Back to Civilisation

We left the Hermits and motored most of the 200 and something miles across flat seas to arrive in Madang Christmas eve. Yes Christmas was a while ago and Amanda now working claims not to have enough time to continue with her literary genius. The heavy burden once again falls upon my shoulders.
We had Christmas lunch at the fancy Madang Resort impressing the locals with my new look before heading out to Pig Island for diving and BBQ ing. I discovered a really long vine while looking for fire wood and during my demonstration on how to remove a leaf from a branch at 20 feet somehow managed to get a cut under my right eye.

We returned to the Monpi wharf our new home where the security guards helped us tie up. Amanda then immediately hoped on a plane to Australia where she managed to squeeze in a second Christmas lunch before departing to Singapore.

The trip to Singapore (where you can be fined for having a puddle in your back yard) was work related and came as a bit of a shock after floating about almost aimlessly only a week before. 

Somehow she avoided a fine for J walking and after a 6 day visit it was back to Australia to collect some stuff and a little entertainment paying her niece and nephew to eat Wasabi peas. I understand although Brock really wanted the money he was disqualified for throwing up and it was Hayley who walked away all cashed up.

Arriving back in Madang meant moving off the boat and up to the house where we met our guard dog Knuckle and our house mary, Cathy. Apparently all house keepers are called house marys.

We had been told to make sure everything is always locked but were surprised that this also included the fridge and the pantry. It must be a hungry business being a burglar. I questioned Cathy about this but was told that the painters had been in the week before and stolen a frozen chicken and a mop head so she locked everything up.

Christmas in Port Barton

Leaving Oyster Inlet we found an anchorage further north of the underground river for the night and after visiting the village headed around the following morning. Getting ashore was a problem because of the surf on the beach so after one successful attempt we hired a spider boat to take the rest of us. Our cave guide paddled us into the cave and explained what vegetable different rock formations looked like between giving Pontus confusing directions on where to point the spot light.

Arriving back at the boat around lunch still gave us plenty of time to get to Jimboom Bay where the guys in the village taught us to play 61, a form of Billiards. The next morning upon departure Robin informed us of good fishing feeling he had… sure enough an hour later he landed a Tuna.

Our plan upon arriving at Port Barton was to travel to Puerto Princessa by motorbike to do some shopping for Christmas. Things didn’t start out well with Andy locking his motorbike keys under the seat at the petrol station.

An hour later we hit the road or more accurately the mud. The locals weren’t joking about the condition of the road. I had so much mud stuck to the front tire the wheel stopped turning making the bike steer more like a snow mobile.

6 hours later we arrived in the big smoke and went to the fanciest restaurant in town to celebrate our good luck in arriving without serious injury. The trip back was not as bad with the weather gods smiling down on us.

While we were away the swell had crept into our anchorage so first thing Christmas morning we upped anchor and moved to a small island 2 miles away where the water was flat. Robin and Pontus demonstrated the Swedish bomb known as the flying Otter or maybe in Pontus’s case the falling Otter.

Not having turkey, ham etc we settled for spit roasted chicken for Christmas lunch after the present opening. Sloop was more impressed with the wrapping paper than the boots he received. After too many beers we headed over to the Island to find the Karaoke bar we could hear and pumped out a few tunes, me not included.

Christmas & New Years - Nai Harn & Patong

After picking a quite spot in the bay Christmas was the usual affair, endless food and cold beer. Trevor and crew arriving with roasted Pork and salads and us spit roasting a Duck with veggies and of course NZ invented Pavalova cooked by yours truly.


Amanda and Miss V after drinking Wild Africa decided it was cougar milk and they were now cougar girls. Wondering if it had the same affect on men, Amanda tried to force Trevor to take a sip. It didn’t work.

Richard and Susanna arrived as Ginny fell victim to the cougar milk

Rudolf tried to make me drink the stuff but like Trevor I resisted and decided a swim was a better idea. We had a bombing competition off the side of the boat, which managed to clean the decks. Miss V after breaking one glass and losing another was sentenced to a plastic vessel attached to the boom with a bungee cord to prevent further loss.

After a few more days relaxing at Ko Racha Ya to recover from the shennangans of Xmas, New Years Eve was upon us. This turned out to be more of the same held on Richard and Susanna’s boat in Patong with the inclusion of fire works. The usual remedies, Hungry Jacks, a swim etc etc still didn’t cure the following days illness (for Simon and Richard that is).

Enough of the girly bars and crowded beaches - we're off the Similans.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

We hope you all had a lovely Christmas and wish you a year full of happiness and adventure in 2010. We had a top Christmas day! We celebrated Christmas in Darwin with friends, lazing by the pool and eating all day.

The morning started with a champagne breakfast at East Arm, before returning to the house for some Bloody Mary’s and nibbles, or for some, Bloody Mary laybacks. This was followed by Margarita’s and crab, then champagne and BBQ prawns. Si had bought 10kg of prawns from a prawn trawler that had arrived in Darwin the day before so we had a few to get though!



After a bit of a swim to work up an appetite we sat down to a late lunch of ham, turkey and salads, followed by Xmas pudding with orange brandy custard. The afternoon was spent mixing cocktails before some crazy person decided jumping of the balcony into the pool would be a good idea. Of course we didn’t do that Roxy since it was the one thing you told us not to do before leaving!

