Xmas greetings to all

We're back in Geelong for a while - partly to get the house sold, partly for Mike to get his teeth done, and partly to avoid the dreaded cyclone season up north.

So you can expect this blog to go rather quiet for a bit - but in the New Year we will be back again with this chronicle of our adventures. -- We promise!

In the meantine, we would like to wish everyone both on and off the water a great Christmas and a fabulous 2007.

Love
Jo and Mike

Back to Mooloolaba

On leaving Brisbane and the warm hospitality of Michael and Sue O’Sullivan, Mike and I returned to Melbourne and Geelong. I was feeling a bit fragile after leaving hospital and needed to touch base with family and friends (and my GP). We spent 10 days down South and what a busy 10 days it was!! (no time for recuperation!!) In that time we put the house on the market and went to see our yacht broker friend Graham about selling Meander for us. No we are not giving up life on the ocean waves but plan to buy a bigger boat which is to become our home for the foreseeable future.

Our friends Cathy and John organized a wonderful wedding party for us which was a lot of fun. We also had a brief visit from Ptolemy (Mike’s middle stepson) which was a lovely surprise. My daughter Sara was in Melbourne for a conference. Because she lives so far away I don’t get to see her nearly as often as I would like, so having her in Victoria was an added bonus.

I was also able to spend time with my beautiful Indira (and her equally beautiful Mum and Dad), as Mike and I stayed over with them a few times. I saw my new great nephew Cody for the first time too, so all in all it was a short but rewarding trip home.

Our friend Andrew had kindly offered to help us sail the boat back to Mooloolaba (where we had already planned to spend the cyclone season), and we were delighted to take up his offer. We met up with him in Brisbane, and flew together to Rockhampton, and then bussed it to Yeppoon

We set sail south bound early on Wednesday, quite delighted at the proposed ENE winds which were forecast for the next few days. By Saturday, however, we had been at sea for 4 days and there had not been a northerly in sight!!

We decided to make the first leg of the trip an overnighter, taking us from Yeppoon to Pancake Creek (just south of Gladstone), a run of 71 nautical miles. What a trip that was!! Andrew and I were a bit off colour (well a lot off colour if we are going to be truthful) as we punched into SE wind and 2meter seas for most of the 16 hours it took to reach Pancake Creek. (Mike was just fine though, albeit rather cranky that he had to make all his own hot drinks and sandwiches!). We got to our first destination at 0335, and made our way into the creek in almost pitch darkness (no moon). Luckily we had been there on the way up, and Mike remembered enough of the entrance for us to feel our way past the cliffs and drop anchor in calm waters..

The morning after...

After a restful day of recuperation we set off again at midnight on our second leg, which was to Bundaberg. There was still no moon and still no sign of the ENE winds still promised to us by the weather bureau, however. We arrived in much better condition than at our previous destination, as the winds were somewhat lighter and our stomachs somewhat more accustomed to the motion of the waves. What was perhaps more important, was that we had regained our appetites, as our arrival coincided with the free lunchtime BBQ, which is a treat put on by the marina management each Friday for the hoards of hungry yachties staying at the marina!!

Jo

On our approach into Bundaberg we heard on our VHF radio a conversation that kept us entertained for quite some time. The conversation was between a yacht waiting at the Quarantine buoy and the port authority. There were actually two American yachts awaiting quarantine clearance but only one had a transmitting radio so he was relaying messages for the other yacht who could only receive but not transmit. We were very surprised to hear that the owner of the transmitting yacht had just arrived from Vanuatu on his own, and that the boat was only 32 feet. Our surprise was even greater (flabbergasted is probably a more apt description) to learn that the second yacht, despite having two POB (persons on board), was a mere 22ft long, and had no engine whatsoever. Furthermore, it had not merely sailed across from Vanuatu, but had in fact traversed the entire Pacific Ocean by sail alone! So hardy were these two (young) sailors, that they declined all offers of a tow into the marina, bur instead, insisted on sailing into the quarantine berth unaided.

The following day we headed off to Fraser Island, and then to Mooloolaba. This leg of the trip was relatively uneventful. On the upside we discovered that we could motor through the shallowest part of the Sandy Straits only two hours after low tide, and that the Wide Bay Bar was not too bad with one meter waves across it… Once again, the ‘iron genny’ did Trojan service getting us across the ocean: it ran for all except four hours of the leg from Bundaberg to Mooloolaba. So much for lazy sailing under wind alone – I don’t know how those Americans had managed to get so far without one!

Would you
sail around
the world in
this??

So now we are in the Yacht Club Marina at Mooloolaba, safely tied up and rested. [More importantly we are just 2 mins walk from the fantastic beach and 5 mins from the equally fantastic coffe precinct (Jo)]

Yesterday we had a great time cleaning up the boat and taking lots of pictures of the boat for the broker’s internet site. This entailed moving everything out of one cabin while we took pictures, then moving everything into that cabin while we took pictures of the next cabin, and so on. Pretty exhausting work: especially when Jo looks at the pictures and says ‘that cushion was crooked. You’ll have to shoot that again!’ Still, we got there. Graham now has 51 pictures of the boat. That’ll keep him busy – I’ll be interested to see which ones he chooses. (You could see for yourself in a few days’ time. Go to http://www.yarrasedgeyachts.com.au )

What was behind
the camera!

