Letter from Atlantia November 2011

The wind from Darwin, with its termite castles, was right on the stern all the way to Kupang in Indonesia.

Atlantia does not sail well with the wind right aft and so we tried to reach, gybe and reach, which didn't work without the motor on either, so we contented ourselves with motoring dead down wind. The whole Indonesian Rally of about 100 boats had left Darwin as a flotilla with all flags flying and some with multicloured spinnakers.

We had an uneventful voyage of three days and two nights and 700 miles, although we did pass about twenty feet from a large fishing buoy attached by a net to a sea going fishing boat about 200 yards away (a cable). Shades of things to come in the whole of Indonesia. We reached Kupang anchorage under sail, since the filter on the engine blocked and the engine failed, it was all fairly easy though and we dropped anchor off the beach that Captain Bligh reached after his epic voyage in an open boat, following the mutiny on the Bounty.

We could just imagine them pulling the boat onto the shore, having passed 5000 miles of canibal infested islands and shark infested seas, liberally dotted and crossed by coral reefs.

They probably needed a stretch, as indeed we did, but only after the Customs, Immigration and Quarantine people had all come on board from a minute rubber dinghy.

They were very pleasant but wanted a list of medicines in our medicine chest. Margaret duly obliged. They were very kind and the Quarantine men and their shore based lady doctor adopted us for our stay in Kupang, taking us around the town and even obtaining 60 litres of subsidized fuel for us from the petrol station, since regrettably none of Indonesia is blessed with a fuel dock for yachts or even a dock to tie up to, anchoring being the only option in Indonesia, with the attendant jerry cans for fuel being lugged from the petrol stations. On one occasion at Labuan Bajo, Will took his three jerry cans on a motorbike to collect fuel. His driver was called 'Superman' which indeed he proved on the return journey.

Although it was pleasant to reach land and Indonesia, Kupang was a little disappointing. The beach was rather littered since the sea appears the repository for most Indonesian rubbish, and on one occasion in Larantuka, The Regent had to order the beach cleaned by over 100 people before we could land.

Rubbish aside, the people were all very friendly and welcoming and we were glad to take some of the clothes we had bought from a thrift shop in Australia to a Roman Catholic Orphanage in Kupang, with bright and cheerful occupants.

Other clothing was given to visiting children in diverse anchorages. It was good to see them trying on the clothes on their way to shore.

Baby clothes were also given to a baby in North Lombok.

We were entertained to a lavish banquet with local dancers and the playing of the Sasando which is made in the region. It sounds a little like a harp and is made of cat gut strings surrounding a bamboo shaft with a banana leaf sound reflection board.

We also saw how they climbed palm trees to collect palm nut juice for making into wine and fermenting into Arak ( a rather powerful liquor)

From Kupang we sailed overnight in convoy to Alors which was a good calm anchorage near the head of a loch although rather restricted in space for the yachts since space had to be left for the local boats to leave the dock in safety.

In fact rather too much room was allocated to the local boats and rather too little to the yachts. The Indonesians are good seamen generally, and some of the rally fleet perhaps a little inexperienced. Only one yacht landed on the reef on that occasion, but the coral took its toll a number of other times, some skippers relying too much on their chart plotter rather than sight and depth sounder. The charts in Indonesia can have half a mile or more of inaccuracy. Fortunately no yachts came to real grief and all were pulled off, usually after a tide leaning over on a shelf. Atlantia fortunately missed the indignity of a tow, throughout Indonesia.

Atlantia then motor sailed to Lembata and Larantuka, anchoring off some beautiful bays and enormous, sometimes live, volcanoes.

At Larantuka we watched Bull Racing and Margaret was towed behind two bulls on a sledge.

Everywhere we went we were treated to feasts and dancing and usually a tour in the local bus. One such bus in Riung, a very sheltered anchorage behind reefs, was a covered lorry with wooden bench seats across the back.

The road condition and the shock absorbers were something to be desired, although the scenery was indeed beautiful and the visited village most interesting in its architecture.

On most tours we were taken to a 'local' village to be welcomed by the villagers and a dance. The welcome usually consisted of some pretty girls offering betel nuts and lime for chewing, or cigarettes made from the local tobacco wrapped in a bark skin. Having forsaken cigarettes some time ago Will took the betel nut. It was very sour and numbed the mouth. Fortunately it didn't turn red as the habitual chewer finds, nor did it rot the teeth as often seems to be the consequence of betel nut addiction.

One of the tricks of anchoring in Indonesia is to find a spot as far away from the local mosque as possible since being awoken by loud speakers calling us to prayer at 04.30 in the morning was not always appealing.

We were impressed by the religious tolerance in Indonesia which, although officially a Muslim Country also has Roman Catholics, Protestants, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and probably others.

On the surface they all seem to get on well together. It was the Muslim time of Ramadan when we visited but the local people didn't seem too phased or serious about it. Some still drank water during the day and threw the empty water bottles out of the coach door to litter the kerbside! We were delighted on some of the tours to see coffee trees, cocoa trees, cashew nut orchards (one cashew nut per fruit!)

pepper vines, vanilla vines, orange trees, banana trees, mango trees, rice paddy fields and jungle!

We visited Buddhist Temples (Chinese Buddhists!), Hindu Temples, Mosques, and Churches, most admittedly viewed from the outside although the Chinese Buddhist temple was most elaborate inside as well.

The views from the buses were usually beautiful with high mountains beside quite a calm sea. In the villages we were permitted to see some wonderful weaving which ranged in styles from a rather smudged mauve and tight ochre weave to a sharp orange and black.

Almost everywhere we went there was an official dinner, scarf presenting ceremony and dancing. On one occasion Margaret and Will had to dress in traditional costume for the dinner. Dressing took three hours including makeup! Some said they looked quite smart!

At Labuan Bajo Indonesia started to become more civilized. There was slightly less rubbish in the water and there was a choice of decent restaurants, something that was very scarce previously.

Labuan Bajo is the centre for mini traditional cruise ships leaving for the Kimodo Islands, famous in this part of the world for its snorkeling, diving and wildlife. On arrival at Labuan Bajo we felt as the sailors of 150 years ago must have felt, seeing the local trading sailing ships at anchor in the roadstead. It was a stirring sight to see so many masts with sails bent onto spars.

