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| Track Bermagui to Melbourne |
By a stroke of good
fortune, when the lock-down of New South Wales was announced on 22
March and all recreational boating banned, we were still berthed in
Bermagui. The plan had been to spend the period April to June in
Melbourne in order to celebrate my 70th birthday with Vanessa, my
daughter, who lives there; however, it ended up being a celebration
with a very select group (i.e. the crew, including Christoph, just)
and a pressure cooked meal onboard; fortunately with plenty of wine!
Bermagui has the advantage of having an excellent supermarket and an
even better bottle shop!
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| Bermagui harbour entrance and salt water pool (with shark net!) |
The up side of being in Bermagui was that we ran little risk of encountering the dreaded virus. The number of cases in the whole of Bega Valley County was not much above single figures. The down side was that there was little to do here and very few facilities open. That said the local supermarket was well stocked, the bottle store excellent and best of all there is a really excellent Gelateria in the waterfront buildings of the marina, called the “Gelato Clinic”. The best ice cream I have tasted since leaving Italy!
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| Francesca from the Gelati Clinic |
The down side was the number of sea birds that
insisted on perching on the masts or other high structures ready to
target the unaware beneath. As soon as we realised we were in for a prolonged stay I ordered a second folding bike for Kurukulla and using them we were able to take our daily exercise cycling around the local area including visiting some of the quieter local beaches and the seawater swimming pools.
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| One per mast! |
Sadly the clamp down on all sporting activities,
including fishing, meant that the sea birds were deprived of their usual
diet of fish guts provided by the local fishermen. The pelicans in
particular seemed to have lost the ability to feed themselves
naturally and they were patently going hungry. I didn't see one dive
for its prey normally, contrary to what we had witnessed throughout
the Caribbean. The birds were not the only ones to have adapted to
life around the human race; there were several very large rays that
seemed to inhabit the harbour, unperturbed by the chains and
structures of the marina, and at least one seal who would relish in
playing in the hose discharge over the sides of the fishing boats;
that was when he was not playing, in full sight, with the last
octopus meal he had caught.
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| The old bike |
All delightful to witness.
Not to be defeated in his efforts to get back to UK
(his previous two flights having been cancelled) Christoph booked a
third flight for the 6th of April, this time from Sydney
on Air Qatar, via Qatar, arriving London, Heathrow on the 8th.
Fortunately this time it worked; a bus journey all the way to the
airport and a flight with no hitches! Phew..... Interestingly there
were no health checks on arrival at Heathrow... very lax it would
seem … !
Overall Australia seems
to have come off very lightly in the virus stakes! After six weeks in
Bermagui it was time to move on and, fortunately, I managed to
achieve approval to move Kurukulla from Bermagui to Melbourne, some
350 miles, from the Australian Border Force, the Melbourne Marine
Police and the Department of Health and Human Services; all three
authorities had a say in our plan to move!
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| Camel Rock, north of Bermagui |
In addition I had a berth
pre-booked, at the Sandringham Yacht Club, for as long as I need it;
only a few km from Vanessa's residence. All we were waiting for now
was a suitable weather window; we were now entering the depths of
winter down here. Eventually we set off on Tuesday, 5th of
May, with a plan to either sail direct or, if the weather set in from
the west, to shelter in Refuge Cove for as many days as were
necessary to see the weather system through..
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| Bermagui river at sunset |
Having waited for a
suitable weather window we were not intending to hang around. The 400
mile passage was not going to be easy if we didn't get decent
weather. In the event, during the first two days, we were plagued by
more calms than winds from any direction. On balance we sailed and
motored in almost equal quantity. On day two we managed to come upon
a survey vessel, doing a survey on the SE Australia oil field which
resulted in us being warned off and escorted four miles back the way
we had come to avoid the 4 mile long array she was towing!
