Category: Australia

Trying To Kill Us
Australia, Bundaberg, Customs, Immigration, November 2022, The South Pacific

They Are Already Trying To Kill Us!

Well friends and followers, the Dazzler crew has found themselves safely in Australia. Our eight day passage was one of the easiest we’ve had to date. In fact, with only three of those days having enough wind to sail by we had a very calm motor trip. Not exactly what we hope for and also very expensive fuel wise but the bonus is that we didn’t break anything in rough seas. Heck, we had seas so flat most of the time it was more like being on a lake than the ocean. Now it’s time to buckle down and get used to the rough and tumble lifestyle of the Aussies while trying to avoid all the animals, reptiles and insects that are trying to kill us.

Our arrival at Bundaberg Port Marina coincided with that of six other incoming yachts. That meant we had to wait in line for check in. Fortunately they put us in our slip to wait rather than making us anchor out and then come to the quarantine dock when they were ready.

Sadly this meant we could be in port but not leave the boat until the ABF (Australian Border Force) and Biosecurity had been by to clear us in. When you’ve been on a boat for eight straight days the first thing you want to do it get off of it and take a little walk. But, we took it all in stride and sipped on a few anchor down beers while we waited.

If you’ve never checked into our out of a country on a boat you’d probably be shocked to know all of the regulations and paperwork that go along with it. All countries ask mostly the same information but their bureaucratic red tape can be vastly different. For example, checking into Vanuatu, a third world country, is a hassle but they don’t seem to care much about what you are or are not bringing into the country. They don’t even board your boat. For all they know we could have smuggled in monkeys or small children. No, Grape Ape doesn’t count as he’s family.

Checking into first world countries like New Zealand and Australia is night and day from places like Vanuatu. Here they want to know everything and I do mean everything. Australia is known for having very strict border controls….something the USA would do well to adopt. The paperwork even requires that you list all of your electronics with their serial numbers etc. It literally took hours to prepare our entry paperwork for Australia. And, this week we experienced a bit of that tough Aussie border control.

Here Comes ABF

ABF was here within an hour of our arrival and Rob, the agent, was a pleasure to have aboard. We were his last check in of the day so he spent a little extra time chatting us up a bit and giving us info about the country. But while he was certainly enjoyable to work with there was no doubt he knows his job and does it to the letter. 

While he appeared relaxed and casual it was very evident that he uses that manner to get the cruisers checking in to be relaxed. That in itself could entice the bad guys to slip up and give away information regarding something they may be doing that isn’t quite on the up and up. 

You’d be surprised at what people try to bring into country. We learned it’s not just drugs and human trafficking either. Apparently one woman tried to smuggle in a small monkey on her boat. She tranquilized it and hid it in a locker! 

Knowing us and most specifically, Dan, you have to know that this is not an issue on Dazzler. We do everything to the letter because she’s our home and we do not want to to have her seized. It’s just not worth it. We declare everything and let them tell us if there is something they want. Our motto is this… “If they take it, then they take it. Better that than to lose our home.”

After Rob left the boat we waited anxiously for  Biosecurity. This is the one thing we were very concerned about. You see, here in Australia Biosecurity doesn’t just come on board and seize fruits, vegetables and fresh/frozen meats, they do a full timber inspection to be sure you aren’t brining in any termites or wood boring insects.

Honestly we find this a little ironic considering the fact that Australia is known for massive termite mounds that can be as big as a small camper. And, we learned they have fourteen days from our arrival to do said, very expensive, timber inspection. Doesn’t that seem a bit counterintuitive? I mean really, if we’re tied to a dock and we do have these insects on board and they don’t check us for two weeks then isn’t it likely that these creatures have already started migrating toward the land???? Asking for a friend here.

Oh well, as we always say…. “Their country, their rules. We just do what is asked and move on.”

Where Is Biosecurity? I’m Starving!

We arrived at 1000 hours and at 1600 hours we still had not seen hide nor hair of Biosecurity. At this point we began to get a bit concerned. We couldn’t leave the boat and we hadn’t eaten. And, we had purged any of the real food we had on board that we knew they would confiscate. 

After all, better to feed the sea life than to let it go to the incinerator right? Well, maybe not as right as we thought as I’d have given my right arm for a piece of the spicy Italian salami that we fed to the sharks about that time. And we only had four beers on board when we docked so we were definitely ready for food and some adult beverages. 

We finally contacted the marina staff who assured us that Biosecurity would not leave for the day until they visited all of us. At minimum they would clear us so that we could leave the boat and would come back later to complete their timber inspection. 