And in case you’re wondering, Jo’s doing just fine. Back to her normal cheerful self. She’s cooking up a storm as I write!

Mike

Jo gets a free flight

Well, what an eventful couple of weeks we’ve had! As this photo shows, Jo has enjoyed (obviously he wasn’t getting the jabs prods and pricks!!! [Jo]) a few days as an involuntary guest of Queensland Health. This is Jo’s explanation how it happened.

Last week I was in the process of doing my open water dive course. I’d finished the theory part and was at the Rockhampton pool for the day doing the confined water section. I first had to do some basic swimming skills which included 4 laps of the pool. I’m a fairly strong swimmer but after completing just 2/3 of the first lap I got quite tired, out of breath, and had what I thought was a stitch. I kept going and finally finished all 4 laps quite out of breath but still with that stitch in the left side of my chest. We had a lot to get through to complete the whole confined water section of the course in one day so after a short rest I got my breath back and felt better. I just thought I was extremely unfit after spending the past 8 months onboard relaxing and undertaking very little physical exercise.
To cut a long story short, I passed that part of the course and got on the bus back to Yeppoon to prepare my gear for the open water section of the course the next day. I felt ok but I was very tired -- which was understandable as I had had a very long day in the pool.
Mike came with us next day on the dive boat because besides those of us going to complete courses there were a few others going out for a social dive.
I didn’t enjoy the dive very much at all. I wasn’t really breathing as easily as I had on the dives I had done previously with Mike. Even at the pool the day before I hadn’t felt completely comfortable with my regulator (or my snorkel for that matter), all of which I put down to nerves
After a while underwater I signalled my instructor that I wanted to surface. That in itself posed quite a problem as I didn’t have the energy to make my ascent. With some panicking on my part and a lot of effort on my instructor’s part I finally made it exhausted back to the boat where she dropped my weight belt (almost on Mike’s head as he was following us up!!!). I didn’t have any pain - just shortness of breath, due I thought to having been breathing quite heavily in my panicked state.
When we got back to the marina I just went to bed exhausted. Mike was a bit concerned because he could hear some fluid in my chest all during the night. We decided to go to the hospital by bus next morning to check this out. While walking from the bus stop to the hospital I experienced some more mild chest pain. When we got there Mike was intent on getting them to check me out for any water that might have found its way into my lungs, but once I mentioned the chest pain and relayed the events of 2 days ago that was it. They did an ECG, blood tests etc and discovered a high level of an enzyme which indicates that I had had a heart attack!!!
With that I was shipped off by ambulance to Rockhampton Coronary Care Unit where they did more tests including a scan of the heart. This revealed some very slight damage. to the heart muscle An angiogram was needed to find out the extent of obstruction in the arteries that might have caused the heart attack, but that could only be done in Brisbane, and there were no beds available at that time. Consequently, I ended up spending eight days in Rockhampton hospital twiddling my thumbs waiting for a bed to become available, while Mike drove back and forward from Yeppoon marina each day.
You can imagine the comments we received from the medical staff once they realized we had only been married two weeks!! The cardiologist told Mike that even a second hand car came with at least a 3 month warranty!! (cheeky bugger!!)
On Monday a bed finally became vacant in CCU at Royal Brisbane Hospital and The Royal Flying Doctor Service was called in to fly me there. Mike followed along on a Jetstar flight around the same time.
As soon as I arrived it all happened. I had an angiogram. ‘Good news’ they said. ‘No arterial obstruction’. Hmm... what could have caused the heart attack, then? Was it a clot in the lungs? Was it a bit of heart valve coming away during exercise?
So next day came a lung x-ray and scan - no blood clots in the lungs. And finally an ultrasound of the heart - no damage to the heart valves.
‘Go away’ they said. ‘No idea why it happened’ they said. ‘Take these pills from now on, and maintain your active lifestyle’ they said.
The important thing is I am feeling fit and well and raring to go and can’t wait to get back to the boat and carry on as usual, after first going home to see my family - especially my beautiful little Indira who by all accounts is now running around terrorising the neighbourhood.!!!
Jo

So here we are availing ourselves of Mick and Sue O’Sullivan’s hospitality (my in-laws), and making ready to fly back to Geelong for a week or so for Jo to see her doctor and for the angiogram wound to heal - and of course to spend time with Indira!.

And we’re still none the wiser as to the cause of all this excitement!
Mike

The Smiths do sushi - and become famous!

Inspired by our recent dining experience at a Japanese restaurant on the evening of our marriage, and also the close proximity of the best Fishermans Co-Op we’ve come across, Mike and I attempted to make sushi for the first time.

Here is a picture of the result! (Looks a bit untidy but they tasted great!)

The other photo and newspaper article was in this morning's local Bulletin. The result of a phone call from a Bulletin newspaper reporter, and a subsequent interview yesterday.

