G'day all

[Boblee]

Well finally after almost three months, have been able to access the internet and even the phone reliably so hi everyone and glad to see the board is functioning again and love the improved layout.
Trust Me has been great both on land and on water even though we did minimal sailing.
Will be home in about a week so will catch up on all the news then
Bob

[Mistral]

Hi Bob,

Good to hear you had a great trip. Looking forward to the report and pics.

[NiceAft]

Bob,

Seeing as Summer is approaching down under, where have you been during the Winter

Ray

[Oskar 26M]

Great to see you online again BobLee.
I hope we get a to hear a long account of your Northern Adventures soon.
Cheers!

[Boblee]

First full day at home today and after watching a bit of tv and sleeping in a normal bed (off the boat) for the first time in three months, even slept in for a couple of hours after daylight.
Will try and find some intersting pictures amongst the thousands the wife took in a few days time but we had a fantastic trip even though we only stayed within the Macarther river system with about two weeks in the Sir Edward Pellew group of islands and so the sailing was minimal especially with some winds around 25-30 knots out there.
We mainly poked around the extensive waterways and relaxed with leisurely fishing to keep the fridge stocked with various varieties, although filled the 70l freezer quickly over the last week for the trip home, which will take a beating tonight with the family calling around.
The boat went well and am confident the Macs can handle most conditions in our northern coastal waters at this time of the year with a little bit of common sense due to weather changes.
It was (very) dissapointing not to be able to convince the wife to explore further up and down the coast especially towards Arnhem land and the Wessel Islands but some things are more important.
We also used the boat as a caravan for almost a month while travelling the 6500+k's with the only mishap being that I forgot to pin the solar panels down on a particularly rough stretch of road and lost both of them and as it was almost 300k's back it wasn't worth returning as they would almost certainly be destroyed from the fall luckily it was on the way home but it meant either travelling long stretches or staying in caravan parks to keep the batterries charged, both of which we are normally loath to do.
On the water the Etec performed great at low revs (2-3000) but started breaking down at higher revs, we used over 200litres of fuel but at least 70 litres would have been used in the dinghy for exploring smaller creeks and fishing.
For the way we used the boat am firmly convinced there is absolutely no better way to see our coastal waters and gunkhole the estuaries or even fish extensively with a supporting dinghy, sailing would be an absolute bonus but unfortunately in our case it is not possible.
If there are any Mac owners wanting to have a go at it but are worried, just do it it is fantastic, We knew there was one other boat there for a very short visit earlier which was a small trailer sailer but other wise we saw no other sailboats and only dinghies which had to travel 30+ k's X 2 daily to experience what we were able enjoy for two weeks continuosly, although there were a couple of houseboats available within the river system but at $2000 a week and far less flexible MACS are king.
Sure is a shock to hit the land when temperatures are 30-38 deg c and no way to follow the wind for cooling but even worse was our first night away from the ocean when the temp dropped to 14 deg and the blankets were wrapped around the cooler to help it during the day travelling and the boat is closed up.

[NiceAft]

Bob,

When you are more rested, are there any maps you can post to show us where exactly you started from and where you traveled We on the northeast coast of the U.S. are winding down our sailing season. Hearing about your trip would be interesting, but being able to visualize exactly where you refer too, would be even better.

Ray

[Mistral]

Welcome home, Bob and Lee

Glad to hear you had a great trip and got home safely. Love to hear the full story and see the pics. Maybe your next venture could be the Gippsland Lakes during Melbourne Cup weekend.
Dirk

[Boblee]

Dirk
Is there something planned for the cup weekend? I do have intentions of getting down to the Gippsland lakes this summer sometime and also want to try and get down to Geelong.
The acclimatisation to this cold weather may take some time though, it's even raining here at present although it feels, cold enough to be raining icicles.
I see we have an international section which when I click on it, it tells me that it is for local events etc which sounds great but how do I access this or is there nothing there yet?
Want to get under the boat and clean off some of the gunk and fix a few of the scrapes and scratches prior to polishing before doing anything but it's TOO COLD.
Nice aft
Copied some pictures to photobucket hope they work but if you like any particular type eg scenery, neighbours etc can find plenty more. Will try and do a map but not sure how.
(edit) Album link didn't work so will do a bit of research.
Bob

[Mistral]

Hi Bob,

Pouring and freezing here too, although the weekend looks pretty good at the moment. Hopefully will put the boat in the water again.

Several of the Mac owners are planning to get together at the Gippsland Lakes over the long weekend. Nick, Cpt Haddock, Mistral at the moment made some noises sofar. Hopefully we will get some more MAC owners to come along.

You will need to subscribe to the new forums under your user control panel. Subscribe to one at the time.

[Oskar 26M]

Bob
To make a map of your trip, you can draw lines on any map image with most photoeditors but you might try the freebee copy of OziExplorer.

Its great navigation software. Although it works best in conjunction with a GPS of some kind, it also makes it easy to draw (and erase) tracks, waypoints etc on any map image. It comes with a few maps of Australia including a 1 in 1 million map which is quite detailed, but you can also use other map image files if you want to, including Google images or scanned paper maps.

To get your pics to work, the following might help:

1.To post LINKS to your photobucket pics
a) click on the "Direct Link" box in Photobucket to copy the URL of the image to your clipboard
(it should flash up "Copied" on the screen),
b) then come back here, click the "URL" button
c) then either
(i)paste the URL from you clipboard IN BETWEEN the two URL tags
OR
(ii)BEFORE the first closing square bracket, insert an "=" sign then paste the URL, then
move the cursor AFTER the first closing square bracket and type in the name or description you want to show in the link

OR
2.To EMBED the actual images in your post (not too many or the mods will get cross because it slows stuff down for dialup users),
a) click on the "IMG Code" box in Photobucket to copy the code for the image to your clipboard,
b) then come back here and click paste where you want the image to show

If in doubt click the Preview button here, to see how your post will look, complete with links or images. If you dont like the way it looks, you can change it, preview it again or submit it when you are happy with it.

[Boblee]

http://s156.photobucket.com/albums/t14/ ... orooloola/
Hopefully this link will work
(edit) It did must be getting old had forgotten how to paste after only three months away from the computor.
Think my social skills probably need a bit of work too with being isolated for so long and only the missus and the neighbours in the photo's for company, the only phone contact was by standing on a particular rock with the mobile or a public phone about every two weeks and with no tv had absolutely no idea what was happening outside especially as radio was erratic also.
The wife marked our map with the latest trip so may be able to photograph it for our latest trip or if I can work it out copy the tracks from the chartplotter although a couple of tracks got wiped out when the routes got too long.

[Oskar 26M]

Fantastic series of photos Bob.

What a trip!
Some of your neighbours didnt look too friendly. How did they compare in size to the Mac?

[Boblee]

The neighbours were fantastic and cause no problems but are a constant source of interest unlike neighbours in town.
Never saw any big crocs (over 3m) but there were a couple around, once the water temp rises you rarely see them as they don't need to warm up in the sun but if you are foolish enough to disregard them they will be well fed.
I think they are relocated as they get bigger in the Macarthur system as there is a fair bit of tourism also the crabbers are reputed to cull them regularly.
5m crocs in the Victoria and Daly rivers are fairly common as there are no crabbers to my knowledge, personally I would be just as worried about the sharks but we did see idiots swimming or paddling up to their waist

[NiceAft]

Bob,

I just had the pleasure of viewing your pictures. Seeing wildlife (especially the one's with the toothy grins) and terrain that varies so greatly from what we are used to in the Northeast U.S. was thrilling. Thanks for posting them.

Ray