tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-153674512012-02-01T23:19:45.081-04:00These are the voyages of the catamaran "Dos Gatos" with her crew: Martin, Ginger, and Tigger the cat.Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comBlogger333125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-6086005495890147752012-02-01T23:15:00.000-04:002012-02-01T23:19:45.121-04:00

I made it to Mooloolaba on Tuesday. Although the winds were out of the north, there was a 24 hour period of 10-15 knots forecast. I left really early (4:30am) to benefit from early hours calms and motored the whole way. I got in around 1pm.I’m staying in Mooloolaba Marina for 11 days before moving the boat onto a private jetty behind a house - there are a lot of these in Mooloolaba, and these

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-395815896392476532012-01-28T05:08:00.000-04:002012-01-28T05:15:11.860-04:00

I’m anchored off Moreton Island, about 10 miles from Brisbane, waiting for a chance to head north to Mooloolaba.It’s been raining heavily since I got here last Tuesday. And just as in each of the last several years there has been flooding in southern Queensland and northern New South Wales. It’s not as bad as last year when there were huge damaging floods all over this area, although the NSW

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-89948638448058258462012-01-21T00:53:00.000-04:002012-01-21T00:57:50.493-04:00

Dos Gatos was re-launched on Friday, newly painted and polished. We were in the yard eight days although, with rain days and a weekend lost, there were only three days of work. We’re staying in the Rivergate Marina for a couple of days.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-20458930205213565062012-01-12T03:55:00.000-04:002012-01-12T03:57:45.541-04:00

​We’re on the hard at Rivergate Marina and Shipyard in Brisbane. It should be a short stay - just bottom paint and prop zincs.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-77068722785783701832012-01-09T03:30:00.000-04:002012-01-09T03:38:56.879-04:00

The weather finally cleared and we had a window to leave for Brisbane on Wednesday 4th.First we travelled the 40 miles of the Great Sandy Strait between Fraser Island and the mainland. Much of this is easily navigable but the central portion is filled with sand banks. Fate had us arriving at the shallowest part at low tide. We brushed the bottom a couple of times but didn’t get stuck.Then came

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-81133820019481466422011-12-31T03:48:00.000-04:002011-12-31T03:51:49.534-04:00

We grabbed a quiet day to head over to Fraser Island. Then the wind picked up again and has blown steadily for 5 days with no sign of stopping. So, no getting to Brisbane for NYE fireworks! ;-(We’re anchored off the west coast of Fraser Island, on an endless beach. Maybe the wind will drop in a few days because Ginger has a flight to catch in ten days, in Brisbane!Happy New Year to all our

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-34333967426073623892011-12-23T06:35:00.000-04:002011-12-23T06:39:59.110-04:00

We are all set to leave Bundaberg - we wanted to be at Fraser Island for Christmas - but the weather is not cooperating. There’s a strong wind warning out there.So we get to spend Christmas in Bundaberg. We’ve bought the traditional Christmas goodies, put up the lights around the cockpit, and we can put our feet up now all our chores are done.A very Merry Christmas to all who follow our blog.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-78204898527510935882011-12-10T05:40:00.000-04:002011-12-10T05:44:54.283-04:00

We’re in Bundaberg for a few weeks - before we head on to Brisbane. We’re sorting out our junk on the boat, and staging it into a storage unit, from where it will be shipped to the USA. We had a mechanic work on the port engine which has been giving us problems - now fixed.We may stay in Bundaberg until Christmas or, as we’d like to see the New Years Eve fireworks on the Brisbane River, we may

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-47852274562870033822011-11-25T20:57:00.000-04:002011-11-25T20:56:03.031-04:00

After a few days in the Whitsundays, we started south. However, the wind direction did not cooperate so we took refuge in the Newry Islands.We waited a week in the Newry Islands until the wind backed into the northeast, and then set off last Tuesday. We were planning to come to Lady Musgrave Island in one jump, but the sea conditions were poor so we bailed out late Tuesday and found an anchorage

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-82053996264601921872011-11-07T22:58:00.000-04:002011-11-07T22:59:18.473-04:00

Episode #40 of PodCastaway has been posted to my podcast feed.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-5802541720232642942011-11-07T22:55:00.000-04:002011-11-07T22:57:44.473-04:00

After a few days in Cairns - for grocery shopping and a meal out - we headed south. We stopped briefly at Townsville for fuel (and another meal out) and then headed on to the Whitsundays. The weather has turned against us a little, so we’ll stay here (and do some diving) until it improves.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-40377803638122150222011-10-19T02:36:00.000-04:002011-10-21T19:23:45.414-04:00

The first half of the passage went well. While the conditions were quiet, we headed due south (upwind) to improve our wind angle when the wind increased later, as forecast. We sailed south for 36 hours and went 200 miles.The wind increased when forecast, but then kept on increasing as we received forecast after forecast. So, the second half of the passage was pretty awful! We had winds from 25-30

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-12251609419697517252011-10-15T03:51:00.001-04:002011-10-15T03:51:49.805-04:00

