Helmsman is now also on Facebook with lots of fun things happening including competitions and more. Check it out: CruisingHelmsman on Facebook
Sometimes we’re so busy out doing things we don’t have enough time to write about doing things and our blog slips a little behind time. To stay right up to date with what we’re up to these days and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at Dreamtime Sail on Facebook
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Sunday, 22 January 2017
Land Lubbers again – Danga Bay Singapore
21 – 26 October 2011
After arriving in Danga Bay Marina we were all very keen to get off the boat so, despite not having actually cleared customs and immigration, we headed to the restaurants and bars in the marina complex. What’s the worst that could happen? Maybe a big stamp on the passports, DEPORTED. But what the hell, we were hungry and thirsty. (Actually, the marina officials assured us it would be fine.)
Will chose a very classy looking Chinese establishment and in a small fit of extravagance we said why not. We enjoyed a very nice meal washed down with a good bottle of French Sav Blanc and then held our breath for the bill. At about $45 Aus for the two of us it was expensive by our recent standards but in Australian terms it would seem a cheap night out.
First up next morning we headed for a local shopping mall to organise Malaysian sim cards for our phones and pick up a handful of fresh supplies. We had to make it reasonably quick because at lunchtime the Marina had a mini bus organised to take a number of the other skippers from the rally into Bahru Johor to complete the clearing in processes with Customs and Immigration. It’s a good deal for us because all we have to do is give the skipper our passports and he is required to do everything. We don’t even have to front up.
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| Looks good - but don't get too close |
Danga Bay Marina was built to be the centre piece of an upmarket canal type residential area and while it looked great and featured good restaurants, bars, a very large conference/reception facility along with a pretty good standard of pontoon fingers etc to moor at, the actual facilities provided for cruisers were the pits. The toilet/shower facilities were worse than filthy and unusable. The men’s shower had been broken off at ground level so if you were desperate enough to use it the methodology was apparently to turn it on full bore so it squirted up hitting the ceiling then you could stand underneath the water as it fell back to the floor. NOICE!!
The marina is located on the northern side of the Johor Straight only a kilometre or so from the causeway joining Malaysia and Singapore. As a result there’s very little tidal flow to flush the water through and it showed. We were moored in the rankest water we’d encountered in our travels as clearly demonstrated on our second night when Rob had to clear the putrid body of a dead dog that floated in between the marina finger and Atlantia getting caught up in our fenders. Unbelievably, despite the filth, there was a small colony of otters in residence at the marina. Adding to the dismal facilities, the staff were worse than unhelpful with any question or request their attitude just seemed to be ‘It’s free. What do you expect.’ When Rob went to the office and asked them if they would call us a taxi offering to pay for the call they refused, instead telling him to go and stand on the 6 lane freeway and flag one down. Very safe – NOT!
While we were enjoying the company of many of the Rally people and Will had invited us to stay on for the rest of the month and use Atlantia as a floating base to do some exploring from, the depressing surroundings of the marina made our decision to leave very easy. After only three nights at Danga Bay we packed up our duffle bags and backpacks and organised a taxi into Singapore.
It was strange stepping off the boat for the last time, knowing that this really was The End of our Asian sailing adventure. Since leaving Cairns on June XX we had sailed over 3600 nautical miles to reach this point and along the way we met many amazingly interesting people and experienced more than we could of ever imagined. It’s been a hell of a ride and certainly one we’ll never forget
We’re sure Will would of preferred our company until Margaret returned from the UK but we had to go. We were extremely appreciative of our fantastic time on Atlantia and are certainly hopeful of catching up with both Will and Margaret somewhere up the Malaysian coast.
After spending so long in Indonesia, crossing the causeway and arriving in Singapore was a bit of a culture shock. For a start we were travelling on a very large, multi-lane motorway. It was filled with cars not motorcycles and the bikes we did see were Suzuki Hyabusas, Honda Fireblades and other big road bikes. We were even passed by a couple of Harleys within 20 minutes of being on the island. The traffic flow was organised and orderly. Road signs were plentiful and made sense. The difference was further reinforced when a Lamborghini zoomed past. Civilisation at last.
