Aloha from Sunny Queensland

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Serena

.......... Have you spent time in NW WA in the Pilbara, Kimberley, etc? Utterly nutty up there, but beautiful.

A bit but not enough, mainly work in Derby, Broome, Wyndham and on offshore oil/gas facilities. Ya right about nutty in some places!

Originally Posted by Serena

Do you miss Q? I miss the wide WA blue skies and the sunsets!

I miss the Qld I knew but the modern Qld; not so much - a little too crowded and regulated for my taste but I guess one could say that about any place that has changed over the last say 20 years. And hey, the west seems to have grown just as fast.

I still can't used to seeing the sun SET over the water even after 20 years, it just isn't right .

OK, now exactly where is the Isle of Fife? I love your photo but I just can't work out where it is? It looks like a Western Isle (say similar to Iona or somewhere nearby) but Fife itself is on the east coast and although I only have a tourists knowledge of Scotland (and pretty fair idea of the distilleries), I don't recall any Isle of Fife on the east coast either..

So where is it?

[Serena]

Originally Posted by Wotname

A bit but not enough, mainly work in Derby, Broome, Wyndham and on offshore oil/gas facilities. Ya right about nutty in some places!

I miss the Qld I knew but the modern Qld; not so much - a little too crowded and regulated for my taste but I guess one could say that about any place that has changed over the last say 20 years. And hey, the west seems to have grown just as fast.

I still can't used to seeing the sun SET over the water even after 20 years, it just isn't right .

OK, now exactly where is the Isle of Fife?

Hey Wot

Actually, I should have captioned that pic the Kingdom of Fife in the Isle of May rather than the Isle of Fife but it's easy to get it a bit befuddled. I took it at a coastal town called Pittenweem.

The Kingdom of Fife is on the eastern side of northern Scotland, south of St Andrews, north of Edinburgh. If you Google "where is pittenweem scotland" you'll see the exact coastline where that pic was taken. It was gorgeous, esp with puffins perching in the mist on the cliffs jutted out to sea.

I accidentally went to the British Open in St Andrews & needed to escape to Fife.

Ooo, I heard that Woodside's gas hub got the heave-ho. We in Qld are intrigued about what happens next. I went to Broome as a kid - loved it. Cable Beach? Glorious. Sunsets over the western ocean? Och, stunning! I can't get used to sunsets in the east which come/go too fast!

Modern Qld is a v different place these days. You can't move without applying for a permit to breathe the air let alone walk unaided or drink Fanta in the street without being arrested for loitering lol It's a mega-Nanny state. Politics has a lot to do with it.

Do you still have rellies in Q? Where do you sail in Perth? Offshore or on the Swan?

S

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Serena

Hey Wot

Actually, I should have captioned that pic the Kingdom of Fife in the Isle of May rather than the Isle of Fife but it's easy to get it a bit befuddled. I took it at a coastal town called Pittenweem.

Ah...that explains it - thanks.
The Kingdom of Fife is on the eastern side of northern Scotland, south of St Andrews, north of Edinburgh. If you Google "where is pittenweem scotland" you'll see the exact coastline where that pic was taken. It was gorgeous, esp with puffins perching in the mist on the cliffs jutted out to sea.

I accidentally went to the British Open in St Andrews & needed to escape to Fife.
Haha...I "think" I understand!
Ooo, I heard that Woodside's gas hub got the heave-ho. We in Qld are intrigued about what happens next.
Well maybe but maybe not, there is still a lot of water to flow under the bridge methinks before the story ends - OK, metaphors are a little mixed!
I went to Broome as a kid - loved it. Cable Beach? Glorious. Sunsets over the western ocean? Och, stunning! I can't get used to sunsets in the east which come/go too fast!

Modern Qld is a v different place these days. You can't move without applying for a permit to breathe the air let alone walk unaided or drink Fanta in the street without being arrested for loitering lol It's a mega-Nanny state. Politics has a lot to do with it.

Do you still have rellies in Q? Yup, Cairns and Brissy. Where do you sail in Perth? Offshore or on the Swan?
I sail in the Swan but would prefer to be offshore - don't ask, its long story that I am unwilling to tell
S

......

[Serena]

Unwilling, Wottage?

ooooo, intriiiiiguing!!

[ozskipper]

[QUOTE=Serena;833204]Heya Wot

Snip........ I'm currently on Q's Sunshiney Coast hinterland. Here until Feb-March then moving south to VIC. As for WA, I grew up in the bush about 200k SE of Perth. Dry hot summers, wild winters, crazy - loved it but there was no ocean. Sure, we had a boat. Just nowhere to float it!
Snip.............


