The bank balance

Sometimes living the life on a yacht is very good for saving money and living frugally. Australia is not the place for this kind of existence! Recently we have spent most of our time on land than sailing which has been great fun at times. This leads me to our time in Darwin, someone told me is the tenth most expensive city in the world to live in. Before leaving the sort of civilisation that Australia offers which is very similar in many ways to home, a few of us decided to have a lot of fun in between working on Proteus. This included watching the Australian Super Bike Series, go karts on an outdoor circuit which have been the best so far, Ed from Crazy Daisy's birthday night out and a couple of nights in Litchfield National Park camping. This was the best bit for me with twelve of us in three 4x4s barbecues, dust track driving, water crossings, getting filthy dirty, swimming under waterfalls, seeing some wildlife and having a few drinks. See here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kzJ2_u4WkjA&feature=em-upload_owner. Tipperary marina was also an interesting place to get in and out of with no room for fenders either side going through the lock gates and literally a foot in front and behind once the gates were closed. I'm glad we did it all, now the only area of Australia I haven't visited is the east coast, maybe another year

Cairns to Darwin passage

From leaving Cairns, Queensland to Darwin, Northern Territory it has been a varied trip and as I type this about 50 nautical miles out from Darwin we are sat in 2 knots of wind, flat seas, amazing sunshine without a cloud in the sky but it hasn't always been like this. Initially for the first couple of days out of Cairns it was very lumpy, cold and windy, a complete contrast to now. For the first few hundred miles coming up the coast from Cairns pilotage is good fun and keeps you on your toes as it is necessary to weave through channels in the reef some of which are shared with cargo ships and fishing boats which at times can get quite skinny with breaking waves over a reef a few metres out to one side and a 290 metre ship to the other. Further up the coast towards the most northern point of Australia the earth starts to change into a more deep red colour, there are a lot more aboriginal settlements and 4x4s along tracks and beaches for the experience. We have caught a massive fish that was about 5ft6 and over 50kgs with big teeth and generally dangerous looking but we have no idea what it is! Also reeled in has been a blue tuna which we consumed in no time at all. There have been many sightings of giant sea turtles and also some very big sea snakes out in the Torres Straits and Van Dieman Gulf, where we are now. We have gone past about four other Oysters now that the wind has dropped out through are careful selection of sails (the big cruising chute) and now the wind has gone almost altogether being on a larger boat pays dividends by having a higher cruising speed and range under motor. This is now the final stint into Darwin and we are hot on the heels of Babe. Lets see who gets in first.

Back with the pack

The sail from the Whitsunday islands to cairns was a welcome break after the race week. This part of Australia is really where you can see a change in the coast beginning to happen and ports becoming more few and far between. The other change was in the weather and the first time for a while that the waterproofs and boots came out for warmth and dryness as the wind built and with it the seas which occasionally landed in the cockpit of the boat, under headsail alone we made some serious progress putting us in Cairns in no time at all. Always a welcoming sight are our friends from the Oyster World Rally fleet and some of the boats remained in port when we arrived, others had already left for Darwin. Not much seemed to have changed in Cairns since my last visit although it was nice to sit still for a few days in civilisation whilst we worked on Proteus giving her some tlc including a new screen at the starboard cockpit pedestal. We did pick up a Holden Commodore as a hire car not just because of its big engine and rear wheel drive but to go up the mountains and into the Table lands. In one day I saw platypus, ostrich, kangaroos, a tortoise, a tank, v2 flying bomb and a Morris Minor (a rare sight in oz). Time again to make a move we traditionally were the last to leave port.