We have left Bramble Haven and are underway for Cairns. We stayed four nights in Bramble Haven and made four dives. The last one was this morning, before we left, on the superb wall just outside the lagoon.The passage will take us four or five days.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-77192830095688006252011-10-11T04:19:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:05:24.747-04:00

Last night we motor-sailed overnight around 90 miles southeast to Bramble Haven. This gets us into the Louisades Archipelago proper, instead of just hanging around in Milne Bay at the southeast tip of PNG. A second reason for coming east is to gain a better wind angle when we leave for Cairns, which will be in the next week or so.Before heading this way, we made a final visit to Alotau to buy

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-87384911649207984702011-10-02T03:34:00.001-04:002011-10-22T04:17:35.301-04:00

We left Samarai and headed 30 miles northeast to Nuakata Island. We stayed there three nights and made three dives, one at a sand island around 3 miles from our anchorage - it was flat calm that day. This area has a Marine Management Plan and we met the local administrator who showed us a chart of the various areas - some designated no-take, some customary fishing methods, etc. The closest reef

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-31485666072085727602011-09-25T03:43:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:24:50.794-04:00

We've been here now three weeks to the day.Since we cleared in, we've just wandered between a few anchorages, as weather permits, and done some diving.We're currently back at Samarai, our third visit. The best diving has been the old wharf right here. Samarai is the former provincial capital and everything is now falling down - the wharfs in particular. That makes great fish habitat and good

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-69417796301241233222011-09-09T03:00:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:04:55.531-04:00

The Customs guy at Samarai was out of town - and nobody knew when he'd be back - so we had to go on to Alotau, 25 miles away. After a second night at Samarai, we headed into Milne Bay towards Alotau. Milne Bay is a deep rectangular bay, 6 miles wide by 20 miles deep. We spent a night at the village of Waga Waga on the south side and then motored across the bay to Alotau on the north side.We knew

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-83074937828533194072011-09-04T02:55:00.001-04:002011-10-22T04:05:17.331-04:00

We have arrived safely at the island of Samarai in the southeast of Papua New Guinea.It was a fairly uneventful passage. We left Tetepare (Solomon Islands) around 4pm Wednesday. For the first 24 hours we had little wind but a large southeasterly swell. In the next 24 hours, the swell died down and we had enough wind to fly the spinnaker. Thereafter we mainly motor-sailed with the jib. We dropped

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-71585676798700411032011-08-30T02:06:00.001-04:002011-10-22T04:04:53.651-04:00

After our short stay diving near Kennedy Island, we headed for Noro and cleared out on Monday. Now we're anchored for the night at Tetepare Island, around 30 miles to the southeast. Tomorrow, we'll head out towards Papua New Guinea. We're headed for Alotau; 450 miles away. It will take us 3-4 days.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-22314644533398553112011-08-30T02:06:00.000-04:002011-10-21T19:27:35.394-04:00

I have posted Podcastaway #39, an account of our stay in the Solomons. It can be downloaded from my podcast page. http://podcastaway.libsyn.com.

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-86907884429438581592011-08-25T03:22:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:04:51.922-04:00

We're anchored off Mbambanga Island about 5 miles from Gizo. We're quite near a resort called "Fatboys: Heaven on a Reef" and we went in there last night for one of our rare meals out - only the second dinner out since we came to the Solomons - the food was good.We're about a mile from Kennedy Island - which I previously mentioned in conjunction with JFK and PT-109 - and we went to dive there

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-13781410590515162162011-08-18T02:42:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:05:18.943-04:00

We're anchored near the end of the runway at Gizo's airport. This has an island all to itself (Nusatupe) about 1.5 miles from the town. The line of the runway is about 50 yards from us so it's interesting when planes land. Happily they have only 2-3 flights into here each day.This morning, our guests (Martin's son Nick and his girlfriend) left on such a flight. We picked them up 10 days ago at

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-80755720564800462792011-08-08T02:29:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:03:47.596-04:00

We spent three weeks at Peava and made about a dozen dives. Half were with Solomon Dive Adventures and half were on our own. From our own dinghy we dived the Peava lagoon wall and a reef off the neighboring community of Kavolavata. With SDA we went to Kicha and Mbulu Islands. We also made a couple of night dives inside the Peava lagoon.We finally left Peava on Saturday - running from big seas and

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-30227979235640310932011-07-23T02:46:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:21:19.994-04:00

We've reached Peava on Nggatokai Island at the southeastern end of Marovo Lagoon. The swell finally eased, enabling us to motor around the south side of Vanguna and Nggatokai Islands. We're anchored in the lagoon off the village.We've made a couple of dives on the wall outside the lagoon and we've also made contact with Lisa of Solomon Dive Adventures. Ginger knows Lisa from when she operated

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15367451.post-36760145413297271182011-07-14T02:41:00.000-04:002011-10-22T04:13:41.650-04:00

We've reached the edge of Marova Lagoon; one of the key places we wanted to see in the Solomons. It's claimed to be one of the largest atolls in the world. Actually, we're in a section called Nono Lagoon and we may not visit the rest of it until after we complete our trip to Peava.We're anchored off an island called Vangunu waiting for the weather to ease (again). It's nice here but there's a

Dos Gatoshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/12474412780902783590noreply@blogger.com