Finally around 1700 a lovely young lady name Rebecca showed up. She was bright and shining and an absolute doll with a perky smile and great attitude. She told us she’d only be here long enough to clear us in and look into our food stores. Since we’d already done all of our purging it made her job easy. Within ten minutes we had our Practique that gave us permission to depart the vessel. Of course that invasive timber inspection would be on the books for another day.

They Are Already Trying To Kill Us!

Within minutes of her leaving we were off the boat and taking a walk to the nearby hamlet at Burnett Heads where we’d been assured there was a liquor store, grocery store and the Beacon’s Bistro Pub. Well, what else do you need in life?

First of all, we’d been told the walk was just fifteen minutes and it turned out to be twenty-five. I never understand why people always lie about distances and times but we hadn’t walked much in the last eight days so it was not a huge deal. Of course it was getting close to sunset and I wasn’t so excited about being out here in the wilderness knowing that everything in Australia wants to kill me either.

We’re walking down this road that is a blacktop road in what looks like a brand new subdivision. You know, just before any construction begins? Well, we’re walking along chatting when all of the sudden out of nowhere comes this big bird screeching as loud as it can while dive bombing us. 

I’m not kidding this thing was coming right at us and you could see it was not a happy camper. At first I thought it was just a fluke but by the third time it came at us I knew it was clearly out to get us. Obviously we were near some nest but there were no trees so we had no idea where it was or what we should be moving away from. This crazy thing came at us six or eight times before it finally landed on the ground and left us alone.

We later learned this is called a Plover. Of course when the Aussies say it, it sounds more like “pluva”. They tells us they nest on the ground and are very territorial. Really? I hadn’t noticed. 

More important than that….they have a spur on the front edge of their wings that can cut the crap out of you. Rebecca, our Biosecurity agent, told us that as kids if you wanted to get into the “cool kid click” you had to run into a field, steal a Plover egg, bring it to the others to see and then run back into the field and put it back into its nest.

No Coolness Here

It’s then that I realized if I’d grown up here in the land of Oz I would not have been one of the cool kids. No, I’d have been the geek riding around in the bicycle helmet with zip ties sticking up in the air to protect me from the evil flying beasts. Apparently Magpies also enjoy swooping down and attacking you as well.

And yes, that’s what they do here. They tie zip ties into their bike helmets so that the birds swoop down and hit the zip ties instead of their heads. I think the only cool thing I’d have had going for me is that I’d have used colored zip ties instead of the black ones as we’ve seen on most helmets. 

The bird attack happened just ten minutes into our walk so now I’m looking around for the snakes, spiders and crocodiles that I already knew would be gunning for us. I certainly wasn’t prepared to put psychotic birds on my list of things that would try to kill me but here I was less that eight hours in country and I was already modifying my list of critters to avoid in order to live through this adventure.

We Made It Alive!

Fortunately we made it to the pub with no further incidents. But, I was concerned that we’d be walking back in the dark. We learned the pub has a shuttle that will take us back to the marina so my fears were put to rest. We had a few brews, some dinner and picked up the needed adult supplies at the liquor store next door before they drove us back to the marina.

Now I should go back just a little bit before we departed because, well, I found my new hero and her name is Stantana. We’d finished our dinner and were waiting around until 2000 for the shuttle to take us to the marina. Behind us was this guy who had obviously had a little more alcohol than his mouth could handle. He was getting a bit surly with the staff and, well, they cut him off. 

Apparently this didn’t sit well with his intoxicated brain so he became even more unruly. Not liking the fact that Brad, the bartender, had cut him off he went back to the bar to try to plead his case with the gal in charge. When she refused to budge on the issue he got even more aggressive and started calling Brad a “softcock” and threatening Stantana with calling her bosses. Seems he thought his connection to the owners made him invincible. Funny how alcohol does that isn’t it?

Don’t Start None, There Won’t Be None!

This woman wasn’t taking any grief from this old due. As his aggression level rose so did hers. Finally we see her get right in his face and with a most authoritative voice and yell, “Get the F*** out of my bar!” 

I literally sat back on my stool looking at them in complete shock. I mean, it’s not every day you see something like this happening right in front of you. Usually you have to go to Youtube for this sort of entertainment. 

Drunk dude staggers back to his table behind us cursing and mumbling the entire way. He gets to the table, picks up a glass that was half full of whisky and starts to raise it to his mouth.

Stantana yells across the bar, “Don’t you dare drink that. You get out of here.” He keeps on as if he’s going to drink it and in a split second she has gone from behind the bar, across the room a good twenty feet and is standing at his side. She slaps the glass out of his hand and it falls to the table splashing whisky everywhere. Not sure but I think that’s alcohol abuse.  