It was on page 2! You can look for the full text at www.themorningbulletin.com.au (if you are so inclined)

Until next time

Jo and Mike

We got married!

Today is our wedding day, and in keeping with our lives together so far, it has been a very relaxed and enjoyable one! At 10.45 Sue Hutchinson, our Marriage Celebrant arrived, followed shortly by our two witnesses, Sandra and Sharon, both of whom work at the marina.(and recruited just an hour before hand!!)

Jo and
our witnesses

Jo had already organised the boat - getting me to remove the table and clean up all my stuff. She had sourced flowers (from the marina garden) and the place looked very romantic. By 11.20 we were married! We opened a bottle of French champagne sent to us by our lovely friends in Geelong and cut the delicious cake brought by Sue.

We've even got the certificate
to prove it!

Cutting
the cake

Dr & Mrs Smith

As soon as I can post this blog, we will be off to the local Rydges resort for a night organised by Jo’s children.

For obvious reason this will be a VERY short blog!!!

A family visit

Last week my daughter Sara, her husband Marcus and their three-year-old Matilda joined Mike and I for a week aboard Meander--and what a fantastic week it was. It did however get off to a somewhat shaky start when an hour before our visitors were due to arrive Mike discovered a bilge full of radiator coolant! It appeared one of the heat exchanger hoses had sprung a leak. Mike managed to replace it - which wasn’t an easy task on a Saturday afternoon in a small coastal town, but replace it he did, and albeit a few hours later than planned, we were on our way to anchor off Great Keppel Island to enjoy some swimming, snorkelling and general relaxing. The relaxing side of things was made much easier due to the fact that Mike had enclosed the rails around the boat with safety netting which turned it into a giant play pen for young Matilda!!

Matilda and
Grandpa Mike

Matilda and
Grandma

Note the
netting!

Sara Marcus and Matilda slipped into life aboard Meander very easily. Even when the weather changed and the gentle breeze turned to 30knt winds they weren’t perturbed. As the forecast was for three days of strong winds, we sailed the boat back to the safety of the marina, hopped aboard the ferry, and returned to the Island and rented a lovely rustic A-frame house until the winds subsided. As soon as things began to calm down, Mike and I returned to the marina and sailed the boat back to Great Keppel to retrieve Sara Marcus and Matilda.

We hiked through the bush around the Island one day, stopping off at some fabulous secluded beaches where Sara managed to gather (and eat!) some lovely fresh oysters. Other days Sara and Marcus did some snorkelling and fishing. Marcus and I also snorkelled and managed to see some beautiful fish, giant clams and a sting ray hiding on the bottom in the sand. Matilda thoroughly enjoyed the beaches and was quite content to play in the water and build sandcastles.

Matilda and
an octapus

All together

Putney beach

Hiding form
the sun

Marcus, Sara
and Matilda

Off on a
fishing trip

Off snorkelling

The week seemed to go quite slowly which we were all pleased about, but all too soon it was time to say goodbye: our intrepid travellers boarded a light aircraft to take them to Rockhampton in time for their flight to Brisbane then onto Darwin and home to Jabiru next day.

A friend of
Sara's on
Keppel Isalnd

Jo goes underwater

Since Dee’s departure from Meander Mike and I have been quite busy. The courtesy car from the Marina may only be taken as far as Yeppoon and as we needed to do quite a few chores so we decided to rent a car for the day and head into Rockhampton. We went to the dive shop just outside of the city where I bought a wet suit and some snorkelling gear. Mike bought me (as a wedding present) all the gear I need to do some scuba diving. Oh yes, I must mention, Mike and I are getting married on 16^th October. We have talked about it for some time and decided now was the right time to do it, mainly because we discovered that we needed to give one month and one day’s notice beforehand. We are not sure when we will be anywhere again for one month and a day, so now seemed like as good a time as any!!

We’ve been out at anchor around the islands of Great Keppel, mostly snorkelling….. how fantastic!!! Today we anchored off a reef and took the dinghy closer to the coral and snorkelled around. Mike has taught me to snorkel (which includes duck diving, something I have never been able to do before).[not to mention getting back into the boat in a somewhat more elegant manner than impersonating a beached whale! (Mike)] Excuse me!!!! After a couple of days of practice I can now dive down and look at the many fish and the beautiful coral. I even saw a turtle today as I was duck diving!!! I nearly drowned trying to get Mike’s attention so that he could see it too. I must remember to come to the surface next time before I start yelling and screaming and getting excited underwater.

Jo impersonating
a duck

Jo impersonating
a beached whale

Mike discovered that his dive computer had given up working, and on top of all this other dive gear, he sadly came to the realisation that he needed to buy a new one. Now he is busy working out how to use it – and, needless to say, I will be busy for the next decade trying to work out how to use all my stuff!!!

Of course I needed to try out my new dive gear. Mike took me for a shallow dive which I really loved (didn’t like the idea of hurling myself backwards off the boat though!!! But even that wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated) So… now I am in the process of undertaking a dive course and I am very excited at the prospect.

Jo the intrepid
diver!

