Wing and wing
This Way Up, Dave and Pattie’s magnificent yacht and floating home for the last 13 years (!) found her way up the Queensland coast again earlier this year as winter set in.
If you made it to the 45th Reunion, you will recall Pattie’s fascinating report on some highlights of those years that have taken them all around this largest island Australia, as well as to many parts of South-East Asia and the Pacific.
However, what goes up must come down. So after months of sharing the coral coast with a succession of visitors (including veteran TWU crew Staff and Liza, plus many other children, grandchildren and friends from all around the world), like migrating birds they joined the annual nomadic return southwards at the end of the season.
Your Webmaster was fortunate enough to be able to join them at Hamilton Island for an enjoyable but purposeful passage to Brisbane (they will continue to Port Stephens in November).
IPad on the grand
After Barry’s exotic reports from his cruises I was expecting the best – fine dining, grand piano playing during cocktails, entertainment and educational opportunities. We had all that and more in full measure. [If you would be tempted to say ‘fulsome’, don’t. Look it up in the dictionary.] The grand piano was only on iPod, admittedly, but we had a fine time.
Favourable winds – mostly northerlies on the back of a series of cooperative high pressure weather patterns typical of this time of the year – gave us some great downhill runs under ‘wing and wing’ sails, the flat screecher (until we blew it out) or general-purpose spinnaker.
To make the most of the winds we often sailed at dawn and anchored again late in the day or after dark at a sheltered cove.
There are not many places along this huge coastline that Dave and Pattie have not visited over their years of cruising. This local knowledge was put to good use again to find some truly delightful, peaceful overnight havens, sometimes isolated and alone but more often in company with a few other boats wending their way southward.
Spanish mackerel poses with Dave
Getting all those nautical miles of the Queensland coast astern did not leave much time for pottering around the beaches; but we had a few energetic excursions ashore, including a long exploration of Percy Island.
The island itself is parkland, the only inhabitation being a homestead atop the hills, its presence given away on the approach up those interminable hills by a laden lemon tree located conveniently near the path.
Those of you who have been this way may know of the Percy Island Yacht Club, consisting essentially of an A-frame hut with a diaspora of hundreds of adherents all around the world. You may even have left your name there.
The ‘clubhouse’ itself is on the west coast looking out over sand and sea and visited by hundreds of yachts over many years.
Each visitor leaves a relic identifying their yacht or crew – an old plate, fragment of a torn sail, an inscribed oar, piece of wood, life jacket – whatever the yachties had to hand. The hundreds of names and dates make interesting reading.
Dawn departure, Percy Island
We had company, too, in animals and birds aplenty, though not all heading south. Some, like the porpoises off the bow, just came in to sport and play around.
On our penultimate leg from Mooloolaba to Deception Bay we saw more than a dozen whales, spouting and rolling in all directions.
Apart from the many old and new friends of this seasoned cruising crew who came over for happy hour from time to time, the only wild life to come aboard were a couple of fine mackerel, a Spanish shown above. Warren and Jen, also previous TWU crew, will vividly recall a close encounter with these sharp-toothed fish; ask them about it sometime.
As Dave and Pattie head back to their home in Soldiers Point, we wish them happy landings and look forward to hearing more at the Nelson Bay reunion.
Happy Christmas to all, from your webmaster on behalf of you all — so happies from all to all.
Best wishes to all at the festive season; to Neil who has been poorly and to any others suffering difficult times with personal or family arisings.
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