American River VMR

VHF 16/21(repeater 80), HF 2524, 4483

Knowing that we'd be here for a few days meant that we would have a chance to meet the legendary 'Carol' of the American River VMR. In fact Carol made sure of it by booking us, as soon as we'd arrived, to accompany her on her scheduled 80km round trip to Kingscote later in the week. As punctual as a Swiss train, we were on our way by 09:00.

 The Bloke calling to Carol from the 'Independence' inspired signpost into American River

Carol suggested the signal was a bit weak.
Technology update required?

The original barque 'Independence' was built and launched from the 'River' over 200 years ago. There is a project afoot to construct a real replica, not unlike the Endeavour and Duyfken projects.

The 40km drive to Kingscote gave us plenty of time to get acquainted, share stories and learn all sorts of stuff about Kangaroo Island. Things like 13 years is not long enough to be considered a local; in fact if you are not born on the island you'll never be counted as an 'Islander'. There used to be over 1 million sheep on KI but this has dropped off to around 600,000 head. We also learned about the snakes. Oh yes, Carol told us as a mater of fact there are plenty of tiger snakes and for a bonus, copperheads too. Ukk! We'd gone on a walk along a trail and escaped harm but I bet that getting the Bloke to go on any more trails with me has about 6 chances: Nicks, Naught, Nothing, F****-All, Mine and Buckley's!

The most important thing we learned was that Carol Miell is a volunteer in the full sense of the word. She is entirely self funded. This service is her passion and she has some part time jobs to help cover the cost of the equipment and electricity. In addition to her morning and evening weather Scheds, she takes logons all through the day and is on a listening watch all night too. Her handheld radio was with her while she showed us about her turf. Mariners on her patch value her efforts highly and it is certainly our hope that the powers-that-be in Adelaide, acknowledge this dedication and service with some kind of financial assistance. A bureaucratic 'Coast Guard', based in an office in a capital city is no substitute to the hands-on local knowledge of the community-based radio people. We have been very fortunate to have been 'monitored' by various VMR's along the way and they are the best PR you can get for safe boating and local tourism.

To Carol, we say "T H A N K   Y O U"!

View from Kingscote across to Backstairs Passage.

A nasty passage of water between the mainland and Kangaroo Island.
It often delivers mariners unexpected weather and currents as they 'poke their nose' out of Gulf St Vincent or from any of the northern shores of KI.

It gives Carol a lot of work!

 The Southern Ocean behind Carol and the Bloke.
Carol monitors an area from Cape Spencer in the west to nearly Robe in the east; half way up Gulf St Vincent in the north and then south of Kangaroo Island.

A popular surf beach on the southern shore

Glassy breakers rolling in from the Southern Ocean.

When Carol escapes her radio den she can enjoy this stupendous view across Pelican Lagoon

The American River Radio Suite

Carol in her radio den

Aerials aloft

Pelican Love

What a wonderful bird is the Pelican

It's beak can hold more than it's belly can

The locals on Kangaroo Island do love their pelicans! We've seen lots of pelicans here and there but none so admired as here.

American River entry statement with solar panel to illuminate our Peli-friend 

 

Let 'Pete the Pelican' direct you around town

 Immortalised above a decorative seat on the American River jetty

 Here is the story of 'Bump', clearly missed by the locals

In case you were thinking that it's just American River having a love affair with pelicans, it extends to Kingscote (40km away) too where there is a tiered arena for watching the nightly feeding of Pete and Bump's relatives.

The area at the base of the Pelican feeding pedestal is covered in Pelican guano

proving that they like calling by for treats!

Classical Pavlov-style training.

Sign of the times

Here is a sign we'd never seen before.

Kangaroo Island has made a name for being a pristine environment and in keeping with this ethos it has implemented an electric car hire scheme complete with 'refueling' stations. Spotting one of the refueling stations next to the boat ramp alerted us to the existence of this novel scheme.

Bowser with a difference

 

Since the range for the cars is only 120km and Kangaroo Island is 155km end to end, this 2 vehicle concept project would not be suitable for all tourists. It takes about 7 hours to fully recharge the vehicle and proportionally less for a partial recharge. Hopefully, there is research associated with this to determine both viability and effectiveness as the 'carbon offset' for the airport relative to the $500,000 public spend.

Blue Poles

When you mention Blue Poles, the 1952 Jackson Pollock painting of that name, controversially purchased by the Whitlam government in 1973 for AUD1.3m, is usually what springs to mind.

Lots of people denigrate this art piece.

I've seen it hanging in the ANG, Canberra. It's a fabulous large canvass of  4.9 x 2.1m and it's very exciting and energetic and now recognised as a terrific investment!

We had a Blue Pole experience of a different sort this morning. We followed a tourist walk along Pelican Lagoon created and maintained by the American River Progress Association. The trail is marked out by blue topped poles and punctuated by look-outs and memorials. It was as exciting and energetic as the painting but far prettier and the view was priceless!

Heck.... a 7.5km round trip. It's boot camp again!

 The first thing we encountered was the Remembrance Reserve

There were plaques to commemorate all the major conflicts in which residents had participated.

This included Vietnam but not any Middle East conflicts.

 Going well so far

 Are we nearly there yet?