We duly set sail to see the Komodo Dragons on the Island of Rincah. Not only did we see the famous dragons (no wings regrettably) but we saw wild monkeys, deer, wild pigs and water buffalo as well as six lobsters when snorkeling on a beautiful coral reef.

We sailed to a beautiful anchorage just north of Komodo Island and not only did we have a wonderful snorkel looking at a myriad of reef fish, sponges and coral,

but also swam alongside manta rays that came in to the bay. At one point Margaret thought she was going to be swallowed by one coming straight towards her, but fortunately it dived at the last minute!

Bali was a wonderful stop and we availed ourselves of a bath in the hot springs, almost as plush as similar Roman baths, although with naturally warm water.

We also talked to the Grand Daughter of a Rajah at a former Royal Palace (she was most pleasant and gracious) and filled up with fresh water and some rather dubiously contaminated fuel.

In Bali we were entertained to some wonderful dancing displays.

Regrettably Margaret was called back to Scotland at this point since her Mother was very ill, but we are delighted to say a month later that she is well on the road to recovery. Will was fortunate to be lent two crew from Nae Hassle, a Beneteau belonging to Colin and Milin. Colin is from Scotland and Milin from Malaysia and Will was very grateful for their help. The crew, Rob and Karen, were from Ipswich in Australia and were very good keeping an excellent beady eyed watch, with Karen cooking tasty meals and Rob more than taking the burden of fuel and water filling.

It was especially necessary in the following few weeks to keep a good eye out on the two overnight passages and even during the day since the water was littered with canoes, nets, fish pots, floating platforms, fixed fishing platforms, fishing boats and enormously wide squid boats which also caught whitebait and other small fry.

Rob was lucky enough to catch 3 wahoo which provided at least two dinner parties.

Will, Rob and Karen visited Kumai in what used to be called Borneo. Kumai is a dirty dusty dry (in all senses) town, and should most certainly be missed if you are ever that way. There are only two points of interest at Kumai. Firstly it has a number of three and four storey buildings which look almost like sky scrapers from the water. Approaching them one sees there are no windows in the stories above ground level, only holes in the walls. This is because the upper stories are not for the use of humans at all, but for swifts and swallows to build their nests in. these are then taken to sell to the Chinese for birds nest soup.

The original birds nests are taken from white tailed swiftlets in caves in Indonesia. Apparently the cash crop was accidentally noted when a building was empty and the upper stories taken over by the birds. Since then a considerable number of ' bird hotels' s have been built, much to the profit of the local populace.

The second reason for a visit to Kumai is to take a local river boat to the Orangutan sanctuaries up the nearby river. Will took a three day trip with good companions Peter and Margie (Americans) from 'Peregrina' and Ken and Wendy (Canadians) from 'Cop Out'. The female Orangutans were very friendly and one wanted to take us by the hand, although the Kings of the tribes were extremely large and fierce.

They were semi wild and certainly made an impression with their ability to communicate and their sad expressions.

We slept on the deck of the boat under mosquito nets on rather lumpy mattresses, but were very well looked after by crew, guide and excellent cook. Most meals had a deal of prawns and chicken with rice but very nicely made up in a different way each day.

We saw three fresh water crocodiles, but they were very small. We were warned not to swim in the river though, since there are apparently some large ones there as well.

The crocodiles feed on the local proboscis monkeys.

We departed Kumai with some relief but the Indonesian fuel again took its toll of the fuel filters on the way to Belitong, on the first night stopping the engine just as we were approaching more fishing boats. They must have wondered what we were doing, for an hour sailing around in circles.

The final official days were at Belitong beach and we were well received there with an interesting traditional lunch at a traditional manor house all wood and stilts. At the official dinner the fleet was supposed to be represented by ten people to be presented to the President of Indonesia. After a ballot, Will appeared to be one of the ten chosen and after receiving an embossed invitation and buying the last XXXL batique local lined shirt in the neighbourhood, he was all ready to do his duty. Regrettably the Indonesian President took fright at the thought of meeting a diverse crowd of yachties and went off to an emergency Cabinet Meeting. The Vice President was supposed to represent him but only turned up at the dinner for ten minutes and had no intention of anything so low as an International Yachting Delegation, so no presentation there either.

Some two hundred fishing boats had given up a night's fishing to congregate for a sail past in honour of the President the following day but the Vice President , who obviously was not invited to the emergency Cabinet Meeting, only deigned to watch the first twenty fishing boats, all gailly dressed with flags, and then left, ten minutes after the start, surrounded by gun sycophants and armoured cars. We were told that Indonesia is now a Democracy but Will is unsure who the local fishermen will vote for next time there is a Presidential Election.

Certainly the manners of those in charge seems to be in direct contravention to the underlings who are very polite and always eager to please.

It was a slightly disappointing end to a trip that had been full of colourful delightful people and vistas of huge mountains and seas populated with fishing boats and friendly fishermen.

Will booked out of Belitong which was a good anchorage sheltered by rocks that echoed those in the British Virgin Islands. The next five dayd were all day hops to Malaysia and once again Atlantia crossed the Equator, this time from South to North. It was Rob and Karen's first time sailing across the Equator but we had little ceremony except a toast to Neptune in homemade alcoholic ginger beer with Neptune getting his share as well, just so he will be kind to Atlantia in the future.

Atlantia sailed up past the pretty Northern Indonesian Islands and across the very busy shipping channel south of Singapore. As Will said, that was a doddle compared to finding the entrance to the Strait of Johor on the west side of Singapore Island. Regrettably they had built the island out another four miles enclosing a ship anchorage since Atlantia's charts were compiled. Thus after a detour of some eight miles Atlantia eventually found herself around the new sea wall and under the bridge linking Malaysia with Singapore.

Margaret flew into Singapore three days ago and we are now off on another Rally to Langkowi. We look forward to more dancing and some excellent Malaysian food on the way up through the Malacca Straits to the borders of Thailand. Will write more often in the future,

Love Atlantia

We didn't think that just a picture of Roselle Bay in Sydney would be good enough for you earlier this year whilst Will was in hospital, so sorry for the delay in sending this letter. Will had his hip very well replaced by Dr. Mark Horsley in the Royal prince Alfred Hospital earlier this year.

