March 15, 2003. Opal Mining Update - No 11, New boat at last, now can we catch any fish??

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G/Day Folks, Well this week things have started to look up. (just) Today I went and took the 4x4 in to get the front diff and axle housing fixed, remember I said that it was bent out of line by 1.5 degrees and so out of alignment, I was booked in for a 1.30pm appointment, this is a specialized workshop that is set up to do the wheel alignment on big trucks as well as small vehicle's like mine.

Here is the Boss and the man who is going to fix the problem I hope, driving the vehicle on the plates.

Here Mark is looking to see just what the problem is and how to go about fixing it.

Here he is making sure the wheels are set dead straight, but this wheel is the one that has the big problem as it is leaning in at the top by one and a half degrees and he has decided that the way to fix it is by putting a shim in on the axle housing behind the brake plate.

Here he is setting up the wheel alignment tool so it gives him a reading straight off the stub axle and will tell him exactly how far out the alignment, it turns out that the wheel bearings were also loose and this what was causing the wheel to wobble now and again on certain road surfaces

I was a bit slow here as he has already put the shim in, it went behind this brake and wheel bearing housing, in the assemble the bearing's were put right as they were all taken apart to get this plate off.

The job was done perfectly and now the problem is gone, cost $240.00, now I will have to put 2 new tires on the front tomorrow, more money, but as these tires do not have a lot of mileage left on them and have this wear on the left hand sides, it is safer if I replace them now and keep them for spares. I went back to the boat yard first thing this morning and asked if they would fit a anchor well in the bow of the boat while they have it in there, so I will pick up the boat tomorrow about lunch time. Tuesday Mar 4, I went and had the 2 new tires fitted this morning, so now I have 2 spare wheels just in case we should have any more bad trouble's, but everything should be right now in the tire department for quite some time to come, but now another problem has struck the vehicle, boy she doe's not like this Queensland trip at all, when I switch the ignition key off the engine keeps running, this has happen a couple of times in the past but now the electronic switch on the engine block that pulls a leaver on the diesel injection pump to cut off the fuel has died. So now I will have to fit a choke cable when I get home so I just pull the cable and shut off the fuel by hand as the switch for it costs somewhere in the region of $300.00, not worth that when I can fit something to do the job for less than $10.00. Picked up the boat at lunch time, looks like the real thing now, it had the storm cover on it so now its just a matter of getting it home and setting her up for fishing, will do what I can this afternoon and finish it off in the morning and if we have time and the weather is good I will take her out for sea trials. Wednesday Mar 5, Finished getting the boat ready fishing, set all of the rods up (5) with the reels etc, put all of the equipment in, got the ice in the fish box and the bait in the bait box and set off for the boat ramp. Got the boat launched at a boat ramp in a river which is about 32 kms from here and it is then 4 miles up the river to the mouth and the ocean, from there we headed straight out to the Islands which we can see out in front of the beach where we are staying, they are roughly 9 miles off the coast. We did our sea trials and tested out the echo sounder and found some fishing ground that might be good, as I caught a small Travelly but it fell off the hook before I could get it in the boat, would have thrown it back had I landed it, but will not know for sure how good it might be until we can give it a good going over, as soon as the weather permits, we came home today in about a 3 foot swell as the weather had changed and it had rained a couple of times while we were trying to fish out there and it rained again on the way in and then quit and as soon as we hit the boat ramp as we were getting out of the boat it threw it down. The reef that the locals fish, is 20 miles off the cost, but there is a cyclone about at the moment and is causing a depression which is bring some rain to the area right now, we have had rain here for the last 5 days although it does not rain all day, it might rain in the morning or in the afternoon or as today on and off for most of the day from 8.45 am this morning.

