14 January, 2015 by Explorers

Day 3: Heatons Lookout to Coopernook

Weather: stinking hot – mid 30’s
Distance: 234K

It rained in the early hours of the morning. I woke worrying about what the rain would do to the road conditions on the way back down the mountain – and also because the window was leaking and I was getting wet!

After breakfast, as we were preparing to leave, the Forestry Ranger arrived. We had a good chat to him about the district and here in particular and he reassured us our vehicle would have no problems negotiating the wet, slippery conditions on the way down – and we didn’t. While we were chatting a man popped out from the rainforest just behind where we were camped. This lookout forms a part of the Great North Walk, which is a 250K walking trail that stretches from central Sydney to downtown Newcastle. We’d walked 50 or so metres down it earlier, and I got a leech for my efforts. This chap said he does the walk from the bottom of the mountain every week, finishing at the coffee shop. That’s a good way to keep fit – we’re pretty high up here. Meeting and talking to people on our travels is one of our goals – everyone has a story and they are all so interesting.

Anyway before setting off we read the Mercedes manual and discovered some non-intuitive steps to take to put the vehicle into ‘low lock’ 4WD. Our first real test of this vehicle on roads that need 4WD and she came through with flying colours.

On the way to Coopernook we saw the turnoff for Karuah – we’ve started our own tradition with this little town now and HAVE to stop to buy fresh oysters from Cole Bros every time.

Coopernook was bypassed by the highway in 2006 and is a very pleasant, well-tended, small country town of about 350 people. The primary school was opened in 1875 so it has a pretty long history. The pub at Coopernook offers free camping to self-contained RV’s, and a lovely spot it is too – a large, grassy area within about 50 metres of the Lansdowne River. Fishing must be good in the river by the look of the Achievements Board on the wall of the pub.

We really appreciated this spot today because it was so hot – had a few cool drinks and lunch in the air conditioned pub. There was one other RV parked here – two women who now live permanently on the road and seem to be enjoying the lifestyle.

We’re camped on the grass behind the pub, right where that rainbow ends.

13 January, 2015 by Explorers

Day 2: Umina Beach to Heatons Lookout

Weather: hot on the coastal plain, lovely in the mountains
Distance: 98K
Refuelled Umina Beach: Odometer: 131K; Litres: 65.82; $/L: $1.369

We left Umina Beach early-ish and stopped at the local Coles to buy groceries. Hmmm we are pretty long, and the normal parks are a bit short for us – something to remember.

The Jabiru has to be registered in Queensland and we were therefore duty bound to drive her home expeditiously. However, that didn’t stop me planning an interesting trip back.

Heatons State Forest is not far off Highway 1 and offers a free camp at the lookout. Most of the drive was highway driving where we learned all about the cruise control and the sound system and the warning messages and other fancy things modern vehicles do these days. It was a relief to leave the highway and trundle along quiet country roads with no other traffic.

A road less travelled – get used to it baby!

It wasn’t long though before the road started to climb, and climb some more, and the blacktop disappeared and ruts and rocks appeared …. quick lesson on how to put her into 4WD followed. That was unexpected! Note to self – study road conditions of planned itineraries.

Arrived safely and setup for the stay.

Anyway we arrived unscathed and the view was worth it: 180 degrees across the national park, farming land, Lake Macquarie to the ocean. We camped right on the cliff edge (inside the protective railing!). Delightful.

The afternoon was spent peacefully reading car manuals and going for a short walk further up the road. An early and peaceful night anticipated.

Lunchtime at Heatons Lookout.

12 January, 2015 by Explorers

Day 1: Mt Kuring Gai to Umina Beach

Weather: drizzling on and off; pleasant temperature
Distance: 54K

We timed our arrival at Trakka for just after opening – too excited to delay longer. Wow our campervan is BEAUTIFUL – big, looks tough, but oh so gorgeous – just my unbiased opinion!

Martin at Trakka did the handover. These are complicated machines! You can see more details of our Jabiru in the ‘Our Gear’ page (when Steve does the write up).

She’s OURS!

About 1pm we were ready to leave. I drove her out with Steve chief navigator. Driving her is so easy, and comfortable. Loved it!
Our first night is just down the road at Umina Beach. Due to it being school holidays the caravan park was packed – hoards of pre-adolescent children riding bikes and scooters everywhere. With the benefit of reversing cameras parking was easy, and all children are still alive!
That’s it!! Set-up complete!

Though difficult to do we left the Jabiru to go for a long, brisk walk on the beach. This bay is quite beautiful with a lovely beach, great for swimming and in the strong winds we were having, the kite surfers were fantastic to watch. Despite those strong winds the campsite is quite well protected. This would be a lovely place to camp outside school holidays (for those without children!).

Back ‘home’ now for our first meal and a restful night in our new baby.