Many thanks to Elaine Emery who greatly assisted the process for us and helped Will out of hospital and back to the boat. Andy and Kath from Chinook 2 kindly collected Will from the dock , and propped on lots of cushions launched him back onto Atlantia where he recovered for the next six weeks champing at the bit and waiting for Dr. Horsley's final inspection prior to sailing north for Darwin. The recuperation was much helped by the friendship of Steve and Jan from Jolly Jack and Nicki from Gwenn a du, our anchored neighbours in the bay. They took us to meet interesting people and see interesting places and assisted with Atlantia's maintenance. It was much appreciated by the invalid.

Once it was ascertained that the ironwork in Will's leg was not in upside down, as rumored by our British friends, we reluctantly left Sydney and our friends there, including Melissa, Susan's friend, who had just arrived to to take up a post doctorate appointment in Sydney investigating new ways of identifying diseases. It is interesting to note that Australia is in the middle of a mining boom at the moment which makes everything extremely expensive here (65 pence per oz dollar) especially shoes and books which are at least twice the cost for equivalent products in Britain . It is nice to see however, that they are using some of their wealth to employ young British citizens such as Elaine and Melissa in positions of distinction. (even if Elaine does hold an Australian passport as well!)

The cost of the mechanic at Lemon Tree passage was about $80 au per hour which is about twice that charged in Britain, unless we are totally out of date. The yard at which we hauled out though was really quite economic and everyone was very pleasant and helpful, even helping Will finish the single malt whiskey stores. We came out on a railway , which proved perfectly adequate for antifouling.

We took the electric bikes to a car show nearby and they tried to persuade us to enter the bikes as something novel. The bikes certainly caught an interest, mostly from people with arthritic hips, but were never going to compete for prizes with the home built all chrome motor bikes and restored vintage cars

. Some lovely people from the Lions Club introduced us to 'Damper' bread, as cooked by Australians in the outback, in camp ovens. The ovens are made of cut down propane bottles.

The bread is basically unleavened and very simple to cook, so we will probably be cooking dampers from now on Atlantia. It is traditionally eaten with golden syrup.

With our new Jotun antifouling glistening in the sunlight as we healed over, we made our way northward again from Port Stephens up to Coff's Harbour where we had booked into Australia last October. We managed to stop almost every night in a new anchorage , mostly little rivers finding their way slowly into the Pacific Ocean. Each river seems to have a sandy bar at its entrance, and at times we had less than a metre below our keel whilst some of the waves nearby were breaking into white horses over the banks. Just south of Brisbane is an area of channels inside Morton Island, which connects the Gold Coast to Morton Bay ( famous for its bugs). We attempted, successfully, to traverse these creeks on the 'inside passage', but not without grounding twice on the sand. Once close to high tide. A few more buoys and a bit more dredging would not go amiss here. It seems that their provision for marine safety here falls short of the sententious nanny state attitude which appears to direct Australians lives to a high degree. ('Penalties Apply' appears at the end of most dictatorial notices!)

We spent a few days in Brisbane being royally entertained by Michael and Linda Briner, good friends of Margaret's parents, and were taken everywhere of any importance.

Brisbane is a very impressive city built on a river nearly as wide as the Thames in London

Unfortunately the floods earlier this year caused considerable havoc with both lower lying urban areas, and pontoons on the Brisbane River. The marina at Manly, where we stayed for a few days, appeared to be unaffected by the floods although we were beset with a deluge and a considerable wind squall when we were coming alongside the marina berth. Kathy and Andy, who had taken Chinook to Brisbane to sell, kindly took us up to Australia Zoo in a borrowed BMW. This is the zoo created by the late crocodile hunter, Steve Irwin,sadly killed not long ago by a sting ray. Many of his crocodiles had been rescued from dangerous situations, such as roaming the main street of a Queensland town, and are still at the zoo and being shown off by brave, but rather nervous young men throwing the crocs bits of meat.

There was also an excellent show of birds, including white and red tailed , black, cockatoos. There was also a huge condor there, coming to the glove. Very well trained. We never cease to be surprised by the diversity and beauty of bird life in Australia. It certainly beats any other avian population we have come across so far in the world. We have even see a budgie outside its cage!

We were pleased to entertain Diana ( a cousin of cousin Claire and last met in the 1960's) and her husband David, past boss of P and O Resorts, to breakfast on Atlantia. Will's father had acted as 'father of the bride' to Diana many years ago in London when Diana and David had married as young P and O employees. Diana had a photo of Will's father with her, dressed in a morning suit. It was quite nostalgic. It was a pity that time was short with us all, but the Danish pastries were good!!

Again, we day sailed inside Fraser island, famous for its child eating dingo dogs, where we only grounded twice on the sand on the incoming tide, and made Bundaberg, which is famous for sugar, ginger beer and rum. They had been severely affected by the floods earlier this year and the height of the recording tide mark on the dock piles was truly impressive. We had considered booking in at Bundaberg last October but had heard that the Queensland Customs were unwelcoming and over harsh. Apparently this is not quite so true with foreign flagged boats this year but nevertheless having heard other stories causing considerable additional expense we were pleased that we booked in at Coffs Harbour in NSW.

Our next major stop was Mackay marina, where we were a little unimpressed by the distant town , whose impression was only elevated by the adjacent river and despite the very modern but rather expensive marina with very few shoreside facilities for the sailor. We were fortunate enough to sell our folding bikes to a nice couple of Australians, Sue and Tremaine from Cool Sid. We didn't tell the marina otherwise they might have wanted commission.

From there, armed with anchorage information from our new friends we sailed to the Whitsunday Islands. There are long white sandy beaches and hilly islands together with coral reefs free of crocodiles. The reefs seem to have been affected by the recent cyclones and the water was regrettably not very clear. The feeling on the surface was similar to that sailing in the Western Isles of Scotland but with more sunshine. Despite being well north of the tropic of Capricorn again it was still a bit chilly.

We anchored at Magnetic Island just past Townsville and were accompanied by a replica of Captain Cook's Endeavour.

Two days later we saw her sailing north under full sail to the outside of Hinchinbrook Island, she was an impressive sight.

Needless to say we sailed on the inside of Hinchinbrook Island up the channel, which was a bit shallow in places but very smooth water.

We anchored for the night close to some stone Aboriginal fish traps. They were very difficult to make out from the other stones on the point but the book assured us they were there.

Cairns marina was where we stopped next for a night or two and some fuel. We thought the town of Cairns was delightful and the museum was very well put together and informative.

We bought a didgeridoo there decorated with a picture of a brolga (an Australian dancing grey crane). We will learn to play it sometime but have to learn 'circular breathing' first. Apparently if you can play the bagpipes the didgeridoo is a doddle!!

