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Email - Ian - iqcarpenter@gmail.com                Janet - tenajm@iafrica.com

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This is dated in the future so as to avoid having to change it for static info each time we update the blog, so do not chirp!

Three super weeks in Durban and we are on countdown to depart for our other home.....We have had a lovely time with family and friends. I wish I were an octopus with eight tentacles so that I could be in eight different places at the same time! We are flying to Johannesburg tomorrow to spend time with friends and then leave on 1 July, spending two nights in Singapore before we arrive in Brisbane.

Ian and I have been back in Durban for 10 days now. Notable changes include lots of building - some of it for the Soccer World Cup where they appear to be pulling out all stops to get the new stadium finished in time. It is good to see the smiling faces of the locals again and hear their happy chatting. Luckily for us the power cuts seem to have ceased for the time being. 

Not so good is that remedial work is being done to the complex in which I still own a unit. So every day we have to endure jack hammers, drilling, scaffolding, dust and who knows what. And I complained about the mess made when we sanded and varnished the capping!!

Having secured Rebel on a mooring in Yamba, we caught the bus on Wed morning to Grafton to get the train to Sydney. We arrived there some 11 hours later at 23.00, having been entertained in our carriage with some Jerry Springer type relationship sharing by a couple across the isle from us!!

The flight from Sydney was delayed by 10 hours due to the flight engineers strike, and heaven knows what else. On the positive side we met a super couple from Tasmania in the same predicament. Sharing two bottles of wine over the free lunch Qantas paid for made the time go by very quickly!  We eventually landed at OTambo Airport at 1.30am on Friday morning. As I had missed my PE connection, I lay on the hotel bed provided by Qantas for an hour before I had to get up to catch the 5.50 flight to PE, leaving Ian in Joburg to catch up with friends and other matters. It is super being here in PE with my Mom. Next bulletin from Durban.

It is good to be back on board our little home.... we spent two days perusing the Scantuary Cove Boat Show looking for ideas and solutions and came away almost as confused as before... so many alternatives without any clearcut answers. The show was really well organised re parking and bussing people from the car park, with this transport all part of the ticket. Gary and Colette Nicholls put us up and a real win was that they live 5 mins from the car park.

We made our way back to Yamba via the arty hippie town of Nimbin. The scenery as we drove inland to get there was pretty and showed us a different aspect of the countryside. Ian has gone off to cheer for the Sharks as they play the Warratahs..... Hope he returns in a good mood.

Janet here. We have finally finished varnishing the rail and it looks jolly good (should hope so). We have been managing to have some fun with Chris and Gilli at the same time and generally enjoying the glorious weather - including a huge storm on Sat night that saw two boats drag their anchors. We moved to the Iluka fishing boat harbour today with the intention of leaving Rebel there while we returned to SA.... terrible mooring and the guy next to us was about to start a major sanding job, which would have covered us - inside and out - in fine dust. Luckily they agreed to refund our money and Yamba Marina had space for us - so off we went across the channel and here we are, just having had a great shower in the marina. Tomorrow we are heading off to the Sanctuary Cove Boat Show in a hired car for two days.

Janet here. We backtracked from Ulmarra to Maclean, where we spent an extra night as they would not close the Pacific Highway for us exactly when we wanted it.... Despite the opening having been booked for 9.00 the next morning the operators kept us waiting for an hour, milling around burning diesel and trying not to get swept by the outgoing tide into the bridge. Apparently scheduled repairwork will see the bridge closed for about six months early next year, so we are lucky to have gotten up and down the river and not locked in. I must say I could think of far worse places to get stuck.

We arrived back in Iluka (across from Yamba) yesterday afternoon and were tickled to see another Petersen in the bay moored 40m from us, with the owners now having lived on her for 10 years. Today we investigated the Iluka and Yamba mooring facilities and will probably leave Rebel in the Iluka fishing boat harbour in June while we are in SA.  

