1993 June Long Weekend at Canaipa

By Jenny Maruff

In January this year the QMYC Executive met at Sanctuary Cove with Gold Coast members who showed an interest in a June Long Weekend Cruise to Canaipa. Dudley Young phoned RQYS to see if we could use their facilities at Brown's. 'They said "Yes!"

As BEN BOLT was on the hard at Wynnum Manly Yacht Cub, Dudley and I begged Bill and Kerry Van der Mark to give us a lift down to  Canaipa. We were to stay on INTRINSIC but did not want Don and Janice McWatters to have to sail into .Manly to pick us up.

Saturday the 12th June was a windy day. Both INTRINSIC and MARIPI (Bill Withers) experienced gusts up to 40 knots on their way across the Bay The Van der Mark's Inspiration 10 cat was flying along much to the consternation of Kerry and me. i was relieved when Bill and Dudley put a reef in the main behind Coochie.

When we arrived at Canaipa we had trouble anchoring because of the muddy bottom. We eventually got it right. Matt and Nell Herzig and son Samuel (six weeks) and crew Don Peveril, were moored not far from us in JESSICA IL. Closer to RQYS were Danny, Royal and Alex McMillan in their tri DESPATCH RIDER and Roben and Allison Hopgood in EAGLEHAWK a Windspeed 26.

At about 4pm we went ashore. Soon crews from the various multihulls arrived for the planned barbecue. Graham Argall and Debra Brown (WINGS), Brian and Jan Pearse and guests (DREAMWEAVER), Steve Soden and his wife (ROCK LOBSTER), Gayle and Phil Horan (DOUBLE SHUFFIB) with Gary and Robyn Martin and the McWilliams showed how the other half live on the Gold Coast. The table was set with linen, silver cutlery and wine glasses. There were marinated meats and salads and Steve Soden's wife prepared a Japanese barbecue which included wonderful vegetables. Steve was looking for HAT TRICK (Pam and Norm Hellings) a sister ship to ROCK LOBSTER. I explained that they were not with us because Pam had had to work. Steve was easily the most travelled yachtie at Brown's. He has sailed the Pacific in his tri and was single handing until very recently when he married a Japanese girl he had met while crewing on another boat.

Another set of keen travellers were Peter and Kate Brial who have been constantly on the move since buying BLACK LABEL from Bev and Ian Triplett.

They sailed it from Port Macquarie to Sydney and cruised the Hawksbury before coming North.

OSTAC TRIUMPH had arrived with Fred Gans and Beverly and David and Debbie Blake. Bill Withers (MARIPI) had brought Maureen Williams and the Swenson family. Ida and Trevor Wuoti from MOTU ITI (little Island) not motu titi (Llttle ..?..) also  joined us. We had seen Marcel Gouzeiez's new cat MINTAKA moored in the passage but he did not join us. It is rumoured that he had a lady on board who ne was keeping to himself.

Well, the Gold Coast crowd were the stayers on Saturday night which meant they were late starters on Sunday. Doug Davis (FOOLISH) joined us for a late breakfast as did the crew of INTOXICATION. Bruce and Sierra-Sue Mitchell, David and Nicki Mobbsby set up a very civilized barbecue while Penny Jackson told me how Peter had fallen in the water while they were trying to berth at Sanctuary Cove the previous night. Penny herself had overbalanced and managed to wet her upper torso. As she was holding a rope so she was quickly pulled back on board. A marina official was heard to remark, "INTOXICATION!!! Living up to its name, I see!!".

The OSTAC TRIUMPH people decided to continue on down to Sanctuary Cove on Sunday. I believe they had a wonderful time, with the girls being serenaded by wandering minstrels. They returned to Canaipa on Monday morning.

New arrivals on Sunday were Pat and Judy Gannon in MORE TIME OFF. As Kerry and Bill were returning to Manly, we begged the Gannons to give us a lift back to Manly on Monday. They agreed to take me on board but said Dudley would have to ride in the
dinghy tied on behind.
On Sunday I nursed the JESSICA II crew, baby Samuel, who had been out sailing four times in the first six weeks of his life.
Breakfast merged into lunch when some of us decided to do a tour of the island as suggested. by Ernie the caretaker. We've ordered a couple of taxis which did not show up, however, at 12.30 a mini bus arrived driven by a broad Scotsman who was a local tour guide. Some of us found it hard to understand the commentary but we were able to garner a few points.

The Brown family had lived at Canaipa for thirty years. They had sold out to RQYS and now lived in the two story brick home next door. The previous inhabitants had been the Wilkes. Mrs Wilkes had been in the habit of putting a lantern out every night to guide the passing commercial shipping loaded with timber and farm produce. Man made features of Russel Island included an avocado farm, several pole houses, an ancient goat herd, some aloe vera plantations and a macadamia (Qld) nut farm. Several swamps had been surveyed and sold to unsuspecting southern buyers. 'The Scotsman said no one fanned legitimate crops any more but the dole bludgers had planted illicit weeds in the bush. We saw the shops, the RSL and several waterfront blocks that were covered at high tide. He e:xplained how real estate scams continued and he seemed to be dead against any more people joining the 1500 residents of the island. He pointed out several new homes which were for sale because new residents had become disenchanted after a few months.

On returning to Brown's we saw the sunny afternoon pass pleasantly into evening with more barbecuing, drinking and talking. The energetic Gold Coasters ran up the sandhill opposite and slid down. Someone wrote a large ''BEN'' on the sandslip and Dudley commanded me to nip across and add "BOLT' I declined.. WINGS and ROCK LOBSTER departed that afternoon.

Mark Swanson deserves an award for communing with Nature. He spent from 7.1Sam until 2.30pm in the mangroves. He had gone there to set crab pots but the tide went out very rapidly and he found that he was marooned in thigh deep mud. He gave up any thought of returning to MARIPI and lurched further into the mangroves to await the incoming tide. After several hours observing the small creatures of the mud he returned with two muddies he had caught in the pots.

Nothing very dramatic happened on Monday. OSTAC TRIUMPH joined us for breakfast. Dudley thanked Ernie the caretaker for looking after us and gradually the multihulls up anchored and left. Just as we were about to depart we saw the cat ARRIVAL going past. We hailed them and met the new owners.

We had a very pleasant sail home in light winds. Pat and Judy Gannon play taped music while sailing and steer with their feet They don't frantically tweak sails when the wind dies. They have lunch and wait 'til it comes in. Then they enjoy skimming over the water overtaking monohulls... which is a fairly normal emotion.

Many thanks to Dudley who arranged with RQYS for the use of Brown's for the weekend. Many thanks to those who came down and shared it with us. It was a great weekend.