September 2017 July 2017 >>
Blog of Jack and Jude
explorers, authors, photographers & videographers
The #StopAdani movement is uniting for a big day of action on Saturday 7 October.
Together, we’re building an unstoppable movement in our campaign to #StopAdani, which our politicians are trying to ignore. If we want to move beyond coal, we’re going to have to spell out #StopAdani to our politicians. That’s why we’re asking you to join forces in creating human signs so big that they can’t be ignored at iconic locations across Australia!
We’re literally going to spell out #StopAdani. Think big, think iconic, be creative and let’s make this massive!
Attend a #StopAdani human sign stunt near you!
At Last! – Light at end of dark tunnel
BHP considering leaving Minerals Council over group’s climate policies
The truth about soaring power prices: Why wind and solar are not to blame
[Read More]
Busy Busy Busy in unseasonable heat
Our time back in the shack has been busy busy busy in this winter’s unseasonable heat that has been harsher due to receiving only a few drops of rain. Meanwhile, down south where Banyandah safely swings round her mooring, the skies have rarely been clear of black clouds raining heaps. It’s as if an imaginary line has been drawn, cold and wet one side, hot and dry the other.
With our vessel safe miles away, we’ve turned to house maintenance and family fun to fill the time till winter’s chill abates down south. One major task underway is completing our shed’s awning, a steel structure wrapping around the two sides facing the house. It would have been completed long ago if we hadn’t noticed a tiny bit of corrosion taking hold where the colorbond flashing screws up to the underside of the front support channel. Being alongside a tidal salt water river, this prompted us to remove the roofing to prepare the exposed structure for corrosion protecting coatings – as if erecting the structure wasn’t enough! Oh well, another week in the increasing heat should see us with a lovely addition that will last forever (LOL)
Yellow-rumped Pardalote
Photo by Jude
We’ve also taken our new secondhand vehicle out for few jaunts to test its off road ability and can report that these Suziki Grand Vitara are not a soft SUV, but are rather stiff, capable offtrack performers. Put her in low range 4WD and she’ll climb straight up the worst mountains, opening up access to lots of new wilderness areas. Come the school holidays at the end of this month, we’ll be taking three of our grandkids deep into the Nymbodia National Park to camp right alongside the river. Can’t wait!
Jude calls her “Chipmunk” because she’s quirky, jumps about, and can climb just about anything
Useless Inlet Shark Bay WA
Useless Inlet Shark Bay WA
Useless Inlet in Shark Bay WA isn’t really useless if you can navigate the shoals into its large enclosed bay that’s alive with good fishing and quiet hideaways. Mind, fierce southerly winds can join up with a fast outgoing tide to slow your passage down the 12 nm long inlet. Charted as Harve Inutile (Unusable Harbour) by Louis De Freycinet in 1801 due to the shallow sand banks obstructing the entrance, it later became the center of the pearling industry in the 1870s. Beginning in the 1960’s, causeways were constructed across the southern reaches to trap and concentrate saltwater for the solar salt ponds located across the peninsula at Useless Loop.
To help you through the sand banks, here are a set of waypoints that will allow keel boats to access this out of the way inlet.
Rebuilding Banyandah
After 16 years of service around the world, Banyandah leaves the water in 1989
It’s been outdoors weather lately and with little “Life Afloat” news to report, we’ve sort of neglected this website. To make amends, as time allows, we have started uploading newsletters created a decade ago that we posted on a website that’s now defunct. Covering our first few years back afloat, the first installment is a photo journal showing the rebuilding of Banyandah during her 16 years sojourn on dry land. Just imagine the wear and tear our homemade craft endured as we raised our family afloat while sailing to over eighty countries around the world.
Rebuilding Banyandah can be found here.
Practical Tid-bits
Sand lasts longer than non-stick tape.
We’ll also be posting practical ideas gleamed from living life afloat since ’74 – taken from Jude’s tidy little classic “Practical Boat Bits and Tips.” The first dealing with a cheap, good way to make your companionway steps non-slip.
Instead of non-skid tape, these treads have been sanded. Sand is more durable than anti-skid tape which tends to wear unevenly and look scruffy in highly trafficked areas. Also, unlike anti-skid tape that sometimes lifts at the edges, there’s no chance of that happening when using sand. Read how to do it HERE. Or get a PDF copy of her informative book for less than a cappuccino. Paperback available as well.
Our DVD Videos on USB Memory Stick
Last summer, while away in the wilderness, I was thinking of my video workstation back at the shack and planning, by popular demand, to re-engineer our earlier videos into widescreen high resolution files that could be loaded onto a memory stick.
I am pleased to report that the project was a great success and good fun, although hugely time consuming and challenging. This last month, I’ve enjoyed plenty of time reminiscing over video footage recorded these last ten years while waiting for the computer to do its thing.
Extras on stick – 11 hours of viewing
Putting our DVD Videos on a USB Memory stick has given us an opportunity to also give you a slew of extras – like the drone footage of remote locations we filmed this year, along with a peek at places filmed over the years like WA King George River and Daw Island on the edge of the Bight. A complete list of files can be found here.
28 files – 11 hours of viewing – delivered worldwide
Single DVDs also available on USB Flash Memory