Bernie and Yvonne Katchor

July 9, 2011
This is a newsletter to many who may not be up to date with Yvonne's recovery. At the end of 8 months with most of it in hospital Yvonne said to the doctors telling her returning to the boat was not on, 'Quality not quantity.' So we fled Australia via New Zealand to 'Australia 31' waiting patiently in Raiatea, French Polynesia.

Tahiti was our next stop and Tumai and Yan our young lovely friends were there to meet us and took us to their house and gave us their bed. They came to help in Raiatea a week later. We found that there was a ferry going to Raiatea next day but there was no space. Tumai the organiser got the captain to vacate his cabin for us so we slept in crisp sheets on a large bed arriving at 4 a.m. Tumai's sister in law and her mother were there to take us to Australia 31. No ladder was on the boat so I had to steal one and Yvonne had to climb 20 steps a feat she was unsure she could do. But up she went and was aboard grinning as usual. The two ladies were strong and soon had all our gear aboard. They came back to clean the boat later.

The bed was dry and we slept. The boat took a long time to get ready as I had to remove all the cracked falling off antifouling paint and it was very hot and I am bloody old.

It was exciting for us being afloat again and we stayed on a mooring for a week or so to get the boat ready. Let us slowly sail around the island of Tahaa I suggested but Yvonne wanted to immediately sail the 700 miles to Suwarrow. 'Pearls, we must buy pearls as we promised.' This from me soon bought her back to earth and we sailed about four miles and anchored. Yvonne did well with navigation and handling the boat. We have one powerful electric winch with 19 lines that control the sails, lift the dinghy and other jobs and Yvonne can handle this with ease. She had no strength in her arms to pull manually or even unscrew a lid from a jar. BUT she had determination.

Again I had run out of excuses not to go to Suwarrow so we sailed back to Raiatea with the pearls and stocked with food cleared customs and set sail.

We both slept in the cockpit and I set an alarm every thirty minutes to look around at night. We have a new little box called AIS which puts ships within 60 miles on our computer chart and rings an alarm. However the first ship we saw after 4 days at sea had no AIS transponder so I went below to the radar and was fiddling when Yvonne called, ' come quick.' We were 300 yards from a slow moving Trawler of 150 ft. With the motor engaged we missed it and I reviewed my sleeping habits as I had been asleep for two hours. The next ship was on AIS and it was clearly going to miss us albeit by only a mile. We only saw two ship but both were very close.

On the seventh day we came to the boisterous pass of Suwarrow atoll and sailed through it to a quiet anchorage. Here was a true paradise. We were alone except for a single hander Eric. We caught fish and coconut crab and snorkelled. Yvonne was getting strength back and on the seventh day she towed the dinghy for two hours while I speared fish and placed them in the dinghy as quick as I could as sharks were really aggressive in the atoll. Time flew as we enjoyed our togetherness and where we were.

I found it hard to believe what Yvonne had been through and we were really in Suwarrow together. (When she came out of the coma she asked when do we sail to Suwarrow.)

Life was good again. We hiked on islets seeing many fledglings and to her delight, a new bird nesting, the red tailed tropic bird.

It was time to leave and we headed 450 miles to Samoa and Pago Pago. The sail was slow with light winds and many rummy kube games, but we enjoyed it arriving at the sheltered harbour of Pago Pago after 5 days. Here Yvonne had many good days and we walked up to a mile and a half together along the paths by the harbour. We restocked food at the many stores which even had Vegemite (I could never imagine a supermarket in an USA territory having Vegemite.)

An Australia warship was calling American Samoa for a tug with no answer. I called them and went looking for the Harbour Master. I took him to the ship and as we came along side to the ladder he jumped off as a large pipe filled my dinghy with water. I called lamb lamb to the crew. The delightful young captain called by with 3 jars of vegemite and no leg of lamb. He said, 'the crew heard you calling vegemite.'

As we were about to leave a friend Wendy arrived to sail with us for a month. This was excellent for Yvonne as she was engaged in animated conversations for hours with Wendy.