My daughter Sara, her husband Marcus and their three-year-old Matilda are coming to join us on the boat next week. In anticipation of this visit, we are attempting to make Meander child friendly and adult stress free. Hopefully the weather will continue to be as glorious as it has been for the past two weeks and we can spend lots of time in the water and on the beautiful beaches around the Islands.

Great Keppel Island

We spent our time in Yeppoon maintaining the boat and also making excursions into Yeppoon and Rockhampton. The marina isn’t too bad but it is quite isolated. Fortunately they do have a courtesy car that we can book in advance and drive ourselves into Yeppoon to the local supermarket. This was particularly useful, as the winds kept blowing so strongly that we weren’t able to leave the marina… The courtesy car was also necessary, as we were expecting Jo’s friend Dee to stay with us for the week, and we needed to stock up with food and drink!

After a week on the boat, Dee left us today, and before she left, she was persuaded to write an entry for the blog. This is what she wrote.

I leave Mike and Jo today feeling refreshed and re-energised after what one could describe as a ‘real holiday’ shared with good friends. During the past week I have learned many things:

1. That a sundowner is a gin and tonic consumed while watching the sunset.

2. Mike is an extremely agile man who moves like lightning when asked for a sick bucket.

3.And that I must continue to keep buying tattslotto tickets so one day I may change my lifestyle to that of Mike and Jo!

I arrived last Sunday and spent my first night at Rosslyn Bay marina. The next morning we sailed to Svendsen’s beach on Great Keppel Island and anchored overlooking beautiful sandy beaches, going ashore to explore and sunbake. It was on this second night that I disgraced myself after sundowners on the rolling boat. As a result, I was made very comfortable in the cockpit and fell asleep under the stars. Thoughts flooded my mind as to how I was going to spend the next five nights aboard without offending my hosts!

Thankfully there was a wind shift the next day which reduced the swell and presented perfect conditions for the remainder of the week. The following day were off on an overland adventure to find Great Keppel Resort. Not knowing how far away this was, we packed water, chocolate, muesli bars, compass and other safety equipment. Jo went through the checklist before boarding the dinghy: water-check, food-check, camera-check, fuel in outboard-check. My senses were tingling as we boarded the dinghy and headed for the next beach, about 600 metres away. 500 meters from shore the outboard ran out of fuel!!!

I learned what a fabulous rower Mike is - Olympic standard – given that he had two people on board, battling headwinds, and how patient a man he is with two pack seat drivers full of helpful suggestions as to where he should go, and what he should do… The tank refilled from the boat, we made it to shore and set off into unknown territory, only to come across a ‘resort clad’ family with small children who informed us that just over the hill was the 4-star resort we were looking for.

The view from the top of the hill was magnificent: green/blue water, clean sandy beaches, neighbouring islands, and Meander floating at anchor in the midst of it all…The resort was pleasant, but the meals didn’t measure up to Jo’s cooking, and, as we walked back to the boat, thoughts of Jo’s chilli prawns came to mind…

The view across
Svendsen's beach

Svendsen’s beach was a great anchorage for SE winds, but when they moved to NE, it was time to move, so we headed back to the resort and anchored the boat off shore there for most of the rest of the week.. This was a very relaxing time, as we snorkelled, dined in the restaurants land, and lay around on the beach (we even sneaked a spa in the resort’s pool area: Jo).

The intrepid
snorkellers

Dee earning her
keep, polishing
the bell

Thank you so much, Mike and Jo, for the special memories I hold of our time together.

And now Jo:

Dee took us out for dinner at the resort restaurant one eveining where we drank Domaine Chandon and ate from the buffet. We did lots and lots of laughing…which we had done the whole time she was here.

Dee was our first live aboard visitor since our departure from Geelong and what a pleasure it was to have her onboard. We weren’t sure how it would go but we set up the spare cabin (previously being used as our storage area) and she plus her belongings fitted in really well. I was amazed that she only brought a small over night bag for a whole week but it was like a scene from Mary Poppins every day there would be a new outfit appearing from this tiny receptacle.

Yesterday as a grand finale we did a circumnavigation of Great Keppel, stopping off at a reef where Dee and I snorkelled, while Mike followed us around in the dinghy. This afternoon Dee flew off from the island, but not before persuading the pilot to make a pass over the anchorage so that she could take pictures of Meander.

A fantastic week was had by all and now we are looking forward to our next lot of visitors (but they will have a lot to live up to!!)

Yeppoon - Rosslyn Bay Marina

Our friends on Bardoo (Robert and Robyn) were already at anchor off Big Woody Island when we approached. They were off our Port side just off the beach. We headed over to join them but it wasn’t as easy as it looked after checking the GPS. We had to actually sail quite a way past them then turn to the shore and head back the way we had come as there was a long sand bar to pass before we could head in. Once safely at anchor our travelling companions turned up in their dinghy (which is slightly bigger than ours) and offered us a ride over to the beach. We had a lovely long walk along the shore which we thought was deserted until we came upon a few people just strolling around or sunbaking. However we did feel a bit out of place as everyone else was naked.