From Cairns to Cooktown was two days of fairly windy sailing, fortunately the forces 8 to 9 were behind us , and although the entrance to the Cooktown river was a bit tricky around a sharp corner, the sails were uneventful from a breakage viewpoint. The anchorage at Cooktown was very restricted and we had to move once or twice to ensure we were floating. Our friends Ken and Wendy from the catamaran Cop Out however were already there. They kindly took us into the town and also up the Endeavour river to see crocodiles basking on the bank. One of the crocs was at lest ten metres long and was resting in the grass at the top of the bank.

The river was obviously named after Captain Cook's survey ship which had been ashore on a near by reef and had been repaired at the village that was to be known as Cooktown in the future at the mouth of the Endeavour River.

A windy sail the next day took us to Lizard Island at the bottom of the east knuckle of Cape York. We spent an extra day here snorkelling on the excellent reef in the centre of the anchorage. There were some very beautiful giant clams there as big as a bar flies body. The lips are purple and look quite intimidating from above, we didn't put an arm inside them in case they wanted to play and hold us under!! It was very calm at the island and we had a very sociable party on Brian's motor yacht. He is from Seattle and has motored all the way across the Pacific to take part in the rally. Big fuel tanks!!

Day sailing again within the relatively calm water inside the Great Barrier Reef up to Seisia on the west side of Cape York and just below the tip.

Seisia seemed to be dominated by a trading coaster at the jetty as well as plenty of red dust. We were pleasantly surprised to find a very well stocked supermarket there, This is obviously new since it is not mentioned in any books or by word of mouth by other sailors.

We sailed for four days and nights in company with Cop Out across the Gulf of Carpentaria and the north of Arnhemland to Coral Bay on the Coburg Peninsula, close to Dundas straight which leads to Darwin. We spent two days resting after a fairly boisterous sail. We used the facilities of the Seven Spirits resort and enjoyed their hospitality. We had a walk in the bush and around a billabong, (in the woods around a pond!) and saw some lovely birds, rainbow bee eaters and a brahmin kite, also a small snake on the path and a wallaby feeding on the lawn.

There had apparently been a ten foot anaconda in the swimming pool in the evening not more than an hour after we had all been dipping. It was a good place to rest up before the final three short day sails to Darwin.

Where we are now!! Off Darwin Sailing Club. We are in Fanny Bay with a six metre tide. The yacht club is very welcoming and provides a launching trolley to take the dinghy over the 60 metres of hard sand from and to the water. The sunset from the Yacht Club grounds is spectacular.

We have now registered with the Indonesian Rally and will set sail next Saturday for Kupang in West Timor. We expect it to take us about three and a half days. The information about Indonesia makes us a bit hesitant about the level of civilisation compared to Australia, but we can obtain an internet stick fairly easily, so we wont have to use cafes or wifi for internet and are less likely to be hacked into. Other than that we must not hand original documents to anyone, (for fear they may be sold off; not on our behalf) and we may have to guess if we are paying the right port dues or not. We are however looking forward to seeing the Kimodo Dragons and the Orang Utans. Meanwhile we will keep taking the malaria tablets. Hope you like the pics

Fair Winds and Safe Voyaging Love ATLANTIA

Australia is exceptionally large. The length from top to bottom is equivalent to the distance between arctic Norway and Southern Greece and from west to east that between western Portugal and eastern Ukraine. There is a time difference of three hours between east and west Australia. In fact the eight provinces, or states as they now call themselves, are almost autonomous, with the Federal government only seeming to intervene in Foreign affairs, immigration and national disasters. The Federal Government do seem to make a lot of noise though, at least internally. It is obvious that we are unlikely to see all of Australia, but we have made a good effort at seeing the southeast corner, and will eventually have seen all the east coast from Sydney northwards.. When we arrived at Coffs Harbour in November we were immediately struck by how green New South Wales is, although Queensland , which is just above NSW, has had record rain and flooding this summer (November to March). The Federal parliament are presently debating whether the Australian people should be burdened with another tax to compensate flood victims. They probably will be.

We were delighted that Stephen and Susan could come out to Sydney to join us for Christmas and New Year. We had a really great time with them but especially on Christmas day when we had a wonderful sail around Sydney harbour, which is called Port Jackson here.

Our friends Mike and Devala, from Sea Rover, with whom we had seen the Nutcracker Suite at the Opera House prior to Christmas, took a wonderful picture of us from their anchorage at the zoo. They sent the picture with an email saying we were blocking their view!! They have since sailed to a windy and cold Tasmania en route to New Zealand for the rugby world cup. We wish them good sailing.

We anchored off the beach at Manly for Christmas lunch, and had scallops prawns and lobster as well as Morton bay bugs which taste of a cross between prawns and lobster.

Boxing day saw us joining the throng watching the start of the Sydney/Hobart annual yacht race. There were some enormous yachts in the race as well as a myriad of smaller yachts, our size but much faster. All yachts were monohulls. There were a number of helicopters in the air and rumours were that a press boat had collided with a competitor. It was all very busy.

As indeed was the harbour when we watched the fireworks close to the Harbour Bridge on New years Eve. The fireworks were spectacular and it was well worth the twelve hours at anchor, waiting at an excellent vantage point, for them to light the sky. Not all the locals were well behaved though, with a lot of loud extraneous noise and quite a lot of anchor dragging and poor administrative boat control. It was great to be there however, and is certainly another Hogmanay to remember.

We had a lovely sail up to Broken Bay and the scene of where they shoot the TV soap ' Home and Away'. Stephen and Susan went surfing but they found it a little trickier than skiing. There were no great white sharks there as far as we know.

They sadly had to leave us to go back to the snow and ice of Scotland, but not before we had hosted Bernard, Ishbel and Elaine Emery to a quiet cruise around Sydney Inner Harbour. Elaine lives here and has just received her Fellowship to the Australian College of General Practitioners. She has been extremely helpful to us during our visit here. It is nice to see how well all our progeny are getting on .

Sport is very much to the fore here, being on the radio much of the time and with results filling half of the newspapers. The ashes were good to listen to with their English victory. The Aussie commentators cheered up a bit though when the Australian team soundly thrashed England in the warm up matches of one day cricket for the world cup. In view of the present world cup results it seems England was also unfortunately practising losing as well.