Now we’re into land travel mode our strategy is to try and be frugal to stretch our limited dollar supplies without going to such ridiculous extremes that we don’t enjoy the experience. Our first port of call therefore was Ideal Backpackers where we’d booked a private room for a little under $50 Aus per night. We’d chosen it on the internet based on location near the city and very close to the rail and the fact it offered secure luggage storage for a small fee if you wanted to leave your bags there while you travelled elsewhere. As we had no intention of lugging our two 25 kilo duffle bags all over Malaysia and Thailand it suited us fine to leave them here until we returned to Singapore to fly home in December - although they were a bit surprised when we said we wanted to book nearly six weeks storage. Apparently the usual is a day or two. Our room proved to be excellent. It was clean, air conditioned and spacious enough to empty all our bags and sort out what we were taking with us in our small backpacks and what was staying. No mean feat.
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| The Boat Quay is a trendy bar & restaurent area |
We then spent the next three days exploring the sites of downtown Singapore. We enjoyed visiting many of the historic spots learning more about the history of this fascinating cross roads of the world. We also caught up with our crew mate Marc again along with Alan and Noi off Rogue for lunch and a couple of beers. We found a big screen at Boat Quay to watch the Gold Coast V8 Supercar race but left before the Rugby World Cup Final. Australia was already knocked out of the comp and there were way too many Kiwis in the place who were more than happy to remind us of the fact. The bars at Boat Quay also charge amongst the highest drinks prices in town making elsewhere attractive for dinner.
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| What you get for an arm and a leg at Raffles Long Bar |
Most nights we chose a different one of the scores of very affordable local restaurants that surrounded our accommodation and got to experience all sorts of new dishes, even though we weren’t sure what we ordered sometimes and were often still none the wiser after eating it. You did have to careful ordering anything chilli or you needed a fire hose chaser. However, despite our dedication to being adventurous when sampling local cuisine, neither of us has been able to bring ourselves to try the fried bull frog yet. Maybe next time.
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| The works of Hyung Koo Kang were amazing |
Of course, despite knowing it’s simply a tourist rip, we just could not visit Singapore an go past Raffles without calling in to the famous Long Bar and sampling a Singapore Sling. At $20.60 Aus plus 5% service fee, plus 10% tax, maybe it should be called the Singapore Sting but what the hell. We shared one and can tick the box, been there, done that. The Raffles Hotel itself is a beautiful building, filled with extremely expensive, high end brand name shopping. Just the place for us to wander around in our best grotty yachties gear. Simply walking past the door of some of the shops made our credit cards quake in fear.
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| The mayhem of Little India's Deepavali festival. |
We took in an amazing exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum by a Korean artist, Hyung Koo Kang, who works in oils on aluminium producing huge stunning portraits. We got caught up in the incredible atmosphere of the Little India section of town in the full throws of celebrating the Hindu festival of Deepavali. The lights, colour and crowds were amazing. Amongst all the mayhem we ran into Helmet and Renata from Nuku Aloofa on a street corner and quickly sought refuge in a nearby cafe for a chat and a cold drink before re-entering the fray.
We also learned another lesson when we had dinner in one of the restaurants. Having chosen a ridiculously jungle theme decorated place just for the fun of it, we perused the menu making our choices one of which was Beef Rendang. When the waiter came to take the order he asked whether we might like to try the special of the day, Venison Rendang, instead. Of course, why not. By the time the meat was buried in enough good, spicy rendang sauce it was impossible to tell the difference – until the bill came. The venison was four times the price of course. Note to self, always ask the price when offered the special.
During the day we walked kilometres, exploring the city blocks and marvelling at old and new architecture and the engineering of places like the spectacular Marina Bay development with its surf board topped three towers. We wandered through more spectacular shops resisting the urge to buy stuff we didn’t need for our travelling lifestyle. Normally shopping in Asia makes Australia look expensive but not if you’re talking genuine Harley Davidson Motor Clothes. OMG! The Singapore shop makes Morgan & Wacker’s at home look like Target. Same gear – just add zeros.
We enjoyed Singapore. Even if it is more expensive than the rest of South East Asia, it doesn’t mean you have to spend a fortune to have a good time. We’ll be coming back for a couple of days in December and have a few places we didn’t get to, like Chinatown, earmarked for a visit before we jump on our big Emirates bird to fly home on December 15. (Would you believe Emirates fare was 45% of what Qantas wanted so no Qantas Club lounge and frequent flyer points this time. )
Meanwhile it’s back on the road as we zig zag our way north through Malaysia to Thailand.