Next morning after consulting the weather and deciding we would head off to Bundaberg we left with a reefed main and full Genoa, and had a wonderful sail – with 25 knot following winds pushing us along at a cracking pace – we even beat the 52-foot Bardoo to Bundaberg!

It was one of the best sails of the trip and we all enjoyed it immensley. It was Robyns birthday and we were invited out with them for a meal on shore at the marina. We had a very lovely time talking and listening to the many fascinating tales of Bardoo on her world circumnavigation. I don’t know if Mike and I will get that far but our interest in going further afield has certainly been aroused!!

Jo

The following day we left Bardoo in Bundaberg and headed for Pancake Creek, a narrow inlet just south of Gladstone. What we didn’t realise was that this was to be a 71 NM trip, the last hour of which was in the dark.

Entering a narrow creek in the dark, with no lit buoys and knowing that there was little room under our keel was not a very pleasant experience. Add to this the knowledge that the tidal flows up and down the creek were reputed to be very strong and the bottom was not that good for holding anchors, meant that it was perhaps the most fraught hour of the whole trip so far (not counting, of course, the entry into Eden!).

Still we anchored safely, and settled down for a couple of easy days in this picturesque spot… That is, until the next morning, when we downloaded the weather forecast from our trusty CDMA modem. The forecast was for a day of almost no wind- great for staying at anchor, but this was followed by three days of 30knot winds! The prospect of a long day’s sail in strong winds and mounting seas was hardly a pleasant one, so up came the anchor and away we went.

While 30 knots were forecast for the following day, 10 knots were forecast for the day of our departure… so we knew it was going to be a long day on the motor to Yeppoon, our destination. But what we didn’t know was that, apart from the great distance we would need to cover across ground, we would also need to fight a current of up to two and a half knots. Result was that that day we did 87 nautical miles through the water, and only got to the Rosslyn Bay Marina off Yeppoon at 8.00 in the night.

The trip was quite eventful, though.

This was our first success with trolling a line behind the boat. We actually caught a 1m long wahoo, a fish like a mackerel, but with a beak. It was quite a fight pulling the line in hand over hand while the boat sped along, and we actually got it beside the boat, but we had no means of landing it – so the line broke and the fish got away. Wahoo is reputedly excellent eating… Needless to say, the top of our shopping list here in Yeppoon, was a gaff and a decent landing net!

The second event was the arrival of a cormorant, which first sat on the bimini and then moved to the dinghy on the back of the cockpit. It sat there for about half an hour, repeatedly tucking its head under a wing for a doze, and then looking around as if it owned the place. It finally flew off, showing an interest in the lure on the end of our fishing line as it went, but thankfully only a passing one.

We got into Yeppoon late at night, and wandered around in the boat with a hand-held spotlight, trying to find the berth we had been allocated.

Rosslyn Bay Marina

We were followed several hours later by Gary and Lorraine and their guests Tony and Jen on Somoya, who had been anchored off Great Keppel Island, but who were unwilling to spend a rollly night off shore when the marina was so close.

Gary and
Lorraine with
Tony and Jen

The next day the winds came in - and they’ve been in ever since, howling away day and night, making exploring the numerous islands around here all but impossible. We’ve had to resort to heavy drinking aboard Somoya… again…

Mike

Waves are
breaking even
in the marina!

Fraser Island

It’s now more than a week since our last entry and quite a lot has happened (or not happened as the case may be!!).

Our attempt to leave Mooloolaba was aborted at the eleventh hour due mainly to the fact that the swells were over two meters high and forecast to continue throughout the night and next day. This meant potentially a very lumpy sail to the much feared Wide Bay Bar then an impossible crossing once there. The forecast for the rest of the week didn’t look any more promising, so it was a ‘wait and see’ situation - which we are now quite used to and not at all perturbed by.

Mike suggested I go back to Melbourne and spend time giving Adam and Emma a hand for a few days. He didn’t need to say it twice, I was on the net, had booked a flight and was at the airport all within a few hours of him making the suggestion. Mike spent the time I was away chatting to people around the marina and getting lots of tips from the more experienced cruisers. He also bought a bicycle (a K-Mart special) and in between torrential downpours he went cycling around the town and, of course, visited Andrew and Marie.

After a very very busy week in Melbourne I arrived back in Mooloolaba on Monday evening to be told that we were to set sail at 0500hrs the next morning - destination, the dreaded Wide Bay Bar, gateway to the inner passage past Fraser Island.

Mike had arranged to sail in company with another couple who have a lovely old (33 years old to be exact) 52 foot Ketch ( ok Ben what’s a Ketch? If you get it wrong it’s brussel sprouts for dinner next time you come on board) which they have sailed all around the world for 16 years. They are heading to Bundaberg then across to Solomon Islands (as you do), so we arranged to go as far as Bundaberg together.

The technical term for the state of the seas coming up from Mooloolaba to Double Island Point, just south of the Bar, was ‘sloppy’ – this meant that the boat was rolling about in a succession of short 1.5 meter waves, making it quite impossible to relax. What was good about the trip, however, was that the wind was coming from behind, so we sailed (yes, sailed!) for the entire day with only the foresail up, making well over seven knots!

