The tribulations of Tiare Taporo III

Captain Cook named a cape just north of here Cape Tribulation and, although his problems were far greater than ours, we can't help the analogy.
There is a marked contrast between the Yorkeys Knob Boating Club Marina (where we have been since late June) and the reception we had 2 days ago here at Bluewater Marina which is just half a mile further up the same river. We contacted Bluewater to let them know we were coming in and Rick the manager said he'd be on the dock to take our lines. Makes berthing so much easier when there is someone on the dock to do that - the only other places where that occurred were Port Moselle in Noumea and the Koumac Marina on the NW coast of New Caledonia. Compare this welcoming attitude with Yorkeys who during the whole two and a half months we were there never appeared to care whether we were there or not. Certainly we were never welcomed and never had a visit from any of the marina staff to enquire how things were going.
We don't want to continue to labour the issues we had with the Louisiades organiser, Guy Chester, or with the marina, and apart from any official complaints we intend to make, this will be our final word on the matter. We have referred to the extreme disappointment we encountered in dealing with Chester and his point blank refusal to refund our Louisiades fee of $A990. At one stage he did indicate that he would "probably" be able to refund something less than $A100, but then later appeared to indicate that this would only be forthcoming if we agreed to keep quiet about our overall experience. That was insulting as he must think we are very cheap!! After we first met him Jim was struck by his similarity of personality with his other bete noir, John Martin of the Island Cruising Assn. in Opua NZ. Both have egos way in excess even of their ample physical sizes and both suffer from a complete lack of integrity. We could kick ourselves that we ever agreed to join his rally (much less pay the fee) because we had these bad vibes from the outset. We have always told ourselves to obey our instincts but in this instance we broke our own rule. Probably because we were looking at an enforced stay in the Cairns area of around 8 months and felt we needed some variation to that. As it has happened we later became aware of another possibility and that is another rally to Lizard Is. about 160 miles north of here which we will take part in during Oct. - Nov. and doesn't cost anything!! Happily Jean is improving all the time and should be fine by the time we depart for Lizard.
We have already referred to the dodgy arrangement Chester has with the marina. We say "dodgy" because for some inexplicable reason the marina chooses to keep it confidential from the berth owners affected. We were told about the arrangement at a meeting we had with Chester on board his vessel "Sanctuary" after we had asked for the fee refund. In essence the marina makes available to Chester one week's berthage for all the rally yachts at $A80 per week as against the normal weekly berthage of $A250. It is perhaps no big deal in pure financial terms but, as we have said, they don't tell the berth owners whose incomes are affected. We were told to keep this information highly confidential for this reason. However, in view of the way we have been treated and the unpleasant attitude we have received from the marina we do not feel bound by any such stricture.
As regards the marina, they have denied that any such arrangement exists and indeed that they have nothing to do with the rally. If what Chester told us is true then they are obviously telling lies. We have been on the receiving end of several threatening emails from a Stuart Vella who purports to be the marina manager. Vella has issued veiled threats of our being sued for libel and expulsion from the marina!! So, you can see things deteriorated markedly towards the end of our stay. This so-called manager who never even had the decency to come to see us (we have in fact never met) couldn't in our opinion manage his way out of a paper bag! We complained twice in writing during our stay there about the lack of cleanliness in the showers/toilets and the laundry. We never received a response. In one toilet there was a lavatory brush just lying in all its naked and unhygienic glory on the floor. In the others no brush was in sight. The shower curtains were mildewed and the floors invariably plainly dirty and awash with water with no mop even. There was no method of drying one's hands and again in one toilet no liquid soap for our entire stay. In the laundry there was no flat surface clean enough to even put the laundry bag down on much less fold clean laundry. Jean always took a cloth with her to clean sufficiently so that she could fold things.
Yorkeys Knob makes much of its restaurant but on the 2 occasions that we were foolish enough to eat there we felt that the meals were substantially below acceptable standard and nowhere near worth the exorbitant prices.
Then there was the question of our berthage. We were paying the exorbitant monthly rate of $A895. Bluewater is substantially less. At the expiration of 2 months we needed a further 12 days before our "free" rally week kicked in. Firstly the marina said that as this was less than a month we would have to pay the weekly rate! We told them what they could do with that and then they backed down with bad grace and no apology and said we could pay for two weeks at the monthly rate. We again had to point out that it was only for 12 days and that when we went to school there were 14 days in a fortnight. We finally paid for the 12 days at the monthly rate, albeit incorrectly calculated. In the midst of all this Chester threatened to "withdraw" his "offer" of the "free" week's rally berthage to which we were contractualy entitled as we had paid the full rally fee. We told him we were going nowhere and precisely what he could do with his threatened withdrawal.
To summarise, our experience at the Yorkeys Knob Boating Club Marina has been by far the worst that we have had in all 10 marinas we have spent time in since leaving NZ in July 2011. And we have never had any trouble or unpleasantness in any other marina and in fact have very fond memories of the people we invariably met.
Although we have only been at Bluewater for 2 days so far, the contrast is stark. We are sure that our stay here will be most pleasant. Last night we went to the weekly residents' drinks and BBQ where we met a number of the other marina residents.
On a happier note we we will be blogging about our recent experience out at Fitzroy Island.
Until then, cheers from us............

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