Paul and Craig rescued at sea!

Well getting on the front page of the newspaper wasn't quite in Paul's plans!

A large family group were going to the Sandy Creek campsite in Arnhem Land near the Goulbourn Islands and Paul thought he'd take the boat around the coast by sea instead of drive like the other "land lubbers".  Seemed like a good idea at the time!  

Paul and Craig set off just after lunch on Sunday the 6th of July, 2003.  They launched from the Nightcliff boat ramp and had a rough trip into the chop north where they reached the sheltered Trepang Bay on Coburg Peninsula to camp the night in the boat.

The next day the going was pretty slow as they had strong easterlies against them and a nasty chop.  Paul knew the weather wasn't going to be great but the strong wind warning that eventuated wasn't forecast initially.   By Tuesday night they reached Point David which is at the southern tip of Croker Island.  The Oyster Farm there had a little jetty and the workers were very hospitable allowing them to tie up for the jetty for the night.  They also had diesel they would sell so Paul took the opportunity to fuel up - he had enough but had used more than planned with the very poor conditions.

Wednesday morning they set off into a very stiff easterly pretty concerned about the weather.  Once they got into Mountnorris Bay a bit they could enjoy the scenery as the eastern part afforded good protection from the wind.  There was a huge school of big prawns and they got a few fish trawling through them.  They didn't stop to fish though as they wanted to get to their destination.  The rest of them were due to arrive at the mainland camping spot the following morning (Thursday July 10th).

When they came out of Malay Bay and started rounding Cape Cockburn they were confronted with huge standing waves.  Paul desparately wanted to turn back to the sheltered bay they had just exited but didn't feel he could safely ride the waves unless he kept boat's bow straight into them.

They inched along taking each of the waves wondering if the boat would be inundated or tossed backwards.  An engine failure would be catastrophic.   After a long time Paul was able to direct the boat in close to the eastern end of the cape, De Courcy Head, where there was some little shelter at the base of the huge cliffs.

They sat there for a few hours through the afternoon - trying to get out a few times but each time turning back as the waves had not lessened out wider.   They wandered about trying to get into the beach with supplies and camping there for the night but eventually decided to set the epirb off and get rescued.  The winds where turning more northerly and their little bit of shelter wasn't guaranteed through the night.

Well the rest is history - there was newspapers and tv crews waiting for them back in Darwin when they landed in the helicopter - as well as some very worried and then relieved family!

Paul and Gwenny was able to still drive out a couple of days later and join everyone else there as planned.  Fortunately Robby was able to take his boat up on the Friday (11/7/03) and find the boat - which was unfortunatly laying on its side in the fairly gentle surf by then.  But he did retrieve a lot of valuable gear from boat.

They all drove back home on Sunday the 13th of July.

Paul's insurance company was very helpful and salvaged the boat and repaired it - including a brand new engine etc.


Point Blaze trip

We went in 2 boats from Darwin to Sail City and camped in close south of Point Blaze overnight.

I think Tim Ezzy, David and Mark Pattemore went with me.  Not sure who went with Rob.

Don't remember much but it was very rough for us heading south pretty much from Roche Reef as there was a really strong southerly blowing straight into us - Robs boat cut into the waves much better than we did!

The only other thing I remember is that Tim was woken in the dead of night by a small mackerel that had somehow jumped into the boat and was going crazy on his face.  He was sure one of us had thrown it at him.

Paul gets a job at Batchelor

Paul started work in May 2003 as an IT Desktop Support Officer at the Batchelor Institute of Indigenous Tertiary Education - or "Batchelor College" as it is better known as.

Approximately 6 months later he became the Network Administrator, and 12 months after that he became the IT Manager.

Paul was at Batchelor for nearly 8 years.  Everyday he would catch the bus from Palmerston in the morning at 7am and either drive or ride as a passenger in the 50 minute coaster bus trip.   He'd back back at Palmerston at around 5.15pm each day.

As the IT Manager Paul had about 13 staff and a $2million budget to manage so quite a lot of responsibility.

Baresand Island trip

Took the boats to baresand for the Darwin Show long weekend in 2002.    We left from Dundee and went north with 3 boats - Rob and Jessies big centre console "Megabite" and Baggsy brought his 16" dinghy that he bought off me (from memory Graham needed goggles and a snorkel on his trip and made a few comments about how wet the boat was when he arrived).

We were able to anchor the boats close to the beach and camp on the island.   From memory we caught a few fish but nothing spectacular.  The highlight of the trip was when a turtle crawled up on the beach just after dinner time and starting digging a nest right next to us!   We all gathered around as it then started to lay its eggs - seemingly not worried about us.

The next morning the kids found little baby turtles going down the beach to the water (obviously not from the same nest!) and did their best to protect them from predators.

Another memory Paul has is waking up in the morning nearly covered by a dune and having a mouth full of sand!  Was a windy night and we were covered in sand.

Another notable event of the trip was Paul playing dead to attract a crocodile that was out in the channel - his ruse worked better than he expected as it immediately charged in towards him laying on the beach.  He did leave it to the last minute a bit to get up with Gwenny urgently shouting negative comments about his wisdom from up on the dune.

Robby then tried the same thing with a speargun in his hand but just as the croc got near him a boat came around the corner - surely he wasn't going to use it anyway!

It was breakfast on the boat the next morning as the annoying wind had dropped and Paul was keen to get out as he reckoned he could smell mackerel in the air!

We got a few and it was very calm as you can see in the below photo (which incidentally features in this wikipedia article - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narrow-barred_Spanish_mackerel)



Gun Point camping trip

Camped for a couple of nights at Gun Point and had a really nice time with the family.

Apart from Graham catching a piglet, the only other memory of note was when Robby went for a drive and when we saw him walking back we knew something was wrong.

He had got bogged on a flat somewhere so my mighty Nissan Patrol had to pull him out - I made sure I got it on camera of course!



Bought a 6.1m boat

"Djambalawa" is a 6.1m Bermuda which is really a Trailcraft hull with a Mercruiser inboard diesel (actually a small 120hp diesel).

She's a bit more economical than a 4 stroke petrol - getting about 2.5 km / litre at its best at around 20 knots.   Still not sure if the diesel is worth it though - as its quite noisy and a bit harder to work on etc being an inboard.

The hull has quite a round bouyant nose on it which is good in swell but a bit hard in chop.  So its a good safe boat but doesn't ride as smoothly as a boat this size usually would.

Not sure when it was bought exactly - but in this photo dated 20/7/02 it looks very new and I think it might have been its first trip.

Trip to Mandorah

We drove around to Mandorah for the weekend and booked a room at the motel.  Unfortunately we coincided our visit with which seemed like some annual Bikie Gang's get together... so we did lay a little low!

We did a bit of swimming at the pool and a bit of fishing but didn't catch anything. 

On the way out we took the turnoff to Bynoe Harbour and had a look at the coast there.