On again to Tonga and the tsunami destroyed island of Niuatoputapu (we called it new potatoes) where we distributed several hundred items of clothing etc we had stored aboard for the delightful inhabitants who loaded us with coconut milk, paw paws and fish. They cooked a pig for us and we feasted. From here we emailed other boats of urgent needs of the island which seems to be forgotten as it is far from Tongan government HQ. For example generous NGO's sent solar panels but no batteries to charge so residents have electricity by day but no light at night, but do not let me go on about NGO's

On to Vavua which spreads about like a giant octopus with many bays to explore. The Tongan folk are delightful and, again, wherever we anchored someone came out with a gift of vegetables. I guess a week went by before it was time to get Wendy to Savu Savu in Fiji.

A quiet sail with too much motoring and we arrived in a torrential rain storm at 2 am. With Yvonne looking at radar and computer and me on the bow shining my floodlight into rain we inched into Savu Savu and anchored. 12 inches of rain fell. Then the sun came and all was well again. Wendy flew away and we bussed into the mountains across the island to a tiny resort friends own. What a delight relaxing to excellent food and no boat jobs. (Pamtree lodge via Labassa go there)

Then back to Savu Savu and after a host of paperwork we were allowed to leave for other islands. We have listed 32 islands to visit on the paperwork. We sailed to Fiji in 1965 and it is still as good the difference is the houses are tin not straw the people are still as happy but the grand bushy hair style is modified.

Yvonne goes to Melbourne on 12 July to see if the chemo I have been injecting into her bum via horse needles is working.

That's our story and we would love to hear yours.

---Bernie and Yvonne

October 11, 2012
It is about time we had another newsletter and as we are afloat in our old Toyota Bus (with all conveniences) and back on the trail here it is...

However, News will follow this important announcement…

Amazon invited me to place three of my books on KINDLE the url's are below and if you do not have a kindle (a little device Amazon sell on which you can read books) see below as Amazon offer you free of charge an application to enable you to read Kindle books on your computer. Much better than on a Kindle: larger and clearer. Download the free kindle program, which allows you to read any kindle book on your computer. This is for windows (and there is one for apple or iphones or other 'things' I do not understand.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_ln_ar?docId=1000426311

(NOTE: Apple has a Kindle Reader for the iPhone and the iPad)

MORE IMPORTANTLY, Amazon.com offers my three books free for 90 days on 'KDP Select' but they pay me the money every time you download the book.

Sadly, (for me) you can only download it once and only one book at a time. If this fails, I offer my books to you at special prices between 1 and 3 dollars In 90 days the price will go to astronomical heights...
REGARDLESS, even if you do not download it, enter the URL and say the book is a bloody beaut on the comments line. Give me 5 stars at least.

A MAN AND A HALF ($1 US)
A wonderful Australian boy (born without legs) joins an old person for sailing to the Great Barrier Reef read on…

AROUND THE NEXT BEND($3 US)
On our 6 month voyage up the Macareo and down The Orinoco River into Guyana.

SOUTH AMERICA . . OFF THE BEATEN TRACK ($3 US)
The latest on our 18 month journey overland from Venezuela to Cape Horn in Terra del Fuego. Reading this book after writing it, I am amazed we are still alive.

Exciting stuff. ENJOY!!! Let me know if you enjoy them.

NOW THE NEWSLETTER . . . .

Australia 31 is no more: she was written off and we received some money from the insurers. The choices we had were many and confusing….Buy a trawler USA and do the lakes: Buy a Sailboat USA and repeat the journey: buy a motor home USA or Japan or Australia. Buy a boat Spain. Regardless as poor old Australia 31 was being beaten to death in the surf Yvonne cried out, 'I am not going to live in a house.'

WE bought a motorhome in Australia. An old Toyota Coaster bus 21 passenger It has the comforts of a shower/ toilet galley double bed and bloody big rollout blind with table and chairs. The little we rescued from the wreck overflowed the motorhome and it has too much junk aboard.

