Monday, May 24, 2021

Tweed River, Tweed Heads

[Kyle]We had another pre-dawn departure from Ballina in order to be sure to have enough time to get to the Tweed River at the beginning of the flood there. Ballina has a bit of a reputation for being scary. Our departure was with only small chop over the bar. The most unnerving part was having to hug the rocks of both the semi-submerged training wall and the breakwater on the way to sea as that is where there is deep water.


A pleasant sail north, nice views and a lot of (camera-shy) dolphins joined us

Once outside, we had a fast run up the coast with the spinnaker. With two hours or so to go before slack water, we switched to the jib. After another hour or so, we were being pushed smartly with all of the sails stowed neatly under their covers. We were now close enough to the entrance to be able to see the standing waves at the end of the ebb. We waited a bit until things died down enough to be manageable. It was just before slack water, but we had no trouble getting in. One two-meter wave tried to slew us, but I was able to keep us nice and straight with about fifteen degrees of rudder.

Once inside on the flat water of the river, instead of taking a right toward the town, like we had done the last time we were here (in 2019), we took a left toward the public moorings at Ukerebagh Island. There, we were able to enjoy a much better birdsong to jetski ratio than is available in the other branch of the river.


WebCam of Begonia Arriving at Tweed River

And once inside we find a peaceful spot to anchor

The next morning, we took the dinghy across the shallow passage to the mainland side of the Nature Reserve. There, we joined a very muddy track through flat marshland to the Minjungbal boardwalk trail, which took us to the museum of the same name. There, we learned about the reserve and the long history of the local indigenous population.

On the walk back, we met up with an Aboriginal man who was born on the island and has lived his whole life in the area. He built on his knowledge of his native flora with a university education in Botany. Now he has been contracted a long section of beachfront park to maintain for the local council. It seems like he's pretty happy with the arrangement. When the crowds get to be too much for him, he goes home to Ukerebagh to enjoy the peace and quiet. While we were talking, he pointed out five different varieties of mangrove trees that mostly looked the same to me and rattled off the special characteristics of each one.



Exploring the Minjungbal boardwalk trail, and relaxing aboard

Having walked every inch of the Reserve's trails, there wasn't much left for us to do at Ukerebagh other than work on the boat, listen to the birds, and wait for a good weather window to leave. Mostly, our problem with that was going to be long periods without enough wind to even hold the sails up.

Sunday, May 23, 2021

Hop North to Ballina

[Kyle]Like our previous leg, in order to arrive at Ballina on the end of the flood after high tide, we had to leave well before the first hint of daylight. To make matters even worse, the moon was below the horizon, so it was very dark. Between the many range lights and our inbound track, we were able to get out with no less than three meters under our keels. There was about a 1½ meter swell just outside the northern breakwater. It foamed along Begonia's starboard hull as it collapsed without making it to deck level before we rolled gently over it. We did that twice and then we were over the bar and into deep water.

Up went the spinnaker and we were zooming up the coast. It was nice, smooth sailing, apart from when the occasional shower went through and heaped things up a bit. About three quarters of the way, we had banked enough distance to be able to switch to an increasingly smaller jib.


Another passage with an early start to ensure all the right conditions, but once in Ballina we stayed aboard and were entertained by the local sea eagles

We arrived at Ballina at the last of the flood having been under bare poles for the past hour. At the entrance, the water was very swirly, but there were no waves to contend with. We stopped here mostly because the wind was about to turn on us for thirty-six hours. Since we had been before (back in 2019) and since we were really in need of one, we decided to stay aboard and have an admin/maintenance day while the rain poured outside.

Friday, May 21, 2021

Yamba

[Kyle]There's not much in the way of secure anchorages along the coast directly north of Coff's Harbour, so it was necessary to leave at 1:00am in order to make it to the Yamba/Iluka entrance at the Richmond River in time for an early afternoon bar crossing.


An early start meant we were able to enjoy another sunrise at sea, but it was a chilly day and storm clouds were clear to see during the passage

The sail was bordering on pleasant. We had a mild spinnaker run under clear skies. It was still really cold and even wearing four layers I was still shivering when the sun came up. Maryanne made me a big bowl of oatmeal, which helped with that tremendously. After a couple hours of sleep, she woke me to say that we were almost there.

Since we went into Iluka the last time we were here, we decided this time to head to Yamba, on the south side of the wide river and also tucked behind a few sand dunes. Unlike Iluka, which is just accessed via a hole in the northern breakwater, Yamba is reached via the same on the south side, followed by a sinuous trip through a series of narrow channels. Fortunately, they were all well buoyed and marked by lighted ranges, so it was easy to tell where dead center was.

The anchorage, opposite the main caravan park in town, is also very narrow, with only enough room for one or two rows of boats between the channel and the adjacent mud flats. Most of that space is occupied by moorings. Grrr.


Heading into Yamba, the sun arrived!