Camden Haven

Our arrival at Camden Haven worked in nicely with high tide at 8.30am, we crossed the bar motored up the channel and anchored opposite the service mans club

After about 5 hours sleep we awoke to exchange Christmas presents in the afternoon. Amanda thought it would be a good idea to make each other a present this year. She went with the Chili Jam idea that was so hot it burnt her fingers, eye lids, forearm, lips, and a nostril during the processing of the Chili stage and I went with the somewhat safer rope mat MK11. MK1 did not turn out quite so well.

A couple of the locals (Rod and Mon) living on Monica Joan up stream had us under binocular surveillance from our arrival and finally curiosity got the better of them so they called around for a quick visit around 3 in the afternoon. After a few home brews we poured them back into their tinny and sent them home around 11.00pm after having them commit to driving us up to the top of Big Brother the next morning. I heard their exit from the tinny at there boat also doubled as a wash for Rod. We turned up as arranged the next morning and reminded them we were going up the mountain. Once at the top Amanda and Mon decided to walk down however the car looked like a better option to me. You can see our boat anchored on the bottom right of the first photo.

Derek and Janet (Amanda's parents) came up for a visit and Amanda managed to get them out doing all the local walks. I however was spending a large amount of time out in our dingy laying crab traps and brushing up on my fishing skills to ensure Derek didn't show me up. That evening we had the big fish off and came back with a good meal of Whiting and Flathead.

Henry was our next visitor arriving almost straight from NZ. We began our new years eve celebrations upon his arrival, 7.30am. Henry and I talked Amanda into holding a flare, she is to the right of the light somewhere while we kicked ourselves for not being able to find our sun glasses. We watched the fireworks at 10.00pm, why that time is any ones guess and another couple Greg and Sinnove from a neighbouring Yacht (Faraway)
joined us for evening drinks. Just as well the water police didn't question us about the flare as we were going to blame it on them.

Most of the following morning was spent resting before a afternoon trip to the beach.

After Henry left I tried to lose Amanda by towing her and her Kayak in the dingy for about 10kms to Queens Lake pictured way out to the left. She must have been dropping bread crumbs.

Finally on 9/1/08 we reluctantly weighed anchor, that's boating talk and headed for the sea again, Port Macquarie being our next stop.

Over and out.

'Twas the night before Christmas and all were asleep...

I thought I'd share an extract from my diary recounting our travels on Christmas Eve.

"We sailed to Camden Haven on Christmas Eve. The trip was not the best planned, a last minute dash to beat the bad weather, and everything didn't run as smooth as expected. We sailed to Broughton Island planning to spend a few hours exploring before realising that I had miscalculated the tides - I'd not really done my homework and my rough calculations from days earlier were shoddy! About 2 hours out we were beating into a noreaster. Even though it was forecast for the evening we did not anticipate it so early, nor did we recall how crappy this felt. When we tacked we were heading ESE if lucky when we wanted to head NE.

We were forced to motor sail and I took first watch so Simon could rest. I managed to make good heading and after an hour Simon came on duty at the same time we lost all engine power. The mystery fuel problem again... Simon spent a good deal of time below with the boat bobbing around only to return to the helm green and with no clue as to the source of the problem. This same cycle was repeated a few times before Simon decided that a good clean out was required and hit full revs. Oddly this did seem to work and despite the opposing wind we were making 5.5 knots with engine and main sail.

I finally fell asleep below only to be awoken by a change in the motion of the boat. I came up to find us making 2 knots over ground due to the dreaded East Cost Current... while essential for marine life, it's dreaded by sailors heading north! We watched Seals Rock lighthouse for hour after hour before we finally made it past. It was now clear Foster was not an option and we were madly calculating speeds and hours to make it into Camden Haven. At about 2am I heard over the VHF, "Sailing vessel Thyme, Sailing Vessel Thyme do you copy?" It was the Volunteer Marine Rescue at Foster calling to check how we were travelling. I had a nice chat with the man which left me feeling not so sorry for myself about an Xmas at sea.

It was`short lived, ever the pessimist and with the currents power fresh in my mind I was struggling to maintain cheer and resign myself to a Christmas Day at sea. We continued to push the engine at 1,000 RPM for a total of 14 hours and Simon lead the way on the night watches before we shared Xmas morning sunrise together. It was one of clear skies, clam seas and despite the light northerly wind everything was perfect - we might make it to port after all???
I woke Simon at 7am to prepare for the bar entry about 6 miles off. We tried to turn the self-steering off only to find it jammed. Shit! We could not risk crossing a bar with only self-steering!! Damn - don't tell me I'm pipped at the post... Simon went below to find a solution - about an hour later Simon as handy as ever temporarily fixed the problem to allow us to cross the bar.
Just around Perpendicular Point we pulled down the sails, called the Volunteer Rescue on the radio to advise our entry, lined up the entrance leads and crossed the bar in the best conditions one could hope for.

We motored down the channel at over 8 knots with the incoming tide with me waving to all the early morning walkers. I was so excited we were going to be in harbour for Christmas Day!! We dropped anchor opposite Laurieton - for the first time without me issuing orders. Either I was too tired or due to Simon more than proving himself capable of nearly everything thrown at him.
Ohhhhh... soooo tired. A quick tidy of the decks before bed showed us some dolphins lazily swimming by - this must be heaven..."