Thursday Mar 6, Got up early and went to the boat ramp, was there by 8am which is still a bit late, will try to get there at least 1/2 hour early tomorrow, the river was calm but when we got to the sea it was very choppy and we could see that there was rain around the islands where we were going so Pat wanted to turn around and go back, we were about a mile out at this point so I turned around and we came back, still no fish as yet. Again no sooner had we reached the boat ramp it started to rain again, so Pat was happy that we had turned around and come back, will hope for better weather tomorrow. Friday Mar 7, There was a lot of wind during the night here, and Jenny who owns the house here has a few wind chimes hanging outside and the one out in front of the house and right outside the bedroom we are using was really knocking out a tune and in the early hours of this morning it also rained very hard, so I said to Pat at I don't what time that we would not be going fishing today and with that turned over and went back to sleep. I woke up again around 7.00am and all was quite, the sun was out and the sea was calm, so I told Pat to get ready as we were going out on the high sea's hunting for fish, so as soon as we have had brecky and a cuppa, off we go. When we got to the boat ramp all was calm, so we launched the boat and headed for the mouth of the river, when we reached the sea it was very choppy and had about a 4 foot swell, Pat was not happy with going out in that, but then if there is ripple on the water she is not happy, so I said that we would continue, I also found out at this point that she had forgot to put the camera in the boat, when I complained about not being able to take photos of any fish that we caught, she said that it was a omen as not having the camera would bring us luck. (rubbish) It took us an hour and five minutes to get out to the islands from the mouth of the river, which according to my trip meter is roughly 13 kilometers out, (8.1 miles) I went out the back of the island on the right or the southern one, (will take some pics next week up close) by this time the wind had got up a bit and the swell and chop had not got any better. So I threw out the sea anchor, which I keep from the old dingy but the drift was to fast for us to hold bottom with a 1 lb lead sinker, so we tried for a little while and on the second time down with fresh bait Pat caught a small fish, yes she caught a fish and I have no photo to show you. We both put our lines in the water again but after a few minutes Pat thought she had a bite and started to reel the line in, so I thought I would check my bait at the same time, turned out that we had got out line tangled down on the bottom and while I was trying to untangle them while we were being thrown around I got to feeling a bit sea sick while my head was down trying to untangle the hooks (4) and sinkers, so I just unhooked the rigs and put the rods away and headed for the boat ramp. By this time the wind had really got up and the sea was getting very rough now, up to I would say about a 5ft swell and as the sea was coming from out right so we was cutting across it, on some of the breakers we were surfing down the side of them a bit, but I was very happy with the performance of the boat, turns out that this was a good day for seeing how good she handled the rough weather, as we normally go fishing in good weather but almost always come home in rough weather, so just keep the speed down and she handled it very well.

Here are some pics of the boat set up for fishing, this a side view of her and you can see a few things that are fitted here, the main thing is the canopy or sun shade, but I have to tell you that you can still get sun burnt with this over your head as we found out on the first day.

I was in a pair of swimming trunks, just as well I did not take any photos of me like that, I would have looked like a whale out of water I think, anyway when I got home I said to Pat I felt a bit crispy and when I had a shower and saw myself in the mirror I was glowing all over, it would seem that we forgot about the refection off the water and also being overcast the high UV got us from the side, just as well we had the sunshade over us or we would have got BAR-B-Qed to a crisp. Here you can see how I have set her up for the fishing rods, as I always go out with at least 5, the boat itself travels very well on the trailer, but I have to go back to the Boat Yard on Monday as there is a pin on the right hand side of the motor that you rest the motor on it when traveling to take the weight off the hydraulics' when traveling, you can just make it out its the red knob, below the top of the motor which by the way is a 40hp, I would have liked a bigger motor like a 60hp but that would have cost us another $4500.00 which we could not afford right now, lucky we got this after the 4x4 problems.

Here you can see the ladders we had specially made, so us oldies can get in and out a bit easier while in the water or at the boat ramp, this boat is a whole lot better that that little dingy, although we caught a lot of decent fish with the other one over time, I will have to show you all some of what we used to catch before we got stuck in Coober Pedy when I get back home.