Janet here from Ulmarra. We are progressing very slowly up the Clarence River, stopping off where ever there is a pub.... together with Alan and Patricia Lucas on Soleares and Chris and Gilli on Westwind.... After Maclean we made our way to Lawrence for a night, then onto Brushgrove, which has a charming pub. Locals with long beards mingle with ex-city dwellers who have moved there for the charm and prettiness of the area. We were anchored literally 20m from the bank tho swimming is a no no as apparently bull sharks swim up the river to feed and breed. From Brushgrove we moved onto Ulmarra, which has arty shops, great hotel/pub and not much else - not possible to even buy a potato. Last night we cooked the 3kg roll of beef that Ian won in the Friday night bar raffle. My first roast and Soleares and Westwind were willing guinea pigs, with Patricia bringing a delicious fruit crumble and Gilli her chocolates.... Tonight we have all been invited ashore Soleares' friends, so off to eat again.

After the endless rain we have had, the sun has been shining for over a week and we have managed to get five coats of varnish onto the rail.... only five more to go! Hopefully it will then last for at least three years.

Janet here from the two boat public wharf in Maclean. Caballero and Rebel crews went into the thriving metropolis of Maclean for Sunday lunch, only to find most places shut.... However, after lunch we upped anchor and moved onto the free public wharf with its electricity and water. This has been a real godsend as we have been able to hose off the endless sawdust associated with our sanding of Rebel's rail. To add to our comfort is the 100m walk to the Spar and 50m walk to the bottlestore.

However, progress on our rail varnishing has been slow due to the extremely social nature of the wharf. It is used by yachties anchored in the river to tie up their dinghies when going ashore, hence many conversations and meeting new people. Yesterday we were fortunate to meet Alan and Patricia Lucas, authors of 'Cruising the NSW Coast' and 'Crusing the Coral Sea' and tomorrow will be having coffee aboard their yacht. They are super people and we really appreciate the painstaking detail of their cruising guides, which have helped us enormously.

Tomorrow our three days on the public wharf will be up and we plan to move upriver to Lawrence. Off to a barbeque on Westwind.

Janet here. We have been anchored off Maclean, a tiny Scottish town up the Clarence River for the past three nights. The lampposts are festooned with different clans' tartans and the shops lean towards Scottish fare..... Ian has found his clan while I have yet to track mine down. Maybe we are even related! Our days have been busy with sanding down our toe rail (painstaking job) and then we are going to have to revarnish it. Evenings have been spent in the company of Westwind and Caballero, where hopefully I have hooked a couple of new Scrabble players.

Janet here. The weather turned favourable for us and on Tuesday morning there was a mass exodus of boats from Coffs Harbor - leaving anytime from 3.00am on. We set off at 06.00am, which allowed us 9 hours to get to Iluka at high tide. With the wind a light SW, we motorsailed in the morning with the sails goosewinged, tho by lunch time we were able to turn the motor off and enjoy the 20-25kn that filled in. The skies were clear tho the air was crisp ... warm clothing stayed on all day. We arrived at 14.30, with the bar not an issue at all. The east side of the little bay that houses Iluka's fishing trawler fleet looked pretty crowded, so we anchored on the west side and were able to enjoy a peaceful night without having to get up to ensure we were not going to bump into another boat as the wind/tide turned us.Today so far has been maintenance and then a look around the shore with friends from Westwind.

Janet here. Still in Coffs Harbour in the bucketing rain. Not much to report. Even exploring the sourroundings is a little hampered by the weather. We are reading and generally passing the time. As yet we do not even have any photos of Coffs Harbour to post.

Janet here. We left Laurieton yesterday morning, crossing the bar without any problem tho there was a swell and the odd breaking wave. One of these dumped onto our friends Chris and Gillie when they left 20 mins later and broke their dinghy, which was stored upside down on the foredeck. The swell was big and wind fairly strong, so it was quite a hectic sail to Trial Bay, where we overnighted. Thank goodness the two courtesy moorings were unoccupied, so we could pick one up and Chris and Gillie the other. Anchoring in the bay would have meant even less sleep than we had on the courtesy mooring, where we rocked and rolled the night away.

We left Trial Bay at about 8.30am with a very murky sky, still biggish, intermittent rain squalls and wind on our bum, which never makes for a great sail. Luckily we got into Coffs Harbour at 14.00, as it has been pouring virtually since then. We intend staying here a week or so to catch our breath and get on top of some maintenance issues.