"Vada a bordo, cazzo!"

An Australian company, Zazzle.com.au, is selling T-shirts quoting the now famous tirade against the "coward captain" of the Costa Concordia.

The shirts carry the phrase "Vada a bordo, cazzo!" - which translates to "Get back on board, d...!" - from the audio recording of a heated exchange between harbour master Gregorio de Falco and captain Francesco Schettino.

De Falco was ordering the captain to return to his ship - and has now gained hero status for his tirade.

Batemans Bay's very own Costa Concordia

Click on image for a BEFORE picture
Portugese maritime history went straight to the bottom of Batemans Bay when yacht Vale De Moura sunk early yesterday morning. The Vale De Moura is the last survivor of a fleet of traditional, sail-powered vessels that worked commercially on and around the west coast of Portugal. Built in 1956, the yacht carried salt to fishing boats in Portugal before it was fitted with a motor and taken to Germany.

For more than a decade, the Vale de Moura was little more than a tourist icon ship-wrecked at The Wharf, Mooloolaba, Queensland, but in early 2005 the now 56-year-old wooden boat, which circumnavigated the globe twice in its heyday, was been given a second chance after a pirate story curtailed its first adventures in Australia.

Customs officials impounded the 72-foot sailing vessel when it sailed into Mooloolaba in 1994 as they didn't believe the Austrian captain who said he sailed it from Europe single-handedly. They thought he had killed all his crew. The Vale de Moura was impounded for three years and was then sold to a Perth businessman who had dreams of restoring it. Years passed while the boat languished at the Mooloolaba Wharf.

That was until John and Krystina Mackintosh from Batemans Bay spotted it while holiday on the Sunshine Coast in 2004. They thought it would be wonderful to restore and so Mr Mackintosh gathered his sailing friends, Tony Sutton, Peter Walsh and Bob Beresford, called the Four Buccaneers, bought it and sailed it to its new home in Batemans Bay. The Vale De Moura had been moored in the Bay since then.

Position Report TEKANI II

"I am flying back to Cairns on Monday for about 10 days before returning to Mooloolaba where T2 is in a marina berth still waiting for repairs to the Paguro genset.

The first and only electrical engineers who have ever seen one of these Italian exotica have convinced me that the original installation of the unit by what can only be described as a rogue installer is the cause of its litany of faults and failures. The exhaust system, as it presently exists, guarantees that a backflow of hot, saltwater-saturated exhaust gas into the engine will corrode and permanentlydamage the piston, cylinder liner, valves and associated parts etc.

Dismantling has confirmed all of the above and I am informed that the engine can be rebuilt and repaired and the exhaust train can be altered to prevent it all happening again.

Not the fault of Geoff Benson, the previous owner who bought the machine from its Australian importers and used an installer recommended by them. Previous contacts with the manufacturers and their distributor do not inspire much confidence that they will accept any responsibility for all this and a warranty claim is unlikely to succeed after all this time, but watch this space."

For sale: Waterfront Property "Riverbend" near Batemans Bay

You have to live somewhere - it may as well be Paradise!

Here's a bit of an advertisement on my own behalf: the sale of our 7-acre-plus property "Riverbend" with almost 400 metres of absolute waterfront near Batemans Bay on the South Coast of New South Wales. For more information go to www.nelligennet.com.

It's the sort of property that is usually passed down the family as there are only a few like it on the Clyde River. I have been here for 18 years and for me it's time to move on - regrettably! - as we plan to live for part of the year in Kalimantan (Borneo) in Indonesia which makes it near-impossible to also maintain such a large property this far south.

The price - for those who can afford it - is very realistic as nearby unimproved waterfront blocks just 1500 square metres in size and with as little as 19 metres of waterfront have recently sold for $750,000. By contrast, "Riverbend" consists of eight titles, comprising approx. 29,200 square metres (see map), is on sale for $2 million, lock, stock and barrel. For those who feel a little financially challenged, I can offer very substantial vendor's finance on below-bank finance terms.

If you're interested, contact me by email to

riverbend[AT]batemansbay.com

Position Report TEKANI II

"Greetings all from Mooloolaba where T2 is now moored after an uneventful sail down from Tin Can bay. The Wide Bay Bar behaved itself apart from producing a solitary green sea over the bow in 5 meters just before reaching the deep water.
The 55-mile leg from there to here was completed in yacht salesmens' weather. 15 knots on the beam all the way and we anchored in the Mooloolah river at 9 pm.

Lawries Marina is full with no available berths, so T2 will be in the yacht club marina for the next 3 weeks while the fate of the temperamental Paguro genset is decided.

I will be flying back to Cairns in about a week's time to attend to a few meetings which require my presence, then it will be back to M'aba to continue south. This end of Queensland is a better place to be at this time of the year."

Position Report TEKANI II

TEKANI II at Muddy Bay

"Navigation, sail changes, engine maintenance, etc. are all part of the rich tapestry of the cruising life, but an iced-up freezer willl eventually get your attention - a squeak like a gecko caught in an electric fan which I had been ignoring (as you do) got so loud that I finally identified it ... the fan blades were fighting a losing battle with an iced-up wireguard and there could be only one end, with ransom money for Wayne or Charlie from Ice Cold Refrigeration ooming - no worries:

!. Unload freezer and put contents into supermarket freezer bags.

2. Point $15 fan-heater into freezer, turn it on and stand back.

3. Pour a small scotch, and wait 20 mins by which time all traces of ice, frost, cold etc. will have disolved into H2O.

4. Reverse 3.2. & 1.

5. Put everything back and turn freezer on.

Works for me ☺ "

Position Report TEKANI II

Paguro means Hermit Crab. Makes sense! ☺

"Paguro Genset update

This will be the last time I bore you all with the ongoing problems of this piece of Italian exotica - promise.

A diesel engineer and a marine electrician came on board this morning and after an exhaustive series of tests and experiments, both agreed that the machine was impossible to either start or run in its present condition. Neither was prepared to attempt to work on it further in situ and the only alternative offer was to unbolt the entire unit, including the separate water-cooled inverter, and dismantle the whole thing on the work bench.

Since the nearest spare parts are in Brisbane, or more likely in Milan, we agreed that this was better left until T2 reaches Mooloolaba, within striking distance of Brisbane where the agents are based.

The boat is still fully operational without it, so this is what I've decided to do.

Time for a scotch.........or two X;{"