The last Hurrah

Check below for the latest 2 blogs before you read this one...

We have now decided to finish off our sailing adventure and Volante (and little Joy) have been sold (sniff sniff sniff). We are happy that she was brought by another young couple, Ben and Ange from Airlie Beach, who are excited to be taking over from our adventures.
We are now relaxing for a few days up north in an amazing hippy camp in the jungle, with Sarah and Amanda, before flying south on the 16th Oct. We plan to visit Anna’s Nanna (who is very excited) on the Great Ocean Road in Victoria for a few days and then head to Tasmania to visit Anna’s parents before arriving back in NZ on the 6th November and catch up with all of Rob’s family.
Although we are sad to finish sailing for the mean time, we have many happy memories and saw some amazing sights. We both valued the time we got to spend with nature, highlights being the coral reef, mangrove systems, rainforest and whales, and to think about the future and current ways of the world, and also practising our boating skills and meeting lots of friendly people. We’ve learnt a great deal about sailing and ourselves. And even though Anna has turned into a ommpa loompa with her orange tan, and Rob has picked up a boat buying habit...(which could cause him future problems) we loved the experience and can’t wait to get back on the water.

We are now excited about the future and plan to base ourselves around the Northland area as Anna has won a scholarship to study marine ecology at Leigh and Rob will also be looking for work and study options in the Northland area.
We would like to thank everyone who supported us and followed our blog and look forward to catching up with everyone when we get back!

A new crew

We said goodbye to Claire and a hello to Sarah and Amanda, some of Anna’s friends from school, the next day. After we laughed at Sarah’s white skin (she has been in Canada for the past year) and she laughed at Anna’s very orange tan we all headed back to the boat in Joy who managed very well with all four of us rocking her around. After they got settled into the port hull we left late in the afternoon for Funnel bay, a nearby anchorage. The bay was suitably named, with strong wind gusts hitting the boat on a regular basis, especially because of the strong wind warning. All four of us managed to cosily sleep inside the hulls, even with Sarah and Amanda’s extra gear and lots of food, although being so close to all the food was too tempting for Sarah who couldn’t help herself and participated in a midnight feast. With winds around the 30 knot mark the next morning and predicted for the next few days, we headed to the shelter of Woodwark Bay. We left under our tiny storm jib and surfed the waves downwind to Woodwark. As we rounded the headland we hit smooth water and with the fully reefed main and storm jib up, we were still sailing at 6-7knots! It was a welcome relief to get to the sheltered spot right down the end of the bay where we could anchor close to the beach in the shallow water which allowed us to walk ashore at low tide. The exploring was interesting here as there were many huts from a Polynesian village on the shore left over from an old film set but which had now being converted into a private holiday villa. We spent the next three nights here, having art and painting sessions and playing music around the campfire at night with our guitar and Sarah’s didgeridoo. As soon as the strong wind warning was lifted we were free to head across the channel to Hook Island and explore the snorkelling spots. Deciding that Amanda and Sarah would love the white sand we headed around to Tongue Bay and Whitehaven Beach for a couple of nights. We had an amazing spinnaker run in sunny weather downwind from Whitehaven to Hook Passage.Amanda caused some action when she jumped off the bow (topless), travelling between the hulls and pulling herself up the ladder (losing her undies in the process) as we travelled quickly, surfing the waves with the spinnaker. We anchored in the shelter of Cid Harbour for another night and climbed Whitsunday peak with spectacular views. In the morning we had an unexpected visit from a large turtle who surfaced underneath the boat, hitting its shell on the bottom of the hull with a loud thud, causing us to leap out of bed in alarm thinking we had hit a rock. The turtle appeared to be ok and surfaced by us regularly for the next couple of hours. On the way back to Airlie Beach we dropped Amanda and Sarah off in Joy and they took some good photos of the boat while we sailed circles around them. They did look funny bobbing around in Joy in the middle of the bay far from land. We had our memorable last sail that afternoon, taking Volante from Airlie Beach to Cannonvale with full sail up through all of the hundreds of yachts anchored around the shoreline. We felt very confident and made us realise how much our sailing skills had improved.

