Well winter has well and truly arrived in Southwest WA, so not a lot of news to report. Last month several Grapevines didn't get through, still not sure why so hopefully this edition will reach everyone. My apologies for the note I sent to everyone which was only intended for Dick Newnham (this one got through to all but one).

Dick is arranging the AGM for Sunday 31st July. Once again it will be held at FSC and the upgrade to the Galley will be complete, so we can enjoy lunch after the AGM. A formal notice will be posted soon, but please keep your dairies free. We wish to change the constitution so require a good attendance. The idea is to change the name to reflect the membership spreading beyond WA.

Many thanks to everyone who has sent in information for the Grapevine and the website. It's great to be getting so much feedback!

Scott is looking for good eutectic fridge marine electrician? I am tired of lugging ice blocks and want to move into the 20^th century.

If you know of one please email slee@highway1.com.au.

Just a short note to say I appreciated very much the latest Grapevine, and in particular the escapades of Mendana. It would be really great if more members would contribute tales such as that, especially comments about anchorage sites around the country.

Best regards for a warm winter which is sailable.

Col Sanders

This is typical of the feedback I'm getting, so, please keep sending in those reports, everyone loves them (Ed.).

Does anybody know why was the name Kiriwina chosen for hull number 37 built by Swarbrick Bros W A for R.L.Ewens North Beach W A in 1976.

Is it after the island Kiriwina?

Please email john SAILAIDE@xtra.co.nz

A brief report on our Abrolhos trip. In all it was intended to be a reconnoitre for future adventures as there wasn't (there never is) enough time, due to family and work commitments. We also wanted some night sails and practice in night port entry/departures.

Gretta and I happily two handed up, stopping at Two Rocks, Jurien Bay and Port Denison.

The trip up was relaxing with SSE winds rarely over 20kts always on the stern.

Early departure Freo to Two Rocks with a late lunch and kip on their jetty until dark.

Then a night sail to Jurien and morning entry via South Passage.

We met the nice folks of the Jurien Sea Rescue and toured their facility. Unfortunately the Dept of Planning & Infrac in both Jurien and Port Denison charge $5/metre/day to sit on their jetty, so it does not pay to stay longer than the max 2 hours.

Predawn departure for Port Denison and champagne sailing day, way off shore with no one in sight until - while the trolling line was out and we were feeling frisky in the cockpit - a fishing boat appeared out of absolute nowhere and ran over our fishing line. I can only assume they were intending to warn us to 'slip, slop, slap'.

Port Denison 2100 arrival with some confusion with leading lights. (We have heard of others having the same issue, thus stay on the bearing and avoid any 'logical' lights that are contrary to the bearing.)

Left the boat there a few days with friends on a private mooring while we bussed back to feed the kids.

Returning a few days later over school holidays with a new crew of Dave and Leslie, provisioning and a midnight departure for Easter Group. Am most grateful for Leslie in taking the initiative to inventory all our food stores, as she found a swollen 'antique' tin of baked beans at the bottom of the pile. I carefully liberated the beans off the stern and the tin blew like a shot.

Landfall at Favourite Island at 0800 and arrived southern entrance of Easter Group late morn.

As per all written and verbal advice we navigated in ABI only between 1000-1500 in order to best see underwater obstacles.

Stayed 2 days at Morley Is. Fishing, snorkelling and water visibility were poor. Here we met with a circa 1962 steel S&S 46? on an extended cruise.

Motored to N of Rat Is and picked up a public mooring and soon caught our fill of fish and crays by next morning.

Departed under No4 headsail only in 30-35kt tailwind bound for Little Pigeon Is in the Wallabi Group.

Swell and seas high and unpleasant but we zipped through Goss Passage (with Batavia and the alleged still missing money chest on our right)

Sailing past Long Island (where the mutineers were hung) we picked up another mooring short of our destination because the seas were so rough, even in the lee.

The next morning - now only a civil 10kts of wind - dinghyed over to Long Island and watched some delicious Coral Trout lazing in the shallows.

