2011 to 2014

The weather was fine, the breeze was light, and the tide was high. What a great combination for the start of the Club’s annual boat trip up the Yarra. As an added bonus the launching facilities have been improved and it was much easier to tie the boats up. From my memory (short) it was the best turn-out of members yet. Eight boats arrived at the “Warmies” and three launched from Williamstown to meet us along the river.

Leigh and Kirrin McNolty hitched a ride with Quinton and his son David. Steve Clutterbuck had problems with his motor and so he and crew Chris hopped aboard with David Stott. Pat was a passenger with us in Ursa and unfortunately Rob was left behind at the Warmies, as he was having trouble starting the Seagull. Chris Kelly and brother-in-law, Andreas Sederof, were there to tow him back to the dock to make adjustments and catch up with the fleet later. Chris was kindly our unofficial “crash boat” for the trip and looked out for everyone, patiently waiting to make sure re-fuelling etc. was successful.

Peter, Kirsty, Amelia and William had another two young passengers. The children amused themselves by producing echoes under the bridges and waving to people along the banks. We were pleased to have our East Gippsland members Martin, Marika and son Mark with their lovely boat on the trip.

At Williamstown, Penny and Jim doubled up with David Ayres in his impressive Le Bateau Rouge and Graham pedalled away from the quay with his usual amazing stamina. Another boat launched from Blunt’s boatyard to join the trip but the crew did not disembark at Herring Island. However, Michael, Liz Morris and family joined us for lunch by coming across on the punt. By this time Rob had fixed his motor, put Green Pea back on the trailer, and driven up to the island to join us for lunch and reclaim his wife who had been press-ganged as crew aboard Ursa.

Andrew Yen with his friend and two children had some difficulty keeping up as his Seagull was also giving him some concern with its fuel consumption, but he made it to Herring Island after a 10 minute walk to a Chapel Street Service Station - a little late but with the ship’s company still in good humour.

The trip up river was interesting with all the new development along the bank in the dockland area. Our boats seemed to create considerable interest as people were watching us and photographing us from the bridges and banks. Very sad, however, to see Polly locked away with no prospect of ever getting out to sea again.

The trip down river was highlighted by the opportunity to watch a huge container ship manoeuvre backwards, aided by a tug, into the Yarra and then head downstream to the sea. Eventually, back at the “Warmies”, we loaded our boats on to the trailers and headed home feeling tired but content after another great day out on the water. As always it is the participating club members who make a successful outing, so thank you to everyone who came along.

Linda & Tony Remington
Ursa