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