Happy Birthday Kathleen

Fourteen years ago today Wendy & I were doing laps of John Hunter Hospital in Newcastle trying to bring on the birth of Kathleen after Wendy's waters broke the night before. Now 14 years later she is a beatiful and clever young lady who puts too much toilet paper in the head and blocks it up, then I have to unblock it and get covered in it!

We have had a busy few days this week. On Wednesday John, Jan & Mechelle(John's Daughter) & her 4 month old twins came up for a visit. We had a cuppa on the boat and then went over to the park and had lunch. It was good to see them all again as its been a while since we last saw them.

Michael, John, Charlotte, Harrison, Ian, Middy, Kathleen, Amy & Wendy at the park on the waterfront. We have spent a bit of time here with the kids. .

.

The next day we caught the bus to movieworld, which is a theme park with rides and shows etc. Everyone had a good time and there was hardly any crowds as it was mid week and no school holidays, so there was only a couple of minutes to wait to go on the attractions.

.

.

.

.

Amy hated this ride, too scarry.

.

.

.

.

The following day we walked over to the chanderly to pick up the exhaust part that split on the way from Ballina. We fitted that and left for Tipplers Resort on South Stradbroke Island. We arrived just before dark and had trouble finding a place to anchor as it was packed with houseboats and powerboats dropping anchor in the channel. We ended up finding a little hole close to the resort after sending the kids ahead in the dingy and the portable depth sounder. We went over to the hotel in the resort and there was live music and Toad races. 8 cane toads(which are an introduced pest here) were painted with numbers and people could bid to buy a toad. The first three toads that crossed the line earnt their owners the pool. Some of the faster toads went to $100 and none went below $50. The winner picked up over $300.

.

.

.

.

Cane toad races at Tipplers

Back on the Gold Coast

We left Iluka on the 18 March with a plan to go to the Gold Coast. We had fairly light winds and not in the direction that was forecast so we called in at Ballina where we had a new hard drive installed on the laptop. On the 22 March we made our way to the Gold coast again. We were only off Skenners Head, a couple of miles out when heaps of smoke started coming out of the motor room again. There was a split in the exhaust water lock. I managed to sort of mend it with tape and bandages and we decided to keep going. The southerly current was running pretty strong so we had to motor the whole way and as there was still some exhaust leak everyone had to sleep on deck.

Sunrise on the Gold Coast

We entered the seaway at about 9:00am the next day and dropped anchor in Marine Stadium, outside Seaworld, Southport. Since then we have had 30 knot southerly winds that have tested our anchor and given us a wet dingy ride to shore. From here we might have a day at movie world or one of the worlds and then head into Moreton Bay. Wendy's Uncle John and Jan are visiting us tomorrow and then we are off, there are too many jet skis and aquaducks buzzing around here.

Kathleen and Amy on the passage to Southport

Back in the water and up the Clarence river

We are currently at Maclean in the Clarence River, we went through the Harwood bridge today, which was a bit of a bonus as we hadn't arranged for it happen, another yacht was waiting to go through, you would normally have to give 24 hours notice.
We managed to stop the Pacific Highway, which the diggers at Woodburn arn't allowed to do!

We motor-sailed all the way mainly to give the motor a run as it has been smoking since we fitted the new oil pipe and we wanted to see if it was a leak or just burning off old oil, it seems to have settled down for the time being.

We will only be here for the day before we go back through as we will be dropping the car off at home on Saturday, then the real holiday starts. We have decided to go North and take our time to ensure that cyclone season is over as we don't want any surprises.

Hopefully the weather will be kind to us and be favourable to start north on Sunday or we will be here until it is. Next stop back to Iluka where the car is and then onto the Gold Coast.

Saltheart's paint job at Yamba

On Friday Saltheart was pulled out of the water at Yamba. What a job we have ahead of ourselves, her hull was thick with barnacles and tentacle things hanging off. The kids and Grahame a man who works at the marina said that she looked like Davy Jones from Pirates of the Caribbean. We borrowed some big scrapers from the marina to make the job easier. Ian did most of the work on it but we all had a go, he was just to quick it was hard work. We had booked into a caravan park while we did the work.