Once we passed Double Island Point and turned into Wide Bay the seas calmed down considerably, and our sailing became much more sedate..

Mike put the two Wide Bay Bar waypoints into the chart plotter. These are the GPS co- ordinates that tell you where you should start your transit of the bar and where to turn once you have crossed it. We reached our first waypoint, informed the Coastguard we were crossing (very dramatic), and then headed cautiously for the infamous breakers and the second waypoint, where we were to make a left turn. However, by this time the sea had become so calm that the breakers were nowhere to be seen. We only realised we had gone across the bar when Mike noticed that we had passed the second waypoint and were heading for the beach!

A few swift changes of course, and we were all clear, heading up the channel to Tin Can Bay, making for Gary’s anchorage, where we spent a very calm night.

We planned to leave early next morning to arrive at a very shallow part of the channel just before high tide. It was a long slow motor with Mike downstairs at the computer and me upstairs at the helm following his directions, but we managed to navigate through the sand banks without incident.

A new way to
give the
helmsman
directions!

We got through the shallowest part using not only the GPS and all of our relevant available printed matter including Alan Lucas’s Cruising the Queensland Coast book to aid us. Imagine our surprise, when, right in the midst of these shallows, we passed a familiar-looking yacht coming the other way - there on board waving vigorously at us was none other than the Man himself, Alan Lucas, aboard his yacht Soleares. Mike said it was a bit like meeting God!! (how blasphemous).

The Fraser Island
shoreline

Tonight we sit at anchor off Big Woody Island, waiting to brave the open spaces of Hervey Bay, on the way to Bundaberg, forty miles distant. More later…

A Mooloolaba postscript...

Well, we didn't go. The storm came through and the wind blew, and we went to bed.

The next day, we looked at the weather forecasts, and at the tides on the Wide Bay Bar for the next week, and decided that Jo should go back to Melbourne (my suggestion) to help out with her granddaughter and to celebrate her first brithday (the granddaughter- not Jo!).

As a result, I am sitting here on the boat in the rain, hoping that the weather will be suitable when Jo returns...

More Mooloolaba

We have been here in Mooloolaba for just over a week now. It’s been a fabulous week of sun, laughter (if you knew our friend Marie you’d know what I mean!!), good food and wine. Gary and Loz arrived on Samoya a few days ago too so that added to the social occasion. Our neighbours here at the marina are all very friendly and always ready to have a BBQ and a chat in the evenings. It’s great because we gain so much in the way of local knowledge (and I’m not talking small town gossip here!!) which is invaluable.

We went out for a sail this morning and actually manages to do just that. Marie has her niece Pamela and her friend Christof (sorry if I spelt it wrong!) visiting from down South so we took them out for a quick trip along the coast and back it was lovely.

Our southern
visitors off
Mooloolaba

These stopovers are not just an excuse to let our hair down and get p---ed every night, we do use the time to do the necessary maintenance on board. This current interlude saw us renewing our mattress in the forepeak which had collapsed in the middle (don’t bother with the jokes we’ve heard them all!!) The renewal process entailed Mike and Andrew (who fortunately for us has a car) carting one of the two sections of mattress off to Clarke Rubber and getting the guy to cut two new sections out of high density foam of precisely the right size- and now we sleep like babies. We also repaired the mattress in the aft cabin as it had also succumbed to the collapsed mattress syndrome, which Ben had discovered one time when he stayed on board.

We have been talking about heading further up the coast all week and now today (or I should say tonight) is the night, or so we thought. As I write this, the heavens have opened up and we are experiencing a real tropical downpour with bent over palm trees and all!! We are not due to leave for another 4 hours that is 2200hrs so it could all pass over by then. The reason for the late departure is that we will be crossing the Wide Bay Bar (which is something like 5 miles long) as we enter into The Great Sandy Strait between the mainland and Fraser Island. Now, the Wide Bay Bar apparently needs to be crossed at the right time (which I think is one hour before high tide) as the ocean swells can make getting over the bar quite tricky. Also, it’s better to cross it in the morning as in the afternoon it can be impossible to see the leads that show the way through. The yachties amongst you will know what I mean (or more correctly know that I don’t have a clue what I’m talking about!!) the rest of you will know as much as I do when you have read this (yes,ok, so that’s not a great deal).

Should we stay
or
should we go??

The rain is subsiding it’s now three and a half hours before our ETD. We are leaving in company with two other yachts so we will see what the consensus of opinion is and take it from there.

Jo.

Mooloolaba

As soon as Jo returned from her trip down south, we had intended to head to Mooloolaba, but the winds were in the wrong direction. So instead we decided to enjoy a couple of days at anchor in a couple of sheltered spots in Moreton Bay.

First we headed off to Horseshoe Bay on Peel Island, where we could anchor and shelter from the northerly wind. This was perfect – and the twenty or so boats that followed us across the bay from Manly thought so too. It was lovely to get onto a sandy beach, again - and even to drift across the live coral that we found at the end of the bay.

Peel Island

The next night we dropped anchor off Moreton Island at a spot that offered shelter from north-easterly, and easterly winds. This was perfect in the evening, but as the night went on, the wind went round first to north, then west and finally to south west. As a consequence, we had quite a rough night, during which neither of us got much sleep!