We went to the centre of Sydney for Australia Day celebrations ( the day marks the landing by the British to form a colony at Sydney in 1788). All the people were waving Australian flags as well as the presence of about 1000 vintage cars. Will, or his family seemed to have owned a considerable number of similar models in the past. A real trip down memory lane. We didn't remember a first hand experience with firemen in brass helmets though.

We were pleased to host Adrian ( another flat mate of Wills) and Lynne, on Atlantia for ten days.

We visited Broken Bay and Cowan Creek again and watched wedge tailed eagles defending their territory and white bellied sea eagles with their young.

Atlantia was also assaulted by sulphur crested cockatoos when we stopped in Cammeray marina in Inner Harbour.

We were delighted to go to see the opera Carmen at the Opera house with Adrian and Lynne and Mike and Devala. An occasion to dress up, or at least put on shoes and socks! The Opera was stunning and a translation of the singing appeared above the stage during the performance,It certainly assisted our enjoyment of the experience. We can still hear the music in our heads. The Australians are very good with classical music having a number of excellent classical music radio stations, giving full performances of many pieces, rather than the sound bites given in Britain. The radio programs also give much more history of the composers, which is very edifying.

We hired a Holden ( Oz brand and built) sedan car and drove to Canberra, Melbourne and Adelaide and back to Sydney. This was to see Claire, Will's cousin who he had not seen for about fifty years, and also Tony her husband and their very grown up children, Mathew, Geraldine, Libby and Angus. The whole family seem to be wine buffs, very sympatico with ourselves although they know a lot more about it than us.

It was a must to go to the purpose built capital of Canberra. It is the capital of The Commonwealth of Australian States and Territories. The parliament building has been beautifully designed by American architect Romalgo Guirgola and was opened in 1988 by the Queen of Australia, Queen Elizabeth ( also Queen of the United Kingdom) The building is placed in the original city layout won in another design competition by a colleague of Frank Lloyd Wrights, Burley Griffin in 1918. The idea of the design of the legislature building is that the external lawns stretch over the houses of parliament, thus showing that the lawmakers are always beneath the populace. There is an access restriction at present , due to terrorism suspicion.

In Australia voting is mandatory and based on a rating preference for individual candidates. Both upper and lower houses are elected this way and there are quite a few independent MPs and Senators. The Greens presently hold the balance of power and have forced the present Prime Minister, Julia Gillard (Labour) to commit an about face to bring in a Carbon Tax. It seems that the type of voting here often produces hung parliaments. It is perhaps quite representative of the people though and we have found the great majority of the populace to be helpful, pleasant and enthusiastic with no class consciousness whatsoever, very refreshing. Australia is a very young country only really being their own boss since 1986. Our guide at the parliament building was asked when Australia would become a republic. He answered 'when the UK becomes a republic. Unlikely! Queen Elizabeth is not only head of state of The UK but also of most of the British Commonwealth nations, including Fiji who isn't even in the Commonwealth! The British Royalty, even if not the British people still have a say in the world. Australia now sinks or swims by itself. Most people here think it always did, and it will most certainly swim (another gold medal, dug out of the ground!).

The original inhabitants of Australia, Melanesians from Indonesia came to this continent 40000 years ago and , as Aborigines, have been hunter / gatherers ever since. They were not well treated by the original colonists, of whom a considerable number were convicts from Britain, and there is a political groundswell of discontent from the inhabitants whose culture has been superceded. It is unlikely their demands for land rights will be met but they are nowadays being treated as a significant minority rather than being ignored and discriminated against, as in the last century, or exterminated, as in Tasmania in the nineteenth century. Nowadays New South Wales seems to have a large population of Asians and the Fishmarket in Sydney seems to be a mini South Asia.

We loved the purpose built Capital and found the idea of government buildings in a parkland setting to be very uplifting. It seems probable that it uplifts the parliamentarians as well since they have very robust debates in the parliament building, never failing to call 'a spade a ( expletive deleted) shovel'.

We stayed in an old railway carriage dedicated to Jane Mansfield after seeing the spectacular buildings of Canberra. We had hoped to see kangaroos as well but they seemed shy, we only saw one beside the road.

We passed a number of vineyards on our way to stay in the Victorian Alps (hills in the state of Victoria, nothing to do with the nineteenth century). The Alps seem to reflect those in Europe and since our hosts came from Switzerland and Austria we felt very European. They had a cottage called 'Edelweiss' with an apartment, on the lower storey of a A frame, for us. The view of the valley was superb although there had recently been flooding upriver and the forest fires of the year before had decimated the trees on the adjacent hilltops.

Our trip the following day was to see Ned Kelly country. He was one of the only Australian names, besides Rolf Harris and Dame Edna, to have filtered through to Britain at the end of the twentieth century. He was a sort of nineteenth century folk hero who resisted the police dressed in beaten plough blades. Our opinion , having read much history about him and seen where he was tried before he was sent to Melbourne to be hanged for murder, was that he was a thoroughly bad man with a huge chip on his shoulder. Certainly no Robin Hood, although he obviously had a good idea wearing armour against bullets. You can still see the dents in the breastplate. In the end he was captured after he had been shot in the legs.

We found Melbourne to be a lovely city and we were hosted by Geraldine and Libby who showed us the free trams and tourist buses to see the town and also the nearby famous vineyards of the Yarra valley.

We enjoyed our short time in Melbourne ,staying in Mathew's flat inside the old Victoria Brewery. Melbourne boasts the oldest building in Australia. It is the house where Captain Cook was born, painstakingly transported there brick by brick from England, and is set amongst rows of elm trees.

They could probably effectively transport a few elm trees back to Britain now that the trees in the UK have been ravaged by disease. On the way into Melbourne we had passed through the sad looking forests that had been the area of the considerable bush fires two years ago that killed over two hundred people when villages were caught in the inferno. On the way out of Melbourne we passed through flooded countryside caused by a flash storm the previous night. Australia is indeed a country of huge extremes, and who's attacking elements have yet to be tamed.

We went via the Ocean Road to Adelaide, past the twelve apostles( natural offshore stacks caused by collapsing cliffs)

and a pelican roost,

over a free ferry at the the mouth of the Murray River swollen by rain, and through rolling and lush countryside full of vineyards before reaching the forest enclosed village of Stirling, the home of Claire and Tony. We had hoped to see Koalas in their extensive garden but regrettably they were in someone else's garden during our visit.

