The Slocum Spray Society of Australia
Sailaways
Bribie Island—Australia Day Picnic 2010
They came, they saw, they conquered. Some didn't come at all- which is a pity because they were not among the 19 or so members who did take part in a pleasant sail to beautiful Bribie Island Qld, for an Australia Day knees-up. Bribie Island has long been a destination for hundreds of happy campers and day trippers, as far back as the old SS Koopa days when the famous old steamer did the run from the Brisbane River, picking up hordes of other passengers from the Redcliffe Jetty and descending on the sandy beaches of Bribie.
The Spray Society had originally intended sailing to those oft sailed waters of Canaipa but due to commitments of some, it wasn't possible for it to be a long weekend, so the destination was changed which meant a lot more local vessels took part from the Scarborough region. John and Annie Ward made the trek from Manly aboard the beautiful “Arabella” for the weekend. “Rosinante” (Bruce Scammels) put in a surprise but enjoyable appearance with brother Russell and friend Midge as crew. It was good to see “Alcina” (Steve and Melinda Hughes and their boys and Penny and her boys) join in as well.
“Dragon Lady”, (Barry and Jackie Moore) after sailing down from Bundaberg for the event, had a late forfeit with a bad diesel leak whilst “Florissant” (Rex and Gael Bidgood) ventured out with DL's skipper as crew. Families and crew dived off their yachts, rowed ashore or jumped off the jetty for a cooling swim before meeting under the shade of the old apple tree- well something like that. Actually It was a beautiful very old silky oak tree which has seen many a picnic under its spreading and aged limbs. Probably many from the SS Koopa in the early 1900's sheltered in the ample shade provided in the very spot we were.
On the menu was chook, salad and damper for some, sandwiches for others whilst still others chose to chomp on locally cooked hamburgers from one of the many takeaways nearby. Whilst we sat among good friends, reconstructed the government (as you do) toasted some pollies (not many) and jeered others (lots) we paused to reflect upon good old Josh who all those years ago enjoyed good friends in the many ports he sailed to. OK John, the rest of the party forgive you for almost losing sight of the picnic lunch concept and choofing off around the Bay enjoying the great sailing conditions. The belated arrival (John and Annie Ward, and Mike and Julie McLean) still saw great fellowship and Annie as always showed up with many Australiana props to help get into the vibe of the day.
We all sailed back in company, well, that is until “Alcina” did a surprise about face and, with sails luffing, retraced her steps. Well you would do the same if your family dog Lucy, fell overboard wouldn't you? Dog successfully retrieved, which will place Steve and Crew in good form for the MOB drill at the forthcoming regatta.
All vessels performed beautifully and it was good to see Sprays and a Sampson cruising in Deception Bay with winds abaft of abeam for most of the way home. That night the spirit of the occasion was continued when the Moore's, Ward's and McLean's descended on Miccolini's for some fine Italian food (I should have said meat pies, so you didn't think we were pikers to the Oz theme). But next morning several who were still around had a good old Aussie BBQ breakfast at Newport Marina, which went on till almost lunchtime.
The weekend continued with a lovely dinner at Barry and Jackie's canal side home on the Monday night where 9 guests came along (some by dinghy) for another BBQ. Jackie excelled herself with the themed table dressing and we all sat outside under the stars canal side watching the world go by and so on. Ross and Joan Skilleter were present as were the Wards, and Scammels and Midge. Normally dry and subdued Joan had us on the floor with a funny joke or two and the conversation flowed on. The party ended about 11.30pm and the following day “Arabella” set sail for home whilst other members, some with sore heads, reflected upon what was arguably the best Australia Day Spray weekend yet. Those who didn't come—well, eat your hearts out.
Barry Moore
Australia Day Sailaway - January 2009
The weather for the Australia Day sailaway looked poor earlier in the week. Although the wind forecast was good, rain was initially forecast all weekend. This moderated to showers in the forecast by Friday.
Sasha, Spirit of Sabroan and Arabella headed off for Blakesleys anchorage just off North Stradbroke Island on Saturday 24/1/09 deciding to take a chance on the forecast. The wind was 10-15 knots from the North East allowing sailing all the way down the bay. John and Annie invited everyone over for sundowners on Arabella and we all stayed well beyond sunset, reminiscing and recounting recent adventures. Gary (Spirit of Sabroan) is planning to put these to paper for future Spray magazines. On Sunday morning the NE winds were still with us at about 5-10 knots allowing a leisurely sail all the way to Canaipa. However the light winds did mean that breakfast at Canaipa turned into brunch at Canaipa. Gary and Wendy elected to sail further afield and will be sending a separate email relating to this.