To stay right up to date with what we’re up to these days and see lots more photos check out and 'like' our Dreamtime Sail Facebook page at Dreamtime Sail on Facebook
If you have only recently discovered our blog and would like to read how it all started, or work through our previous adventures, click the link to go back to our first blog entry. Stuff it. Let's just go sailing anyway. We hope you enjoy reading the previous posts to catch up on our story.
Sunday, 8 January 2017
The Rev Young Again
The first, which finds Young in a birchbark canoe with two Indian paddlers/guides, I'll quote at length:
On one of these early trips we came to a place where for many miles the moving ice fields stretched out before us. One narrow channel of open water only was before us. Anxious to get on, we dashed into it, and rapidly paddled ourselves along. I had two experienced Indians, and so had no fear, but expected some novel adventures – and had them with interest.Good story, perhaps, but I don't buy it. If you're sitting in the canoe, you can't lift it by pulling up against the bottom of the canoe itself, even if you DO have a lever -- or at least it seems that way to this physics drop-out. (I'm thinking about the old saw "just give me a long enough lever and a place to stand, and I can move the Earth." Well, that assumes that the place you're going to stand isn't ON the Earth.) Was the good reverend mistaken about what went on here, or is he telling a whopper?
Our hopes were that the wind would widen the channel, and thus let us into open water. But, to our disappointment, when we had got along a mile or so in this narrow open space, we found the ice was quietly but surely closing in upon us. As it was from four to six feet thick, and of vast extent, there was power enough in it to crush a good-sized ship; so it seemed that our frail birch-bark canoe would have but a poor chance.
I saw there was a reasonable possibility that when the crash came we could spring on to the floating ice. But what should we do then? was the question, with canoe destroyed and us on floating ice far from land.
However, as my Indians kept perfectly cool, I said nothing, but paddled away and watched for the development of events. Nearer and nearer came the ice; soon our channel was not fifty feet wide. Already behind us the floes had met, and we could hear the ice grinding and breaking as the enormous masses met in opposite directions. Now it was only about twenty feet from side to side. Still the men paddled on, and I kept paddling in unison with them. When the ice was so close that we could easily touch it on either side with our paddles, one of the Indians quietly said, "Missionary, will you please give me your paddle?" I quickly handed it to him, then he immediately thrust it with his own into the water, holding down the ends of them so low horizontally under the canoe that the blade end was out of the water on the other side of the boat. The other Indian held his paddle in the same position, although from the other side of the canoe. Almost immediately after the ice crowded in upon us. But as the points of the paddles were higher than the ice, of course they rested upon it for an instant. This was what my cool-headed clever men wanted. They had a fulcrum for their paddles, and so they pulled carefully on the handle ends of them, and the canoe sliding up as the ice closed in and met with a crash under us, we found ourselves seated in it on top of the ice. The craft, although only a frail birch-bark canoe, was not in the least injured.
The other item refers to another missionary in Canada, the Rev. James Evans -- the very thought of whom gets Rev. Young all moist and squishy inside, but who adopted an interesting mode of traveling to see his far-flung parisioners:
Ever on the look-out for improvements to aid him in more rapid transit through the country, Mr. Evans constructed a canoe out of sheet tin. This the Indians called the "Island of light," on account of its flashing back the sun's rays as it glided along propelled by the strong paddles in the hands of the well trained crew. With them they carried in this novel craft solder and soldering-iron, and when they had the misfortune to run upon a rock they went ashore and quickly repaired the injured place.Could this have been the first metal canoe, 100 years or so before Grumman? In any case, it reminds me of Rob White's How to Build a Tin Canoe: Confessions of an Old Salt
. Now, this may be a bit off-topic, but Rob White was, IMO, the best humorist and one of the best philosophers to ever write about boats and boating. And while most of the essays in this book aren't about canoes (or any other indigenous boat, per se), it is a real gem that I recommend wholeheartedly to anyone who loves boats, the water, and the whole "messing about" ethos (even if you, like I, are tired unto death of the whole "messing about" cliche itself).
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