Tweet Manookatoo Adventures: September 2013

Thursday 26 September 2013

Why do we love cruisers?

Mason Bay
Our first cruising experience together was in 2004 -  September school holidays. Neither of our teams    were playing good enough footy for the finals to be interesting, the Bulls' Cruisers Hire company at Metung on the Gippsland Lakes had some good specials - so why not head away for a few days on the water?
We hired the Mason Bay, a 30 foot clipper, loaded it up with supplies and headed out for adventures. In five days we did a lot of  cruising; from Nungurnah to Paynesville to Johnsonville, Bunga Arm to Sperm Whale Head to Boxers Creek, staying where the whim took us - a night each at Rotamah Island, Tambo River, Bunga Arm and Ocean Grange. We were really enjoying the relaxing ambience that time on the water provides and learning about all the joys of Clipper Cruising. 
The boat was old and tired, chugging across the water with little flair but affording us a level of comfort we hadn't experienced before - the opportunity to take "home" with you as you travelled. We were hooked on the idea of our own  house on the water!!
PS: we listened to the AFL grand final via a neighbouring yacht's radio - no idea who won!!

Tuesday 24 September 2013

Our Cup weekend adventures 2012



Captain Martin's Log
Friday, 2nd November: a pleasant night at Yaringa Marina.
Saturday, 3rd November: we left Yaringa at 9am, heading for Hastings, where we stocked up with supplies and hove to just after low tide, heading east to Fairhaven (French Island) for lunch and a walk along the sand, before weighing anchor and cruising to Observation Point where we moored for the night.
Off for a walk
Sunday, 4th November: a pleasant walk along the beach before we headed across to Corinella where we dropped anchor offshore, a short walk up the hill revealed not much so we motored across to Elizabeth Bluff for lunch and another small walk, then we cruised around to San Remo jetty, dining at the local pub that night.
Monday, 5th November: after a walk across the bridge and around Newhaven Marina, we set sail after breakfast to Rhyll, where we took another look around, then headed across the bay, dropping anchor off Tortoise Head for lunch. We climbed the hill to admire views across to Cowes and Sandy Point. With inclement weather predicted that night we motored up the eastern channel of Westernport Bay to spend another night at Yaringa.

Monday 23 September 2013

Welcome to our blog!

Captain Martin and I love boats. He's owned a few; from tiny sailboats to ski boats to cruisers, and since I've been with him we have had many good times on the water together. A couple of years ago we got "Manooka", a 36 foot flybridge cruiser big enough to call our "floating holiday house" and recently we updated to "Manookatoo" - same size but a lot newer.
With a new boat comes new adventures......I'm starting this blog so that we can record our fun (or otherwise) along the way.
I'll add some stories from the first Manooka and hopefully some photos from various adventures too - hope you enjoy reading about our fun!!