Celebrations

11 January, 2015 by Explorers

Preparations – the day before

The long awaited day is nearly here and we have to get to Sydney. We had friends take us to the train at Caboolture, then onto the airtrain to the airport and a flight to Sydney. Our luggage consisted of a backpack each with our clothes and two large suitcases containing a bare minimum kit to outfit the campervan enough to last us a week to drive her home. We had bedding and saucepans and a kettle and grocery items and even a cooked meal for the first night.

It has been 6 months since we ordered our Mercedes Benz 4×4 Sprinter campervan conversion to a Jabiru by Trakka, and I’ve just about worn the brochure out studying it and dreaming of adventures to come (as all friends who’ve been anywhere near me in the last 6 months can attest to!). She’s been ready for us to collect since mid-December, however due to a business trip to Montreal, then on to Qatar and Berlin where our first two grandbabies were born (happy dance) we’ve only been back in Australia for 3 days.

Tonight we’re at the Meriton Apartments in Sydney, ready to catch the train to Mt Kuring Gai to Trakka’s factory and showrooms first thing in the morning.

2 October, 2014 by Explorers

Days 9 and 10: Manly marina and home

The weather deteriorated throughout the day, getting really bad this afternoon and evening. We went for a very long walk 10+K along the foreshore to make up for our lack of exercise over the last week and spent the rest of the day tinkering with the boat.

2nd October
Well it sure did come in last night. The southeasterly change hit and was blowing over 40 knots which is classified as gale force. We were happily and safely snuggled up in the marina without a care. Phew!

Anyway it more or less blew itself out last night and by this morning the forecast was down to 10-15 knots and moving around to the east, on it’s way to northerlies again! We’d planned an after lunch departure to catch a north-flowing tide which would have meant some night sailing which would have been lovely. But in view of losing the southerly winds we left Manly marina for Scarborough marina just after breakfast.

The Coffee Pots – channel markers into Port of Brisbane

It’s a 22 nautical mile sail (pretty long) and we got in to Scarborough at 3pm. One of the higher stress times is crossing the entrance channel to Port of Brisbane. You have to tune in to their VHF channel and monitor it, timing your crossing to not disrupt a ship. Actually a small yacht like ours wouldn’t disrupt them, but we’d probably have ended up on the 6 o’clock news! Anyway as it turns out our timing was good and we slipped easily in between them without a worry.

We’re now moored at Scarborough marina at the end of our first long-ish period of cruising. 10 days of predominantly wonderful sailing and good times. We learnt many lessons and gained bucket loads of confidence. We’re now looking forward to long periods around other cruising grounds – maybe next year!

Soon after I send this we’ll walk over to Morgans Seafood where we’re booked in for their seafood smorgasbord. What better way to end the trip. We’ll sleep aboard on the marina tonight, pull Top Shelf out tomorrow and derig her before towing her home.

To see all the photos from our Moreton Bay sailing adventure CLICK HERE.

30 September, 2014 by Explorers

Day 8: Horseshoe Bay to Manly Marina

Well the weather forecast is getting steadily worse. Despite waking to an absolutely glorious morning in Horseshoe Bay and really longing to spend a day swimming in its lovely clear waters, walking (maybe even going for a run) on it’s lovely beach we really have to head to an anchorage where we’ll be protected from pretty bad south easterly winds – and the best place to be when there’s a bad blow is a marina.
So 8am saw us hoisting sails and heading north. Lovely sailing again. Saw a dugong! We were safely tied up on Manly marina just after lunch time. Our friends Vicki and John have their boat moored here, so we gave them a call and invited them over to Top Shelf for sundowners. A lovely evening was had while we watched the wind get stronger.

Sundowners!

29 September, 2014 by Explorers

Day 7: Russell Is to Horseshoe Bay

Morning coffee – idyllic

The night was just as pleasant as anticipated. Woke to a totally calm anchorage and enjoyed breakfast and coffee in the cockpit.
The forecast over the next few days is getting gradually worse (sad smiley). Today the winds will be pretty good until after lunch when they’ll start getting stronger and come from the north. Tomorrow and Wednesday they’ll be much stronger northerlies and Wednesday night they turn to strong to gale force from the south east. We’re now wanting to head north to finish our trip – so don’t want northerlies!

Anyway tomorrow is another day and today we motored around Karragarra and Macleay Islands before sailing back to Horseshoe Bay on Peel Island. The channels around these southern bay islands are very narrow and relatively shallow. You couldn’t sail them unless you had a gentle wind from directly behind and the motor running. Macleay Island, like Russell is fairly extensively inhabited – lots of large expensive homes overlooking the Bay – just above the midgie, oh I mean mangrove line! Nup, not for me.
Once we cleared the narrow channels and headed north along the western coast of Macleay we put the sails up and had a truly delightful sail all the way to Peel. Times like those are what keep you wanting to sail.