Sailed on over to Little Pigeon Is, weaving around the coral and anchored. Great snorkelling with plenty of fish.

Met with friends who took us via a tin dish with an obscene amount of hp around the group in short order.

Toured Weibbe Hays (the Batavia hero) fort, Turtle Bay and some magic future dive sites.

Dawn departure for Geraldton to changeover crew of Steve and Laurie, both very hearty and game fellows.

Arrived at dusk at Geraldton's Yacht Club harbour. Stayed about 6 hours at restaurant/public jetty with showers nearby. There was no charge.

Crew changeover and depart at 0100 in the weak easterlies.

Sailed directly to Jurien Bay arriving in about 28 hours and enjoying the SE winds while they lasted w/full main & No2.

Felt tired but revived after a chilli con carne breakfast on arrival and gold coin donation shower at Sea Rescue.

Tried to tie up to the public jetty in town but the swell made it too risky.

Instead anchored in lee of Boullenger (sic?) Is, near the S passage leads.

Departed 0300 for Lancelin. Winds shifted mid morning to SSE - and the party is over in Tack Town.

We tried to be clever and thank the Gods for Lifts and tack on knocks. Nevertheless it made for a long day.

Arrived late avo in 20+kt winds. The island lee was of little help so we found a fishing boat mooring unused and had a safe sleep.

0300 Departed on gps snail trail back out to deep water and continue sail to Mindarie Keys.

Arrived 1500 and tied up to restaurant for night for long feed and bottle of wine.

0300 departure in light easterly. By 0900 wind died amid heavy brushfire haze and we shamefully motored the remaining 15 miles to Freo.

In total the trip stats were:

695nm travelled

Max speed on Garmin GPS - 25kts (I swear that is what it read so obviously the satellites got spiked or something??)

Considerable lemonade, biltong and pretzels consumed. These have become the 'underway food of choice' for me.

Due to the shortage of time, we only visited the Easter and Wallabi Groups. In the future I would be keen to see North Island and Pelsart Group.

Although longer and requiring more care than the familiar Quindalup cruise, I am keen to return next year ... with a fridge installed!!!

Best wishes - Scott

I've been a bit out of touch lately so I thought I'd give you a bit of a Vic update.

We have a few S&S 34s in our club (Sandringham YC, Vic) now some of which race a bit and some cruise. These include the previously well-campaigned Shanendoah II (Ron White), Sirius (a few mates), Morning Star (Tim Tyler), Red William (Charles Amos), and my Lionheart.

Interestingly, Tim has expressed an interest in doing the Melbourne-Osaka next year if he can get a crew and he's been taking notes on how my boat has been set up for short-handed sailing. Tim has done a bit of ocean racing out of Melbourne including the Grassy Race to King Is in Morning Star and also done plenty of cruising.

There are a few other 34s in the Bay including Crystal which is used by Yachtmaster as a training yacht.

Royal Vic YC at Williamstown has a few including Morning T which used to be our club owned by former assoc member Chris Thomson. Chris got crook, put the boat on the market and to his chagrin, someone came along and bought it.

I've been doing up Lionheart for the past couple of years including a new Yanmar engine, underwater refit, cabin and deck repaint in the colours when Jesse had it (grey and white), some sanding using around 263kg of sandpaper (or so it felt) and a few gallons of varnish. I have tried to keep her as original as possible, even down to the notes Jesse wrote on the roof as he was chatting on the HF radio! And the interior is just as you see it in photos. I still run the sails that came with the boat (although I changed from the around the world ones to the newer ones) and the sail number SM2000 has been retained as has the Aust reg number (cant remember it at the moment). I race the boat every Wednesday (came equal first in the summer series) and in the twilights in summer. I also enter some trophy races in the club and take her to Geelong Race Week every year entering in the Passage Race.

Last year I featured the boat in a brief story about repowering in Trade-A-Boat mag. Down the track I really should do a feature on her although I don't like banging on about my own boat in the mag so much.