Hamilton Island Race Week

Now this is one of the big ones on the calendar. In a few days leading up to the start of the race week and the return of Tim and Bryony, jack and myself have been super busy transforming proteus from a luxury cruising yacht to a slick racing machine (you can take that last part slightly loosely but we've definitely made a marked improvement). Hamilton Island Race Week pulls in some serious boats with the likes of Wild Oats, Bob Oatley's 90 footer, a lot of TP52s and various other racers down through cruisers and classics with an overall entry list of 150 plus boats. Proteus is in the cruising division 1 along side some other racy metal that I wonder what is doing in the same class as us but unphased and in very light airs, sometimes starting races in 2 knots of wind we went for it with the permanent core crew and a couple of extras including Tammy who was recommended to me by the marina manager and Anthony who is the publisher and director of Ocean magazine which I have read a few times back on the other side of the globe. The whole team pulled together amazingly well and made some good tactical calls with the help of some local knowledge combined with our many thousands of miles of experience and managed to gently caress Proteus and her large 50 ton weight forward with some constant and precise trimming of sails through the water and the race fleet to bring in some good results whilst surrounded by the picturesque Whitsunday islands. The conclusion was a few trophies for the days racing and an overall 2nd place. For such a big completion as HIRW this is an incredible result and a credit to the crew and also to the boat. Now back to cruising and on to catch up with the rest of the oyster fleet

 

THEY'VE LEFT ME IN CHARGE!!!

It has been holiday time on board Proteus, first mine which was amazing to be back with my family, friends and beautiful fiancée, then tosh and Bryony off for a couple of well deserved weeks. These are all exciting times with the build up to Hamilton Island Race Week that we are entered in and with the arrival of Chris and Denise's friends, John and Jill who were with us for 7 days. So down to business and my first time in close quarters handling of proteus myself and jack got to busy with me as stand in skipper and jack as hostess. The weather was fantastic with very light winds so limited sailing but excellent snorkelling and amazing beaches the tour of the Whitsunday islands was on. All was great as we had a hump back whale with its calf swim under the stern of the boat within touching distance and were able to have the sensation of seeing and hearing them breathe and dive. Also many sea turtles, coral and reef fish about. I always have a strange feeling of remembrance in Australia as I try and piece together my memory from the places I visited nearly 9 years ago. We ventured into Whitehaven beach, luncheon bay, butterfly bay, hayman island, Nara inlet and Cid harbour. John and Jill who have never done much sailing had a great time and saw more natural sights in the space of a week than most people may ever do, it's nice to be reminded of how lucky I am.

I've been a bit lax of recent

My blogging has been a bit slow coming over the past couple of months due to the appalling Internet but I see it as a luxury anyway so not a problem. Proteus has charged about and everyone has had a fantastic time including having the pleasure of the company of David Glen, the editor of yachting world who has been writing an article about the Oyster World Rally. Unfortunately I have broken yet another camera in a similar fashion to the first one. Both through death by water ingress. The good news is I have just a few hours ago purchased a new one in Heathrow airport so we are good to go again. I'm currently sat at the airport in Abu Dhabi waiting to fly on to Sydney and ultimately mackay to catch up with proteus and the rest of the fleet after taking a holiday back in England and spending a lot of time with my fiancée, Alice and the rest of my family which has been fantastic. I've also spent a bit of time on my both my cars which even though I haven't driven one of them for 3 years and the other for 10 months have consumed a fair chunk of money. The flight I've just had was 7 hours and my next one is 14 hours roughly with a smaller 2 hour flight to top it all off. I'm looking forward to getting back on the boat and cracking on with some sailing but it is always sad to say goodbye to family and friends. I'll try to get on the case some more with some good pictures and text to go with

Bora Bora with the Bloody Mary's party

I'm now in areas with very limited Internet so photographs are hard to attach and upload but I wish I could put some on that we took of the huge breaking waves on the outer reef on our arrival to Bora Bora! Finding the passage through the reef was easy as it was the only patch that wasn't exploding into white spray at a great height. Once through the passage we were once more protected from the vast Pacific Ocean and in tranquil waters again. The favourable option was to take a mooring at Mai Kai marina which is essentially a wall to tie against or on a buoy. Not to be put off though the restaurant there was brilliant for food, atmosphere and most evenings there was a fantastic band to listen or dance to. After a night at Mai Kai we moved inside the reef to an anchorage outside of the Hilton hotel where Bryony and Tim stayed ashore for a couple of nights and I stepped up the pace on board with some servicing and polishing.