We did however see a number of beautiful new holland honey eaters.

We were wonderfully hosted, visiting Adelaide, its seaside docks and play beaches and several wineries, as well as a traditional Australian pub where we had a great meal.

Tony also found somebody to mend our radar plug and a warehouse selling decent material to recover Atlantia's cockpit cushions. He introduced us to some friends,Chris and Neil, who had just restored an old racing car, which looked very sporty.

It was good to see how people live in the country areas. They keep an alpaca which we kept well clear of since they spit.

Our route away from our hospitable relations took us past the Great Desert. Over the past seven years it was probably very brown and dusty, but now it was green, although not lushly so, and there were a number of scrubby bushes dotting the huge fields. We passed through a thunder storm which chucked buckets of water at us, and we stayed the night in a one horse Australian gold town, where we met a South African shepherdess who had just bought a number of Dorpers sheep which actually shed their coats rather than having them sheared. She complained you can't get the staff in Australia compared with South Africa. At least you probably can but it will cost you an arm and a leg.

We climbed up the winding road into the blue mountains, and it is obvious why people from Sydney found it so hard to cross this mountain range to the plains and gold fields beyond. There are huge cliffs on the west side and the only way down is not via river valleys but via ridges and saddles. We arrived at the famous 'echo point' where the view is spectacular down to the river below. We never saw it since the fog clung to the side of the valley, blotting out all sight. It was hard enough to drive the car around the road at the top of the cliff. We were however lucky to see an eastern rosella.

Despite the kamikaze drivers of Sydney we managed to get the car back to Budget Rentals across the harbour bridge without having to pay the enormous excess they require in insurance. One of the yachtsmen that met were not quite so lucky, through no fault of their own. Their car was backed into and it cost them over $3000.

On our travels we had seen two buildings that Australia is famous for, buildings in the shape of large animals, in our case a huge marino sheep

and a rather creepy lobster.

We had also visited Peter Crisp's glass gallery. He is an internationally renowned glass maker and had produced gem encrusted glass plates for the wedding of Prince Charles and Camilla. They are very impressive plates. Peter gave us a personal tour of his gallery and the wool shearing shed he is re erecting to house not only shearing machinery but also carding and weaving machines.

In his pretty garden we saw some superb fairy wrens.

After our road holiday we were back to the boat on a mooring in Cammeray marina in Sydney's inner harbour, and with an enormous amount of help from fellow yachtsman Derek , who with his wife Anthea have sailed their boat Sukanuk all over the world, we put the generator on Atlantia back together again. There is still a little more to do with the generator however, since it doesn't yet stop when we press the off switch!!We are now anchored in Roselle bay , under the Anzac bridge, before heading north again for hauling out and antifouling. We are obtaining prices for this at present.

The weather has been very mixed in Sydney with a heatwave whilst we were away and cloudier weather and showers at present. The end of summer was officially at the end of February so now no doubt we will see the autumn leaves falling. We saw a few come down yesterday in a substantial gust of wind. We hope you like the pics. This one is an australian white ibis.

Love from ATLANTIA

Letter from Atlantia December 2010

It took us just under six days to reach New South Wales from New Caledonia. We each took three hour watches with Will perhaps taking a little longer at night and Margaret during the day.

Of course, politically, all countries make mistakes and it was obviously a mistake deposing a Prime Minister with the surname 'Rudd'. Never the less Australia managed it but will no doubt survive. We were hoping the name might give us some additional influence with the immigration authorities when we arrived. Even if Kevin Rudd had still been the Prime Minister it would have made no difference. The immigration / customs /health inspector could not have been more charming. 'Stewart' the 'immigration / customs / health inspector' man, was very efficient and noted all our basket weaving and artifacts from Vanuatu and Tonga had been placed in a large plastic bag and thoroughly doused with fly spray. This seemed to satisfy him, although he had to make a phone call to the head man of the health inspectorate to allow us some alleviation from the inspection by a dog who would apparently sniff out termites on the boat, if they were present. This little extra actually cost one of our friends an additional $1000 au ($1.00au approximates to $1.00us at present). All our paperwork appeared to be in order and our visa stands us in good stead for a year (or two years if we wish). We were allowed to stay, at no extra cost over the normal health inspection fee, which was some relief, since Australia is not a cheap country, and there seem to be spot fines for everything from grievous bodily harm to blowing your nose in the wrong place.

Coffs harbour was a delight. A modern but spacious town with a farmers market on a Sunday.

It is well laid out for the motor bike or bicycle but not so good for those on foot. We decided that having used our trusty folding bicycles for six years, and with overuse and age creeping into Will's left hip, we would motorise our transport. We bought two more folding bikes over the internet (delivered in three days from the north of Australia), but this time they have electric drives and Lithium Ion batteries. They have a range of 40 km before recharging and they have transformed our visits ashore, especially shopping for heavy items, and indeed sight seeing.

We were especially impressed by the bird life at Coffs harbour and saw Sea Eagles, Brahmin Kites, Green Parrots, Rainbow Lorikeets, Corellas and many other exotic species.

We tried to find koalas, but despite our visit to the Botanic Gardens, which had many magnificent gum trees, no koalas could we see. It was an excellent test for the bikes. They performed admirably we were pleased to note. We stayed an extra week at the marina at Coffs Harbour and had the generator heat exchanger cleaned out whilst we were there. This unfortunately made no difference to the generator, whose cylinder head gasket has a hole in it (we discovered later). We were charged an astronomic amount of money for the cleaning and will never use another mechanic in Australia without first obtaining an estimate. Wayne, from Lake Macquarie, later introduced us to another mechanic who revamped the generator cylinder head for a very reasonable sum, which nearly made up for the former exorbitant bill. Australia is an even more 'do it yourself' place than the backwoods of Vanuatu and Will has now relearned how to take off the cylinder head from an engine. Whether he will be successful at putting it all back together is another question.

We sailed down the coast to Port Stephens, a very large stretch of almost inland waterway, and stayed in a delightful hideaway anchorage at Fame Cove. We watched more fish eagles. We also stayed longer than we originally intended in Port Stephens but we found a number of koalas (they are not bears apparently) which was very exciting for us;

and also fireworks

and also a fete and art exhibition by the locals at Lemon Tree Passage. They all made us very welcome there.