Nice sailing in vic. Port philip bay is a sensational place to go for a spin. (insert Victorian weather joke). The strait can be remarkably pleasant if you pick your day. With all that moving around your doing, it sounds like you need a trailer sailer

[Serena]

[QUOTE=ozskipper;834456]

Originally Posted by Serena

Nice sailing in vic. Port philip bay is a sensational place to go for a spin. (insert Victorian weather joke). The strait can be remarkably pleasant if you pick your day. With all that moving around your doing, it sounds like you need a trailer sailer

Thanx for the tips, Oz. Yep, a trailer sailer is on my horizon & will look in earnest when I move to VIC.

[rusky]

Hiya Qld'ers
Looks lilke we are all heading off about the same time, for the same destinations.
Cheers

[Jacko]

Modern Qld is a v different place these days. You can't move without applying for a permit to breathe the air let alone walk unaided or drink Fanta in the street without being arrested for loitering lol It's a mega-Nanny state. Politics has a lot to do with it.

Hey guys lets get real this is not true i have been cruising up here for nearly 10 years now all over the place FNQ, Whitsundays etc and have only had the "boys" ask and note ask to board once in that time. I live most of the year on the hook and find that life here in Queensland is as good as you will get anywhere in the world. COME on OZZIE COME on we have increadible cruising grounds and you are giving it a hard time maybe you should get out a bit and enjoy the beauty as I do. Pure clean air water that you can drink out of the stream fish that jump on the hook snorkling that people in other countries cant imagine wonderful coral reefs and sand keys, Come over and join us in the cleanest place you can imagine.
Lets get some proud criusing OZZIES on here and stop this STUFF JACKO

[Serena]

Originally Posted by Jacko

Lets get some proud criusing OZZIES on here and stop this STUFF JACKO

All good & fair points, Jacko. I was just expressing my opinion, which I'm entitled to in the same way you're entitled to yours And for your info, I *am* a proud cruising Aussie & I don't feel I should have to defend my love for my own country!

All I was doing was acknowledging the differences in the new Qld which I personally find stifling & restricting. Those changes, IMO, feel politically & commercially motivated rather than being in the public's best interest.

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Jacko

Modern Qld is a v different place these days. You can't move without applying for a permit to breathe the air let alone walk unaided or drink Fanta in the street without being arrested for loitering lol It's a mega-Nanny state. Politics has a lot to do with it.

Hey guys lets get real this is not true i have been cruising up here for nearly 10 years now all over the place FNQ, Whitsundays etc and have only had the "boys" ask and note ask to board once in that time. I live most of the year on the hook and find that life here in Queensland is as good as you will get anywhere in the world. COME on OZZIE COME on we have increadible cruising grounds and you are giving it a hard time maybe you should get out a bit and enjoy the beauty as I do. Pure clean air water that you can drink out of the stream fish that jump on the hook snorkling that people in other countries cant imagine wonderful coral reefs and sand keys, Come over and join us in the cleanest place you can imagine.
Lets get some proud criusing OZZIES on here and stop this STUFF JACKO

Jacko, I am sure you are right and Qld probably hasn't changed that much in the last 10 years and it is no doubt a great place to be but (and its a big but), I can assure you the Qld that I knew in the 60s, 70s & 80s is a wildly different place that the one you know; particularly FNQ (Far North Queensland for our foreign friends).

I am not bagging the new Qld, everything must change and the rest of the world is possibly changing faster than Qld. So when asked if I miss Qld after being away for 20 years, the only honest is “yes”, I miss the place I knew and I have no desire to return just to discover what I can't do in the nanny state it has become.

Try thinking about some of these changes:
In the 60's there were no high-rise on the Gold Coast, the canal estates were mangroves, a place to go crapping and fishing after school. The Broadbeach International Hotel was surround by empty sand dunes as far as you could see.
In the 71, there was one set of traffic lights in Cairns, you could NOT buy a coffee (even instant) in Port Douglas, in fact the hotel bar was often empty except on pension day.
In the 75 dry season, only 50 4WDs made the trip from Cairns to the tip of Cape York, that is about 2 a week – I was one of them. By the mid 80s, it got close to 50 vehicles a DAY making the trip.

One could buy a ex WWII rifle for $50 without ID or any other paperwork. When you got tried of fishing and there was a group beach barbecue, you went ashore to bag a pig or wallaby or sometimes a wild cleanskin beast on the mainland or goat on some of the islands; even a deer in the Torres Straits. While not the norm, it wasn't considered that unusual. A lot boats didn't have refrigeration and the beer was warm (but still enjoyable).

