Not Much Cruising in OZ

[BruceK]

 

[BruceK]

With a limit on leaving your home of 5km imposed today, but permission to leave home to safety check your boat, I am wanting to reconcile the 2. On one view I can only check the boat if within 5km of home, which it`s not. Covid sends us such puzzles, I think I`ll ask the Govt Maritime Office. Does anyone else know?

Then there`s the issue of, if I can, should I? Covid fragments have been found in the sewer processing plant for the small town of about 1000 people where the boat is berthed. So many questions so few answers.

 

[BruceK]

I checked NSW Waterways site and found this:https://roads-waterways.transport.nsw.gov.au/maritime/covid-19-update.html.
As I read it,the 5/10km limit still applies, so if the boat is > 5km(new limit today) I can`t go to it. Plus the entitlement to use a boat for "recreation", was news which filled me with excitement, is as of today being generally removed from exceptions for leaving home. It was being abused generally, not in relation to boating,a vague term which existed alongside "exercise", people were taking advantage of it. I`ll send Waterways an email inquiry.....but will I get a reply?

 

[Simi 60]

Insane amount of boats cruising in QLD
We are heading back south now to quieter waters.

 

[BruceK]

Insane amount of boats cruising in QLD
We are heading back south now to quieter waters.

Good to know it`s all good up in Queensland. NSW residents can neither leave here, or arrive there,but can watch,enviously.
I`ve sent an email inquiry to NSW Maritime/Waterways. They indicate a reply within 20 working days, I`m hoping for better. Guessing they are just as frustrated.

 

[Insequent]

Yes, it seems that anyone who owned a boat and had been thinking "we'll take a cruise to the Great Barrier Reef one day" got their act together well before the lockdowns, and started to do it. They still have about 10 weeks of joy remaining. I suspect many of them will need to be a fair bit south of the main GBR attractions prior to start of cyclone season on 1 Nov (insurance limitations).

One broker who said he normally has about 60 listings of used boats now has just 11. Last boat he sold was only listed for 2 weeks. Now, not much indication that prices have risen all that much. Perhaps discounts from inflated listing prices have narrowed, but its a pretty opaque market for most of us so its hard to really know.

 

[BruceK]

Yesterday evening,without notice, Govt. put all of NSW State(pop 8.2M) into lockdown. Tonight, hard policing of "stay at home" travel limits kicks in. I decided not to check the boat today, partly in compliance with the spirit of the changes, also because Covid fragments are detected in sewage in the area of the marina. We checked it last weekend, whether we can check it next weekend,I know not. Actually using it is not a consideration.

 

[rgano]

Wondering how long the political debate will wear on here about school/masks/vaccines will go on before we get locked down with all the kids at home again. The Delta variant is now sending some children to hospital, and overall age group heading there is dropping. If you can get aboard a boat with a fishing rod, maybe you can survive with some basic fishing skills....

 

[Simi 60]

Today around the shitsundays
Way to many boats

 

[BruceK]

Wondering how long the political debate will wear on here about school/masks/vaccines will go on before we get locked down with all the kids at home again. The Delta variant is now sending some children to hospital, and overall age group heading there is dropping. If you can get aboard a boat with a fishing rod, maybe you can survive with some basic fishing skills....

I`m hoping the thread stays apolitical. Please help it stay that way, if not it disappears.

In a previous lockdown, fishing was an allowed activity but a boat at anchor or on a mooring ball with 6 onboard and an unattended fishing rod over the transom didn`t cut it.
As things develop, and clarify, for permitted purposes, in most areas(some are more restricted) we can access our LGA (Local Govt Area), if we go outside it we are limited to 5km from home.

Not much scope for boating/cruising eh?

 

[Kit_L]

It looks as though we can take our boat North to Port Stephans, even now. Here is the relevant excerpt from Maritime NSW's site (https://roads-waterways.transport.nsw.gov.au/maritime/covid-19-update.html

Purchasing, maintaining and servicing your vessel

The following activities are considered reasonable excuses to leave your home to ensure the safety of a vessel or undertaking a legal obligation and are not limited to your LGA:

Access a vessel at a marina or on a mooring to maintain, service or check on systems and make sure it is safe and compliant (per legal obligations to do so)
Take a vessel to a marina or boat shed for repairs or servicing
Pick up vessel from a marina or boat shed after servicing
Move a vessel between marinas or moorings for relocation purposes
Physical distancing and gathering rules are to be observed at all times during any of the above activities. The latest information on Physical distancing and gathering rules are available on the NSW Government website.

(I have bolded the relevant parts.)

I read this as me being able to take my boat to Port Stephens for the annual anti-foul/through-hull checks/anodes needs, mooring or anchoring at overnight locations, providing we stay on board and do not go ashore for "shopping" or "recreation".

 

[BruceK]

Thanks Kit, great info,your link didn`t work for me,found this searching, it`s similar: https://roads-waterways.transport.nsw.gov.au/maritime/covid-19-update.html.
It says issued 7 days ago,query Saturday`s changes affect it. Staying onboard on the hard, and not shopping, might be challenging.

