VOYAGE OF THE YACHT "SOLSTICE": 2013

November 16-30, 2013

We flew out of Brisbane to Perth to visit an old friend and co-partner in the Wharram Catamarran building project in the village of Giniginamar, Fuerteventura, Canary Islands during the years 1972-1978. Diana and Bob Drachenberg were partners in the project but left after 11 months. We stayed and continued building until completion which took another 5 years. Eventually, Bob and Diana ended up in Walpole, Southwestern Australia on a farm. Diana is a native of Perth. All this is a prelude for the trip to Perth to see Diana and her part of the world.

Diana is a very energetic woman and wanted to show us as much as possible in a compressed time period. We started in Fermantle and worked out way South. Freemantle is a lovely old city with a mixture of Colonial and Victorian architecture. It has managed to keep the downtown area intact so one gets a feeling of what it was like in the early 1800's. The wrought iron work and overhangs on the sidewalks reminds me of the older part of New Orleans but it ends there. The Western part of Australia was first discovered by ships from the Dutch East Indies Company sailing around the Cape of Good Hope on their way to the East Indies and Batavia (present day Jakarta). A quick look at the map shows that the southern part of South Africa and Fremantle are on the same parallel of latitude. The prevailing winds are those of the "Roaring 40's" and westerly. Early navigational techniques could determine Latitude but not Longitude which required some form of time. Another look at the map shows that the Dutch East Indies are North of the Western coast of Australia. As the ships ran down their "Easting", they sometimes miscalculated the longitude and shipwrecked on the reefs just north of Fremantle. The most famous of these was the "Batavia" that was lost on one of the reefs in the early 1600's. She was carrying an enormous amount of silver coin for trading in the East Indies. The Fremantle Maritime Museum is on the cutting edge of being able to salvage and preserve wood and artifacts taken from lost Dutch East Indies ships. A section of the shipwrecked "Batavia" has been raised and restored. It is the "piece de resistance" in the museum along with thousands of other artifacts from the wreck. This is only one part of what is to be seen as the nautical history of Western Australia unfolds. It would take several days to do justice to the exhibitions and explanations given throughout the museum. Certainly, one of the finest Maritime Museums I have ever visited. Fremantle is a fishing port so all kinds of fresh seafood can be eaten. Lobsters, which are called crayfish in this part of the world, were being sold for $31 US per pound: makes our lobsters cheap by comparison. Eating out in Australia is quite a bit more expensive than in the USA. I digress: there are more museums and art galleries with a totally operational Oberon class submarine for touring. Just about anything can be found around the city. It is a center for tourism. Perth has its attractions and art museums but doesn't measure up historically to Fremantle.

Our big trip south began on Monday and ended on Thursday. We left Perth at 0800 hrs on Monday and traveled south to Dunsborough which is located in the Margaret River wine growing region. Our goal was to visit the Hay Shed Hill Winery which is 2-12 hrs from Perth and about half an hours drive south of Dunsborough. Diana's son, Jake Drachenberg, is the chef and manager for the winery. He is well known throughout the region for his culinary art and inventiveness. We were not disappointed: He served us tender slices of Kangaroo fillet smoked over chardonnay grape prunings. Additionally, more and more "tapas" appeared: each and everyone beautifully prepared and garnished. Jake deserves his reputation as a culinary icon in the area. In the evening, we dined at this home on Dunsborough beach with his family: Becky (wife) and Ella ( 3-1/2 year old daughter).

Our visit to the south coincided with Spring Break for students. The Aussies call them "leavers" or "schoolies". Whatever the name, the accommodations were totally filled up so we had to leave Dunsborough and travel an hour and a half to the neighboring town of Donnybrook. We stayed in an old house dedicated for "pickers and packers" on bunk beds. During the season, this area grows lots of fruit and needs fruit and grape pickers. The backpackers frequent the area year round. It's a great place to visit by any means possible. The following morning we got an early start and headed for Walpole. This trip took us through the heart of the national forest and what a sight it was! The trees got progressively bigger and taller until some of the Red Tingle trees were large enough in diameter to drive a car through. The main species of tree in this area are the Red Tingle, Yellow Tingle, Jarrah, Red Flowering Gum, Karri. In particular, there is the Walpole-Nornalup National Park, home to the Valley of the Giants. It is a breath taking experience to stand and look up at the giant Red Tingle trees. There are several that you can actually walk through! One of the trees is thought to be over 450 years old, and at 24+ feet in circumference at its base, is the largest living girthed eucalypt known in the world. The experience leaves one in a contemplative and spiritual mood.

In the evening, we stayed at one of Diana's old friend's cottage. Miles from anything and perfectly peaceful it was a pleasant night. It is quite cool in the evenings in this part of SW Australia. We fired up one of the wood burning stoves to take the chill out of the air in our cottage. In the morning, we saw kangaroos and a Kookaburra bird. This bird gives off a sound that sounds like the hysterical laugh of a person: enjoyable and funny to hear. Later in the morning, we visited the, now abandoned, Drachenberg farm. Very peaceful and remote, it was a place that the back-to-earth people movement and "Mother Earth" magazine could have used as the idyllic place to live. The town of Walpole is set on the tranquil waters of Walpole Inlet. It offers a wide range of activities for visitors: swimming (water is cold), boating, sailing, inlet cruises and fishing to bush walking. At Conspicuous Cliff Beach, we saw some kite surfing that was quite impressive. With the great Southern Ocean rollers these kite surfers display the amazing skill of being able to surf down the crest of a wave and reverse direction to climb back over it. We watched two surfers for over twenty minutes and never once did they fail to execute the maneuvers flawlessly. The great Southern Ocean is a wonder to behold with its pristine white sandy beaches and surf. Cape Leeuwin at the SW corner of Western Australia is one of the famous Capes in the world and gets respect from sailors after Cape Horn and the Cape of Good Hope. It is the place where the Indian and Southern Oceans meet. We have no plans to sail anywhere near there. It bears the brunt of the "Roaring 40's" wind and sea coming all the way from South Africa.

From Walpole we traveled on down to Albany which is an end point for South Western Australia. We found this small city to be less interesting than other parts we had seen: perhaps anti-climatic. Nevertheless, its past history is interesting and it has a Whaling Station that was in use until 1978 when it closed as a result of international pressure to ban whaling. It has one of the largest natural harbors found on the Southern Australian coast but, somehow, it has never developed a substantial fishing fleet. Most likely, the inhospitable Southern Ocean has something to do with it. It's cool and windy down here but the sights are beautiful. In the days of the square riggers, Albany was frequented by steamers from England which used it as a coal station. We found the town to offer little of interest architecturally and overall, other than the spectacular Southern Ocean and white sandy beaches, not too interesting. We did witness the Around the World Clipper Race while we were there and talked to some of the sailors who had sailed over from Capetown..

On Thursday, October 28th, we started back to Perth. It was a 4-1/2 hr drive with little of interest. Diana had kept up a vigorous pace and given us the opportunity to see this unique part of Australia. We are grateful to our most gracious host and enjoyed the opportunity to share part of her life after so many years of not seeing each other. In the future, we hope that she will join us to share part of our world at sea and in port.

As you all know we have been in Brisbane now for about a month if not more and I'm just getting around to posting pictures. We are enjoying our stay here in the land of OZ until we fly out to the states in Dec. We currently visiting a long the friend in Perth and will be doing a little traveling so I will post pictures of our trip at a later date. Hope you enjoy the pictures of where we are in the Brisbane area,