Back on the water

Once we got to land, we had to get the motor fixed! What was supposed to be a routine service, turned into a mechanical nightmare! A forgotten part that wasn’t put back in place after the service caused a domino effect that left us waiting frustrated for 3 weeks to get the motor fixed! The worst bit was that after this time the motor was deemed unrepairable! So we organised a new motor with the help of insurance (who found the mechanics, Whitsunday Outboard Center, at fault), and finally we got the green light to up anchor once more.We did manage however to fill the time with some BBQ’s with a young couple we met who had cruised from NZ through the pacific islands to Australia on a 26ft monohull. We were also invited for a great trip out to the outer reef in perfect weather on our friend’s monohull called ‘Fearless’, a rather comfortable boat! This was topped off by a snorkel at Blue Pearl Bay where a large (estimate of 60) pod of Pilot whales cruised by, a few of them breaking away from the main group to check us out, amazing! Three weeks of waiting for the motor to get fixed caused us to miss some serious sailing time with Claire, so we wasted no time in getting back out there once our brand new 8 hp Mercury outboard, ‘Freddy’, was installed.
We spent a night at Woodwark Bay and then headed over to our favourite snorkelling haunts off Northern Hook Island the next day. It was sad for us to see that the whales had all left the area for their southward migration to Antarctica, leaving the waters feeling rather empty.

We spent a day at the picturesque Maureens Cove and found a great snorkelling spot close to the shore. Claire and Rob revelled in the good snorkelling but unfortunately Anna was stung by a jellyfish causing large red painful welts down her whole leg which luckily went away after she doused the area in about two litres of vinegar (whoops we had no more left for future stings). We spent the night at Manta Ray Bay and witnessed the amazing display of fast flowing white-water that strong tidal currents can cause. These can be quite disconcerting when you can hear them roaring just meters from the protected mooring on a calm night.
We spent another night at Cid ‘City’ and climbed Whitsunday Peak, Rob broke the record to the top set by a Tasmanian sailor who regularly runs to the top in an attempt to maintain his fitness. We discovered a new name for Volante which is ‘ Meercat Manor’ as anyone poking their heads out of the hatches look like Meercats, see posted picture of Anna and Rob looking out of starboard hatch. Mays Bay was another beautiful little spot where we stayed for the night.Mating turtles kept us entertained and Claire was dwarfed by the large rock formations as she walked beneath them on the shore. Rob went fishing off the point but had an unfortunate toe-stubbing accident that reduced his fish catching capacity to zero. Luckily this injury although looking gory healed after a few days of rest out of the water it did mean missing out on the snorklathon too. Note: A snorklathon has been officially described as completing at least three different snorkels in one day, which only Claire and Anna managed to do). After mooring at Butterfly Bay we went for a walk up a river valley and got good views over the bay which remarkably resembles the shape of half a butterfly from above.We also got to witness a large rain squall moving over the coast, engulfing all boats in its path and which also drenched us on the way back, however it gave us the opportunity to have a much needed freshwater shower, a fact that Anna only embraced after a failed attempt at hiding under a small rocky ledge. Instead of trying to find a mooring or anchor in the deep currenty waters off Stonehaven, we decided to take the boat over the reef at high tide and beach on the sand by the shore.

This turned out to be a great idea and we had a perfect anchorage all to ourselves while over fifty boats jostled for position to anchor on the other side of the reef. We took the opportunity to climb up a steep river bed up to the ridge high above. The view was stunning with the wild rocky and forested interior of Hook Island behind us and the islands nestled in blue water in front and Volante directly below us on the sand. The forest along the river bed was lush and green with many animals (including some super-sized spiders) spotted along the way and many caves to explore.
We explored a beautiful new anchorage called Macona Inlet and Rob tried his luck with fishing while Anna and Claire explored the mangroves. We celebrated the evening with a pre-dinner snack of special ‘Volante Vintage’ cheese which is covered in a unique and ‘usually’ tasty white growth after at least two weeks of ageing out of the fridge. The taste can be described as an interesting blend of strong camembert combined with an extreme hint of blue vein cheese flavour, mmmmm!We spent our final night with Claire at the islands in Nara Inlet, anchoring right down at the end of the fjord-like bay. Exploring the aboriginal caves and showering under a waterfall. We also had an unexpected guest on the boat of a cheeky sulphur-crested cockatoo.Nara proved to be the site of the eagerly awaited pyke-off competition, with a Rob versus Anna final, we have added a video of it to the blog so you be the judge.
Anticipating a simple trip back to Airlie, we got hit by an unexpected thunderstorm. Drizzle turned into a downpour before transforming into an absolute white out (where visibility was reduced to 20metres at times). While the wind jumped from 5 knots to over 30 in a matter of minutes (while completing a 360 degree wind shift)! We reefed quickly and tried to sail for a while before it got too dangerous as it was difficult to see other boats and land. We pulled down the sails, started Freddy and sat facing into the wind motoring away from land, relying on the GPS and compass for direction. At one point we could see five other boats next to us implementing the same tactic. After an hour of the squall, it eased enough that we could finally get some sail up and get back to Airlie. The anchorage was totally brown from the rain and runoff, with sticks and logs floating all around. The road out of town got washed out, and it turned out to be the areas wettest day in September’s history!