If you came into an anchorage and another boat was already there, you sailed on to find an empty anchorage (usually the next one). If you had to stop, you anchored as far away as possible and when going ashore, you only went to “your” end of the beach. The accepted etiquette was for the first arrival to make first contact if they wanted to socialise otherwise you kept to your own. They might dinghy over and let you know that they were cooking ashore that night – this was the invitation to “share” their fire.

There was no VHF coverage outside the main ports and of course no phones. I had friends who would “go bush” in the cape for the wet season, find some high ground somewhere and set up camp for a few months totally isolated from everyone else. Sure a few local inhabitants would get to know of their presence but by and large no one bothered them and vice versa.

I have had the honour of meeting some of the last remaining croc hunters, men who travelled up and down both cape coasts either by foot or in old wooden dinghies collecting croc skins in the 60s. They travelled alone or occasionally with some aborigines (sorry, native Australians), they lived off the land, shoot, skinned, salted and cached the croc skins for months at a time and at the end of the year, they would do a return trip usually by way of a small boat to collect the skins and take them south to Cairns for sale. Crocs were protected in the late 60s or early 70's IIRC.

I could go on but already I am starting to sound like a sad old f^*` and this isn't my intent. I am happy knowing I am about to walk downstairs from my city apartment in a minute or two to go across the road to get a latte or perhaps go to a fancy bar but I am so glad to have experienced another more basic (almost frontier) life in the “old” Qld.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Jacko

Modern Qld is a v different place these days. You can't move without applying for a permit to breathe the air let alone walk unaided or drink Fanta in the street without being arrested for loitering lol It's a mega-Nanny state. Politics has a lot to do with it.

Hey guys lets get real this is not true i have been cruising up here for nearly 10 years now all over the place FNQ, Whitsundays etc and have only had the "boys" ask and note ask to board once in that time. I live most of the year on the hook and find that life here in Queensland is as good as you will get anywhere in the world. COME on OZZIE COME on we have increadible cruising grounds and you are giving it a hard time maybe you should get out a bit and enjoy the beauty as I do. Pure clean air water that you can drink out of the stream fish that jump on the hook snorkling that people in other countries cant imagine wonderful coral reefs and sand keys, Come over and join us in the cleanest place you can imagine.
Lets get some proud criusing OZZIES on here and stop this STUFF JACKO

Unfortunately we are becoming a nanny state and things have changed. Guess thats why I plan to be on water out of the ratrace by 2014. As Bob Katter says you can't boil a billy thesedays without a fire permit. Try getting one on a weekend.

Wotname, I started work and diving in Cairns in 1970, a very different place and Pt Douglas was a bit of a dump in those days. In my opinion development has cleaned it up and it is still a great place to visit.

However Old is still a great crusing ground and for cruisers the GBR is still underutilised by cruisers who mostly anchor up on the mainland islands missing the best of GBR.

Not sure if I will be able to catch a fish for dinner in the coral sea again where I intend to spend a lot of time if the WWFN (World Wildlife Fund for Nature) has their way. They are certainly driving the Government regulating extra paperwork for sugar cane farmers as I am. Will mean more Tuna for the Thais to catch as they head north to New Guinea.

Cheers

[SkiprJohn]

Aloha and welcome aboard!
Good to have you posting here. Your opinions are ok as are all other forum members. Just make certain it doesn't take on a political tone otherwise you might run afowl of the moderators. Got myself in a little trouble here with that subject one once.
kind regards,

[Jacko]

Wooops ( meaning humble ) you got me sorry didnt really pick up on your thoughts Serena and Wotname. I have travelled around a lot of the world not all by boat, and just love the cruising here in FNQ. Thanks for the heads up SkiprJohn..
I grew up inland B/hill plenty of desert out there so am up with you guys on that but now cant live without salt running through the body.

Good luck Jacko

[Serena]

Hey SkiprJohn

I hadn't realised the political tone but you're spot on ~ thanks for putting me back on the straight & narrow!

Jacko - Broken Hill, wow no wonder you love the sea so much. I relate, having grown up in the sticks in WA. I hope you're having fun out there in the northern big blue.

cheers,
Serena

[Wotname]

Originally Posted by Jacko

Wooops ( meaning humble ) you got me sorry didnt really pick up on your thoughts Serena and Wotname. I have travelled around a lot of the world not all by boat, and just love the cruising here in FNQ. Thanks for the heads up SkiprJohn..
I grew up inland B/hill plenty of desert out there so am up with you guys on that but now cant live without salt running through the body.

Good luck Jacko

No worries mate, just make sure you enjoy FNQ right now as it is 'cause in 20 years time, this will be the "good old days" :thumb