Happy cAMPers

Four days out on the water and we've only just needed to run the generator today! By George, we think we might have cracked it. We have AMPS!

The adjusted charge cycle that has a 4 hour 2nd stage at 14.2V seems to have made a difference. Fingers crossed because the whole issue has driven us near barking mad.

The Bloke is thinking that all his birthdays have come at once. Actually just one would be good enough because when he wakes up he'll be a year older, not withstanding that he'll be granted an extra hour tonight as a result of the daylight saving finishing here in South Australia. Hurah for that!

Today we will head home from Tumby Bay... well to Port Lincoln at least, and into the marina for 1 night. It will mean we can go out to dinner at a restaurant and really relax and celebrate the Bloke's special day. It turns out that it is also the birthday of Jim from Onora, so a double birthday is to be celebrated and a table for 12 is booked at Del Giorno's.

While at the marina we can also collect our wine delivery that arrived in our absence. This is further good news since everything has been stowed with the expectation of wine in the wine locker. We have managed to pretty much deplete it. The reds ran out over a week ago. Zofia has a distinct list now, but not to port.

The quirky stuff in Tumby Bay

An eye for the quirky and Tumby Bay has delivered.

In the first instance there is a marina of sorts. The entrance is very tight and one must first navigate through some sticks. It would be overstating it to call them channel markers. They don't appear to be colored, illuminated or marked with any traditional navigational markers, save for the port marker visible in the photo. The channel is extremely narrow and the entrance is really too shallow to negotiate at low tide. The local advice is for extreme caution if intending to approach. A boat had run aground only recently. So what is the point of a 'marina' that is difficult if not dangerous to enter? When we motored past to anchor up near the town jetty for our foray into the Tumby Bay Bakery we got a good look down the Tumby Bay Marina 'channel'. There is a big, big house at the end with a large 'Riviera' (or similar) moored on the jetty in front of the house. Would it be cynical to suggest that the creation of the big house, big boat and canal is connected in some way? Rather than being a 'Marina' this is best viewed as a private canal development and not a tourism asset.

Position yourself to port and then make a run in through the poles

In checking out some history for the area, why not have a look at the local council Web Site? Here is a snippet I found on the Local History page (http://www.tumbybay.sa.gov.au/page.aspx?u=219) complete with typo:-

"Settlers began moving into the area from the early 1840's. In Old English language the name means "fenced village". When the area was first settled in the 1840's one of the earliest settlers was named Harvey and the area was known as Harvey Bay. Wheat and sheep farming industries developed in the area and still provide the main focus today, together with a fast developing tourist trade. In the early years, Tumby Bay was an important grain and loading port servicing the cereal and heep farming industries. Today it is a service centre for the surrounding farmers and like the rest of the area, a popular destination for holiday makers."

Now I'm off to research 'heep farming'!

Is Tumby Bay the home of giants or am I shrinking?

The above throne in the main street commemorates local blacksmiths, governance and prominent citizens 1908 -2008.

NOTHING quirky about a country town bakery

This is what a Top 10 sausage roll looks like. The pastie was darn good too!

On the foreshore in a very prominent location is a large plinth decorated with what looks like locally quarried stone. It's very similar to what we know as Toodjay stone. It's a lovely quartzy stone with a greenish stripe. This object is part of a memorial to the local pioneers. When we first looked we rather scratched our heads since it mostly obscured the view of the water from one of the min streets and seemed rather a waste and not something that you'd imagine pioneers favouring. A pioneer life was tough and frugal and this object was neither decorative nor useful; or so we thought.

In memory of the Tumby Bay Pioneers.

We have been sending postcards from most towns we have visited along our journey and it's often a struggle to find something that is unique to the  town. Dolphins, seals, whales and pelicans are hardly unique identifiers of a specific location in coastal locations around Australia. From the perspective of the photographer it's probably an opportunity to stamp any old town's name across the bottom and 'job done'. Having found something that provided a unique image, I was admiring my prize once we'd returned to the boat and to our Ski Beach anchorage and was delighted when the Bloke spotted what that crazy plinth was all about. It obviously once supported a clock tower.

I'm now on a mission to learn what happened to the clock - perhaps hijacked by the aesthetics police?

Tumby Bay Ski Beach - our new back yard

With power worries hopefully now explained and premium cruising time for this area RIGHT NOW, there is no point staying in the Marina. The Marina was a good place to be yesterday though, when a trough passed over.

The Tumby Bay Ski Club?

The local VMR recommends 2 locations in Tumby Bay. One south of the town jetty and where we are now at the Ski Beach about a nm south of the jetty. Holding is excellent with lots of sandy spots evident in between a mix of weed and sand. We are here in largely southerly conditions following the recent trough with winds in the 10-15 kn range SSE.  The Ski beach is well sheltered by the head of the bay and Tumby Island and the water is nice and still. We anchored off the southern side of the town jetty (the other recommendation) for a while for the Bloke's Sausage Roll hunt but it was a bit rolly today due to slight easterly fetch.

