The Trip Home - Returning from the Whitsundays

We spent the day after retrieving (9th Sept) at the caravan park cleaning Kismet, shopping (including a new grease gun), greasing the bearing buddies and relaxing a little.

We left next morning at around 09:24 and decided to go home largely via the coast rather than inland.
Ready to roll...

Our trip home was via these overnight stays:

• Rockhampton 10th
• Hervey Bay 11th
• Beachmere (near Bribie island) 12th
• Ballina 13th
• Forster 14th
• Goulburn 15th 
• Chiltern 16th
• Melbourne (Home) 17th mid afternoon.

The trip was uneventful but interesting as we got to visit a few places we hadn't been before.

We intended to stop at Gympie for lunch on the 12th but we could not find anywhere to park the car and trailer. We ended up in narrow streets that I found quite dangerous so we left town. Not an "RV friendly town". We rang the local council offices to explain the issue - just to give them a heads-up. We stopped in Cooroy just inland of Noosa for lunch that day instead.

Plenty of RV parking in Cooroy - and sign posted too. A short walk to lots of shops and cafes.

The low-light of the trip was the caravan park we stayed at in Goulburn. The Thai restaurant we found to eat at was nice though.

Ballina was one of our favourite stops. We lashed out and had breakfast Lighthouse Beach Cafe overlooking the bay and saw a whale slapping its tail in the distance. We watched in bemusement as a whale watching boat headed for it, but the whale had stopped it's antics before it got very close. The cafe was great.

At a lunch stop at Coffs Harbour we parked next to another trailer sailor in a large dusty car park -  a burgundy monohull called Mistral. We had lunch and left before they got back to their vehicle. They overtook us an hour or two later on the highway.

Victoria has opened up many truck weigh bridges to the public so we did the required double-U-turn to use the one just past Broadford (heading north). (Google "weigh bridge seymour" - it's the Vicroads weigh bridge.)
I was surprised just how much the trailer and boat weighed. I didn't disconnect but checked the ball weight when we got home (not quite accurate as I had partially unpacked the boat).
Car with 2 occupants: 2140kg
Trailer & boat: 1140kg
Ball weight: 110kg
It helped explain the fuel economy being worse than when towing our Avan (that and the parachute effect of the boat).
We got around 12 to 13 litres per 100km coming back - way better than the trip up but then we were into a headwind most of the way.

We arrived how mid-afternoon on the 17th September.
I spent the next day after we got home unpacking and cleaning up Kismet.

The Whitsundays Trip - Getting there.

We had intended to leave Melbourne on Sunday the 25th August and take six days to get to Airlie Beach. Laurel had made a road itinerary inland for the trip. With all the last minute things I was doing on the boat (swore I never would be a lot-minute person), we delayed a day. This left us five days to get to Airlie so we could have one day spare and meet our daughter who was flying in to Proserpine on the 1st September.

So the trip up consisted of:

• Left Home 26th Aug.
• West Wyalong 26th
• Narrabri 27th
• Miles 28th
• Rockhampton 29th
• Airlie beach 30th Aug.
• Preparation at caravan park (clothes washing etc.) 31st
• Launched 1st Sept.

We managed to get away just after 7AM. During the trip up I tended to stop quite often to check up on how the boat was travelling. Laurel joked that if we stopped I automatically got out the ladder. This first picture was at Seymour where we stopped for morning tea around 10:30AM. I think we were slow due to stopping for fuel and tyre checks etc.

Nearly bumped my head on this one... Tocumwal for petrol.

Rockhampton - nearly there.

Our daughter arrived by bus from the airport mid-afternoon and we met her at Port of Airlie terminal. We had launched Kismet around midday at high tide at the Port of Airlie boat ramp and taken a berth at Port of Airlie where we spent that night. $60 a night was pretty reasonable.

Here's Kismet following launch. Waiting me to park the car and trailer then the little trip around to the Port of Airlie berth. Those big (to us) shuttles weren't a problem at that time of day - more about that later...

After moving Kismet to her berth, we took the car and trailer at the ECO Tourism Caravan park on Shute Harbour road (they stored it next to the office for $20 night) then caught the bus back. I had accidentally left the dinghy in the car so carried it (in its bag) all the way back on the bus and walking. We NEVER used it.

Sailing Gippsland Lakes

Well just Lake Victoria actually. We took accommodation at Captains Cove where we had our own boat berth (picture above). It let us get out on the boat without the rigmarole of setting up each day. A VERY successful four days albeit only two days actually sailing.

We have trying to get out on Port Phillip but out of a nine hour day we don't even get two hours actually on the water - then arrive home exhausted from the whole process.

This way (Paynesville) we arrived and launched and were ready next day to just step out onto the boat. There were some complications this time as I had to rig a few things for the first time.

It was quite helpful to tow to 300 or so kilometres down to Paynesville as this is the longest tow we have done with the boat.
For instance:
- Insects splat against the hatch fronts and somehow find their way into the cabin - lots of dead bodies.
- Webbing straps slowly loosen for the first 100km as they tighten on the drums.
- The Tacktrack lines (ropes) along the front of the boat vibrate a lot and need some kind of restraint to stop them thrashing and compromising the ropes.
- The boat becomes more stable at speed but uses more "fuel" from the car than our small caravan that is heavier.

