1st 2016 Spuddle
Beez Neez now Chy Whella
Big Bear and Pepe Millard
Wed 2 Mar 2016 23:57
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Our First Spuddle of the
Year
  Bear launched Baby Beez and
after a very unceremonious entry aboard, clearly out of
practise, yes captain, I did just hurl myself in
the end.....I know, I felt the need to say ‘good
heavens’. Steady. We set off the the shallow end of the bay to the rear of Beez. We saw a
ray as it skittered by in the surprisingly clear
water.
 From here it was smashing to look back at Bear and see Beez
bobbing happily.
  We looked at this tree, impossibly clinging to a rock – where’s the mud for
his roots.......
    Rock
watching, that’s it, a new hobby.
 We went round the corner and in the
distance saw Cottage Point.
 A seaplane
went past, he soon picked up speed
and took off in the fairway.
  Over by Cottage Point we saw rescue ladies parked, a sign for fuel and ice. A motor yacht club and a shop.
 When we pulled in on Tuesday we saw
this lady, clearly patrolling. Today we watched as she left Cottage Point, later
we looked her up. Seahorse Mercator is a
navigational training vessel operated by Defence Maritime Services under
contract to the Royal Australian Navy (RAN). She is a modified version of the
Pacific class patrol boat design and is based at HMAS Waterhen in
Sydney.
General characteristics: Class & type: Pacific class patrol boat variant Displacement: 165 tons Length: 31.5 m (103 feet) Beam: 8.21 m (26.9 feet) Draught: 2.6 m (8.5 feet) Propulsion: 2 x Caterpillar 3304 diesels, 2 propellers Speed: 16 knots (30 km/h; 18 mph) Range: 2,880 nautical miles (5,330 km; 3,310 miles) at 8 knots (15 km/h; 9.2 mph) Complement: 5 crew + 3 instructors and 18 trainees.  Back to rock
watching.
 Bear went closer so we could have a
good look at the swirls and patterns.
 The shapes and
colours are endless.
 We are by the yellow
arrow. Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park covers a vast expanse of
37,010 acres. The first inhabitants of the area were the indigenous rock
engravings, cave drawings, paintings and stencils, axe grinding
grooves and middens – debris of human activity including cooking, shells and
other artifacts.
The park was first declared in 1894. The television series, Skippy the Bush Kangaroo was shot here and the adjacent Waratah Park, that brought back memories for me as it was shown in England between 1968 and 1970. Bushfires ravaged the park in January 1994.   Back to
Beez for a libation or two
and a few games.
ALL IN ALL WONDERFUL TO BE
BACK TO SPUDDLING
SMASHING TO BE IN BABY BEEZ
AGAIN |