The desire to drop lines and head out gets stronger by the day.

Remember, the toughest part of a 7 day lockdown is the first two weeks.

 

[Kit_L]

I have corrected that link, @BruceK (thanks!). We have an apartment at Port Stephens, so we are able to leave the vessel in the yard and return to it to work on it each day (I have a BIA Marine Card). In this marina, you are not permitted to stay on the vessel if it's on the hard in any case, so no problem.

 

[BruceK]

I have corrected that link, @BruceK (thanks!). We have an apartment at Port Stephens, so we are able to leave the vessel in the yard and return to it to work on it each day (I have a BIA Marine Card). In this marina, you are not permitted to stay on the vessel if it's on the hard in any case, so no problem.

The Rules on using your holiday home may have changed, I tried checking it without much success, you might be more successful.

 

[BruceK]

The Lockdown Rules,9 weeks of lockdown so far with indications of another 8-10 weeks, tightened this weekend. Rules relating to attending a boat to check/maintain systems etc, or to carry out legal obligations( like periodic checks insurance might impose) were unchanged. Last week Covid detection in the village sewerage discouraged us visiting. So today we visited,a fast easy drive on deserted roads, armed with print outs of the Rules for any police checking for a valid excuse to leave home. And all is well,on a beautiful warm late winter/early spring 26C day.
Ran the Onan genset, started well and ran beautifully, with appropriate loading. The 800 hour Cummins 5.9L 210s, new turbos and mixers, started instantly and ran well. All systems seem good, so when it happens, we`re good to go. Govt is talking about rewarding vaccination adoption with easing restrictions, but there are still "compliance" issues. Impending infection sure concentrates the mind on vaccination.
So, I`m hoping, things get better for boating, while accepting in a more general sense things will get worse. There`s more I could say about disturbing outbreaks in the aboriginal far west of the State but that`s a bridge too far for this thread.

 

[GoneDiving]

Today around the shitsundays
Way to many boats

Looks like the caravan parks and roadside rest stops here.

Many Mexicans escaped and are now trapped here. ?

 

[BruceK]

Our State Premier(NSW) opines Covid infections will continue increasing, peaking in coming weeks,and hospitalizations will peak in October. That suggests zero boating (unless you do it within 5km of home)until presumably end October when NSW should have 70-80% (from 12yrs or 16yrs and up)of the population two shot vaccinated. That`s predicated on vaccination achieving what nothing else has.
Other States positions are as unpredictable as the future of the 1901 Federation of Australian States and Territories. Anyone leaving another State to come here has significant difficulty going back and will likely be here quite some time.
I`m quite content to go boating in my State but please, let it be soon.

 

[silverback]

Bruce, what can I say! Aaah Queensland. Just had a week out in the islands and plan a month between here and Yeppoon. A lovely unpopulated cruising ground. The cruising fleet here in the Whitsundays is as big as I have ever seen. Including large to super sized yachts and power boats. Google “ Encore “ quite the stunner! Go well down there i fear our days of freedom from the plague are numbered but in the mean time we keep props turning

 

[Simi 60]

We ran away from the Yeppoon, Shoalwater bay, Reef areas and came back south
No matter where we went we ended up with a dozen or more boats at end of day, often more, Keppels 30+ , fken insanity
A few years back you could spend weeks in places and see no one.

Now back in Moreton Bay on a weekend less than 12nm from a marina in a capital city and have our usual spot to ourselves.
Relaxed.

 

[rgano]

Well, Bruce, I sympathize with that tight a lock down. In my state the governor believes every person has the right to do as he damned well pleases with the consequent epic number of infections and deaths. Take your pick.

 

[silverback]

G’day Simi 60, have spotted your mighty ship at, i think, Bona bay. Also seen you come into Airlie a few times from home.I enjoy that region for the same reasons you do. In the shoulder months when we get a bit of west in the breeze we potter around anchorages that are not often used by those moving up and down the coast. In the Whitsundays we generally go where the charter boats don’t. So a bit of solitude still to be enjoyed. I claim Mooloolaba to here is one of the finest and least populated cruising grounds around. Including SW Pacific and SE Asia.
We do pay the piper with awful heat and of course cyclones late summer. Ah well…

 

[BruceK]

Just had my second "home haircut" . Actually, it looks ok,hairdressers will have fun doing fixes when/if mid October they get to open up,to the vaxxed.
I think it will happen, the boat is actually in danger of getting used again, after 4 months. Systems will need checking, nothing too ambitious to begin.
We`ve a Clipper 40 bought last Xmas by medicos from Toowoomba Qld. Already on the marina,they were using it here exploring the Hawkesbury before taking it to Qld. Naturally they`ve not been visiting,they can`t use it here,and they`re probably banned from Qld after coming here, unable to cross the military patrolled border. They must be keen to use it, or take it home, nice people, a pleasure to have on the marina. Hope the weather favors the trip home north, the nor-east sea breeze gets boisterous in spring/summer.