Anyway, drunk dude continues with his cursing and inebriated crap and she yells at him again, “I told you to get the F*** out of my bar!” He starts to get up in her face and she pushes him backwards toward the wall. About this time I’m looking at Dan who is in all out cop readiness mode. He’s not going to let anything happen to this gal.

Fortunately the old drunk decides Stantana might be a bit much for him to tangle with in his current state and decides to stagger out the back door mumbling about how she’s going to be fired when he talks to her boss. Dan relaxes and Stantana calmly goes about cleaning up the mess on and around the table. 

I’m sitting there in shock and yet I’m so dang proud of this woman I don’t even know. I mean, honestly, she is badass and it’s evident that in a pub in the remote places in Australia that’s exactly how you have to be. I’m pretty sure her motto is similar to mine…. “Don’t start none there won’t be none.”

As she walks by I tell her she’s my new hero. She laughs and says it’s not the first time she’s had to deal with him and it certainly won’t be the last. Before we leave the pub I just had to get a picture with her. She will always be a reminder of our first night in the land down under where you have to be tough to survive. Who knows, maybe she will inspire me to toughen up a bit about all these deadly critters. 

Naw….not likely! 

Is that Jackie Legs Over There?

In the last few days we’ve had time to get adjusted to the Australian way of doing things and even passed our timber inspection with flying colors. We’ve been to town, re-provisioned with a few things. I finally got a much needed haircut after six months and we even got to see our first wild kangaroos. They were in a field literally steps away from the pub at Burnett Heads. I was so excited I was like a kid at Christmas. 

Of course the Aussies think I’m crazy because they think of them as rodents. I guess I like them because they are one of the few things here that aren’t trying to kill us and, they are kind of cute too. Is that Jackie Legs over there???

Anyway, I’m pretty sure I’m going to love this country as soon as I get used to the critters. By the way, now my list not only includes, snakes, spiders, crocodiles (salties), box jellyfish and sharks but also the Plover bird and apparently the Magpie. 

A Much Needed Trip Home

As for us…we’re putting Dazzler in dry storage this Friday. It’s finally time for us to go back home and visit family and friends after almost three years. We’re both very excited to see everyone. We’ll be spending time in California, Oregon, Idaho, Nevada and Florida. And, for the first time in seven years we will be with family, blood family that is, for the holidays. It’s Thanksgiving in California and Christmas in Florida. 

So, we can’t promise that we will be updating the site much, if at all, while we are gone. We’re looking at this time as a time to really reconnect with our loved ones and that means putting all work aside for a bit. And, with all the travel required to see everyone we probably won’t have time anyway. 

We’ll be back at the end of January though so we hope you’ll come back to see how things are going. By then Dan will have a riveting article about a huge “boo boo” he made on Dazzler this week that could have resulted in tens of thousands of dollars in damage to her. All I can say is, “I’m glad it was his mistake and not mine.” 

As embarrassing as it is he plans to share this misadventure because, well, it can happen to anyone of us. And, if it does, knowing how to handle it is key. Hopefully his story will help someone else along the way so be sure to watch for it.

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s or whatever other holidays you celebrate. Remember to spread joy wherever you go and find peace and love in everyone and everything.

Until next time,

Jilly

Read About Our Passage From Vanuatu…Click Here!

Australia, October 2022, Vanuatu

One Dazzling Passage

One Dazzling Passage
Published 2022-10-28

The time has come to leave Vanuatu behind and make our way toward Australia for the coming cyclone season. Making passage in the South Pacific Convergence Zone presents its own type of challenges. Click below to find out more.

This year we have been making up for lost time. It just goes to show you that even the Vid can’t keep us down forever. New Zealand to Fiji, Fiji to Vanuatu and now Vanuatu to Australia. We’re making one dazzling passage yet again.

The time was right as we have come to the end of another cruising season in the South Pacific. It is time to head to a safe area to hole up and avoid tropical cyclones. We are off to a hurricane safe dry storage on the east coast of Australia to put Dazzler on the hard for a few months. We joined one of the popular cruising rallies known as the Go West Rally. The fee to join the rally covers almost all of the cost for the Australian check-in process and helps facilitate contact with the Australian Government Officials for clearance into the country.

Part of those included costs is for a timber inspection. We’ll wait to see how that goes as Dazzler’s interior and exterior has the lion’s share of a teak forest. Additionally, there are marine supplies and services discounts available to participants as well so it’s a very good deal for us.

Time to Say Goodbye to Vanuatu

Every day for the month we’ve been guests in Vanuatu we have experienced rain. Sometimes it seamed like the bottom of a lake in the sky had opened up and dropped buckets of liquid sunshine on top of us. Other times it just kind of misted on you like an incessant and irritating nag. The interesting thing is that the mist dries so quickly that you don’t need to wear a rain shell.