Sunday we left for Mooloolaba, a thirty-odd mile run out of Moreton Bay along the main shipping channel. It’s amazing how fast those big ships come up and then pass by!

A ship passes
us by

Mike tries
another way
to hang the
dinghy

Mooloolaba turned out to be a great place to stay and wait for the right winds and tides for us to head further north to Fraser Island. Here we have met up once again with Andrew and Marie and their boat ‘Sentosa’, who had been our companions on the trip between Wilsons Prom and Sydney. Andrew and Marie have bought a house on one of the canals here in Mooloolaba, while their boat sits near us in the Marina where we are staying.

Meander and
Sentosa in
Mooloolaba

Andrew welcomes
us to his new
home

The sun is shining, the winds are warm, and everyone in the Marina is very friendly. Looks like the week or so here is going to be fun!

Mike

Manly yet again

This has been a pretty quiet week for me, mainly taken up with fixing a number of minor bugs in the boat (such as the engine not starting, and water getting into the bilges…).

The crew

The highlight was a visit yesterday by Melissa (Mick O’Sullivan’s daughter), Randal (her husband), and their two children, Brendan and Mattie. Ben came along too, to provide me with moral support! We went for a bit of a sail in what was very calm conditions, and great fun was had by all. As the photos show, Brendan has the making of a master mariner! What the photos don’t show is that Mattie has the making of a master wombat, as she nested in as many tight spots below as she could find, and then pleaded with Brendan to ‘play wombats’ with her!

A master mariner
at the wheel

5-year-old Mattie took to her life jacket quite happily, and it fitted her well. Jo will be interested to see this picture, as we are as yet uncertain as to what size vest her own granddaughter, Matilda, will require when she comes to visit later this year.

The next
super-model?

We got back to the marina just in time to join a queue of well over 50 yachts, fresh from a race, and all lining up to go down the narrow channel into the harbour. We’d left Melbourne to avoid getting into rush hour traffic, and here we were stuck in more traffic!

Part of the
queue

The boat is now ready to receive Jo fresh from her adventures in Melbourne, and we hope to head off to Mooloolaba towards the end of this week…

Solo in Manly

Sunset over
two of the
three marinas
in the harbour
at Manly



Jo went back to Melbourne last Tuesday for a couple of weeks to catch up with her family and keep her hand in professionally. As I had decided not to go back with her this time, I’ve been left on my own on the boat for a bit…

Hmm.. what does one do in a marina for an extended period of time? Well, let me see… I get up, go and have a shower, stroll into the town for a newspaper and then come back to the boat for a coffee and a read of the national and international news. Then it’s boat stuff - cleaning, repairing and adjusting – all the stuff that one does on any boat (such as trying various ways to hand the dinghy off the back of the boat without having to have davits made).

After that it’s a stroll back to the shops for food and stuff, and then back to the boat to make lunch and watch the other boaties wandering up and down the walkways, watching still other boaties.

Then it’s time to sort out what I’m going to cook for an evening meal, and to make a few phone calls to Jo. More fixing stuff follows and then it’s time to settle down with a drink and a watch of the passing boaties while the sun sets. Once it’s dark it’s meal preparation time and the opportunity for another drink before turning on the TV and settling down for the regular task of surfing the airways for something decent to watch.

Then it’s time for bed.

Sounds boring – but the days rush by and I’m not at all bored the gentle rhythm of my life here.

Today was a day of excitement. I had visitors! Clare, the daughter of my brother-in-law Michael O’Sullivan, and her partner Anthony came for a sail, and so I that was what we did. Getting out of the pen was less of a drama than the last time we did it, despite a 15 knot cross-wind and an audience of anxious boat owners who leapt to the sterns of their boats as we passed, ready to fend us off if we look like crashing into them. In fact we crashed into nobody, and Anthony didn’t fall into the water when he gave the vital push to the boat that sent it into the middle of the narrow freeway between the pontoons.

We had a very nice sail across to Peel Island, in the middle of Moreton Bay, where we dropped anchor and had lunch. Coming back was quite interesting, however, as we had winds up to 27 knots and banks of low threatening clouds gathering above us. Luckily I had already reefed the main and foresail in anticipation of the strong winds, so the boat and my passengers took the conditions in their stride.

Clare at the wheel
on the way out

Note the dinghy
behind her

Anyway, we came back into the marina without incident (apart from a brief pirouette in the bay while the sails were being taken down, in the course of which I lost yet another hat...). In fact we got back into the pen with remarkable ease. I was quite proud of myself!

Clare and Antony
safely back on
terra firma!





So, I'm having a good time here as a solo sailor, but I'm looking forward to having Jo back again!

Manly, Queensland

Arriving at Manly
Note the strong wind

So here we are, comfortably tied up in Manly Marina. Looks very nice, and indeed it is… but coming in was a bit of an adventure. The first berth allocated to us by the marina office would have been fine, if it hadn’t been for the 40ft motor yacht occupying the neighbouring spot in the pen. I was proud of the way I manoeuvred the boat into the berth using quite a lot of prop walk (don’t ask!) to turn the boat in what was a very tight spot, but once in the berth, I had to phone the office and ask for another one. I didn’t think Jo would want to spend a week standing on our deck, leaning on the motor yacht to keep it away from us!