At lunch there was a huge downpour that continued most of the afternoon. The logical thing to do was to watch the rain from Canaipa point, and down a few beers whilst waiting for the weather to settle. Finally at 4 pm the weather settled long enough to return to the boats and pick up the food for a barbecue and return to Canaipa at about 6.30 pm. Here the RQYS cruising group invited us to join them for their Australia Day party. It was a wonderful evening with live music which included saxophone, clarinet and guitar.
Monday morning we were all there with the cruising group for flag raising at 7.30 am. This was followed by breakfast and then we all sailed back from about 11 am. The wind was kind enough to change to SE 10-15 knots overnight making both runs dream runs for a Spray.
Martin Culwick
Macleay May
Meander 2007
The SE Qld members took part in an interesting sailaway over the 2007 Labour
Day long weekend. Designed to be more of a tour among some of the many
islands and anchorages in southern Moreton Bay, it started out with Arabella
(John and Annie Ward), Zephyr (Ken and Lyn Smith) and Dragon Lady (Barry and
Jackie Moore) meeting up on Friday 4 May at Horseshoe Bay, a pristine
stretch of beach on the southern side of Peel Island, site of the Government
leper colony until the mid 50’s.
http://www.users.bigpond.net.au/pludlow/peelhist.htm Dragon Lady arrived
at night and was guided through a fleet of about fifty vessels already
anchored, to a perfect spot next to Arabella - John and Annie Ward waving a
big search light causing more than one curious yachty to scratch their head.
After a pleasant night, the trio sailed further south to Canaipa Passage
where they were joined by the lovely Epsilon (Doug and Sharon Grant). An
interesting diversion took place with Dragon Lady rafting up to local
Valentia (Jill and Rob Grayling) to check out the engine, which wouldn’t
start for the last 8 months. ‘McGuiver’ Moore coaxed it into life and then
the rest of the gang Ken and John and wives arrived by dinghy. Whilst the
boys rendered further assistance sorting out some other mechanical problems
evident, the ladies whipped up a nice morning tea on Valentia. The group
enjoyed a cuppa and a good mag. before casting off to return to anchorages.
Some members enjoyed a picnic lunch ashore under the trees whilst four
intrepid members took a walk up North Stradbroke’s Mt. Willes lookout, which
afforded nice views. Returning to their yachts in the one duckie, they
espied a gorgeous beautiful lady cruising along- in the form of Spray
“Spirit of Sobraon” (formerly “Merlot”) looking fabulous after an 18month
refit, rebuild and respray. Said quartet tried to shortcut to get ahead of
the spray but got stuck on a sandbank at which Wardo jumped over to push the
ducky off and promptly went down to his knees in mud. Imagine the four
members (Barry, Annie, Ken and John) standing up excitedly waving and
‘ahoying’ to the unknown Spray owners to catch their attention (such
enthusiasm!) Now free of the mud bank they quickly motored over and got
talking to the owner who had turned back - if for no reason than to see who
these eager beavers were.
The owners (non members) decided to join in for the rest of the weekend.
Saturday night saw the obligatory BBQ ashore at the RQYS Canaipa base.
Sunday morning sailing along behind Dragon Lady, the entourage grew with the
arrival of Sasha (Linda and Martin Culwick) and Kestrel (Ron and Alison
Hazelton). The members dropped anchor in the passage between Macleay Island
and Karragarra Island somewhere near yet another Spray called Hina, which
has eluded the Spray chasers for some years. Mike the owner said he’d
consider joining (but is yet to do so).
http://www.queenslandholidays.com.au/destinations/brisbane/places-to-visit/karragarra-island/
The main event was a pleasant lunch ashore on Macleay at the lovely Blue
Parrot Café and Restaurant where some 14 members enjoyed fine food and good
times catching up with each other. Monday morning dawned to another
beautiful day, which saw members dinghy ashore to a lovely beach and fine
facilities on Karragarra Island where a breakfast BBQ feast was enjoyed. (JW
insisted on ignoring the gas fired BBQ’s for the wood fired ones, which
caused all to come away smelling a little of smoke - but what a nostalgic
aroma. We met the commodore of the quirky Karragarra Yacht Club where you
can’t join if you own a boat. If you do own a boat, then you can’t use it,
but if you do, then you can’t be the member, your spouse has to be. Make
sense?