Another interesting factoid about Peel Is. Apparently in the ’60s the Island was sold to Keith Williams. He is the developer who put the resort on Hamilton Is. He wanted to build the resort here on Peel, but the council turned down his application to have exclusive use of Horseshoe Bay for his resort – so it never happened. Interesting ‘sliding doors’ situation wondering what the other Moreton Bay islands and Cleveland would be like now had it been approved.

(PS: Happy birthday Deb.)

Horseshoe Bay on Peel Island

28 September, 2014 by Explorers

Day 6: Blaksleys to Russell Is

The gods smiled on us at last and made all the other storms that were around last night go around us. Not complaining! Surprisingly we both slept very well and woke up to a lovely morning.

We left Blaksleys after breakfast heading to Russell Is where we could do some re-provisioning and wander around civilisation of sorts again for a while. Winds were from the south-south-east and high tide at 12.20. Most of our route was directly south, so we did a bit of tacking, but with pleasant winds and a flooding tide it was another good sail.

At this southern end of Moreton Bay there are lots of islands and even more sand banks with narrow passages between them. Ideal conditions for a trailer sailer because if you run aground you just wind up the keel. And no, we didn’t run aground!

After anchoring -very carefully- we went ashore.
A permanent population of around 2500 live on Russell, so it has a reasonable little shopping area with an IGA. It’s serviced by a regular passenger ferry, about half-hourly, and a barge which transports cars and their passengers. There’s a small primary school, but the children go to Victoria Point on the mainland for high school.

Steve noticed that a woman on the trailer sailer forum we follow lives on the Island and invited fellow trailer sailors to drop in to see her. We rang and spent a pleasant couple of hours with her and her daughter. She’s an artist and has a pretty amazing collection of, well, everything really. Her daughter is in year 11 and is being home-schooled. She told me she’s been sailing Moreton Bay for years and learnt to sail here. She assured me there are two types of Moreton Bay sailors – those who unintentionally spend a night on a sandbank and those who lie and say they haven’t. LOT’S of sandbanks!

We picked up a few more groceries, some water and sat at the cafe for a while before heading back to the boat. Little Takka, our Takacat tender, has been fabulous. Lots of fun zipping around in it.
Sundowners with some bubbles (mineral water!) and hors d’oeuvres was a fine ending to a lovely day – calm waters and the sun setting over the adjacent island off our stern – perfect. A very calm night anticipated.

27 September, 2014 by Explorers

Day 5: Blaksleys

Lovely day today. Steve did some fishing before breakfast and caught 3 bream which was pretty exciting, except they were under-size. He gave up after that, obviously we were anchored over a fish kindergarten. Decided not to move on today after our stressful episode last night. Watched our position closely through both high and low tides. No dragging.

The pointer indicates where we’re anchored!

About 3.30pm a ‘dangerous thunderstorm’ hit (as described by the Bureau of Meteorology). We were prepared and had a contingency if we were to drag and dammit if we didn’t – directly towards a power boat that had just anchored before the storm hit. Steve jumped onto the outboard and we motored to support the anchor and stop going back any further. Scary! Particularly as it was hailing and Steve had to sit out there in it. No doubt we would have hit the other boat if he hadn’t.

Note the hail, and poor Steve!

Fortunately it was a fast moving storm and all over in about 15 minutes. We then retrieved our anchor to discover it had been fouled with some scrap rubber stuff which prevented one of the flukes from digging in. Reset anchor.
On the up side a very large cat that was anchored down from us also dragged his anchor and moved right over where we would have been if we hadn’t also dragged. A guardian angel?
More storms forecast so we’ve now put out a second anchor. Another unsettled night I fear.

A couple of hours later!

26 September, 2014 by Explorers

Day 4: Horseshoe Bay to Blaksleys

The wind was forecast to return to the south east, so Horseshoe Bay was no longer suitable. We left early for Blaksleys Anchorage on North Stradbroke Is. It was only 5+nm and took us 2 hours in light fluky winds. There’s a small beach here – 20 minutes walk from one end to the other, and there are lots of families camping. They come over on run-abouts, set up camp and use the boat for fishing, and also dragging screaming children behind them in inflatable tubes. Not the most peaceful place. But hey, I hope my grandchildren get to experience similar fun and freedom as they’re growing up.

We christened the yabby pump at low tide, gathering enough yabbies for fish bait. Mmmm I could already taste the fresh fish we’d have for tea. But … neither of us could be bothered fishing that evening!

We’d just finished dinner and were inside obliviously reading or talking when the skipper from the boat down from us hailed us. We were dragging our anchor and were awfully close to him.

It was weird – wind against tide with wind winning. We were bow to the south, anchor line under the boat and behind us. So in the dark we retrieved it and reset it, 3 times before we hoped it had set. Up and down all night checking to see it was OK.