… cruising with a difference…

Dear Joan,

After travelling through 50 miles of suburbia, 2,000 of jetting and another 75 miles of wilderness by road, we were fortified with a friendly ‘cuppa’ and cake at our point of embarkation.

We cast off the lines, and with vocal encouragement our ‘ships’ re-trimmed to a travelling mode off the sand bar. The sand ‘bottom’ was in plain sight as we crested successive sand-banks and enjoyed the views. In the dips the ‘ships’ re-fuelled from purple growth, and elsewhere from yellow growth. At suitable spots they were ‘grounded’ and a billy boiled — driftwood was plentiful. On to our base anchorage where we de-rigged and placed our ‘ships’ in a safe ‘basin’ with fuel — they are self-loaders. Crews slept ashore because of the limited on-board accommodation. This gave the advantage of a good kitchen, wine, open-air beds, toilets and one shower queue-up!

Next day we cruised off, passing many multi-coloured and wind sculpted cliffs, sometimes nearly aground on 100’ sandbars. A good spot to anchor for the all-important brewing of tea and meals was in the shade of cliffs, caverns or tree-lined, dry river beds to gain protection from the 30° heat. A cloudless sky and no pollution allows ground temperatures of 50°C, and even in spring ultra-violet cream is very important.

Many delightful stops were made: on one sand shore fossils of 50 millions of years or more were located. Up the many ‘fjords’ were many surprises: cave paintings, rock carvings, even a fresh water pool which provided a welcome swim! At higher levels some were overgrown with special trees whose roots yielded succulent 3½” witchetty grubs — quite a change of diet!

After five days of interesting and varied cruising we packed up for the final leg of 20 miles back to the start point. There we left our ‘ships of the desert’ happily re-fuelling for their next trip.

All told a most enjoyable seven days ‘on board’, with company from Canada, Wales and Egypt. This type of cruising is very visual; the vessels are self-tacking at times when a 500 acre patch of acacia or wattle, in full bloom and heady with honey flow, produces extensive re-fuelling.

After returning to the airport and only real town for 1,000 miles, I tried an alternative method of cruising, silent, relaxing and very visual: hot air ballooning. 4 am turn-outs and a dawn start riding in an open basket, with a 7’ flame urging you skywards, are great. True, one has to rig the balloon each time and pack it again at the finish, but that only makes the chicken and champagne breakfast in the scrub where you landed even more enjoyable!

Ceiling is limited by law to 4,000’, but you can low-fly to a few feet and confuse the rabbits on their warrens, or pick wattle flowers! At several hundred feet a keen watch is kept for kangaroos, mobs of wild horses and cattle.

The sensation of movement in three dimensions with no wind on the cheek is unique. The age groups and nationalities flying were world-wide from 7 to 80.

Well, that is part of the scene around Alice Springs, winter minimums of -6°C, summer maximums of 50°C+; typically desert, but far from bare. It is approximately dead centre in Aussie — that is its area name. 1½ days without water is it — proven many times, unfortunately, by the unwary or unlucky.

I enjoy the cruise articles very much — members are great investigators. The technical articles are illuminating. I must applaud the recent article on RDF; every professional RDF has fixed aerials and a rotating goniometer search coil or equivalent. Rotating the boat is ideal from a radio point of view, as you are duplicating the calibration method used to swing compasses, which is equally suitable for RDF. For those considering a ‘home brew’ receiver, a TRF has many merits such as lack of images, reception on local oscillator, second harmonic of B/C stations and easier tracking of the tuned circuits; long-wave circuits are very sharp.

I hope this is enlightening/entertaining, and who knows, I could hop on a jet north some day. Cheerio, Merry Xmas, Happy New Year and good cruising on the waterways, wet or dry.

Yours sincerely, Bob McGregor Somerville, Victoria Australia