When in Noumea we had been introduced to Wayne Price who was crewing on Willow, our next door neighbours in the marina. He persuaded us that we should visit him in Lake Macquarie, between Port Stephens and Sydney. To enter Lake Macquarie we had to cross a bar, composed of coal rather than the usual sand, at high tide which only left 750mm under our keel. We then had to travel up about five kilometres of river to the lake, through an opening bridge. Some times the river was very shallow and at one point our depth gauge read zero. It was well worthwhile however, and having been met by Wayne in his boat he then proceeded to introduce us to his very convivial and helpful friends.

They showed us kangaroos, hundreds of them, at the old mental hospital, and were of great assistance in finding a good old fashioned mechanic, as well as tools for the job of dismantling the generator. A new cylinder head gasket is coming out with Stephen and Susan at Christmas, so stay tuned for the next riveting episode when the generator might be reassembled.

Leaving lake Macquarie was not as nerve racking as entering and we felt like old hands when a yacht came on the radio saying it had never entered the lake before. They were helped in with the excellent assistance of 'Marine Rescue', a voluntary organisation who performs the same shore based activities as the Coastguard in Britain. They also have some light inshore craft to assist towing boats off bars, if necessary. It seems as though there are shallow entrance bars to a number of river ports in Eastern Australia.

We had a restful sail under blue skies down to Broken Bay and Pittwater, just north of Sydney, past anchored ships waiting to take on a cargo of coal at Newcastle. We were astonished when we entered the flat water of Refuge Bay off Broken Bay to be met with about a hundred empty yellow moorings. These are almost all private moorings waiting for use by their owners at the weekends. We picked up a public visitors mooring, which is a tasteful pink, and stayed for two nights.

In the day between we sailed Dipper up Cowan Creek, of which Refuge Bay is a part, which is more fjord like than creek like, and the wind seems to bend through sixty degrees to either blow up or down the twisty channel. We passed Cottage Point on our exploration, where there were some very fancy houses, but we eventually had to row the last kilometer to get back to Atlantia before nightfall, at eight o'clock, having sailed the dinghy about fifteen kilometers. The days are quite long here at the moment and we head for the longest day of the year after the eclipse of the moon.

The adjacent sea loch of Pittwater was full of about 2000 boats and we visited briefly. One evening there we found ourselves anchored on the inner end of a start line and so had a magnificent view of the 100 or so boats that started there.

They seem to use very few spinnakers in Pittwater despite the large numbers of boats, perhaps they think they would frighten the sea planes who also land on the sea loch.

Sydney was to be our next stop, of which more next time.

We would like to wish you all a very HAPPY CHRISTMAS and A PROSPEROUS 2011.

Hope you like the pics.

Love Atlantia

Letter from Atlantia Nov 2010 (written from Coffs harbour Australia about our previous landfall)

Nouvelle Caledonie as the French call it. After all it is French! (Captain Cook called it New Caledonia). The main town and capital of Noumea is near the south west corner and certainly reflects a small town on the Mediterranean coast of France. There is active yacht racing (about twenty cruiser racers) twice a week, and when we visited the aquarium we passed almost a hundred windsurfers racing up and down in the twenty knot breeze, just yards away from a beautiful sandy beach.

The entry,exit and anchoring were all free to visiting yachts, similar to other French islands in the South Pacific, but very unlike the rest of the Pacific islands, except New Zealand. The consequence of course is that we spend more money in the town! In this case visiting museums, cultural centres, zoological parks and the aquarium.

The voyage from Port Vila in Vanuatu was reasonably uneventful and we had a very pleasant sail the first night, leaving Port Vila at the same time as Kukka, an Australian yacht from Sydney. It was nice to have some company for the first day and night, even though the wind veered (or is it backed in the southern hemisphere!) taking us from a fast broad reach to a slow beat on the wind.

Our second night was spent at anchor in the Loyalty Islands, which seemed similar terrain to that of Tonga when viewed from the sea, and perhaps Fiji when looking towards the houses in the village.

The third, rather long, day brought us inside the reefs on the eastern coast of the mainland of New Caledonia and to a beautiful secluded anchorage amongst palm trees and calm water and with a view of the magnificent steep hills that sweep down to the shore. There was not a soul around, not even a dugout canoe!!

We caught a 16 pound wahoo and a 7 pound skipjack tuna on the way in and gratefully ate some parts of them for tea. Since we had just run out of fresh food they were very welcome. We only tend to cast out a line when we wish to eat fish, and on only a few occasions have we failed to catch our supper. The bait we are using presently is a New Zealand pink and white eel, kept permanently in its own fish oil in a ziplock bag, when not luring fish. The latest one is a bit chewed, but has caught bluefish, tuna, wahoo and dorado (mahi mahi, or dolphin fish are other names for the dorado). Recipes stretch from cerviche (raw fish) to fish curry, through to beer battered (with our home made, Australian kit beer!) and bread crumbed. Just plain grilled with salt, garlic, lemon and a few dried herbs remains a favourite though. If we could find a potato to make decent chips, our cup would runneth over!

On the last night before checking in at Noumea we anchored in a beautiful bay off the Woden Canal, only to find our good friends Ian and Ida on the catamaran Ishka there (we had crossed the Pacific to New Zealand with them). They had been in New Caledonia for some time and were exploring the southern islands, and using their surfboard a great deal as well. We would have liked to make a party of the meeting, but such are the regulations that, although we are allowed to anchor on the way to clearing immigration we are not allowed to get together with anyone. This is obviously to stop us passing on any infectious diseases we may be bringing in, or passing on bales of drugs, which of course we have no intention of touching. We are pleased to say that in our travels we have seen major successes against drug smuggling by the Australian coastguard as well as the Dutch navy and the American coast guard. The French naval presence in the South Pacific no doubt helps as well. Long may their successes continue.