Here you can the large, but not the largest fishing box, it is a 105 liter capacity (111 quarts) the insulation is the thickness of the lid so it really keeps things cold and fresh for a long time if needed and will hold a whole lot of fish, should we ever be able to test it out and behind that you can see the adjustable bait and filleting board, this is removable as it is sitting is special rod holders and ether side I have had fitted the rod holders that are a set of three in one bracket and in front of the fish box is a another white plastic container with a lid that contains separate plastic boxes with sinkers a small fishing tackle box and other stuff  that we can keep dry.

Under the bow and right under the anchor well, we have the same plastic container but without a lid that we carry the life jackets, flares, torch, a small bucket and whatever we take out with us, camera, food, towels, sun cream etc, that also stay dry under there and are in such a place as we can get to them quick if necessary. Here is the set up at the back, twin 24 liter tanks (6.34 gallons) the battery is set up right in the middle and just under the floor mounted right next to the transom (back wall) is the bilge pump for pumping out any water that should get in, as when it rains etc, as I cannot now bail it out as the floor is in the way, so I had the bilge pump fitted for safety.

Saturday March 8, Today was a lay day for us as the weather is bad, the sea is up and the forecast is for 15 to 20 knots winds with a 2 to 2.5 meter swell and the same is forecast for tomorrow, so we have been advised to go and try fishing in a river south of here that is supposed to be good, so we will go and look for it tomorrow and give it a shot, cannot do much here at the moment. Sunday March 9, Got up early, put the fishing rods, bait Esky, water Esky and food in the boat, then had a cuppa and breakfast and when Pat was ready we went and got in the 4x4, went to start it and Nothing, the bloody thing would not fire up, it was as if there was no Diesel in it, but of course there is, so after checking a few things under the bonnet I am no wiser at this time as to what the problem is. As everything is new, nothing should have gone wrong so far, but I can see that the lift pump is not working properly, but to my knowledge this should not stop the engine from starting, yesterday is the only day we have not used the vehicle since we have had the repairs done in Mt Isa, but all I know is there is no diesel getting to the cylinders, so there may be a problem with the injection pump itself. I had a neighbor across the road give me a tow up and down the road, under normal circumstances the vehicle would have started with the first 20 feet, even with a cold engine, not this time, would not even look like firing on any cylinder, this trip has really been a curse, don't know what we have done to deserve this lot, must have run over a China Man as they say back home. I have rang a Diesel Engineer in the next little town up from here, but being Sunday he has a answering machine switched on so I will have to wait until tomorrow morning before I can do anything now. I have also learned this morning that the Cyclone that was giving us the bad weather and turned out to sea, might turn around and reform, so the future here for the week or so is not looking to good, I think we are not to far off going back to Coober Pedy the way things are working out here. Might not have any photos of fish from here this year to show to you, which will be a big disappointment to us and to some of you who are our friends, but cannot help bad luck and if the weather is against us as well, what can we do! When we find out what this problem is and what has caused it, we will make our mind up what to do, to stay for a couple more weeks or to tuck our tails between our legs and go home, maybe have better luck next year, it could be that the Nissan 4x4 just does not like this Queensland weather?

Here we are again Folks, A new week this week, has anything changed! Monday Mar 10, Got the 4x4 fuel problem fixed yesterday afternoon, it was playing on my mind so I went back out around 3pm to have another look and after making sure that I was getting diesel up to the injector pump, which I was, the problem was then between the pump and the injectors, it was then that I noticed what the problem was. As I had mentioned earlier, the electronic switch that was playing up with cutting off the fuel to stop the engine when the ignition switch was turned off was not working so I have to stall the engine in gear to stop it, for some reason the switch had activated and had locked in the off position, so when I switched the ignition on the fuel was still shut off. The problem has now been resolved as I have unhooked the outer cable so this will never happen again and as soon as I can get a choke cable I will fix it into the steering wheel panel (dashboard) somewhere and will be then able to pull the cable out to turn the fuel off and stop the engine, and by shoving the cable back in turn the fuel back on for starting. Took the Boat into Cairns today to get the odd jobs done on the her, first they had to drop the runners at the back of the boat as it would not slide off easily when the boat and trailer was in the water, as the stern of the boat would not float enough, now fixed.