Australia's beauty is breathtaking and on our first night when my daughter phoned, I told her we were anchored on a cliff top overlooking the ocean. She told me to put on the handbrake which I did. We still use nautical terms all the time. After 10 days, we have travelled 54 km (say 40 miles) and as a result, at this rate we will circumnavigate Australia within 30 years. Free camping in forests and National Parks abounds. Country towns offer free cams with showers etc. just to get tourists off the motorways. It is a new experience.
We are enjoying the solitude once again and the speed to windward is amazing. Camping spaces are hard to depart from. We are into Australian birds once again and binocs, telescope, and camera are working hard. The bus now has four seats if you want to join us as we roam but you will need a tent to sleep in. (Australia is besotted with rules and we took out two comfortable armchairs and replaced with seats with seat belts an engineer specified. Seats $40 Engineer certificate $700 but now grandkids can come along.

Yvonne continues to amaze. Cancer tumours are down 50%. She is recovering from the stroke of 2010 and although they told her, only a month ago, she would never ride a bike she had a go and I had to chase her. Now we have two bikes aboard with a box for binocs etc. Day two she fell off the bloody bike and broke her arm. Painful stuff. Next day I was told I need a hernia operation. Getting old is not for sissies. We head for Melbourne by Nov 27, 2012 for cancer tests for Yvonne. Then possibly Tasmania in the summer returning north for winter…or maybe we will buy a boat. Too many choices.

There are thousands of folk in motorhomes travelling Australia. 1400 motorhomes meet near Brisbane soon. The itinerary includes ballet and Flamenco Dancing plus too much entertainment, all for pennies for a week so we are going even though crowds are not our scene.

Our granddaughter, now 22, is in Spain and there abouts for a year or two if you are near there. Thanks to those folks from all over the world, who sent us pics of boats we should buy it was a close call . . . boat or motorhome. I expect we will be back aboard a boat within a year or two . . .

So that is our news, what is yours.

LOVE from us both.

Bernie and Yvonne Katchor
Boatless but touring in our Motorhome
QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA)
bernie@berniekatchor.com
Yvonnekatchor@gmail.com
www.berniekatchor.com