When we arrived at Noumea we went straight to the marina who checked us in to the country with no fuss whatsoever, except for not knowing which side our fenders should be (much to Margaret's chagrin, since she had to move them twice!). We do like countries who welcome us, although we have found that it is always more complicated, and sometimes more expensive, to book out again than to book in. Since we found them so pleasant at the marina we stayed there for nine days soaking up the culture of the city. It was interesting to note that the cultural centre and the museum of ethnic art recorded the real way of life still found in the villages of New Caledonia outside the few main towns. Together with most of Vanuatu , the villages have had much the same way of life for the last two thousand years, with the exception, hopefully, that they no longer kill and eat the men from the village next door. No doubt that will change with the recent advent of mobile phones and internet bringing greater knowledge and hopefully more peaceful interaction between the villages. There is a strong movement in New Caledonia for independence from France, but there is little doubt that gaining this would lose them a substantial amount of money and administrative expertise from the present French government, (ably assisted by the common market). Presently the country is nearly the worlds biggest producer of nickel. It seems the island is one great heap of the ore and large smelting and mine works can be seen on the shore, with conveyors stretching into the mountains, and large ore carriers and barges floating in some of the bays. Industry in the raw. Unfortunately there are also many scars on the hillsides caused by previous ore extraction, with gashes of red earth and stone showing between the green scrub. Not the New Caledonia that Captain Cook first saw.

The town museum gave a good account of the French occupation of the country from the beginning of the nineteenth century, when the islands were used as a penal colony for French citizens. Many of the roads and some of the stone public buildings from the nineteenth century were built by convicts, some of them political prisoners who never saw their way back to France. The museum also gave a good exhibition of the American bases and influence during the second world war when the standard of living there was suddenly elevated. The general populace doesn't seem to have looked back, perhaps with the exception of some Melanesians, who appear to prefer the attitude that probably prevailed when Captain Cook first visited the islands. Viz. rather inward looking. (despite their wish for tourist cash).

We visited the zoological park which was accessed by bus and then a walk through a supposedly rough area. They were very nice to us in the area though. In many places, especially where the cruise liners visit, there seems to be a slight 'them and us' attitude. This is probably because the cruise liner passengers are not given any time to talk with the local people, and in the locals view the visitors are therefore only to be treated as sources of revenue and not as human beings. They may have a point, but it certainly creates a strain on 'normal' attempted relationships.

The park however was full of the most delightful schoolchildren, learning about their local flora and local birds. (there are no indigenous fauna). 'Bonjour, bonjour' seemed to be piped from every corner. We were pleased to see that each class was composed of every hue of skin colour and that they were all behaving quite normally for six year olds. Holding hands while the teacher was looking, and hitting each other when the teacher wasn't looking! The indigenous birds were spectacular, especially the New Caledonian 'national' bird, the cagou. This is a flightless bird, similar in size to a muscovy duck, but more elegant with longer legs and a slimmer body (tres chique). It has a covering of soft grey feathers and a long crest which it raises when it fancies a bird of the opposite sex.

It also flaps its short wings, which are banded underneath in black and white, when courting. It has to turn its tail to its potential mate however for the full viewing.

We saw a young chick hopping from bush to bush. It was extremely well camouflaged and difficult to see. There were also scarlet ibises and spoonbills beside a large pond as well as the local storks and pigeons which are varied and spectacular. The park also possessed a hornbill from further north in Indonesia. The bird was large, spectacular and had a very loud voice. We look forward to seeing them in the wild later on. Indian mina birds were everywhere, including one in a large cage. We tried to teach it to talk, but to no avail. We think it spoke french.

The cultural center was amazing. It was designed by Renzo Piano from Italy and is truly great modern architecture. The pavilions represent the grand casses or chiefs houses, of which there are a number exhibited alongside the center. The best of Melanesian architecture with its practical basis is contrasted strongly by the modern pavilion architecture with its ethereal, and almost spiritual nature. It was a great experience to see the two side by side and it was elevating to see what modern man can achieve. There was a photograph of one of our friends from Vanuatu, Eddie Hinge, in one of the exhibitions. The picture was taken during an arts festival which had included all the Melanesian islands in 2002. The other pictures were all of islanders dressed up (or not as the case may be) in their local and traditional dress, and painted with white and multicoloured face paints. There were also exhibitions of excellent modern melanesian art and modern totem poles donated from various melanesian and polynesian communities. The library of melanesian art was extensive. We had lunch in the the cafeteria. The food was quite tasty but the only serving person there seemed to just watch our struggles with how the self service worked rather than trying to help us. The gallic shrug has come halfway round the world!

The cultural center was complimented by a museum in the center of town giving a history of the melanesian people in New Caledonia. There were a considerable number of carved 'pylons' there. These once sprouted from the tops of the grand casses, or chiefs round houses. They were grand in their own right, even without the houses.

The aquarium was another innovative building. The front elevation was composed of a waterfall falling in front of green frosted glazing. It looked like the outside of an infinity pool. Fortunately the water parted over the entrance to let us in. Inside were all the south seas fishes,

including ones that glowed in the dark and were viewed from a specially dimmed viewing gallery.(we nearly tripped up over each other).Also included were all the poisonous ones such as the stonefish, scorpionfish and lionfish.

Perhaps the most interesting of all the exhibits were the nautilus (or is that nautili?). We saw them mating, sleeping, and just generally moving around. They can live at depths of up to 250 meters.

We left our week of culture to explore the most southerly island, des Isle des Pins, or the Isle of Pines as Captain Cook named it whilst passing by outside the reefs. We managed to find our way through the offending reefs to two of the most beautiful anchorages, with azure water and white sand beaches.

We sailed around one of them and discovered outrigger dugout sailing canoes still in use. They are tourist attractions nowadays and unfortunately use outboard motors mare than sails.

We saw a number of banded sea snakes and kept well clear.

We also saw a turtle shell washed up on a deserted beach. The shell was of interesting construction. The back bone and ribs were clearly visible internally and cartilage spread between them to create a smooth external surface which was covered in a hard skin of thin turtle shell. It was almost translucent.

We cycled for about 12 km on our bicycles to see the local village and then decided to visit the rest of the island on a hired scooter.

We saw the most wonderful cave where the local queen had sheltered during local inter tribal wars in the eighteenth century. We are glad to say that she survived.

The island is well named. Some of the pine trees are over 150 feet high and have trunks exceeding six feet in diameter. These trees make the central posts for the grand casses around which all else hangs. We are not sure if they use live trees but it seems entirely possible that they used to.

We seemed to manage the scooter adequately and we think we received the deposit back. We know we are only half way round the world at the moment but we are starting to look at further adventures when we get back to Scotland. We are considering taking the masts out of Atlantia and traversing the Rhine, the Danube (to the music of Johann Strauss), the Black Sea, the river Don, the next canal, the river Volga and canals to St. Petersberg and finally the Baltic sea and Kiel canal back to Holland. If you speak German and Russian, and fancy a trip in a few years time, please let us know Hope you like the pics

Love Atlantia