First Friday
36 diners were booked in to November’s First Friday meal and presentation. Sarah Joyce, the owner of Mariner Boating flew to Sydney from Melbourne for the sole purpose of presenting to the First Friday group. Thank you to Sarah for making such a huge effort to join us and share your experience conducting cruises over many years. Many of the FF group had participated in Sarah’s cruises in the past with Don giving a personal testimony during the presentation of an inverter failure that Sarah’s base repaired within 24 hours to save his sailing holiday. The benefits of having someone who grew up in the Greek islands and other parts of the Med and with a local network were clear to all.
The photo adjacent shows six of our members on one of Sarah’s cruises. Can you spot who they are?
Saturday cruise to Z Force camp at Refuge Bay
Saturday was raining all day and so the planned competition to locate the second world war base of Z Force was postponed to Sunday with all 11 boats having a day to themslves on their boats reading books and catching up on boat tasks. One of the boats were new members Jaqueline and Chris who had purchased Meri Tuuli and who sailed up from their mooring in middle harbour to join us.
Sunday trek and presentation
The next day we were joined by some more new members Kelly and Siro who are naming their new boat Antipodes as well as Scot Wheelhouse (who is an established member) in his boat Cloudbreak. Scot was to later that morning present to the group, the exploits of his father who had trained in Z force at the camp at the top of the waterfall. Below is a photo of the camp back in the day.
At 9 am the group gathered at the foot of the waterfall and departed on the track to the top of the waterfall and the expedition to find the site of the Z Force camp. The track had 3 sections where uphill (and later downhill) ‘scrambles’ were required. A ‘scramble’ in climbing terms is an ascent that is less than a climb and more than a walk. It normally involves all fours. Below are some photos of one of those scrambles, One, going up and the other coming down. We decided to take a rope just to make the descent at this point a little more secure and comfortable. There are usually more injuries on a descent than an ascent.
First to sight the set foot on the camp was Owen. As you can see, it is a little more overgrown today. First to find the path down to the camp was Nigel and first to spot the camp was Jo.
After finding the camp site the group then moved to the top of the waterfall for group photos. Below is a photo of the ladies and one of the men (and the mandatory photo of Leon).
Apart from a couple of bull ant bites the group returned hot and tired but otherwise unscathed and feeling a sense of achievement at their accomplishment. The track to the waterfall is not an official track made by parks and wildlife. Instead, it has been marked with blue electrical tape on trees on the way up and white electrical tape on trees leading down to the falls by private trekkers. Even so it is still easy to get lost and go off the track and it is an accomplishment just to find the way there.
Below is the group upon our return.
After a quick dip and short return to their boats, the group met at 11.30 am on Heavens Gate for a sausage sizzle at which time Scot Wheelhouse came aboard with his wife Rose and gave his presentation. He had with him his father’s pack, his introduction to the Malay language, his compass and diary from which Scot read to the group an excerpt. During the presentation Scott shared many facts that are not generally available including how the Z force were the first special forces of their type in the world and were the forebears of the concept of special forces in the world after that period. The part of the diary from which Scot read related to a diary entry recounting details of a parashoot jump by his father in thick low cloud into the jungles of Borneo.
The presentation for the winner of the competition candidates of Nigel, Owen and Jo went to Jo for her first sighting of the cliff line behind the campsite.
All in all, it was a fun weekend from beginning to end and great to have 13 boats attending including two brand new boats crewed by Chris/Jacqueline and Siro/Kelly all of whom lowered our age demographic dramatically.
If you would like to get involved with the activities and Alfred’s Cruising please reach out to rc.cruising@rpayc.com.au