Kiapa

Kiapa is a 52ft Morelli Melvin gunboat catamaran, built in Oregon, USA. We bought her in San Francisco in 2011. Her owners are Lionel and Irene Bass, who hail from Perth, Australia.

Recent Updates

Posted: Thu, 30 Nov 2017 - 14:38

Had an absolute cracker of a sail down from Ballina to Yamba yesterday. 14-15k just aft of the beam with a lovely current lift saw Kiapa flying along to her 'resting spot' for summer. Yes, we are

Posted: Tue, 28 Nov 2017 - 19:19

An early start saw us going through the Gold Coast seaway at dawn's crack and after a fairly slow 60nm passage to Ballina we crossed the river mouth bar around 4pm. Off to the RSL for dinner now.

Posted: Fri, 24 Nov 2017 - 10:16

Moved from Bum's Bay to a much quieter spot on the western side of South Stradbroke Island - the continuous helicopter joy rides made us feel like we were in a war zone! Now we can only hear bird

Posted: Thu, 23 Nov 2017 - 17:13

Motor-sailed down the inside channels (on the western side of South Stradbroke Island) to Bum's Bay on the Gold Coast. Had a brief nervous moment when we had to pass under the overhead powerlines

These are the power lines we had to go under.

Posted: Mon, 9 Oct 2017 - 09:21

We arrived at the fabulous Royal !! Queensland Yacht Squadron on Friday, and have been enjoying familiarising ourselves with all that is on offer at this fabulous club/marina. We plan to stay here

Posted: Thu, 5 Oct 2017 - 19:23

We cleared Wide Bay Bar first thing this morning - phew, no dramas. And what a totally FABULOUS sail we had down to Mooloolaba today. Not only was the sailing itself great, but boy, did we see some

Where we are anchored - in the middle of suburbia!

Posted: Wed, 4 Oct 2017 - 19:18

Anchored in Pelican Bay ready to, hopefully, cross the renowned (sometimes treacherous) Wide Bay Bar first thing tomorrow morning. This is the 'opening' from the sheltered waters created by Fraser

One of the visiting dolphins was 8 month old baby Joe.

Posted: Tue, 3 Oct 2017 - 14:56

Motored through the very interesting shallow channels of the Great Sandy Straits to the west of Fraser Island this morning. Thank goodness for accurate charts and GPS's! The red line on the 2 photos

The Great Sandy Straits of Fraser Island.

Posted: Sun, 1 Oct 2017 - 21:13

Celebrating our first coastal sail in Aussie by sipping on a glass of bubbles while watching sunset. We are anchored off the World Heritage listed largest sand island in the world - Fraser Island

Posted: Fri, 29 Sep 2017 - 12:07

We are enjoying playing 'Tommy the tourist' in the Bundaberg region while going through the process of importing Kiapa into Australia. Have you heard of Bert Hinkler? No, nor had we! Well, he is a

Posted: Sun, 17 Sep 2017 - 10:27

We arrived safely in Bundy late on Friday afternoon, which meant we had to clear in on Saturday. Contrary to all the stories we'd heard, clearing in was effortless, and NO weekend overtime fees were

Posted: Thu, 14 Sep 2017 - 09:51

Tuesday's gallop was slowed down to a comfortable trot yesterday - due to lack of wind and still the strong counter-current. But last night the wind picked up and swung around to the north so now we

Posted: Wed, 13 Sep 2017 - 07:18

It was a sad farewell to fantastic Chesterfield Reef yesterday morning - what a brilliant time we had there. We are now underway to the land of koalas and kangaroos, the final leg of Kiapa's Pacific

Posted: Wed, 13 Sep 2017 - 00:00

2-3m Tiger shark at Chesterfield reef. I felt much much safer swimming in the water with this shark than with John Hembrose from the Go West Go East , Go F yourself rally. A peaceful yoga picture on

Posted: Mon, 11 Sep 2017 - 14:27

Lionel is a happy chappy - he has ticked something off from his bucket list. A swim with a tiger shark! Yip, you read that correctly! We had just returned to Kiapa after a most enjoyable kite session

Posted: Sun, 10 Sep 2017 - 09:27

We have moved to the SE anchorage to check out the snorkelling and little island here. The last few days have been fantastic in many respects, but especially with reference to whales. Any and every

Posted: Thu, 7 Sep 2017 - 08:54

Man-oh-man, Chesterfield Reef truly is paradise. The sandy islands are covered in birds, and their song fills the background such that we don't want to listen to music. After snorkeling on pristine

Posted: Wed, 6 Sep 2017 - 16:30

Very VERY happily anchored in the most turquoise of waters here at Chesterfield Reef after a very easy passage from New Cal. It is so unbelievably beautiful here - Kerry, Lionel and I think we are in

Posted: Sun, 20 Aug 2017 - 10:02

'Hiding' up The Carenage in Prony Bay as we wait for the strong westerlies to pass. Had a lovely swim in the small waterfalls a bit further up the creek. It's been a L O N G time since we swam in

Posted: Fri, 18 Aug 2017 - 17:42

Oops, missed a couple of updates. In the last week since sailing from Isle de Pins we have stayed at Mato Island, Amadee Island, Anse Majec and now in Prony Bay. A strong westerly is forecast, so we

The classic outline of Amadee Lighthouse at sunset.

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Kiapa

Kiapa

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