From Stalker to the Stalked

It turns out we are not the only ones who have been 'watching' the whereabouts and movements of other boats in Tasmanian waters.  We had already noticed 2 catamarans that were 'known' to us - Skelum and Sans Souci were in the area.  We recognised them from Skipr.net as having participated in the Van Diemens Land Circumnavigation So when Paul the skipper of Skelum, motored up in his dinghy to invite us onto his boat for 5ers, we already had an idea of where he'd been and who he was.  In fact I'd already photographed the boat!

The catamaran, Skelum, alongside a public jetty at Paynesville. 

Paul revealed that he'd been 'watching us' too on Skipr.net ... and here was us thinking that it was an eccentric pastime peculiar to us. Perhaps 'monitoring' is a better description. While we were largely driven by curiosity of who else was around, Paul had a more useful purpose. He was collecting the GPS locations of possible viable anchoring spots and overlaying the information on a chart he was keeping. Very clever indeed! The commentary associated with the positions that cruisers were reporting often revealed additional useful information about the nature of the anchorage, holding, fishing etc. You can always learn new tricks from 'old salts' like Paul; an 8 year cruising veteran and circumnavigator of Australia!

It didn't take long to additionally establish that Paul and wife Sharni had cruised in the company of Fayze Two II owned by Fud and Faye, who we'd met in Esperance and with Rob and Henma from Easy Rider with whom we had just crossed over Bass Strait. Oh, the threads that bind us!

Fidgeting with the Gypsy

A calm day and no immediate sailing or passage plans to be made, leaves the Bloke in a fidgety state. What part of Zofia had not been inspected, patted or taken to bits recently? Thinking, thinking, thinking....hmmm.

The windlass became the target of attention. The Bloke had been berating himself that he'd not checked it for a while and shuddered to think that we might have occasion to manually operate it. The gypsy clutches would need to release to allow our anchor chain to run freely in manual override mode and if neglected this would all 'stick', or worse, already be jammed. The Windlass (anchor winch) is only used close to shore, so failure to operate properly could leave us in a precarious situation and would likely have us both resorting to the 'F@#k Box'.

The Bloke prepares. Anchor chain is tied off to prevent sudden deployment of the anchor followed by 65m of chain. He needn't have worried in the first instance; everything had jammed up a suspected - this annual job was overdue for sure*.

 Yeh! That's what all Blokes love - a bit of biffo with the persuader AKA a rubber mallet.

Still resisting?

Constructive girlie suggestion - consult the manual!

Progress at last but further persuasion required. 

More tools please!

 

Ooops, no wonder it was hard to shift.

There goes another pot scrubber.

Deeply satisfied with his bit of preventive maintenance, it was time for an hour of praise and 5ers.

*Just to clarify, all was working fine with the remote control.

Something Really Eyecatching

Twenty or so, Singaporean students on and Easter break to Lakes Entrance had bought some crab nets for recreation and were enthusiastic about the prospect of catching a feed. They were in the middle of this group activity when we approached the public jetty where we intended to tie up for a few nights to shelter from bad weather coming from both the west and the east. Lucky us! We can also get provisioned here for our next passage 'around the corner' past Gabo Island and on to Eden.

The students were initially confused that we would actually be mooring against their fishing spot but soon cottoned on that removing or relocating their kit would be called for. In their haste, one crab net was released without someone actually holding onto it. By now, barely 5m from the jetty and yet to be tied up, the request to assist in the rescue of the crab net was hardly a priority while wrangling a 9tonne vessel. Thought bubble -Would we mind just driving that thing over there, leaning down 3 metres towards the water and lifting it up for them?  Hmmmm? Let's just say that a $20 crab net belonging to someone else was not going to trump a $KKK,KKK boat that belonged to us in the hierarchy of priorities!

Once tied off  I was able to be sympathetic to the student's distress - the crab net was beyond their reach even with a boat hook. Lightglobe moment - we'll cast a fishing line to retrieve it. Going below, I attempted to remove a fishing rod from its rack. In doing so, the tip of the rod flicked. Against the odds, the attached fishhook dropped in behind my glasses and caught my eyelid. If you asked a dozen people to do this deliberately you wouldn't be successful but you can't beat Sods Law!

The poor Bloke was convinced I'd actually hooked my eyeball. Yes, there was a commotion. Luckily, just as the hook was about to be snipped off with thoughts of a visit to Accident and Emergency etc. the hook dislodged. The Bloke continued on his winning streak and retrieved the crab net using his excellent casting skills derived from 18months of almost fruitless fishing attempts and there was a happy ending.