After breakfast, Dragon Lady lead the other vessels via a new route -
through the W shaped channel called- the W’s (er, of course!). Passing water
taxis, which frequently service the bay islands, looked in disbelief at the
gorgeous procession of Sprays. Enroute to the next island Coochimudlo, a
fresh breeze afforded some nice sailing, which was too good for a few
members to pass up and they continued on whilst Arabella, Zephyr and Dragon
Lady dropped their picks for a lunchtime stop at the Matthew Flinders
Restaurant. Well Flinders himself stood on the same beaches of Coochimudlo
Island on 19 July 1799 and surveyed the area.
http://www.coochieisland.com/main/
Members, who attended the total sailaway weekend or extended it or just came
for part of it, all enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to the next
event. Maybe it’s time you came along, or if interstate, have you own
sailaway. We’d like to hear about your exploits.
Barry Moore
Spray Society
Christmas 2006 Get together.
Barry Moore asked me to put pen
to paper and tell all you absent Spray souls what you missed on the
Christmas Canaipa Cruise Caper on 2 and 3 December weekend…. and this is
what you really missed:
Some Sprays started the weekend at Canaipa Point, Russell Island on Friday
(they were the Government workers), and others stretched it to include
Monday Tuesday and Wednesday (they were the self-employed people) but the
Doctors (Culwicks) had an emergency time table - they came Saturday and left
Sunday.
I do believe if you come out for a weekend with the Spray group you may
expect that we all understand the word weekend to mean different things, so
bring more than one spare pair of undies. We had Sprays everywhere—some up
the gully (next to RQYS premises), others along the beach and some tucked up
behind the point, we even had a visiting Spray from Darwin “Southerly
Bluster II”- seems this spray owner was helping build a house on Russell
Island for a sailing mate.
We had all sorts of unusual things happen this weekend. I was told someone
travelled in their birthday suit, the native carer with a spirited persona (ie
SSSA 1st lady) apparently had the Captain most surprised!
Saturday lunch, some went ashore for a combined BBQ, but the main feature
was the evening gathering, where all showed up wearing some favourite piece
of Christmas apparel or hat. Most had a BBQ dinner before our Chrissy party,
complete with the usuals including bon-bons—and gags started. We had “pass
the parcel”, lots of great dessert and cake, then more chances to win
chocolates, truffles and bottles of wine, and a huge Christmas cake that
Annie organised with the words “Season’s Greetings- Slocum Canaipa Christmas
Cruisers” so if you are saving yourself for Christmas Turkey you have
another reason to be thankful you missed our get together.
I showed off my tonsils with a Christmas song for the group, and I haven’t
shown them off for forty years. I couldn’t keep up with the band that was
accompanying me, a steel guitar, a wild keyboard that pretends to be an
orchestra and a clarinet. Well …I think I would have preferred just the
clarinet as the steel guitar and keyboard felt much more at home playing
some wild seventies tunes than helping me with, “I saw mummy kissing Santa
Claus”. If that wasn’t worth missing then you could be thankful that you
missed doing some stand up piece yourself.
We also had a white fluffy toothless singing dog that didn’t feel like
singing (his owners had penned words to, “All I want for Christmas is my
missing teeth”).
Late Sunday and all day Monday we had some wild winds that reached over 50
knots; this kept some of the boats tucked up tight but did not mean we
couldn’t party. We had breakfast and BBQ dinners on shore, nibbles and
parties on Sprays.
Anyway, you missed out on a great Weekend. The next one is sure to offer
some other wonders, oops- I just remembered we have all voted that before
the next get together JW needs to get a dinghy big enough to hide his bum,
and an outboard fast enough to get him to shore before the following swell
swamps his little dinghy. Barry, will you please sell him the one you keep
loaning him!!
Your wondering, pondering reporter, Sharon.
Joshua Slocum
110th Anniversary
Weekend of 7 and 8 October 2006.
All members were invited to celebrate Captain Joshua Slocum’s 110th
Anniversary of sailing in through Sydney Heads (10 October) on the Saturday
7th and then to write something short about how they spent the time. The
Queensland contingent got together at Scarborough. Some sailed in for the
occasion (Arabella and Epsilon) berthing at the Newport Waterways Marina, a
very short dinghy ride across the canal to Barry and Jackie Moore’s new
waterfront home where Dragon Lady resides at their back door.