We bought a new Storage Box with a lid, so we can make sure that the items stay dry in there, here you also can see the Fire Extinguisher on the left and the EPIRB (emergency beacon) on the right.

Here is the Fish Finder, with a Sun Cover that the man I bought it from gave me, nice of him.

You can see here the 2 fishing rod holders that we have had fitted to the boat, they do not stay up as you see them with any great force on them, so I will have to make a modification to them by putting a bracket from top to bottom to strengthen them, then they will be perfect for us, these are removable and I have had 2 more bases fitted on the opposite side, so I only need to 2 rod holders themselves. The large Red Fishing Box you see here has been swapped for a small one of 62 liters in size as this one of 105 liters took to much room inside the boat, have not put the new one as yet to try for room.

This is called a Sea Anchor, it is kept in the Anchor Well in the bow of the boat, this when we are drift fishing and I say WHEN, squares the boat up side on the swell or wind, as shown below.

Tuesday Mar 11, You can see here the Sea Anchor in action, it allows us to fish with the rods out the side and at a right angle to the boat so we do not get in each others way when fishing.

Here is my Lovely Hard Working Wife Patricia, concentrating on catching nothing, but I have to tell you that when the fish are on the bite and when we can find where they are, she will catch her share as she is a very good Fisher Woman and has caught a lot of big ones in the past, off the beach as well as in the boat.

These are the Franklin Islands just off coast here, as I said earlier they are about 13kms out, but due to the weather at the moment we are having trouble getting out to them to do some serious fishing, here we went out about 5 kms off shore, but did not want to go any further as the conditions might get worse very quickly, so we went back into the river mouth and to try some fishing in there.

Here we are back inside on the river about a kilometer from the mouth at a junction of 2 rivers that come together, we found a spot that was 29 feet deep with the sounder and it said that they was some fish swimming around down there, so over went the anchor. These guys were fishing quite some ways from us in 7.5 feet of water and when they pulled up anchor and was moving our way, we called out to them that we were in deep water and there was fish under us as we had caught 3 by this time, but they were on the small side. So they went not to far behind us and dropped anchor as the tide was running out at this point, we continued to catch undersize fish and kept throwing them back, then I heard the anchor chain from these guys and thought they were moving, but it turns out one of them had hooked into something big. This guy fought this thing for about 1.25 hours, before giving up on it and retrieving what line he could before breaking off and moving somewhere else upstream a ways, he never got to see what he had on, but I knew after 10 minutes he had a Sting Ray on and if it had been me I would have broken off then, we have caught plenty of these useless things in the years gone past, even Pat has had here share of these on the beach and has even caught a Coach Whip Sting Ray which is not caught to often.

Here are some of the fish we caught, nothing special I can tell you but FISH AT LAST and at least today we has some fun for a while catching fish, the one on the left I caught out at sea and was the only one caught there, although the Echo Sounder said there was plenty swimming past the boat as we were drifting, but was not getting any bites, I also had a hook bitten off by I assume a small shark, but I never felt a bite on that one. Next time we get chance to go out to sea I might try the same area but put the anchor out and see what type of fish are down there, might not be what we want but who knows, will settle for a few sharks as we like small sharks as they are good for eating, Pat likes them as they have no bones, Pat hates bones.