 Black Swans and Oystercatchers

 Phew! ...and now for the walk back. We took the road and saw different things.

The cairn at the end of the trail commemorating the building of the schooner 'Independence' by American Sealers in 1804. Hence the locality name -American River

American River is not really a river. 

It's an inlet with a narrow mouth giving the impression of a river with a strong tidal stream.

 Roadside bird life alert

A local has gone one step further and marked a Swan Crossing preceded by this plea to motorists

 Bayview Cottage Circa 1936

 Alternative architecture for a holiday shack

This holiday place appears to be a series of rooms inspired by a rainwater tank

Even Big Ships Tack

Somehow we imagined that only small vessels like yachts tack or heave to. We had visions of merchant mariners ploughing ever onwards regardless of the weather, making only the smallest of course changes to allow for the likes of major events such as cyclones, hurricanes, typhoons etc... I still recall my journey to Australia by ship as a child. The Bay of Biscay and the Cape Town 'Rollers' gave the MV Oriana a hell of a pounding. Force 7 or 8 gales on ferry trips across the English Channel  are also vivid memories. Fair weather or foul, the ships keep on going.

We had a couple of big fronts come through while we waited for a good spell to ride a pressure bus down to Kangaroo Island. To amuse himself while we were kept below, the Bloke followed the movements of shipping on the Marine Traffic AIS site. We are now better educated as to what the big ships do in view of the wave heights that were recorded recently at the Cape du Coudedic lighthouse on the South West corner of Kangaroo Island on Friday 1st August, 2014. Yup, 10-14 metres!!!

The screen shots below are examples of what the big ships are forced to do.

 

1st August, 2014

Westward track for a container ship just south of Portland, Victoria that had left Melbourne

1st August, 2014

This container ship left Adelaide, heading West.

It turned back and anchored off Kingscote, Kangaroo Island for 24 hours before continuing

Leg 25 - Wirrina Cove to American River, Kangaroo Island

Satisfied that all the weather forecasts were aligned and pointing to several good days ahead, today was confirmed as the day we'd head for Kangaroo Island, Australia's third largest Island. It's 155Km from East to West to give you a sense of it's size. We'd already spoken to Carol from the American River VMR (VHF 21) to get advice about her patch. Armed with this, we set off just after 10:00. No point leaving too soon; we wanted to arrive with a rising tide. We were headed for an estuarine anchorage.

We were escorted past Rapid Head by a pod of large dolphins who set a happy mood for this short 25Nm hop down the coast.

Part of the wind farm at Cape Jervis at the foot of the Fleurieu Peninsula

The Cape Jervis Lighthouse with Kangaroo Island Ferry (R) that will take you 13.5Km across Backstairs Passage to Penneshaw.

Conditions were so pleasant along the way we didn't stick to the 5 knot speed target, allowing ourselves a more leisurely pace. In the end we had to get a tickle on to get there while we still had light. Low tide was around 13:00 so our arrival time around 16:00 was with the incoming tide but with fading light.

 This was the target mooring

Our Dock-Sticks allowed us to lasso the mooring

 before dropping the dinghy and attaching proper mooring leads.

Notice the current!

 The jetty at American River

Moored boats lining up in the 4-5Kn incoming tide.

The local pelicans roosting down for the night atop the lamp poles

The day was a brilliant one and even concluded in much hilarity once the dinghy had been lowered to attach the mooring lines. The Bloke was concentrating so hard on not being whisked away with the 4Kn racing tide (the swim ladder was pushed out horizontally on the top of the water) that he forgot to put the bung in the dinghy! Good thing there is two of us to check up on one another.

Sailing the South Australian Gulfs in winter

The Bloke here.

Sometimes, indeed almost always, the simplest advice is the best. While we were waiting to install the new furler onto the inner forestay at Port Lincoln I was told that to sail South Australia in the winter we should ".. wait for a high to develop in The Bight that has a centre pressure of 1030Hp or more and then go like hell, for as far as possible."  This advice has been invaluable in our passages over the past 4 weeks.

Tomorrow we set off for a short journey to American River at Kangaroo Island. It is a shame that we will not go further because the optimal conditions for sailing in winter, in this part of the world, are coming together. To explain this, I have attached the predicted synoptic charts for the next week.

Friday 2/8/2014

Saturday 3/8/2014

Sunday 4/8/2014

Monday 5/8/2014

Tuesday 6/8/2014

Wednesday 7/8/2014

Thursday 8/8/2014

As you can see, a massive high is developing in The Great Australian Bight, then slowly moving east. It is predicted to have a centre pressure in excess of 1030Hp and will sit over us for at least 3 days. This system is typical of those that we have moved with over the past 4 weeks and they have each delivered prefect sailing conditions.

So it is possible to have good cruising in the South of Australia in winter. What you require is good weather information, a safe and secure place to hide between systems and then just wait for a high to develop in The Great Australian Bight with a centre pressure of greater than 1030Hp and then go like hell!!

In all this, TIME is the factor and as our good friends and mentors, Andrew and Carolyn would say "... there is always another weather window. You just need to wait." So wait we will, fish and explore before catching the next 'pressure bus' that will take us further down the road of this adventure.