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| Final swim at Bermagui |
Sadly we
didn't have the speed to make it around her bow where she wanted us
to give her at least 2 miles clearance. All in a days sailing! We
were also greeted by a pod of the largest and most friendly dolphins
we have yet come across. They spent at least half an hour swimming
under the bow, frequently swimming on their side to be able to look
up and look you straight in the eye. They seem to have the same
desire for human contact that you see in domestic dogs!
By 0700 on day three we
were approaching Refuge Cove, a small but very sheltered anchorage on
the eastern side of Cape Wellington. It was here that we had
determined that we had to make the decision to either hold over
whilst the next low pressure system went through or make a final dash
for Melbourne. We entered the bay on an almost flat calm, settled for
breakfast at anchor, and then lost patience!
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| Sunrise in Bass Strait |
We opted for the dash!
Three hours later we were to the west of Cape Wellington, bashing to
windward in a lumpy sea and 30 knots of wind over the deck; … c'est
la vie .. we were now committed and on our way. That night was cold
and wet but at least by 0400 we were in reach of Port Philip entrance
(the bay in which Melbourne resides), the only problem was that we
needed to wait for 0900, or there abouts, before we could enter due
to the strong currents and over-falls in the narrow entrance.
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| Oil drilling rig on the SE Australian field |
We hove
to and waited until 0700 when we got underway again. By 1000 we were
through the entrance and heading up the western channel. As we
reached the northern end of the channel we were intercepted by a
Marine Police launch
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| Departing Refuge Cove |
demanding to know why we were out “recreational”
sailing in defiance of the lock-down. It was good to know that their
information flow was just as bad as the ABF between Canberra and
Sydney, we had had a similar problem on our initial arrival in
Australia! Having accepted our explanation they departed again and
three hours later we were berthed in the Sandringham Yacht Club
marina, enjoying an early night and an opportunity to catch up on
some lost sleep! I had had only four hours in the past 48 due to
shipping and weather conditions.
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| Lighthouse on SE point of Wilson's Promontary, Victoria |
The following day,
having managed to sort out the administration arrangements of the
marina, we were visited by Vanessa and her dog, Luna, who seemed to
settle to life onboard a boat very quickly.
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| My birthday celebration with Vanessa |
We were now allowed,
under the virus restrictions, to visit Vanessa and her partner Craig
at their apartment due to it being one of our two legitimate “places
of residence” in Melbourne and hence we returned with her for a
belated celebration of my 70th birthday; a great pleasure
and totally unexpected.
Yiorgos, my other crew
member, was also programmed to return to Greece on the 5th
of May; however, that flight was also cancelled! Fortunately we have
been able to transfer the booking to the 3rd of June, with
the same airline, allowing him to depart four days before his visa
runs out!
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| Luna looking pleased to be onboard |
It was the first flight we could, get direct to Greece,
after the airline opened again for bookings. We wait with bated
breath to see whether this flight actually goes and if so what
quarantine restrictions there will be on arrival.
As far as future plans for Kurukulla and I are concerned nothing is fixed. In the original plan we were going to head up through Papua New Guinea and Indonesia before spending next Christmas in the Philippines but that now looks to be highly unlikely, that part of the world has yet to show any sign of getting on top of the virus and borders are likely to remain closed for some time yet, probably a year or so at least.
As far as future plans for Kurukulla and I are concerned nothing is fixed. In the original plan we were going to head up through Papua New Guinea and Indonesia before spending next Christmas in the Philippines but that now looks to be highly unlikely, that part of the world has yet to show any sign of getting on top of the virus and borders are likely to remain closed for some time yet, probably a year or so at least.
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| Sandringham Yacht Club and marina |
That being the case I am looking at the prospect of keeping
Kurukulla in Melbourne for the winter and then heading back to New
Zealand for part of next summer, Dec/Jan. It looks as though
Australia and New Zealand are likely to open up travel between the
two much earlier than other destinations. After that who knows...
Vanessa is suggesting I might even relocate permanently to Australia!
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| Sandringham Yacht Club with Melbourne CBD in background. |
More when I know what
is going to happen next ….......