Wednesday Mar 12, Today is a lay day as it has been raining all day, it started sometime in the early hours of the morning, and as right now 8.15pm it is still raining (just) it is coming from the Cyclone sitting off the coast and heading out to sea to the east, there is another right now up in the Gulf of Carpentaria and is traveling towards the top of Cape York Peninsula, I was thinking about going up to the Gulf to a place called Karumba, which is at the bottom Cape York Peninsula. The Cyclone is traveling across the top of the Gulf, so we may be alright in traveling if it does not rain in the area that we are going through, because if they get some rain it could make some rivers go to flood, I have been told there are 3 of them we have to cross and a couple of them can be up to a mile across when in flood, so if there is a lot of rain we could be stuck in-between rivers, which I am sure would not be fun at all. The neighbor across the road is going up there on Saturday Morning if the weather is right for a couple of weeks fishing, so I thought we would go and check it out, who knows it may be good for next years fishing trip, this is the place where the Prawn Trawlers operate, plus there is the Professional Fish Trawlers up there and they also catch the famous big Mud Crabs there. Thursday Mar 13, Got up early at 6.00am, it was still raining steadily, it has now been raining for over 24 hours straight sometimes heavy, it would wake me up during the night as it always sounds heaver on a tin roof. Had a cooked breakfast of Bacon, Eggs and Tomatoes after getting cleaned up, watched the news while eating and the Cyclone had now passed over land up the top of Cape York Peninsula and has been downgraded to a Category1, but as it is still raining and we would get a bit wet putting things into the vehicle, we have decided to wait another day to see if the rain will let up and to make sure if we can that there is no flooding of the rivers where we are going to. No Fishing will take place with us for the next few days now, just have to wait until we get back from the Gulf to see if the weather improves for us to go out to sea as we will not catch anything exciting in the river I don't think defiantly not what we came for anyway. Friday Mar 14, Got up again early this morning, at 5.50am to be preside and it was pouring down with rain, so went back to bed and got up again at 7.10 and the rain had eased up some, so I said to Pat to get up and we would head off for the Gulf of Carpentaria. Pat was not happy at being given such sort notice to get ready, but I said as we did not know how long the weather was going to be like it was we had to go when we could, it had been raining here for 43 hours straight and did not looking like it was going to stop any time soon. While Pat was getting ready and had packing a few things, I rang a Caravan Park up in Karumba and asked about the weather up there and if any of the rivers were impassible at this time, I was told that there had been very little rain when the Cyclone crossed the coast up higher but they had some high winds rain when it came, apart from that it was going to be a fine day coming up. So we threw the things in the vehicle and off we went, as soon as we hit the highway 17kms from the house I filled up with diesel for the trip, I have been told it is about 750 kilometers to Karumba from here, then we were off, we had really started off a bit late in the morning for this long trip, but we went anyway and stopped for a American take away breakfast at McDonalds, Bacon and Egg Muffin with a Hash brown and of course coffee, you need some real good solid food in the belly for a long trip like this. We got 110 kilometers out from a town called Normanton and started to run into what they call Floodways, which are dips in the road that allow the water to run over the road and not undermine it causing damage, sometimes these can be quite deep and hold up vehicles for hours or days if it has rained hard enough in the area, you can see where we came form here, just north of Innisfail which is just South of Cairns, we have traveled east from the to this place called Normanton.

Here is one of the Floodways, this one is not to far to get through and is about 1 foot deep, all you have to do is go though in 1st gear slowly so you do not splash water up on to the engine electrics, this is not a problem for me being a diesel engine and I can go through some deep water if I have to.

This is another of the Floodways, but this one is longer and deeper that the one above, the water is flowing across the road here from right to left, they are just like little rivers.

You also have to be on the lookout for Cattle on the side of the road, this is all cattle country up here.

If you are really lucky and keep your eyes open you might see one of our Famous National Icons the Kangaroo, I saw this Boomer (male) from a fair way off so I just knocked the 4x4 out of gear and let the vehicle slowly slide up to in front of him, he was at the side of the road then, but as I was getting the camera zoomed in he moved away from the road and propped as you can see behind these small saplings, thinking he was hiding.