Geoff is Editor of Trade-A-Boat Magazine (Ed).

Arrived Panama City, Pacific Ocean, Saturday 21st May,1400,apox...

Very happy to get through the canal, almost in one piece, an oil seal went with about 10 miles to go, but managed to keep going with a very oily bilge. The trip through took 20hrs, I went with an Aussie boat 'Diego', a 48 Jenneau, We went through the locks rafted up together, which all worked out well, only one moment when we were heading for the lock wall on my side, let me tell you they are very solid, but managed to avoid it, thank the good lord.

It is an amazing bit of engineering. You are lifted 85 feet in 3 locks, then cross Gatun Lake, about 30 mls, to the Pacific side, where you are dropped, gently, the 85ft, back to sea level, also in 3 stages. Gatun Lake was specially made for the canal. also the have had to cut the sides out of a few hills to make some of the canal. Quite something!

The locks are pretty big 1000ft long, 110ft wide, and about 40ft deep. 52 million gallons is needed to lock a boat from one ocean to the other, all this for 600 US, not too bad when you think about it, I guess. There are quite a few extras, like you need 4 line handlers and 200 mtrs of line which you can hire for 60 bucks, or buy for 48, funny that!! Etc etc.

All in all it wasn't too bad but I am not that interested to do it again.

Talk to you later. God bless. Nick..

PS. Only a small matter of 7639mls as the crow flies, not how Lala sails, to Brisbane..

All S&S34 Assoc. members are invited to attended the following events.

1930 in the Stateroom

Peter Boichel from the Chart and Map Shop, Fremantle. Peter has a wealth of experience, being a Dutch Merchant Navigator for many of his earlier years, an experienced long-distance sailor, boat owner, lecturer in Navigation, and specialist Marine Chart and Boat Book shop owner.

Contact: Rob and Wendy Campbell, 0438 133 944 or email aoraki@iinet.net.au.

1115 - Gather in the downstairs bar area at FSC.

1130 - AGM

Afterwards lunch in the refurbished galley.

Rather better known was Ted Heath, now Sir Edward, who had become a member earlier in 1966. He started to sail with and used to crew for Gordon Knight who owned a Foreland, and helped teach Mr Heath the art of helming. In 1967 Mr Heath bought and sailed the Snipe 'Blue Heather' which he sold at the end of the summer and bought a fireball, 'Blue Heather II' one of the first to have a fibreglass hull and built by the Chippendales. He sailed this boat through the summer of 1968 and as we all do with a demanding boat, he had the occasional swim following a capsize.
At the end of that summer he parted with the fireball and decided on a Sparkman and Stephens 34, 'Morning Cloud' and in 1969 started sailing in offshore races around the coast. In the winter of 1969/70 he took it to Australia and subsequently won the Sydney-Hobart race. In early 1971 he had 'Morning Cloud II' built, and at around 41' it qualified and was eventually chosen to be one of four boats in the British Admirals Cup Team. By then Ted Heath had become Prime Minister and as elected captain, the British Team went on to win the Admirals Cup Series.

Once upon a time there was a famous sea captain. This captain was very successful at what he did; for years he guided merchant ships all over the world.

Never did stormy seas or pirates get the best of him. He was admired by his crew and fellow captains. However, there was one thing different about this captain. Every morning he went through a strange ritual. He would lock himself in his captain's quarters and open a small safe.

In the safe was an envelope with a piece of paper inside. He would stare at the paper for a minute, and then lock it back up. After, he would go about his daily duties.

For years this went on, and his crew became very curious. Was it a treasure map? Was it a letter from a long lost love? Everyone speculated about the contents of the strange envelope.

One day the captain died at sea. After laying the captain's body to rest, the first mate led the entire crew into the captains' quarters. He opened the safe, got the envelope, opened it and... The first mate turned pale and showed the paper to the others. Four words were on the paper, two on two lines: Port Left, Starboard Right

Bare Poles Sailing with unclothed persons from Eastern Europe.

Let me know if you have anything to advertise in the next issue (Ed).

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