The Boat Works, A Cruisers Best Friend, Austraila Gold Coast

The BoatWorks Boat Yard turned out to be a surprisingly pleasant experience as boat yards and boat hauling goes…but as with everything else in Australia it is very expensive. But as the old saying goes…”you get what you pay for” and to their credit, everything, from the office and yard staff, to services outlets and chandlery were world class.  And the good news was that EVERYTHING was included.  WiFi and courtesy cars were available 24/7, the laundry facilities were clean, and sufficiently numerous with large loading machines to accommodate the heaviest of wash and dry.  A cruisers lounge was available with TV, WIFI and a small kitchen facility.  We managed in a short period of time to get an amazing amount of work done including our canvas and hawser repairs, bottom painting, hull clean and polish and our first application of a product called Prop Speed which is a high-speed prop and shaft anti-fouling.  

 

To give you an idea of their attitude, the morning we splashed, we determined that we had transmission issues.  One of the dock line handlers said..."no worries mate, just sit right here and we'll get you sorted"...turned out that unassuming and friendly guy was none other than the owner of BoatWorks, Mr. Tony Longhurst.  He sure knows how to take the stress out of life and we highly recommend this facility.

 This is also where we met Evan.

Evan is an awesome mechanic and a fun plainspoken man with a big heart and more knowledge re Perkins than anyone I have met thus far.  Our relationship started with him coming aboard to do a 30 minute tappet adjustment and ended weeks later with a complete engine overhaul…but it was well worth the money and the time.  We enjoyed getting to know him and would highly recommend him to any and all cruisers who share his love of all things Perkins.

Our friends Brian and Eva Sv Zofia had invited us to join them for an early morning Anzac day celebration (Australian Remembrance Day).  Brian told me we would enjoy a leisurely breakfast and at 7 and continue on to the ceremony.  The reality was...we left the boatyard at 0400 (0 Dark Hundred) drove an hour and a half, waited in line for 45 minutes to get on a bus to ride another 45 minutes to a crowed parking lot where we watched the festivities on a big screen because there were so many people we couldn't get close enough to actually see anything...then the buffet breakfast that he had promised turned out to be maybe the WRROORST Eggs Benedict I have ever eaten.  If it wasn't for the fact that we really do enjoy being in the company of these two...it might have been a disaster...but alas, we had fun.

Our last day at the BoatWorks we were moored next to a handsome Motor Vessel named Speranza.  We were admiring their canvas and they ours, as it was quite similar. 

The owners are William and Allison and little did we know at the time just how much fun we would have with these two.

Back to Australia 2019

While in New Zealand we made arrangements for 1 year Australian visas to accommodate a more leisurely trip from Sydney up the east coast to Thursday Island which is approx. 2000nm.  The leg from Sydney to Brisbane offers few opportunities for good shelter.  One of those stops was Pt. Stephens which we availed ourselves of and quickly wished we had not.  They have very freaky weather in this country and we were hit with a Western Willywally…which is a hellish westerly wind-hail storm extraordinaire combination.  We ended up with a cockpit full of golf ball sized hail which pretty much destroyed all of our cockpit canvas and Isinglass.

As a result of this freak storm KaijaSong suffered more damage than she has had in 15 years of cruising including 8 cyclones/hurricanes.  This storm was similar to one we experienced our first week in Bundaberg which was responsible for the sinking of one of the rally boats in the marina.  At the time we were told this was a 1 in a 100 yr. storm…guess what…we had 2 in 1 one year.

The only good news for us in Pt. Stephens was meeting a pair of Poster Kids for Australian sailing. Wes is native Aussie with his curly blonde hair and devil may care attitude and Stine is just one of those natural Norwegian beauties.  Here are two young people that are just Happy and Wholesome.  It was their first season out cruising on their lovely Sv Sarabande II.  What Great Kids!

 This is what cruising is all about...this generous young couple came to our aid the morning after the windstorm to assist us.  We were caught in heavy swell.  The mooring line had jammed on the cleat and already snapped the port side Hawser off the deck.  The conditions were brutal and if we didn't get free we were going to suffer more damage.  Wes battled the waves and between us we managed to free up the lines and move off to safely tie up inside the marina. 

Oh Well!...we were already en-route to The Boat Works Marina on the Gold Coast for our annual haul out and now...we just had more to fix!  Ain't Life Grande.

Rotorua Maori Cultural Center and Geo Thermals...and Final Farewell to NZ

With spirits soaring and my feet back on the ground Kaija and I headed north to Rotorua home to a Maori Cultural Centre and our chance to see traditional indigenous Maori in their natural habitat.  We were picked up and driven to Tamaki Maori village to share in the Powhiri-the ancient ceremony before entering the village. The activities of the village included facial tattooing, carvings, and demonstrations of how food was cooked. This was followed by an incredible evening feast in the ancestral meeting house where we were entertained with a powerful cultural performance including action songs, poi, stick games, and the world famous 'Haka'-Maori War dance.

 

 We also visited a natural Geo Thermal site and had a walkabout. It was somewhat akin to taking a stroll on an imaginary Mars landscape with steaming craters and hot pools of mud spitting high into the air which had that lovely sulfuric aroma…lol. 

 

It seemed we were just hitting our stride and really enjoying our New Zealand Adventure when lo and behold…Our time was up…and while we very much enjoyed our 2 months in New Zealand we regret that we only had 2 months.  

We accomplished our goal of driving from the top to the bottom of New Zealand and seeing as many places along the way as time permitted.
 We can easily recommend that if you are planning a visit to this remarkable country and want to see as much as possible at a slightly easier pace…spend at least 3 months…chances are you may never be that way again.

Or as our good sailing buddy and New Zealander Murray Clarke would say…”North Island is terrific…south is good too…if you like sheep and people come see for yourself.”  Wow, I should have just printed that and saved you all the misery of reading all that stuff I wrote.

Pic of map

We returned our Trusty Tiny tin Tent, said our fond farewells to new friends met and made our way back to the airport for our return flight to Sydney and short train trek back to Pittwater and our beloved SS KaijaSong.