January 9, 2007



JANUARY 9 , 2007

YEAR'S END

December 15 – 23, 2006

Julia and Bob joined us late in the afternoon at Yamba Marina. We had taken a berth for two days to treat us, and the boat, to some fresh water. We also needed to buy groceries, which is not easy at the marina without a car. Therefore, early on Saturday morning, we set off with Julia and Bob in their car to finish provisioning.

We left Yamba Marina in the afternoon and set off up the Clarence River to anchor downriver of the Harwood Bridge. We had a bridge opening booked for 12 noon the next day. We had a nice three-hour motor sail to the bridge and a calm evening at anchor. Bob kept commenting on how “we will be stopping traffic tomorrow on Australia’s Pacific Highway #1 (circles the whole of the Australia coast) when we go under the bridge”. We hoped to see a long line of cars at both ends of the bridge waiting for Bella Via to pass through. Alas, the traffic was stopped quite a ways before the bridge and we couldn’t see the cars.

Here we are approaching the Harwood Bridge. Three men walked to the bridge opening mechanism and we hovered around while they checked everything over, stopped traffic, and then started to raise the bridge (between the two tall structures).

Click on Pics to enlarge

We actually went through the bridge a few times during our weeks on the Clarence River. On Bob and Julia’s last trip through, they jumped in the dinghy and took pictures as we were going under the bridge. The opening of the Harwood Bridge allows sailboats to travel 40 miles up the Clarence River. 24 hours of notice is required and the men get paid each time by the Transport ministry. Each time we went through, we were the only boat.

Although we did travel all the way up to Grafton (40 miles up the river) we spent most of our time with Bob and Julia at the Scottish town of Maclean. What a delightful town. Everything we needed was right there and the townspeople were the friendliest that we have met yet. We tied up to the public dock, which is available for three nights free-of-charge and has electricity and drinking water. We were told that the supermarket was voted tops in customer service last year. We can attest to that as there was lots of staff available to help, everyone was smiling, and someone was always available to help us carry our bags of groceries back to the dock.

Christmas gift exchange with Bob and Julia. Paul made Bob a fishing gaff and tricked Bob into helping with the making of it while he was aboard. Paul told Bob that he was making it for Mary’s cousin Bill (he also gave Bill one later). Julia and Mary had to leave the cockpit often, to giggle quietly so as not to give the secret away.

December 23 – 26, 2006

Alas, all good things must come to an end. We spent our last night with Bob and Julia at anchor in the Iluka harbour and Paul brought them back to their car at Yamba Marina by dinghy after breakfast. We said good-bye with a promise to see them (and travel with them) when we head up the coast in 2007.

We had booked another bridge opening for that afternoon so we timed our travel up river to the bridge with the rising tide. We had such a strong current with us that the 3-hour trip only took us 1.5 hours and we had to anchor to await the opening. Just before we left Iluka Harbour, our friends Dan and Alice from Shaula came out of the marina and anchored in the harbour. They came over by dinghy to say hello and told us that they were on their way to a ketch nearby for morning tea. We were quite excited when they told us that the ketch belonged to Alan and Patricia Lucas and is called Soleares. Alan Lucas wrote the two cruising guides that we use for the east coast of Australia and Mary has been watching for Soleares for two years. We left Iluka hoping that we would be able to meet Alan and Patricia Lucas soon.

We had a quiet Christmas Day and Boxing Day at anchor at Maclean. We had chosen to be at Maclean because of the proximity of the Catholic Church. We went to a 1900h Mass on Christmas Eve, which was held outside at the school, under a big roof. The music was very good as, along with the choir, there were 4 violins, a cello, and a couple of brass instruments. Among the choir were two young men who soloed with “O Holy Night” – they had beautiful tenor voices that gave us goose bumps.

Early on Boxing Day, while Mary was sitting in the saloon enjoying her coffee and book and Paul was on the ham radio participating in the morning ham net, a dinghy with two people aboard approached Bella Via. Mary went out to greet them and immediately recognized Alan Lucas from his picture in our cruising guides. They announced that they had seen us at Iluka and a few other places and wanted to meet us. They were asked aboard for tea but were warned that we would want Alan to sign our books, which he willingly did. We had a wonderful time with Alan and Patricia. Alan has been living aboard for 47 years and he and Patricia completed a circumnavigation many years ago. We continue to be humbled by the amount of experience and knowledge in the liveaboards who we meet. We hope to be able to help other new liveaboards 15-20 years from now.

Here we are with Alan and Patricia Lucas at the dock in Maclean. We were fortunate to spend quite a bit of time with Alan and Patricia as they had decided to spend a few weeks of quiet on the Clarence River before they head south to Sydney

December 27 – 30, 2006

While we were on the Clarence River, we were fortunate to have a short visit from our Australian friends Sonia and Trevor from Newport Waterways near Brisbane. We met Sonia and Trevor last December when we were at Newport Waterways Marina and Mary joined the Pink Snapdragons dragon boat team (of which Sonia is also a team member)

While travelling up the Clarence River, we had to watch for the crossing of a vehicular ferry on underwater cables in two different spots. Once the ferry stopped at the shore and the light stopped flashing, we crossed the cables at the mid-point of the river where there is 3 metres of clearance over the cables. It was a bit nerve-wracking, as the ferries cross often and quickly.

Sonia and Trevor left Bella Via on December 30. We will see them again as we travel up north in 2007.

We stayed at anchor in Maclean along with several of our friends – Jim and Ann from Insatiable II, Dan and Alice from Shaula, Alan and Patricia from Soleares, and new acquaintances Ron and Joyce from Ara-A-Kiwa, and Max and Sandi from Volo.

This is why monohull liveaboards are always happy to have a catamaran nearby. Here we are on New Year’s Eve aboard Bella Via. There were 12 of us for a wonderful potluck dinner.

January 1 – 3, 2007

Happy New Year to everyone. We were awaiting the arrival of our next set of guests on Jaunary 4th and in between we spent the time ashore walking with our friends, relaxing, and eating out.

On one of our long walks, which took us to a lookout, we looked for a “geocache” – this is a “treasure hunt using GPS”. We had been given the coordinates of the geocache by ham radio friends, who are now into this activity. We completed the logsheet (Mary added all of our boat names and the date) that was in a tiny capsule and Paul wrote on a deflated balloon and put it into the capsule. He put the capsule back where it was found.

January 4 – 6, 2007

On Thursday, Mary’s cousin Bill, his wife Brenda, and Brenda’s mother Lucy came from Brisbane for a short visit. We met them in Maclean and 10 minutes after arrival all three of them had their fishing rods in the water (they had allowed five minutes for greetings and five to get the rods put together and baited). Within 30 minutes Bill caught a good-size flathead and a few hours later Lucy caught a small bream. That was the total catch for the two days except for hooking lots of catfish, which were thrown back or chopped up for bait.

Enjoying a sundowner session with Bill and Brenda. Also aboard were Alan and Patricia from Soleares and Dan and Alice from Shaula.

Lucy and Bill trying their luck with fishing shortly after they boarded Bella Via.

January 9, 2007

We remain at anchor in Maclean for a few more days. We have several projects to complete in preparation for leaving the boat for a month while we go to Canada. We are booked into Yamba Marina as of Saturday, January 13, 2007, and this is where Bella Via will stay while we are in Canada.

Journal Page 5

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