This took a while. After we had to get little scrapers onto the job to take all the paint off.
It was a job that took the rest of Friday and a good part of Saturday. By the end of the end we where able to put a coat of primer onto the hull. A swim at the caravan park was well and truly warranted after a shower of course.

The following day we started to treat the rust which was coming through on the windows and bolts etc. It didn't feel like we were getting anywhere but we were.

The next day Kathleen and I painted the top side of the sides white, rolling and feathering. Ian had the job of sanding so we could paint. She is looking much better, she had no name on side anymore and we had to find a sign writer.

Time to anti foul the hull now we really are looking good. this took the whole day as we could only paint in between the rain showers, but we did get there in the end. Now its get a matter of waiting until tomorrow to back into the water.

Wednesday we were ready to go back in. At lunch time we were lifted up and got half way into the water when the lifter broke and someone from Grafton came up to fix it. This took a couple of hours by the time he got here. Half in half out but in the end we afloat again and looking good.

Yamba

Well we didn't get away as we planned. I had started the motor to check things were still alright and after about 3 minutes the oil light came on. One of the oil lines had a hole in it, so we ordered a new one on Friday afternoon. The amazing thing was that it arrived at the post office on Monday morning. So with that installed we left this morning on the high tide, about 6:00am. We had a great sail with light winds and arrived in Iluka harbour at 6:00pm. There was heaps of dolphins, they had a great time coming up to the boat and getting everyone excited before going for a fish and coming back for another play. We sailed all the way except for the last half hour, we just wanted to get anchored before it got too dark. Once inside the Clarence River we went straight to the Iluka harbour and went straight to the hotel for a meal and a couple of drinks.

Once again everyone felt a little queasy from seasickness, except for me. This time I knew that i may have to have my head in the motor so I took a couple of tablets and laughed at everyone laying about.

Tomorrow we'll have to go to the other side of the river to Yamba and haul out the boat and we have left our car in Ballina, so we will have to figure out a way of bringing it down here.

Road trip to Lake Macquarie

We had originally planned to sail to Lake Macquarie but my mum had a bit of a stay in hospital. So on Tuesday 13th we packed the dingy in the back of the car along with a few clothes and about 8 hours later were in Dora Creek. We left the boat anchored in Mobs bay, which we were concerned about a bit, but she was in the exact same spot where we left her when we got back. The people that are anchored next to us must have had to go away for a few days also, as there dingy was left on the beach for a few days. I haven't got into the cruising mode enough to be able to do that just yet, maybe because our dingy is still new.
We had a good time catching up with everyone down there, but after a week we thought we had better make sure Saltheart hadn't drifted off to New Zealand.
Our plan is to sail to Yamba tomorrow where Saltheart will come out of the water and get painted. We called in to there on the way back from Dora Creek and found a caravan park that Jess can stay at. We'll put up the tent while the boat is out of the water.

We are finely on board

We moved onto Saltheart on Monday afternoon. Our friends Melissa & Elliot along with their children Nathaniel, Jeremiah, Caleb, Holly and Ella have moved into our house. Melissa and the children came down to Ballina with us. All the children had a great time together playing on the beach. But i think Jess had the best time chasing after a stick.

Tuesday we tried to move Saltheart out the Fisherman's Harbour into the river. We untied the ropes just had a couple of ropes in hand, put her in reverse and nothing happened. On further investigation a cable had to be adjusted, at first we were concerned the gear box had had it. After a bit of time Ian had fixed the problem.

Ian down the motor room again fixing the problem.

Wayne who also had a boat in the harbour suggested that we check the propeller for any growth. Ian did this and said that there was a bit of growth and took a scraper for a swim. Kathleen decided to join in the fun with her dad. By now the tide had gone out so we had a spend another night in the harbour.Kathleen & Michael at the back of Saltheart in the harbour before we left.

Come morning we left the harbour behind us and moved into a anchorage further up the river. With a depth sounder on the dingy we were able to find a nice spot.

At anchor the kids had fun jumping off the bow of the boat and climbing back up the duck board.

Kathleen and Michael jumping off the bow.