After much searching, the ONLY spot we could find that allowed for a tiny swing was in 1.3 meters at low tide (we draw 1 meter). We set the anchor until we knew it was well buried and then brought half of the deployed chain back aboard to keep our swing to within two boat lengths. The good thing was that the anchorage is so well protected that we weren't likely to need to pull on the anchor chain much anyway. Mostly, it just hung straight down from the bows,

Since we hadn't made it ashore in Coff's, we were both eager to get out and have a look around. Yamba is definitely bigger than Iluka, with plenty more to see {Maryanne: although it is still a small town}. We started with the museum, which was well done and had the bonus of a docent who was happy to answer any questions and even throw in an anecdote or two. There, we picked up a walking map with two self-guided walking routes, one marked “flat”, the other “hilly”. It looked like we had plenty of time for both, so we started with “hilly”. {Maryanne: There wasn't much hill in even the hilly trail!}

That trail was really labeled as such because it wasn't entirely at sea level. It took us to the beach on the ocean side and then basically followed the cliffs of the coast around the town's perimeter back to the anchorage/caravan park side. It turns out most of the points of interest on the maps were of places where there used to be something somewhat interesting, like a hotel where visitors used to stay in the '50s and '60s. Now it's the site of a different hotel where people stay now. The tour would be a great way for octogenarians to get their bearings on a trip down Memory Lane, thinking about their misspent youth.


Enjoying some coastal scenery from the many beaches around town

One thing that actually was still there was the Pacific Hotel, perched on the sea cliffs at the top of Yamba's highest hill. They were open, so we decided to pop in for a beer. Then we saw some of the food the other patrons were eating and decided that maybe it was time for lunch after all. That should fortify us for the rest of the walks. I figured that if I started to flag later, Yamba seemed like the kind of place that should have at least one ice cream shop.

We headed down the other side of the hill to the southern breakwater and then to its end, where we were able to get a good look at the bar conditions at the same state of tide in which we planned to leave. On the way back, we noticed a gannet sitting on the beach just out of the reach of the waves. We had noticed him on the way out, since he was conspicuous as the only gannet in a flock of gulls. Now, the gulls were gone and he was still in the same spot. I was worried there was something wrong with him, so I scrambled down the rocks of the breakwater to the beach and went over to have a look.

When I arrived, he was sleeping with his head under his wing. It took two or three nudges to wake him up, then he freaked out when he saw me there standing over him. It's the same thing Maryanne does every morning. He only had the energy to hop two or three times before he plopped back down on the sand. When I approached again, he made a feeble attempt to charge at me to scare me away, but just ended up collapsing at my feet, defeating his own purpose. His final salvo was a halfhearted peck. After that, he seemed to figure out that I wasn't there to eat him and eventually let me scratch his head while he dozed fitfully.


Something isn't right here...

Back at the breakwater, Maryanne had managed to find a number for WIRES (Australian Wildlife Rescue Organization) and coordinated with them to send someone out to help.

The local volunteer, Heather, arrived with a pet carrier and a beach towel. The towel was to throw over the bird so that it couldn't bite while being picked up. Heather made a few attempts, but the bird wasn't keen and mostly ended up being chased around the beach, the towel landing where it had just been while it tried to hobble away.

The bird was getting more and more distressed, so I tackled the towel on the next throw and let the bird get a few steps away to safety. Exhausted, it plunked down on it's belly. Since I had previously been playing good cop, he let me get close enough to him to drape the towel over his back like I was putting a shawl on an old lady. That way, I already had it swaddled so that it couldn't wriggle away. Then he became perfectly docile and went into the carrier with no fuss. Maryanne and I each took a handle for the walk back to Heather's car.


Off to the Vet with WIRES

The bird didn't have any obvious injuries, like being entangled in fishing line. I was worried he might have a stomach full of plastic, but Heather said it was more likely simple exhaustion. Gannets migrate from New Zealand. If they get unlucky and get bad headwinds, the trip can be too much for them. Based on the juvenile plumage, it may have been our little guy's first time. This seems like a strange problem for a sea bird that eats fish and can rest on the water like a duck, but most of the fish Gannets eat are near shore, so from their standpoint, there is a big food desert to traverse and the longer the crossing takes, the longer they have to go hungry. Our guy seemed too weak to just be really tired, but I hope Heather is right. Once we were at her car, she said she'd have him to at the Vet's in ten minutes.

Our bird detour had eaten up enough time that we decided to save the rest of our tour of Yamba until the next day. First, Maryanne got to do our laundry at the caravan park while I stayed home to hack away at a problem with our weather analysis software. Our reunion was cause for a big celebration, so we dressed Begonia up in all of her Laundry Day flags. We then finished what walking there was left to do in Yamba, even finding a little worn trail with a sign that said, “Caution, Bees Ahead”. We also found that ice cream shop I had been looking for.



We loved ambling about the small town, returning to Begonia around sunset both days

Heather later called Maryanne to pass on the sad news that our gannet was far too sick to survive and had to be euthanized.

{Maryanne: Kyle was obviously sad about the outcome for "our" gannet, its tough to find all that effort didn't really help the bird, we hope at least it had a stress-free time once it made it to the vet. On a lighter note we enjoyed a host of other birds around town; nature thrives after all.}