Last trip before September holidays at Wide Bay

[sunshinecoasting]

Hi all,

Up here on the Sunshine Coast we have two long weekends in a row, our show day is next Friday so only a 3 day week, yay. So I have plans to launch tomorrow night and anchor in the river at Mooloolaba, the Eschels regatta is on this weekend so I will have lots of fun watching them out in the distance, I would race them but the Mac has an unfair advantage, all 50 of them.

So I am going to live on the boat for the whole week and go to work from the marina as I only work a 5 minute walk from there, really excited about this trip as I will get 6 days sailing and 3 days just lazing around on the boat watching telly and relaxing after work, the three work days I am in the Marina to make it easy for me, the rest of the time I am staying in the river anchorage. There has been a large pod of dolphins all week playing in the shallows and chasing bait fish so hopefully I can get up close and personal. Im taking the Gopro so may have some good footage on Youtube to show when I get home. I will post a report either from the boat or when I return.

Cheers, Dennis.

[Mac26Mpaul]

Good for you Dennis sounds like a plan Its just after midnight now and we are busy packing bags as we are off in the morning to Tweed heads to launch at Fingal Head. We are doing a 4 day mastless tweed river cruise (touching wood as I speak as this trip has been canned twice now in the last 4 months at the last moment due to unforeseen circumstance )

Hopefully some nice video and pics of the Tweed to share next week

Paul

[barryst1300]

Hope you guys have a great long weekend on your boats. Looking forward to seeing the video's. We had planned to head over to Tangalooma for the weekend but the forecast of 25 to 30 knots this afternoon scared me off. I'm hoping to get out on Monday for a spot of sailing if all goes to plan.

[barryst1300]

Hey Paul, did you get to do your Tweed River cruise? If so where did you launch from?

[Mac26Mpaul]

Hi Barry,

Yes, just got back a coupla hours ago, now having fish and chips and a beer and having trouble keeping my eyes open....

Launched at Fingal Head ramp which is easy to get to from the highway. Had a great time, the best part of the river in our opinion is the bit from Murwillumbah up to the Bray Park weir (and beyond if you take kayaks like we did). We had the place to ourselves and it was very peaceful and very pretty. I have tonnes of video and photos and will try and do a bit of a write up of our trip, and put a video together in the next week or two.

Paul

Here's a coupla pics:

[sailboatmike]

I really dont like you Paul, you make me envious of your sailing grounds.

The Mac is tucked away in the boat yard at the moment due to a major rebuild of the clubs boat shed that got blown away last September in a storm, Im taking the time and slowly replacing the years of terrible rewires and splices.

Seriously thinking of replacing the old original X switch box there is lots of corrosion on the backs of the switches that has been hidden away in the cupboard out of sight, just a bit hesitant to take on the project at the moment, winter is supposed to be the off season for yacht clubs but the committee is busier than ever getting ready for the new one already, lots meetings and things just eat the time.


Ohh well the AGM is coming up soon and I may not get re-elected, then I will have buckets of time

[barryst1300]

Paul, those photo's look sensational. What a quiet peaceful looking spot that is. Looking forward to seeing the vids when you get around to them.
How far is it from Fingal down to the weir?

[Mac26Mpaul]

Rewiring, that's something I need to attempt sooner or later too, but I think I'll just put that off until stuff doesn't work

Barry,
I can't remember, I think its about 30kms to the weir. You can work it out pretty easily with the measurement function in google earth. It really is a peaceful place. I could happily hide up there for a week by myself with a few books and a bottle of rum Just a lovely spot. We only saw two boats. The police rib which came up once and left straight away, and a cabin cruiser which did the same. Otherwise we were alone all the time which is pretty much how we like it
In summer, I tend to think it might not be so peaceful up there.


I have made two videos of the trip, one is already on Youtube, and I will upload the other overnight which is the one with all the footage of the weir area.
Heres the first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c1Jx66qRLVY

[barryst1300]

Paul, that is stunning photography you've done there. Absolutely brilliant and a just a joy to watch. The colours you've captured in the sunset shower are amazing. I'm only 8 minutes into this one and have to run. But I can't wait to get back and play this on my big screen TV. Also can't wait to see what part 2 will like.

Also would it be Ok with you if I shared your video on another MacGregor owners facebook website? I imagine a lot of Mac owners will get a kick out of watching this too.

BTW, how on earth did you incorporate those google earth pan and zoom scenes?

