Good Looking Port Macquarie

The civic landscape in Port Macquarie is very attractive and with a number of historical buildings dating back to the early days of European settlement in Australia. Both the rivers edge and the fabulous ocean surf beaches provide even more eye candy.

The Bloke seated with Edmund Barton, our first Prime Minister

   

More sculptures on the riverside sculpture trail.

Headland viewing platform with the river bar in view.

 The Bloke and Kim, one of the gals in my Women Who Sail Australia group.

We socialised a bit, which is to be expected seeing as our chief purpose of visiting was to catch up with Rob and Henma. We squeezed 10 revellers in our cockpit and The Bloke reluctantly shared a tray of home made sausage rolls with them.

 

Henma withe The Bloke at Ricardoes.

There are 50 or more of these painted Koala statues all around the district and as far afield as Laurieton, where we saw our first one. They are a fundraiser for the Koala hospital and something of a tourist attraction; tourists being urged to visit them all.( hello-koalas-public-art-sculpture-trail). This one was adorned with strawberries as Ricardoes is a hydroponic tomato and strawberry farm. The morning tea, purchased tomatoes and hand picked strawberries were all yummy.

Port Macquarie Rocks

Slipping into the Hastings River across the bar at Port Macquarie, we were immediately intrigued by the large number of brightly painted rocks along the groyne. What was all that about? We didn't get to the bottom of how it began but did find out that at some point the local Council had plans to paint over the myriad of messages and memorials. There was a public outcry and the rock messages remain painted and updated too.

Some rocks are dedicated to love, some to loss, others to commemorate multiple holiday visits over successive years by large family groups to the local caravan park. Still others, offer encouragement for events like the Ironman  Triathlon that is held annually. We found it intriguing. It wasn't really graffiti.
 

Walk along the rivermouth to the bar.

 

Rock art.
   

Pedestrian life is very confusing in Port Macquarie.

We never felt confident while walking around the civic heart of Port Macquarie. Were we in a pedestrian mall, a car park or in the middle of an intersection? Civic leaders have discovered a way of euthanizing their senior citizens. Confuse them, then run them over. I found myself in the middle of a traffic lane on multiple occasions but luckily this is Port Macquarie and there's no real rush.

A huge stage was being erected for an open air concert just near the marina. We would soon be entertained by classic Aussie rocker, Jimmy Barnes.

Saturday evening became a rock extravaganza with live performances from The Angels, Noiseworks and Jimmy Barnes. Jimmy screamed his lungs out, for which he's well known, and even asked the front row if they could hear him. He said he was screaming louder than Jeffery Dahmer's house guests. He might have been right!

The Bloke enjoying the event from the comfort of our own deck and at a tolerable volume.

Yes, we danced too!

   

Lots of boats anchored up close, enabling a water-based view to enjoy the entertainment on the cheap.

It was all over by 8:30PM and time for oldies like us, to turn in.

Leg 61 - Laurieton to Port Macquarie

The anchor came up for a 10:00 departure from the Camden Haven River anchorage area, near the Laurieton United Services Club and we waived to the folks at Marine Rescue building as we went past. Reeflection had left 2 days before, School's Out the day before, which left just Tramontana (staying a month) and another couple of other mono's. We'd really enjoyed our time here with good company. We had the benefit of the odd hot shower ashore too at the LUSC and returned the key to reclaim the $50 deposit the night before. All set to have another trip through a bar.  In fact, two for the day. We were headed to Port Macquarie just 15nm further north. That bar has a 'reputation' and most sailors seem to skip it. Our friends Henma and Rob from Easy Rider, with whom we'd crossed Bass Strait just a year ago, are there so Port Mac, here we come!

We were escorted part of the way by the Camden Haven tourist boat, no doubt again crammed full with elderly passengers. It did a U turn in front of us just ahead of the seaward exit. No point giving the oldies a fright, their thrill seeking days are over!

