Whittley Club Weekend 8th- 10th Feb2008
A report from a relatively new member and owner of Whittley 630 “Sea-Pet”. Photos from the weekend

The February outing was planned by Ric Freid and Chris Long and the first thing I noticed on the weekend brief was that for anyone interested and could get away early, a trip was planned on the Thursday, leaving Bongaree about 10.30am and travelling to Caloundra through Pumistone Passage on the high tide, then overnighting and returning to Gallagher Point, (just north of Toorbul) and get organized for the rest of the weekend.

We were very disappointed that we would not be able to do that because of other commitments and since we had never been along that stretch of water, (and most others as well) we thought of the lost opportunity!

We launched at Spinnaker Sound on Friday about just before mid-day, with plenty of water and it was the first time we launched without driving the boat off and then docking up to a pontoon or similar and getting organized from their. This time we man handled the boat with bow and stern lines on (a bit of wind and tide) and manouvered the boat to the sand adjacent to the ramp. No mishap and another first to our boating experiences, that is to have the bow on sand and then after lunch, to board, for Petra, with the help of a leg up, through the front hatch, and Brian, in waist deep water from the stern ladder( no one would have been strong enough to  give Brian a leg up!!) 

 A pleasant 30 minute run and then anchoring completed, time to catch with others and then ashore for drinks and nibbles AND courtesy of Ric and Chris who had been busy during the day, a feast of sand and mud crabs. We were forced back to the boats at sundown by mossies and sand-flys but had enjoyed a wonderful time and watched a fabulous sunset as we looked toward the magnificent Glasshouse Mountains There were about 9 boats gathered on the Friday night.

More boats gathered on the Saturday and I think we finished up with about 15 altogether. On Saturday you can imagine  how excited when Les and Sharyl Tuton called by and said that they and Keith and Edna Miller were going to cruise up and back to Caloundra  with the high tide about 10.30am and if interested we and others were welcome to tag along. Were we interested, wow what a trip! So exhilarating and what a challenge it would be for a first timer without the experience of Keith and Les. We were back in about two and a half hours after a thoroughly enjoyable time. Thanks’, another first.

Guess what, Rick and Chris had been busy again so more sand and mud crabs for Saturday evening and together with all the nibbles supplied by all the ladies  no one would have returned to their boats hungry even though we didn’t have a bar-b-queue because of  the mossies.

Another first, hopefully not to be repeated, Sat night about 10.30 pm Petra shook me from my slumber to inform me that we were moving!!! I grabbed the torch shot out to the stern and to the starboard side was a cruiser about twice the size of the 630 and only 2 or 3 metres from us dragging his anchor and pretty quickly at that. What do you do in these circumstances?? (Haven’t read anything about that procedure as yet so from my movie and TV experiences called, ahoy there, ahoy there, wake up (please wake up, because although he had missed us and we were the first boat in the line there was no way he would not get the next boat of Don & Dell Bliss, which was directly in line and only 20 or 30 metres away) and at the same time flashed the torch, after what seemed like ages a body emerged and I told him that he was dragging his anchor. His comment was “is it full tide?” I said does it matter you are going to wipe out a few boats very soon. He then proceeded to raise his anchor (not much and it didn’t take long and then got round to turning his engine on and by the time he got it into gear was 5 metres from the bow of Don’s boat. Very frightening experience. He then anchored about 100metres upstream but left at dawn so still do not know what name or make. If we had been thinking we could have taken a photo for future reference but at 10.30pm and in a deep sleep some functions slow down a tad! He must have originally anchored in the dark as we had not seen him previously so were not aware of any pending danger.

At 3.30 am , guess what, I am again woken, this time because a stiff south westerly wind had developed and was making things a bit bumpy and testing moorings, we were OK but a few boats shifted just to be on the safe side and all was OK for the rest of the night. We were originally going to stay until Monday but the forecast didn’t sound too promising so after breakfast we decided to head home. Again nosing onto the sand so I could collect the vehicle and trailer and then had Petra drive the boat on, I have got to say that Petra and I both got a great thrill when another boatie who was looking on said “a good bit of driving lady” before wandering off. What a wonderful way to finish a truly lovely weekend. Thank you all but especially Ric and Chris for organizing the outing, oh yes, and the crabs.

Brian and Petra Bell.
“Sea-Pet”