More pictures and details to come...

Rudder box Reduction & Trailer modification

I spent a couple of hours sanding down the rudder boxes at the position where I want to re-mount the gudgeons yesterday. I had to take about 2mm off the width of the boxes to allow the gudgeons to slide on reasonably easily. Once they were sanded back enough I applied two coats of thinned Bote-cote to the now-raw timber - allowing a day in between coats.

The rudder box below is precariously balanced here so as to allow the epoxy to settle into the gaps - see the reason below. I have also marked the gudgeons as to where they will be used as they vary in gap slightly.

I added some filler to the left-over Bote-cote and dribbled it into the un-sealed gaps in the rudder boxes. This apparently should have been fibre-glassed during assembly - but no...

I have sealed about half the gaps so far. It's a good use for left-over Bote-cote each time I mix up a batch.


On other matters - I have been gouging our driveway curb each time I take the boat on and off our property. (I think there is a similar gouge in Vicroads driveway.)
You can see an old and a new gouge here.

The rear double rollers on the trailer had not had the excess taken off the vertical bars so it left gouges every time the trailer went into a dip - like a driveway. It's not good for the trailer or boat when the trailer gets hung up on the curb either.  I'm REALLY hoping that I don't need the rollers to be adjusted up!

Rear right removed and cut down (with hacksaw - about 15 minutes each bar).

 Cut-down rear right.

I did the right hand side a couple of weeks ago but I could not get the left side off this morning (no matter how much cajoling I did with my hammer) so I took to it with the angle grinder and a cut-off wheel. I painted it in situ.
It was a lot quicker - but noisier and pretty fiery. I carefully figured the angle for the spark trail so as not to harm the boat. Sorry no pictures as no-one else was home.

VicRoads today

I was at VicRoads today getting the trailer and boat registered. The left indicator didn't work - can you believe it? A quick trip to a service station and back for a BA15S globe. VicRoads staff (Sara) was very accommodating. Astonishing that when I made the phone booking for inspecting the trailer and registering the boat, the person on the phone made the boat appointment immediately after the trailer appointment. Turns out that the boat appointment was YESTERDAY. Sara just fitted me in around other appointments.

Trailer passed and our Jarcat is now registered.
A strange coincidence was that I pulled up next to another Outlander PHEV in the inspection bay. That's our tow car and they are not common. I have a small blog on the PHEV.

William commented that I still call the boat either "the boat" or "the Jarcat", not Kismet (he noticed when I called it Kismet in a Whatsapp (text) message). That's because we haven't REALLY decided on the name so I don't want to have to go back and edit posts to change the name if it changes. I like Kismet - more than likely that will be it.

I put the boat back on the front lawn in a slightly different position so as to minimise damage to our lawn. Since I didn't have William's help (he's in Tanzania with Projects abroad), I came up with a less strenuous way of parking the boat and getting the car out from in front of it. It will also make it easier to turn the trailer to point out the driveway when we are taking it out again.
(I drive the trailer in forwards for increased security.)

I spent a couple of hours tonight removing duct tape from the mast where it was holding rigging in place and replacing it with either camstraps or rope. In one place the duct tape had been there so long it tore some paint of the mast. I also re-positioned the mast so we could test fit the outboard on the boat.

Picking up the Jarcat from MIRRAT (Port Melbourne)

After lots of ringing around and emails, I had decided to bring the boat from Perth to Melbourne via sea. The ship bringing here got delayed so the Jarcat spent about a week sitting in the terminal car park at Freemantle. Finally I got news (after pestering them) that the boat was arriving and would be ready for pickup today.

It's amazing the stuff that goes on that, until you have a need, you just don't know is happening.
Take MIRRAT - Melbourne International Rollon-Rolloff Automotive Terminal, for example.

The guys at MIRRAT appeared to all know about the "Jetcat". The paperwork I submitted said "Jarcat", but somewhere along the way the boat got a lot faster... I imagine they thought the Jet engines would be fitted later. Anyway, after watching a 20 minute indoctrination (safety) video and doing a questionnaire I was allowed on site. The Jarcat was sitting all alone in a very large warehouse awaiting pick-up.

My MIRRAT guide and I connected the trailer up to my tow-car and tested out the lights on the light-board (detachable trailer lights that mount on the back of the boat during towing). The right indicator started smoking then went out - other wise all was well - my adaptor purchased a few weeks earlier FITTED!. After I got out of the MIRRAT complex I stopped in a large parking bay and checked everything out. Sure enough the right indicator globe glass envelope was broken. No spare, so no right indicator for the trip home - unless I could find a service station along the way. I checked all the tie downs and ropes then started for home - what a stressful journey that was!

The Jarcat is 2.5 meters wide and has to be the scariest thing I have ever towed. Our caravan is 2.2M but the extra 300mm makes a big difference. On my trip home I managed to miss getting on the M1 Freeway and ended up going up St Kilda road - an overcrowded road near the CBD of Melbourne. The traffic lanes there were just a tad narrower than the Jarcat trailer. At one stage I had one wheel running along the kerb and the other running over the cats eyes between the lanes. I managed to swing a right turn near the Melbourne War Memorial and after a few more stressful moments (remember no right indicator) was back on the freeway. It was better from that point on.

I was very glad to get home unscathed.