Bernie and Yvonne Katchor *July 9, 2011* This is a newsletter to many who may not be up to date with Yvonne's recovery. At the end of 8 months with most of it in hospital Yvonne said to the doctors telling her returning to the boat was not on, 'Quality not quantity.' So we fled Australia via New Zealand to 'Australia 31' waiting patiently in Raiatea, French Polynesia. Tahiti was our next stop and Tumai and Yan our young lovely friends were there to meet us and took us to their house and gave us their bed. They came to help in Raiatea a week later. We found that there was a ferry going to Raiatea next day but there was no space. Tumai the organiser got the captain to vacate his cabin for us so we slept in crisp sheets on a large bed arriving at 4 a.m. Tumai's sister in law and her mother were there to take us to Australia 31. No ladder was on the boat so I had to steal one and Yvonne had to climb 20 steps a feat she was unsure she could do. But up she went and was aboard grinning as usual. The two ladies were strong and soon had all our gear aboard. They came back to clean the boat later. The bed was dry and we slept. The boat took a long time to get ready as I had to remove all the cracked falling off antifouling paint and it was very hot and I am bloody old. It was exciting for us being afloat again and we stayed on a mooring for a week or so to get the boat ready. Let us slowly sail around the island of Tahaa I suggested but Yvonne wanted to immediately sail the 700 miles to Suwarrow. 'Pearls, we must buy pearls as we promised.' This from me soon bought her back to earth and we sailed about four miles and anchored. Yvonne did well with navigation and handling the boat. We have one powerful electric winch with 19 lines that control the sails, lift the dinghy and other jobs and Yvonne can handle this with ease. She had no strength in her arms to pull manually or even unscrew a lid from a jar. BUT she had determination. Again I had run out of excuses not to go to Suwarrow so we sailed back to Raiatea with the pearls and stocked with food cleared customs and set sail. We both slept in the cockpit and I set an alarm every thirty minutes to look around at night. We have a new little box called AIS which puts ships within 60 miles on our computer chart and rings an alarm. However the first ship we saw after 4 days at sea had no AIS transponder so I went below to the radar and was fiddling when Yvonne called, ' come quick.' We were 300 yards from a slow moving Trawler of 150 ft. With the motor engaged we missed it and I reviewed my sleeping habits as I had been asleep for two hours. The next ship was on AIS and it was clearly going to miss us albeit by only a mile. We only saw two ship but both were very close. On the seventh day we came to the boisterous pass of Suwarrow atoll and sailed through it to a quiet anchorage. Here was a true paradise. We were alone except for a single hander Eric. We caught fish and coconut crab and snorkelled. Yvonne was getting strength back and on the seventh day she towed the dinghy for two hours while I speared fish and placed them in the dinghy as quick as I could as sharks were really aggressive in the atoll. Time flew as we enjoyed our togetherness and where we were. I found it hard to believe what Yvonne had been through and we were really in Suwarrow together. (When she came out of the coma she asked when do we sail to Suwarrow.) Life was good again. We hiked on islets seeing many fledglings and to her delight, a new bird nesting, the red tailed tropic bird. It was time to leave and we headed 450 miles to Samoa and Pago Pago. The sail was slow with light winds and many rummy kube games, but we enjoyed it arriving at the sheltered harbour of Pago Pago after 5 days. Here Yvonne had many good days and we walked up to a mile and a half together along the paths by the harbour. We restocked food at the many stores which even had Vegemite (I could never imagine a supermarket in an USA territory having Vegemite.) An Australia warship was calling American Samoa for a tug with no answer. I called them and went looking for the Harbour Master. I took him to the ship and as we came along side to the ladder he jumped off as a large pipe filled my dinghy with water. I called lamb lamb to the crew. The delightful young captain called by with 3 jars of vegemite and no leg of lamb. He said, 'the crew heard you calling vegemite.' As we were about to leave a friend Wendy arrived to sail with us for a month. This was excellent for Yvonne as she was engaged in animated conversations for hours with Wendy. On again to Tonga and the tsunami destroyed island of Niuatoputapu (we called it new potatoes) where we distributed several hundred items of clothing etc we had stored aboard for the delightful inhabitants who loaded us with coconut milk, paw paws and fish. They cooked a pig for us and we feasted. From here we emailed other boats of urgent needs of the island which seems to be forgotten as it is far from Tongan government HQ. For example generous NGO's sent solar panels but no batteries to charge so residents have electricity by day but no light at night, but do not let me go on about NGO's On to Vavua which spreads about like a giant octopus with many bays to explore. The Tongan folk are delightful and, again, wherever we anchored someone came out with a gift of vegetables. I guess a week went by before it was time to get Wendy to Savu Savu in Fiji. A quiet sail with too much motoring and we arrived in a torrential rain storm at 2 am. With Yvonne looking at radar and computer and me on the bow shining my floodlight into rain we inched into Savu Savu and anchored. 