Others who couldn’t bring their Sprays drove to the planned location where
some 13 members enjoyed a fine BBQ lunch, organized by Mrs President (Annie
Ward). Members chatted on through the afternoon talking about anything and
everything, whilst enjoying the views and passing parade of the canals. An
evening moonlight cruise departing around 6pm saw 11 members enjoy nibbles
and wine etc, on Dragon Lady as Barry piloted her out into Deception Bay.
The full moon rose on cue over Moreton Island and provided a fitting
backdrop in the clear night sky as we glided along, thinking of and raising
a glass or two to our hero and his marvelous exploits all those years ago.
(see photos page 8).
The Lady handled the extended crew well and Barry doused the iron spinnaker
and unfurled the headsail for a gentle sail on the Bay. The time flew and
soon we were gliding back through the leads and after berthing, folks
disembarked satisfied that we at least had toasted our Josh in a fitting and
enjoyable way together.
Sunday morning saw crews and additional members who couldn’t make it on the
Saturday, arrive for a BBQ brekky - again at our Secretary and Mrs
Secretary’s home. Arabella and Epsilon then departed on the tide bound for
Manly. Barry and Jackie Moore with Martin and Linda Culwick aboard Dragon
Lady provided an escort as far as the Scarborough tripod green and then
turned for home as Epsilon and Arabella settled down to a fine sail on a
great North Easterly back to Manly.
Dockside Dock-Up 5-6 November 2005
The big weekend 5/6 November 2005 finally came and members using the tide advantage sailed up the Brisbane river to Dockside Marina, near the Storey Bridge, for our weekend activities. Soon after entering the mouth of the River, Dragon Lady (Barry and Jackie Moore, with their friends Ken and Kathy Harrison) met up with Spindrift (Brian and Gillian Hockey), and Black Magic (new members Brad and Sue Francis and their guest lady crew) sailed in company.
After admiring the changing face of the Brisbane River over the 17 or so miles and the myriads of new apartment developments from recycled wharf buildings, some arrived at Dockside somewhat after the turn of the tide, which in this marina makes for some interesting berthing across current. Fortunately Spray (Roger Wolfe and crewmate Ross Skilliter, on a leave pass from Jono, still being finished at Manly) and Sea Legend (Ken and Lynn Smith) had already arrived and lent a hand to take lines. Black Magic's new paintjob was unscathed, much to owners Brad and Sue's relief.
We also met new member Dr Bruce Whelan and his steel 36' Spray Selkii which made six members’ vessels in all, four of them Sprays. Arabella was not re-engined in time to make the trip - much to the President’s lament. Dockside marina is built on the site of the historic Evans Deakin dry dock which in its heyday built a lot of ships of all types. It also employed Roger Wolfe, one of our vice presidents, in his younger day, and well can he recount stories of those ship-building times.
Set among beautifully landscaped grounds and magnificent hotels and apartments, the area naturally has numerous boutique coffee outlets and restaurants among other tempting shops. The constant swell from river traffic particularly the City Cat ferries, kept us well and truly alert, and good attention to lines and fenders was needed at all times. After about 10.30 pm we got a good night’s sleep until about 6.30am when your docking fee lets you do it all over again!
An executive committee meeting was held on Saturday afternoon, whilst other members did the “meet and greet” bit. A keen eye by your’s truly spotted another Spray berthed at the Dockside marina and soon, owners Steve and Chris Hollister signed up as new members with their steel Spray Inglis. (No, I did not drone them into submission!) We also had a visit from David and Margot Keenan and their daughter Anne and her young son Hamish. They drove down from their Maleny home especially to meet other members and see different Sprays. We must have passed the test because they too joined up which was really great to see.
Also coming along by car for the weekend and staying nearby were John and Jenni Barker (Geidi) and Ron and Alison Hazelton (Kestrel) and John and Annie Ward (Arabella). Our Saturday evening dinner was held at an Asian restaurant where we all enjoyed the fine food and each others company, although at one stage were disturbed by some River fireworks for some event, which caused interesting resonations among the many tall buildings.
Sunday morning was somewhat miserable and planned activities were attended only by the brave (or the silly?). This included ferry trips to the markets at Riverside and South Bank. Eventually all the Sprays and member’s boats headed home, but one thing's for certain - all who attended agreed that it was a really great time, even with the rock and roll from river traffic.
Barry Moore
Some Sprays at the Dockside Dock-up, Brisbane. From left - Selki,
Spindrift V, and Inglis. (Click to enlarge)
New members at Dockside - Steve and Chris Hollister (Inglis), and Bruce
Whelan (Selki)
CANAIPA CAPER REPORT - 20 - 22 August 2005.