They were most understanding, and we did move, but getting out was a learning experience, as prop walk, which had worked well getting in, worked against us going out!

The big job that had been waiting for Manly was fixing the engine exhaust. Not long after leaving Newcastle, I’d noticed that the pipe leading from the engine manifold was loose and that there appeared to be soot coming out of the exhaust. I’d made a temporary repair using exhaust putty and it had been holding up ok, but I kept having visions of the pipe falling apart and the boat filling with noxious fumes …

According to the Catalina website, the exhaust pipe is a custom manufactured item, made out of stainless steel lagged with heat-resistant fibreglass, and precision fitted to the engine at one end and the muffler at the other. So I steeled myself for the prospect of a visit from a marine exhaust expert, with much tut-tutting and shaking of heads, and the inevitable heavy whack in the credit card.

So, with some trepidation, I contacted an engineer.

Said engineer was called Jeff and he runs a business called Manly Marine Services. Jeff was a real find. Not only did he remove the offending pipe and take it away, but he also came back the very next day with the news that it was far from worn out. The reason for this was that, instead of being a smart piece of custom made stainless, it turned out to be a couple of cheap lengths of 2in steel water pipe, screwed into a couple of steel right-angle fittings. And as the piping was still nearly 3 millimetres thick, there was little chance that it was going to rust through in the next decade or so… Seems the problem was that the end that is screwed into the engine had not been screwed up tight enough, and over the years it had worked loose.

So Jeff put it all back together, lagged it with fibreglass tape and left. The bill was well under $200, and the engine is fine again! His parting words were ‘change the soundproofing matting on your engine cover. It’s deteriorating, and soon it’ll get sucked into the engine intake and bugger the engine up’. So I shall do what I’m told.

Needless to say, I highly recommend Jeff Ross!

Mike

Mick and Sue came for lunch on Wednesday with Elaine and Bernie, Rebecca’s parents-in-law, who are also escaping the cold Melbourne winter!! It was lovely to see them all. The sun was shining brightly so we sat in the cockpit and had a lovely relaxing afternoon.

Mick and Sue
Mick sporting a
new (to us) beard

Mick, Sue
Elaine and Bernie

Today, Thursday, Mike and I decided to go out for a sail (but then, as usual, there was no wind!). All was not lost though because we really did need to go a long way out into deep water and empty the holding tank. I know this is a very distasteful subject but you lot can’t expect to only hear about all the nice things. After all life isn’t just a bunch of sweet smelling roses it also consists of smelly holding tanks that require emptying!! Mission accomplished, we then put the anchor down (miles away from where we had done the deed mind you!!) off one of the islands in Moreton Bay and spent the afternoon having lunch and reading in the warm sun.

Jo

North Stradbroke Island

Excitement excitement!!! We navigated our way through the channels between Southport and Brisbane. This turned out to be a very pretty part of the country, with winding channels between islands, eventaully leading to the southern end of Moreton Bay.

We didn’t, however manage to get through totally unscathed. We hit bottom at one of the trouble spots ‘three times’ So now I know it’s no big deal to touch bottom, plus, it was sand so it’s not like it’s going to do too much damage is it? We were on a rising tide so we could have always waited until the water rose and we floated off .That’s my landlubber version of the whole adventure, Mike probably has a more technical or nautical (and accurate he might say) account of it. (No. That’s just about it – apart from the wide eyed look I got from Jo the first time it happened! [Mike])

We anchored at a place called Jacobs Well for the night and left early (on the right tide but I’ve forgotten if it was a rising or falling one!! (mmmm I don’t seem to have taught her much at all have I??[Mike])) and we are now anchored again just off North Stradbroke Island, almost at the entrance to Morton Bay. Our plan is to head for Manly (just south of Brisbane) tomorrow where we will stay at a marina for a week or so.

Us at Blakeley's
Anchorage on
N. Stradbroke Is

It’s actually raining quite heavily at present but as soon as it stops we hope to be able to take the dinghy ashore where there appears to be a lovely beach, where we’ll have a wander around. We spotted some dolphins and caught a glimps of a turtle as we were approaching North Stradbroke so I’m hoping we will be lucky enough to sight more throughout the day.

Just to prove that
it does rain in
Queensland!

………

Well, the rain did stop, and we did get onto the island. No turtles, but hundreds of little crabs, marching along the waterline, looking for food. Further up the beach were larger versions of the same crabs. One was even kind enough to pose for a photograph!

The grey stuff at
the water's edge
is lots of tiny crabs

One of the larger
crabs (about
2.5 cm across

So after all that excitement, we headed back to the boat and settled down for a night at anchor. This turned out to be quite magical: calm waters and deep silence punctuated by the calling of hundreds of birds as they settled down for the night on the island.

The stuff cruising is all about!

The next day we were off to Manly.