Tumby Bay seems to be missing from the 'Anchoring and Anchorages in South Australia - A guide to cruising anchorages within easy reach of Adelaide'  by James H. Cowell.  This is a shame since it's a logical re-provisioning point if you happen to be having a ripping time at The Sir Joseph Banks Group of islands just 10nm to the east and don't want to track back to Port Lincoln - 20 -25 nm to the SE.

Tumby Bay is a good option in W, SW, S and SE winds.

We suspect that the Ski beach anchorage would be less fun on a week-end or during holidays since that very impressive building (see picture) will probably disgorge all manner of annoying noise and water churning equipment.... just guessing! This is no tin shed but a serious boat ramp and 'club house' complete with spot lights. For now, this is our very own and peaceful back yard and since we are now in possession of some burley and prawn bait, could even be our larder!

When the rigging is hooting

Knowing that the weather would be unsuitable for making any trips we decided to use the time constructively and get into town for some provisions (plus to do the washing). If we didn't go we'd be eating some very odd things since our fresh food had run down to a half doz lemons, half a baby cos lettuce, one small zucchini, a small portion of Chinese cabbage, a couple of small red onions, a sweet potato and some passionfruit. Slim pickings indeed! Two days and we'd hit the cans and dehydrated veggies. Not quite ready for THAT!

It was at least 36c yesterday with a screaming dry wind. It was so hot and dry we didn't even bother to fully dry our washing at the laundromat. We took it back to the boat and hung it for a very short time on the clothes airier we bought at Streaky Bay. A useful purchase that helps retain all items more securely than on the life rails PLUS we don't look or feel like a Chinese laundry! That's a double win in my book. A few additional items were dragged from lockers for an airing at the same time. It's amazing how damp things can get even when stowed away.

The Marina is some distance from the town centre and since the weather was unsuitable for motoring around to anchor off the Town Beach we took the local 'Dial-a-Ride'. This is the Port Lincoln version of a bus service. It's subsidised to the tune of 80% and it entails a phone call to the driver to ask for them to collect you. Your destination assists with their trip planning too. The idea is that you might need to wait up to 30 mins but your fare is $4.00 and half that if you have a concession card. The Bloke predictably forgot his wallet with Seniors Card! Pete arrived in 10 minutes and deposited us at the laundromat. Later, Roger collected us with our, by now, washed laundry and bags of fruit and veg. He'd already heard all about us he declared when he took the call. Hmmmm what we wondered???

Our trip back to the marina was via the home of an elderly passenger who had left her handbag in the bus earlier in the day. After our drop off at the very ramp to the marina wharf (how good is that?), Roger was taking his other passenger, a 10 year old school boy, home.  So now we know about the local bus.

Maree is of the view that we should investigate the laundry options around the point at the caravan park. Stand-by for an assessment of convenience and cost. I'm still of the view that only a fine day is needed for a trip to the Town Beach just 20 mins around the corner. Yesterday was a dud for that though.

We had a coffee while waiting for the washing and watched 3 yachts from the Garden Island Yacht Club that we'd already seen out at 'The group' pull in and anchor. Two stayed all of 10 minutes. The Town Beach is useless in a northerly which by this time was charging in at 35knots. The yachts were hobby-horsing like mad in the short chop. What were their skippers thinking? By the time we'd returned to the marina there were 2 yachts from the GIYC penned up and rescued from the howling conditions.

Our rigging makes a distinct hooting sound at 35knots. We learned that when we were crossing the GAB! Checking the nav. instruments confirmed the conditions. With hot winds howling at 37+knots it was a great day for the marina!

5 Hulls

Owing to our amp worries, we needed to be in the Port Lincoln Marina ASAP to get 12 hours charge with on-shore power before Spanners and Sparks could come and assess the state of our house battery bank. A big thumbs up to AC Delco who arranged a warranty visit to assess our Marine Batteries. Against all the betting, we were in fact the first into the marina and not B1 and Maree!

On our way back into Port Lincoln from 'The Group' we performed a 'drive-by' of the cats who where anchored off the Town Beach.

No time to stop, there are batteries to charge up!

Here come the cats into the Marina.

Easy Tiger turning into the Port Lincoln Marina Canal

Next came Urchin

Maree assessing the pen on approach

  3 boats and 5 hulls again united!

Crank up those amps

No, no, not the stereo!

The bloke has been in an absolute blather. The house batteries have been delivering too few amps. Hours of charging with both the motor and the Honda Genni and really we'd be better off running the Genni whenever we want a single amp for all the good the charging had done! And to think of all the noise interfering with the serenity. Voltage alarms under the bunk peeping away in the dead of night had the Bloke prowling around turning stuff off and both of us having disturbed sleep. Action was required.

On Sunday morning, despite having a lovely time out at The Group and plans to sail up to Tumby Bay, the state of charge , or lack of it, meant that our bow was pointing South to Port Lincoln Marina instead of NW to Tumby Bay - even before breakfast.

Make mine 240 volts and be quick about it!

OMG - What ate our lure?

We tried trawling off the back of Zofia on the way back to Port Lincoln from 'The Group'.

This is what was left of the metal trace, lure etc...

It certainly had teeth!