Now our thoughts are focused on maybe updating those tetanus shots.

Anchoring, Gippsland Lakes Style

We didn't need to anchor at all during our time in the Gippsland Lakes seeing as the waterways are well catered for by a network of free public moorings and jetties but many of the locals do 'anchor' and in a manner we'd never seen before and it involves a ladder. Powerboats of all types and sizes plus trailer sailors alike just nose into the shore, lower a set of step ladders and tie-off on trees! Way to go - no anchoring anxiety here!

 

Ever keen to find out what people are catching, Leanne  and Steve motored in for a chat which resulted in an invitation to muster for 5ers later.

 

 Gayle and Janis chat to the Bloke who can't take his eyes off those ladders!

Duck Arm, Gippsland Lakes

Having already spent 3 weeks in the Gippsland Lakes, Easy Tiger were keen to show us around seeing as they were waiting for some spare parts to arrive. Destinations such as Boxes Creek, Duck Arm, Metung and Paynesville all beckoned.

 Following Easy Tiger into the lakes system.

 Waters edge instructions

Some areas are very enclosed

One of the more unusual boats we saw. The majority are trailer sailors.

Some of the Lakes are wide and quite deep (around 6m).

 

A mob of Kangaroos 20m away on the shore at dusk.

A still autumn dawn.

Easy Tiger in a dawn reflection.

The moorings are all close to the bank.

We opened our account at Duck Arm where we stayed 4 days and long enough to shelter from some strong winds.

Homes with their own jetties dotted along the waters edge.

The Gippsland Lakes are home to abundant wildlife: swans, pelicans, ducks, moorhens, cockatoos, galahs, kangaroos, echidnas and koalas to mention just a few. Visitors like us, had the pleasure of viewing many of these from a network of public jetties and moorings which are all free!

 Locals often need to inform visitors that their Private jetty is not for general use.

Helping to keep the waterways clean, there are several pumpout stations.

Overhead cables restrict exploration by boats with tall masts.

Gippsland Lakes - Some Early Hospitality

Most cruising yachts seem to skip Lakes Entrance and the Gippsland Lakes beyond the formidable Ocean Bar. They seem to rush on past to tick off the Gabo Island waypoint that represents the 'corner' to reach either the East or South Coast, depending on your direction of travel.

Meeting Phill and Leanne on the jetty at Portland cemented our travel plans for the Victorian coast. On a mini break, and only recently 'boat owners' of a Roberts ketch called Mad Hatter they were looking over the yachts at the Portland Marina. We were returning to Zofia, came around the corner, and there they were, giving Zofia a proper looking at. They didn't need to be asked twice to come on board and were finally 'poured' off many hours later, having convinced us that the 350 or so square kilometres of the Gippsland Lakes, accessed from Lakes Entrance was a 'must do' destination after we'd done with Tasmania.

Mad Hatter

Easy Tiger had Lakes Entrance on their desirable destinations list for a long time too especially since Steve has Victorian family connections. Having met the crew of Saphire en route (who's family had a holiday property in the Gippsland Lakes waterways) Easy Tiger's reasons for being here had been mounting. Adding momentum for us ALL getting together, Saphire arrived to Lakes Entrance to the same jetty and on the same day as us and Richard, the skipper, remembered us from Wirrina!

Once the bad weather blew through, it was possible for Easy Rider to head north for Sydney in gentle conditions and for Saphire to re-locate up to the family jetty in Chinamans Creek. An invitation for a BBQ lunch followed.

Isobel showed us around their holiday playground 

with Chinamans Creek and jetties down the hill.

Various classic boats like the Couta boat having its gaff rig hoisted 

 or waiting for their owners to get into holiday mode in Chinamans Creek.

Leanne admiring a Hydrangea bloom as big as her head.

Another beautiful wind vane to add to those I've admired.

Lakes Entrance Bar Crossing in Pictures

Waiting for our arrival in Lakes Entrance, the crew of Easy Tiger decided to monitor our progress. Our blog map fed by our Predictwind satellite signal plus our AIS transponder were both providing real time updates of our Bass Strait Crossing - a moving icon on a map, but what about that Lakes Entrance Bar crossing? They very cleverly activated the Lakes Entrance webcam and shared the 'excitement', photographing part of our trip just in case we might like to relive the experience.

THANKS GUYS!

 

  

25/3/2015

6knots of breeze, swell under 1m, 3.1knot ebbing tide.

This is like a recording of a nightmare and like all traumas, it's better shared!