 

Target in sight: looked OK. Webcam footage showed it to be a bit bumpier than the day before when we watched Reeflection slide out. Nothing too wild though and the Bloke negotiated the way out. This time the Nav gear didn't display us on land. Mind you, seeing something a second time, even in reverse from the first, is so much easier and we didn't really need to look at it much.

We motor-sailed (yes, again) towards Port Macquarie and the pile of clouds that were out to sea started to change in character. They got our full attention as parts of the cloud started dropping down like a pointed finger. It didn't take long to recognise that these were water spouts forming. Yikes!

 Waterspouts

   

The cloud cover became filthy and menacing and the radar located this 'trouble' only 3nm away. A yacht that had followed us out of the Camden Haven River just 30 minutes behind, suddenly dropped their sails and began weaving a strange course. They were likely in the trouble zone. The spouts dipped up and down and the screw-like twirling formation was clearly evident. We could see the waterline was fizzing beneath the 'fingers of doom'. Chilling!

With the waterspouts out to sea the Bloke could barely wait to cross the bar into Port Macquarie. We were not premature so the bar was pretty good and the advice to approach from the north and then hug the northerly wall made the trip in very easy. I was sent forward to put out the fenders in preparation to going to the Marina just as the rain came poured down. Those clouds were always going to deliver. The Bloke laughed his head off as I got drenched.

Bill, the marina manager was waiting on the visitors wharf to help us pick a berth from 4 available and take our lines. Lovely. We'll stay a week.


Port Macquarie Marina
Bill Oliver - 0412 667 208

Anchor Wrap - Not a New Hit Song

The Bloke here,

Wind against current can cause problems in an anchorage. If this situation develops get out the F@#K box immediately, you are going to need it. The boat movement will be erratic, to say the least and perhaps, just perhaps the chain may become wrapped around the keel. In this situation wait for slack tide, lower a GoPro into the water to see how and where the wrap is. Then with some urgency, before current starts moving, power the boat forward and turn to release the wrap from the keel. In our case, we moved to starboard and Hey Presto, put away the F@#K box and crack out the beers, Happy Days (again).

Note to self: Remember to cancel the solicitor appointment because that divorce is once again on hold.

 What the GoPro revealed. Ouch, Ouch and Ouch!
The anchor chain wrapped around the keel just above the bulb.

Our Anchor Alarm App recorded our track.

It should have remained on the outer perimeter of the circle.

Up or down-stream, instead of wound tight!

Back to the BlogMistress,

Symptoms of Keel Wrap:
Failure to swing with the tide. See image above.

Prevention:
A stern anchor can be helpful as it will 'set' the direction that your boat lies relative to the current and prevent the boat from riding/sailing over the top of the anchor when it's windy, but 'wisdom' from the internet suggests using an Anchor Rider.  This is a device not dissimilar to a Kellet. The idea is to attach a weight to the anchor chain at a depth that is slightly greater than your keel depth but not as low as the sea bed. This is meant to prevent the chain from trailing across your keel bulb when the wind causes the boat to sail over the top of the anchor. The extra weight offers resistance to the chain preventing a whipping motion (like a skipping rope) across the keel bulb. We experienced rapid direction changes when hit by 25-30knot wind gusts while the boat was lying to the current. The ride was so extreme, the Bloke began experiencing seasickness. That's not his job. It's usually mine!

What we cobbled together:
We used 3 spare weights from a dive belt, a strap with nylon clips and a length of thick cord. We secured the weights together with the cord and then tied a knot in the cord to denote the depth that we should deploy the weights. When the knot was at water level, the weights would be below the level of our keel. The strap was threaded through the weights and sewn so that it could be clipped around the chain, allowing the weights be slipped down the chain. The bitter end of the cord was pulled up over the bow-roller and was secured to a cleat on deck. Pretty simple really.

Anchor Rider cobbled together from items 'just lying about the boat'.

Outcome:
We didn't experience the strength of wind that contributed to or problem again, but our 'Anchor Rider' was easy enough to deploy and subsequently retrieve, and seemed to work OK. Standby for an update when we are next up a river.