Here he is having a good look at us, I gave a low whistle to make him look at us like this, they are very inquisitive but frighten very easily if you make any sudden moves and they will not stay like this for very long, I used to shoot these for a living from 1968 to the middle of 1971 as a Professional Shooter, now I prefer to shoot them with a camera, but they are a pest here and are in plague numbers in places.

Here we are just pulled into Normanton, this is the Big Barramundi, has a bit of a name for catching these Barramundi which is a member of the perch family and is famous here for its jumping antiques when caught on a lure as it try's to throw the hook/s, this is outside theGulfland Motel.

I thought this Purple Pub in Normanton was worth a photo as it fits into my unusual items category, at night it looks blue on the outside as they switch on the iridescent lights, we call them black lights in Coober Pedy and the lights shining on the purple makes it look blue at night.

Of course the Bad Luck that we have been having over the past few weeks as again reared is ugly head, even though we rang that Caravan Park before we left in Karumba, it would seen that the waters have risen across the road in from of us, as I said earlier there are 2 Creeks and 1 Floodway to cross between here and Karumba, so unless we to turn back and waste 700 kilometers (435 miles) for nothing we are stuck here until the waters decide to go down.

This is the sunset on the first night here, thought it was also worth a photo for you to look at.

This is a shot of the same sunset, but 2 minutes later, nice how the colors change, I love nature.

Saturday March 15, Today we out to look at the first Floodway that is causing the problem for us and a lot of other people, the town people here loves this as it makes us travelers stop and spend money in there town.

Some people with caravans can wait out the water in some comfort and a lot cheaper than we can, as we are paying $66.00 a night for a room and then we have the food and drinks on top of that, there is not much to do here except wait.

Here you are looking back to town some 33 kilometers (20.5 miles) back, there was a lot more people here but had returned back to town as we were on the way out there.

This is what the Aussies do to make the best of the situation, meet other people and have a chat and perhaps a beer, a lot of people come up here to go to this Karumba to go on a Fishing Holiday.

This shows you the depth at this peg, but further out in the middle it is up to the 1 meter mark, I would estimate this crossing to be around 800 meters wide at this time.

Here is the pub that we are going to be staying at for the next 2 days or until the water goes down so we can get to Karumba, I thought this sign reminded me of Roy Rogers and Trigger.

Another photo of the Pub from the front, the motel units are at the rear of the building, it is just another of the bush type drinking places that you come across in the outback, all of them have there own unique bush atmosphere, this one has what we call bush air-conditioning, it has all the doors & windows open.

Looks like we will be here until the water goes down which I hope will not take more than a couple of days, there has been a few more people book in here while I was writing the last few paragraphs, so we are not the only ones to stuck here, but after what has happened over the last few weeks this is just another disappointing chapter in the ongoing saga of problems. The engine is still not right in the 4x4, it does not like hills, never has for that matter, but it get a bit hot when it has to work a bit hard and this is when I am not towing anything, also burns a bit if oil as well. I have a idea of what might be part of the problem, as I and someone else made an adjustment to a arm from the turbo to the exhaust pipe, so I will probably make an adjustment to it tomorrow and see how it goes on the way back to see if it makes any difference to the oil and temp. I hope that you have enjoyed reading about our travels and troubles, it takes some time to put this together, with the photos and all, but I enjoy doing it, especially when I have nothing else to do right now, going to pretty bland when I get back home and go back to opal mining, wont be has exciting as this I don't think but who knows. Stay Tuned for next weeks Issue, who knows what I will have to report. Cya Later, maybe with some fish we hope, Stuart Bird. Again I Hope you have enjoyed this issue and look forward to the next one, hopefully I will have some more good photos to show you in the next issue and maybe some of Big Fish and lots of them, I am still hoping that this will be a good year for us in mining when we get back, so stay with us over the next few months and find out what goes on in our part of the world as far as Opal Mining goes. Until the next issue......... and wish me lots of LUCK. Cya Later, Stuart Bird. To return back to the Archived Page for more Updates click, Here!

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