[Mac26Mpaul]

Thanks Barry

I'm no photographer, that is just point and shoot video and photography, and so mother nature deserves the credit for putting on that great show

I think the second film is better. Although I've watched it on the big screen and there are a few video eras I need to try and fix before uploading. Unfortunately my computer is getting on and doesn't have enough RAM for memory intensive stuff like video editing and gives me some headaches....

Yeah of course, post the videos anywhere you like. Happy to hear others may get something out of them

You need Google Earth pro to put those little Google earth bits in your videos - which used to be several hundred dollars a year but they recently made it free. Get it here:
http://www.google.com.au/earth/download/gep/agree.html

It is time consuming until you get the hang of it. Once you play with it a bit its quite simple.


You just click the yellow placemark icon to mark places you want to fly to.

Then you untick those placemarks in the left hand payne which makes it so you cant see the yellow placemark pins on the map.

Then you click "Record a Tour" from the top menu - and then, in the left hand window, you click each of the places you want to fly to.

Then when you have recorded a tour, you go to "Tools" and then "movie Maker" and choose the saved tour you created and get it to create a movie of your tour
(all simpler than it sounds once you have a play, and there will be easy to follow tutorials on the net if what I'm saying doesn't make sense.

You then just drag the saved Google Earth movie into Windows movie maker or whatever you use for video editing.

cheers,
Paul

[marcopolo173]

Agree with the other posters, Paul, you do take terrific videos of your travels.

With respect to this one, any tips on removing the mast for the trip? I try to do these things myself, and haven't worked out a good method for removing and reinstating the mast yet.

Marc

[Mac26Mpaul]

Hi Marc,

Thanks The second video and cruise report are here

http://www.macgregorsailors.com/forum/v ... 51#p299651

My wife does not get involved in the sailing in any way and would barely know the difference between the jib and the main. Most stuff on my boat is done by me only.
However that's one job she helps me with. Disconnect all your shrouds and tie em up with cable ties on the mast. Put a ladder in about this position like this.


Now get up there and grab the rear of the mast and gently lower it down to someone while they guide it onto the ladder. Now go up the front and pass that end down to your helper and they can lower it to the ground. You then climb down and grab the end resting on the ladder and put that on the ground. I store the mast down the side of the house resting on top of a couple of water heaters. Its easy to move around with a person on each end - not real heavy.

[barryst1300]

Hi Paul,
Just wanted to let you know that Marissa and I had a great time on our weekend on the Tweed the weekend before last. We put in at Fingal and it was nice to have the shelter of that little deep water lagoon at the ramp as the wind was blowing straight up the river that morning. We cruised at about 10kph all the way up the river. There are so many great views along the river, though as you said the most scenic part is the section of river beyond Murwillumbah. I was also surprised at how deep the river was in sections. 23 metres was the deepest we recorded.

We anchored up on the final bend in the river just before the weir as the wind was blowing up that final reach of the river when we arrived. I also tied the stern to a tree on the bank as a secondary anchor in case the wind shifted overnight (and it did). In the morning my anchor chain must have looped around a log or something in the water as there was no way we could get it up. Tried reversing in an arch, driving it out, nothing worked so I had to cut it loose and lost 8 metres of stainless chain and my anchor which cheesed me off a bit. We were in about 12 metres of water so it was too deep and too cold to dive down and try and free the anchor.

I carry a spare anchor for anchoring the stern to the beach, but as that anchor has no chain I was reluctant to anchor up a second night in the forecast winds, so we headed for home on Sunday instead. We also found our gas bottle was empty on the first night so had no hot water, no way of washing up, and no way of cooking our steaks or making a coffee. So Sunday morning we motored into Murwillumbah and tied up at the public jetty walked into town to find a decent coffee. Spent about two hours there and then cruised up to Tumby pub and got the jetty about 40 seconds ahead of four jetskiers who looked most pi$$ off that we'd just beaten them to it and had used up the bulk of the jetty. So I waved them in and gave each one a hand to dock their ski's behind the jetty which they were most grateful for.

After a lunch of fish and chips in the park next to the river we set off up that little channel that heads west from Tumblegum and motored up there for about an hour before turning around and heading back to Fingal with a bit more speed. We had a ball and plan on doing it again when the weather warms up a bit. Our next trip is to do the same again but this time exploring the Noosa river up to Lake Cootharaba.

Cheers

Barry

[Mac26Mpaul]

Good to hear you had a good time Barry, bummer about the anchor and chain though

Don't think I've ever used hot water to wash up in the boat Cold works, just not as well. Raw steak and cold coffee wouldn't be any good though

Noosa River sounds good! Please show us some vid, or at least photos of that one once you have done it!