North Brother - Getting the Picture

North Brother is neither instruction nor directive but a rather large hill. It dominates the Laurieton landscape and it visible for miles and is likely responsible for our GPS's, phones and TV all struggling a to obtain a signal. It's big enough to offer plenty of interference and almost demands to be ascended. It's also known as 'Big Brother', being the larger of a cluster of tall hills and named thus, by local Aboriginal tribes (albeit in their own languages).

A cloud halo around our target.

The Bloke just knew he'd be expected to make the trip and offered no resistance. In fact, we made a proper outing of it by encouraging the crews from two catamarans (Bryan and Rowena -Schools Out and Doug and Jeanette -Reeflection) that were anchored nearby, to join us.

To start with, we were all smiles.

We picked up a couple of long sticks and off we went. 

 

The going got quite steep.

 

A couple of stops to catch our breath.

 

Checking the boat part way up.

 

 The trees just got bigger and bigger.

 

Luckily, The Bloke didn't see this critter at all and must have stepped over it. He wasn't shown this picture until we'd come down because he'd have called a taxi to bring him down from the lookout. Just not keen on snakes. I was lucky to spot it on the path in front of me. It was only as thick as your finger. The conventional wisdom that stomping and making lots of vibrations on the ground didn't work on this occasion. No amount of ground thumping was budging this slippery customer and it even reared up. So I stood very still and hoped it would just get on it's way. The best it did was to poke it's head under the leaves. Tired of waiting and reluctant to step over it, I used my 2m long walking stick that I'd picked up at the base of the hill, to flick it out of the way. Needs must!

Last little bit at the lookout.

The Bloke dripping wet from the effort.

 Looking down the Camden Haven River towards the ocean bar.

 Looking south towards Crowdy and Diamond Heads.

 Made it!

 

It was pretty much up, up, up from the bottom of the hill to the summit - 487m, and quite strenuous. The view from the look-out at the summit was worth every step.

Leg 60 Tuncurry to Camden Haven - Laurieton

Having misjudged the importance of accounting for 'over-run' on arrival at Tuncurry, we were not going to make that mistake again. We waited until the current would be slack but tide running-in so that (a) we could easily get off the jetty; (b) not be sent hurtling towards the bridge; and (c) have a smooth ride out across the bar. No point having a fright and not learning anything by it.

 The Bloke was happy to leave this jetty.

... and to avoid this hulk on the way out too.

Wired for sound and meaning business!

Our Life Jackets are always on in open water and they are compulsory when crossing a bar.

Waiving goodbye to the Forster-Tuncurry Marine Rescue.

This trip was only a short 15nm and we were able to get to the next bar at the Camden Haven River both in daylight and before the tidal run was adverse. Oh yeh, these River Ocean Bars have our full attention!

Luckily there are web-cams positioned on all the major NSW river bar crossings and they are very helpful and of course a huge boost to safety. We nervously referred to the web-cam several times to double and triple check that the 'coast was clear'. Everyone loves to tell war stories and we'd been given plenty of advice.

Applying all our newly acquired learnings, we had a relatively 'unexciting' bar crossing until the moment our chart plotter threw a wobbly just as we reached the channel and actually plotted us on land! The iPad iNavex App also couldn't get a GPS fix and we resorted to a combination of "eyes up", the maps in the Cruising Guide and Navionics on the iPhone. There are some tight bends to follow the navigable channel along the river, so we constantly double checked the Port and Starboard markers and confirmed with each other that we were passing on the correct side. We were more than a little relieved to spot the Laurieton United Services Club which was our shoreline landmark of where to anchor. For future reference, we'd pick a spot a little further upstream and towards the Southern bank where the tidal run is less intense.

The Laurieton United Services Club.

Poker Machines are very profitable!

A busy moment on the river. The LUSC Jetty is full and Marine Rescue were on patrol.

 Lazy pelicans hoping for some scraps at the fish cleaning table.

 

Tranquility. Let's stay a week!