We made all of our Customs and Immigration clearance preparations on Friday morning. In Vanuatu they give you 24 hours to clear out of country. Other countries we’ve visited will literally watch you untie and leave the dock to verify your departure. Saturday morning we were busy onboard Dazzler finishing up last minute details while being treated to more rain. Luckily I completed everything on deck and was ready to go. I had enough forethought to remove the mainsail cover Friday afternoon so we wouldn’t have to store wet Sunbrella down below.

Hoisting anchor in the rain is like cutting grass in the rain. Not much fun, but sometimes the task is not always about fun. We chose to head out of the Segund Channel past the Wambu River. Apparently so much rain had been dumped on Santo Island during the last day that the rich yellow brown color of the soil was so thick in the channel it looked like a coconut bowl full of Kava. I nicknamed it the Kava River.

We cleared the channel and entered the Coral Sea west of Vanuatu. We were on the leeward side of the islands and the Trade-winds had not filled in yet requiring us to motor just a bit further. Motoring, hummm. This passage is just short of 1000 nautical miles to our destination. The weather is favorable for our departure, however we expect to encounter several very light wind days. Including a few days with wind possibly on the nose. Dogs sticking their heads out a car being driven down the street may like wind on the nose, but don’t most sailors prefer winds on the beam or quarter with following seas? We certainly do.

I make this point to mention that we will have to watch our fuel consumption as we may have to motor for several days during this trip. In fact, we bought two extra 30 liter plastic jugs in Luganville and filled them with diesel to increase motoring range a bit.

About six hours into our trip we finally had the silence of the motor and we were sailing again. The wind was predicted to be on our port quarter, but in reality it was on our stern. Night was starting to set in and the clouds looked like more rain was in our immediate future.

The seas were seven to eight seconds with 1-2 meters swells and the wind was 17-20 knots on our stern. We deployed a single reefed main and the staysail and sailed at an angle off our charted course line to keep the sails filled. The first two nights brought several squalls that dumped buckets of sideways rain complete with gusts of up to 25 knots.

There was one thing I did not look at in preparing our voyage and that was the local ocean currents. We fought a 1-2 knot ocean head current until early Sunday morning. Sunday evening had come and the winds had seriously diminished to the point of firing up the Iron Horse or as our dear friends of SV Suan would call it, “Yanmar San.”

Trying to resist the urge of pushing the throttle forward while running at economy mode (1800-2100 RPMs) and only going 3.5-4 knots an hour was painful. But conserve we must and the result was a long slow night. We had dropped the sails to keep them from flogging and prevent any undo wear and tear on our equipment. This action resulted in our rolling side to side through the sea making someone an unhappy sleep camper. Apparently being rolled from side to side while in the bunk just really isn’t that comfortable.

Sunday night about 2200 hours I went down into the dark cabin to put my iPad on the charger. I thought Jilly was asleep on the settee on the starboard side where she was earlier. I didn’t turn on any lights because I didn’t want to wake her. What a nice man for thinking of her. When I put my hand down onto what I thought was a pillow around our table, I immediately realized that it wasn’t a pillow. Apparently, Jilly thought that the Kraken had come for her which resulted in screaming, mass hysteria, startled men, purple apes climbing the mast and even caused the oceanic white tip shark following along Dazzler’s wake to take notice and make a rapid about face.

After a few moments we all calmed down, caught our breath and I went back up to the cockpit to finish the last hour of my watch. Jilly was going to try to get back to sleep. About 10 minutes later, it was agreed that she would come on watch an hour earlier because there was no way she was going to get back to sleep after her near death experience with her husband mistaken for the Kraken armed with an iPad in need of a charge.

Enter the beginning of day three

After trying to sleep on the Tilt-a-Whirl ride I got up at 0300 hours for my watch. The sea state had calmed a bit more and the winds were still MIA (Missing in Action). After the sun started illuminating the cloud filled sky we could now see the squalls that were going to hit us instead of just watching their approach on the radar screen. The unhappy crew has made their complaint known and submitted it in triplicate to the captain, “I’m tired of all this rain. When are we going to have some sunshine?”

I’m sorry, but my crystal ball has been broken for years. I just shake it up real good turn it upside down and try to see the message on the bottom through that purple liquid stuff. The message reads, “Sorry, not enough data input.” Needless to say this wasn’t the answer the grumbling crew was looking for. As a side note Grape Ape sides with whoever is opening the cookie jar at the time. So, there is a fifty fifty chance as to which side he takes.