12 inches of rain fell. Then the sun came and all was well again. Wendy flew away and we bussed into the mountains across the island to a tiny resort friends own. What a delight relaxing to excellent food and no boat jobs. (Pamtree lodge via Labassa go there) Then back to Savu Savu and after a host of paperwork we were allowed to leave for other islands. We have listed 32 islands to visit on the paperwork. We sailed to Fiji in 1965 and it is still as good the difference is the houses are tin not straw the people are still as happy but the grand bushy hair style is modified. Yvonne goes to Melbourne on 12 July to see if the chemo I have been injecting into her bum via horse needles is working. That's our story and we would love to hear yours. ---Bernie and Yvonne October 11, 2012 It is about time we had another newsletter and as we are afloat in our old Toyota Bus (with all conveniences) and back on the trail here it is... However, News will follow this important announcement… Amazon invited me to place three of my books on KINDLE the url's are below and if you do not have a kindle (a little device Amazon sell on which you can read books) see below as Amazon offer you free of charge an application to enable you to read Kindle books on your computer. Much better than on a Kindle: larger and clearer. Download the free kindle program, which allows you to read any kindle book on your computer. This is for windows (and there is one for apple or iphones or other 'things' I do not understand. http://www.amazon.com/gp/feature.html/ref=kcp_pc_ln_ar?docId=1000426311 (NOTE: Apple has a Kindle Reader for the iPhone and the iPad) MORE IMPORTANTLY, Amazon.com offers my three books free for 90 days on 'KDP Select' but they pay me the money every time you download the book. Sadly, (for me) you can only download it once and only one book at a time. If this fails, I offer my books to you at special prices between 1 and 3 dollars In 90 days the price will go to astronomical heights... REGARDLESS, even if you do not download it, enter the URL and say the book is a bloody beaut on the comments line. Give me 5 stars at least. A MAN AND A HALF ($1 US) A wonderful Australian boy (born without legs) joins an old person for sailing to the Great Barrier Reef read on… AROUND THE NEXT BEND($3 US) On our 6 month voyage up the Macareo and down The Orinoco River into Guyana. SOUTH AMERICA . . OFF THE BEATEN TRACK ($3 US) The latest on our 18 month journey overland from Venezuela to Cape Horn in Terra del Fuego. Reading this book after writing it, I am amazed we are still alive. Exciting stuff. ENJOY!!! Let me know if you enjoy them. NOW THE NEWSLETTER . . . . Australia 31 is no more: she was written off and we received some money from the insurers. The choices we had were many and confusing….Buy a trawler USA and do the lakes: Buy a Sailboat USA and repeat the journey: buy a motor home USA or Japan or Australia. Buy a boat Spain. Regardless as poor old Australia 31 was being beaten to death in the surf Yvonne cried out, 'I am not going to live in a house.' WE bought a motorhome in Australia. An old Toyota Coaster bus 21 passenger It has the comforts of a shower/ toilet galley double bed and bloody big rollout blind with table and chairs. The little we rescued from the wreck overflowed the motorhome and it has too much junk aboard. Australia's beauty is breathtaking and on our first night when my daughter phoned, I told her we were anchored on a cliff top overlooking the ocean. She told me to put on the handbrake which I did. We still use nautical terms all the time. After 10 days, we have travelled 54 km (say 40 miles) and as a result, at this rate we will circumnavigate Australia within 30 years. Free camping in forests and National Parks abounds. Country towns offer free cams with showers etc. just to get tourists off the motorways. It is a new experience. We are enjoying the solitude once again and the speed to windward is amazing. Camping spaces are hard to depart from. We are into Australian birds once again and binocs, telescope, and camera are working hard. The bus now has four seats if you want to join us as we roam but you will need a tent to sleep in. (Australia is besotted with rules and we took out two comfortable armchairs and replaced with seats with seat belts an engineer specified. Seats $40 Engineer certificate $700 but now grandkids can come along. Yvonne continues to amaze. Cancer tumours are down 50%. She is recovering from the stroke of 2010 and although they told her, only a month ago, she would never ride a bike she had a go and I had to chase her. Now we have two bikes aboard with a box for binocs etc. Day two she fell off the bloody bike and broke her arm. Painful stuff. Next day I was told I need a hernia operation. Getting old is not for sissies. We head for Melbourne by Nov 27, 2012 for cancer tests for Yvonne. Then possibly Tasmania in the summer returning north for winter…or maybe we will buy a boat. Too many choices. There are thousands of folk in motorhomes travelling Australia. 1400 motorhomes meet near Brisbane soon. The itinerary includes ballet and Flamenco Dancing plus too much entertainment, all for pennies for a week so we are going even though crowds are not our scene. Our granddaughter, now 22, is in Spain and there abouts for a year or two if you are near there. Thanks to those folks from all over the world, who sent us pics of boats we should buy it was a close call . . . boat or motorhome. I expect we will be back aboard a boat within a year or two . . . So that is our news, what is yours. LOVE from us both. Bernie and Yvonne Katchor Boatless but touring in our Motorhome QUEENSLAND, AUSTRALIA) bernie@berniekatchor.com Yvonnekatchor@gmail.com www.berniekatchor.com

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