Saving Old Seagulls

A question from the boys on the Murray ...


What is the longest distance a seagull outboard propelled vessel has covered? We are curious as we are we will cover 800 klms later today.

08/11/2013 0618hrs. John. We have now done over 1,000 klms and the motor sounds sweeter now than when we started … or am I going deaf? The Seagull is still easy to start, we have changed 3 drive springs, 1 gearbox, 1 fuel tank (that had split at the tap). The mint prop we started with is looking well used and we are checking the g/box twice a day.

10 nov, 1230 hrs. They are at 886 Klms to go, waiting at the Mildura lock.

Latest news ..

Just in case you are interested. Yesterday at the 850 klm mark the river circles back on itself and the map showed a short diversion that would potentially shorten the trip by 8 klms. I was at the helm and when I looked into the channel all I could see was three branches rising from the water evenly spaced across the 20 metre wide channel. The branches looked to be from the same tree. I said to John that this shortcut wasn't a good ideas. John felt otherwise and said he wold take the helm. I am now sitting forward of John in the boat as we entered the channel and I could see a large log below the surface we were now passing over. The motor fit the log a rose up out of the water screaming like a banshee and had to be shut down. The wind now has control and is grounding us on a mud bar. Despite Johns best efforts with the oars we were now stuck on the mud bar. To lighten the load John went over the side and started dragging the boat along using the anchor rope. We were still stuck so I went over the side with John doing his best impression of Humphrey Bogart dragging the Africa Queen through the swamp an assistance from me we managed to get the boat moving again. Until John fell into a large deep hole in the mud bank he went from ankle deep to waist deep in an instant. John was wearing his new crocks and they both disappeared to the bottom of the hole. Only one floated to the surface the other one I think the left foot is still at the bottom of the hole. After I stopped laughing we continued on with John dragging the boat looking like a coollee and me pushing, we finally exited the short cut after 30 minutes of hard work and rejoined the river. John complained about how cold he was I just reminded him that I said it wasn't a good idea in the first place.

John responded ...

In my defense, we did save time !

11 November 1851 hrs ..
Chip eater is back in the water we will be leaving tomorrow. Giving Moose heaps about his return. He should have restarted the journey back at Yarrawonga or at the very least Bernie's place 80 klms upstream of Swan Hill where he originally holed the boat. With his 0.5 kph speed advantage he would have eventually caught up to us.

Are there any videos? Seems that you have nice time with some tricky situation to prevent any possible routine!

I think most of us enjoy such posts but not much to say.



Keep up!

Lazy Gull and Chip Eater have cleared Lock 10 at Wentworth and are proceeding down river. We had a little ceremony before we left Wentworth we handed Moose the two tins of kippers he left with us at the wreck site. We told Moose that we wanted him to have something on his boat that had completed the full distance. The friendly batter between the boats continues.

Moose could always go back and do the section he missed when you finish the trip then he can say he did it all

[quote="The Tinker"]Moose could always go back and do the section he missed when you finish the trip then he can say he did it all [/quote]

I've met the gentleman, so I suggest that you tell him ... I'm too close to suggest that. He could come up with an alternative use for the rope and chain !

12nov 2006hrs
Arrived at lock 9 too late to pass through hopefully we will pass through early tomorrow. The current below lock 10 is only running at 2 kph not the usual 4 kph. We are now travelling at 8 or 9 kph rather than the
10 or 11 previously obtained. John checked the gearbox tonight after 6 hrs of constant running and there was a vast improvement over previous days. The new V seal appears to be working. We will keep you posted.

So what speed are you realy getting Rob, through the water, i.e. (uphill + downhill) divided by 2.

[quote="Charles uk"]So what speed are you realy getting Rob, through the water, i.e. (uphill + downhill) divided by 2.[/quote]

Hi Charles, they have a GPS on board, so that explains the previous message ......

..... current below lock 10 is only running at 2 kph not the usual 4 kph. We are now travelling at 8 or 9 kph rather than the
10 or 11 previously obtained.....

I expect the true speed to reduce further as there are no more major rivers (Darling, Murrumbidgee, Goulburn, etc) feeding the Murray and a dozen more locks to further maintain the river flow.

I may remind readers that I am in Melbourne, I acted as " pit crew" did see the boys off at Yarrawonga, and now simply relay messages and comments as I recieve them. If you look at a map of the Murray River you'll appreciate the twists and turns and know that mobile communications are quite often zero

13 November 0944 hrs.

Departed lock 9 and we are making a run for lock 8 just under 40 klms away. Johns motor was running rough this morning so John changed the plug and tightened the plug cap. It didn't fix the problem so John changed over to the spare Mooses #4 motor. All this was done mid stream. The #4 motor is not pumping a steady stream of cooling water we will keep an eye on it. It looks like John will be busy when we make camp tonight.

12/11 5:27 pm.
Waiting to go through lock 9. Did 72 Klms today.

13/11 9:47 pm.
We stopped at 726k, only did 44 ks today, motor problems, changed ignition on one motor, the other had cooling issues, back flushed system then took the head off, now sorted I hope.