About two hours later, princess Jilly woke to blue skies, sunshine and 12 knots of wind pulling Dazzler gently along at 5-6 knots without the noise of Yanmar San. Someone was happy now. Grape Ape and I were glad to see someone happier. It’s amazing how blue skies and sunshine can help get you get out of a funk. It even has a built in memory blocker to help you forget what you were unhappy about just hours earlier.

Actually brochure sailing makes everybody happy. Long rolling swells about eight seconds apart, steady trade-winds from the south by southwest, a full set of sails spread out catching the wind, sunny skies, fluffy white clouds dotting the blue sky and the glacier blue color of the ocean. Yes in deed this is brochure sailing.

After another night of mixed weather, sail changes and motor starts and stops we made it to day four. It appears that this area of the South Pacific is heavily influenced by weather patterns, ocean currents and sea temperatures. Apparently this year’s upcoming cyclone season has the potential to be active earlier than normal. The season starts November first. All the more reason to keep moving through the area as quickly and as possible.

Today we made our first fuel transfer into our main tank. We decided to empty the two new 30 liter jugs first. We have a few different ways of siphoning fuel from the plastic jugs without making a mess of trying to pour fuel into a 1.5” hole in Dazzler’s deck to her fuel tank. My preferred methods is the use of a Jiggler valve. Named after the motion you use to start the siphon action flowing. The tip is a metal cylinder that has a clear marble like bead about a half inch in diameter mounted on the inside. The tip is fit into a half inch clear hose that is long enough to reach both the bottom of the jug and slip about a foot and a half down the fuel deck fitting.

Tied to a marina dock makes this fuel transfer relatively easy. Out on the open ocean you need some calm conditions and fair seas to avoid any water contamination getting into the main tank during the transfer. The first jug went smoothly. Once it was emptied I moved the jiggler over to the next tank. I noticed that it was taking considerably longer to siphon. When I looked down into the jug I could see something cloudy near the end of the valve. As I pulled the jiggler out to the jug I could see a pice of clear plastic stuck in the end of the valve. I didn’t know what to think. As I looked down into the tank I could see more silhouettes of cloudy objects. My first thought was I hope none of these pieces of plastic got past the marble. My second thought was how can I get the plastic out of the fuel in the jug without having to try to pour the remaining 20 liters of fuel into the deck fill hole without making a mess.

Enter the grabber specialty tool and Jilly’s favorite tool on Dazzler. It is about 30” long, has a thumb button on one end and four pronged thin metal fingers on the other end that open up to about an inch when you push the spring loaded thumb button. It works great for pulling tools out of the bilge and/or it can entertain Jilly for hours playing Go Go Gadget Claw.

I used the grabber and was able to get enough of the plastic out that the jiggler valve extracted all but about two liters. The only reason I stopped it at that point was I could see more plastic in the bottom. Armed with a large funnel, Jilly’s help and a paper towel for a filter, I poured the remaining fuel through my makeshift filter system and extracted the remaining pieces of plastic from the fuel. Basically, we bought these jugs off a shelf in a hardware store in Luganville, went to the fuel station to fill them and then secured them on Dazzler.

Apparently, someone had placed a plastic bag and some plastic shards of a cup or something similar into the jug while it sat on the shelf. I didn’t even think to look into the jugs before they were filled at the fuel station. I opened the tanks to be filled and watched the fuel attendant dispense thirty liters of fuel into each jug. I guess I’ll have to be more diligent in the future.

Light Winds Continue

The winds were light and we flew the spinnaker for about four hours before the atmosphere became still and very warm forcing us to douse the spinnaker and fire up the motor once again. This lasted for several hours before the winds built up again and allowed us to stop the engine and hoist sails again.

Some passages have predictable winds that are steady and for the most part from one general direction. That is not this passage. This is not the Poppeil Set It And Forget It passage. Lots of sail changes, course changes and slow speeds. Thank goodness we have about a two knot tail current to help push us along. I told Jilly that if our fuel gets too low we can just drift along with the two knot current and get to Australia by December. LOL

Another night of squalls, light winds and a lightening show that passed about ten miles behind us. Not an easy feeling when your Aluminum mast projects about 55’ above the surface of the water. It kind of screams out, “Pick me, pick me, I’m right here.”

All things considered, I’d rather be right here trying to figure it out instead of stuck in six or seven lanes of bumper to bumper stop and go traffic on I405 in Los Angeles. That will be next month.

Stay tuned for the next installment from Captain Dan and crew on Dazzler making passage in the Coral Sea. Grape Ape! Get your finger out of there. We don’t know where it’s been. Kids!

Cheers!

Captain Dan