it’s Monday morning so all the power boats and jet skis have been put
away for another week. Peace returns.
Well almost. Bruce is grunting and groaning in the bilge as he wrestles
with the transmission. As usual, the transmission seal replacement job has
unearthed something else. We have a cracked engine mount that is going to
have to be removed and replaced or welded, and the pressure plate is showing
signs of wear so it probably makes sense to replace it while everything is open.
It’s been way too long since I last posted on this blog and I’ve discovered the
longer you leave it the harder it is to get back into it.
It’s difficult to know where to start again and what to include, but I can see
this catchup needing a few posts.
So much has happened since we left New Caledonia for Australia late in
November. It was the last leg of our Pacific crossing and after taking on fuel
we once again headed for a gap in yet another west coast reef and open seas.
This time we took on water too because the failed primer pump for the
water maker would have had to be imported. We always leave with plenty of
water for the passage but it’s good to know we’re replacing what we’re using
as we go. It means we can have decent showers and wash clothes etc without
having to measure every drop.
We enjoyed Noumea. The people were friendly and while it wasn’t cheap,
we could get just about everything we needed. The marina was quite reasonably
priced and diesel was cheaper than Australia. The town has a great open park
area with free wifi, so it’s popular. We enjoyed just sitting there watching the
world go by and being entertained by two kids practicing their break dancing
moves. The city provides great facilities for the open market which is open
every day but Sunday, and just near the marina there is a bar/bistro place that
has live music on weekends.
We went there one evening and Sandy got chatting to a black guy when she
complimented him on his rather nice shirt. It turned out he was the male half
of the singing duo and they were very good. It was a good evening.
It was late afternoon as we neared the reef and we were joined by a pod of big
grey dolphins who really looked sad to see us go. One in particular turned on its
side and made eye contact, much like you do with a dog or cat and swam like
that for a good 10 seconds. These really are such special, intelligent creatures.
We also passed a superyacht called Golden Shadow coming the other way,
with 3 smaller boats on the back. It turns out it’s one of 3 marine research vessels
owned and funded by HRH Prince Khaled bin Sultan. It has 28 full time crew
plus research scientists. Good to see him putting all that wealth to good
causes.
The trip from New Caledonia started with fairly big seas but they were manageable. It was the last 96 hours that had us wondering what on earth made us think this cruising life would be fun. If it wasn’t for the fact that we had made commitments
to be home for Christmas we would have changed direction and headed anywhere that would have made the voyage more comfortable.
The wind was very strong and coming out of the south east. Unfortunately our wind speed indicator has been on the blink since Ecuador so we couldn’t see what we were dealing with. Maybe that should be fortunately.
My guess is 25 kts plus, gusting 35. To add to the nightmare Australia has a current running down the east coast.
Wind and current in opposite directions build a high, steep sea and we buried the bowsprit so often it almost grew barnacles. The waves towered above us and we had enough green water gushing down the decks to make me change my dreams of a bow thruster to dreams of a periscope.
We had water forcing its way into the boat through places it’s never come through before. We have one of those gorgeous old wooden butterfly hatches above the
galley and we’ve never had to screw down the ‘wings’.
Well, I was at the navigation desk getting a weather update and Sandy
was trying to catch up on sleep when we took a wave over the deck that lifted
the hatch and a torrent of water cascaded down like a waterfall, straight into
the galley. The floor was awash for a few minutes before the water trickled down
into the bilge.
Salt water made its way into every locker and cupboard and even got behind the
roof lining and dripped down all over the place. It was heart breaking after all
the work Sandy puts into keeping the boat clean and tidy.
We reduced sail to a smidgen of yankee up front and even less on the main and mizzen masts, and motorsailed.
Poor Sandy was as sick as a dog too. If she could have walked on water I’d have
been on my own I’m sure, but she still stood her watches so I could get
some sleep. What a trooper!
Eventually we saw the Australian coastline. In spite of the conditions we felt
excited to be nearly home. It came as a surprise to us that we also felt nervous
about catching up with all the family and friends again.
It’s been such a long time away.
It’s a long way from the channel entrance that winds you through the shallows of Moreton Bay to the Brisbane river, and we’d been warned about the high
overtime rates charged by Aussie officials if you arrive to clear in outside of office hours.
We’d figured if we hit the channel at first light we could get there by mid afternoon, but spending another night at sea was more than either of us felt up to, so we decided to negotiate the channels and hang about in the bay where it would
be more sheltered.
We furled the last of the sails and motored steadily through the well marked channels, the last of which would exit in the bay very close to Moreton Island. It looked like we’d get there around 10pm.
With about 2 miles to go we were hugging the right hand side of the channel to
let an approaching P & O cruise ship have as much channel as possible,
when we lost power completely.
Sandy took the helm and I shot down the companionway, pulled up the floor hatches and sure enough, the drive shaft was turning lazily from the water passing over the prop while the engine was doing 1000 rpm.
Driving hard for 96 hours seemed to have taken its toll. While Sandy was on the point of calling up the cruise liner pilot to tell him we were disabled, I found that
at idle speed the transmission was engaging and giving us about 2 knots.
We limped past the cruise ship and headed for the nearest anchorage we could find on the chart plotter, which happened to have excellent lead lights. We dropped anchor in the lee of Moreton Island in about 8 meters of water and slept
the sleep of the dead.
The next morning I found that the transmission fluid was below the dip stick,
so while I fiddled with guy stuff Sandy had her opportunity to get Wind Wanderer
back into ship shape. She always has the boat looking great on arrival and we’ve
found it goes a long way to smooth the paths of officialdom.
In 3rd world countries with language and cultural differences too, she’s been
known to add a batch of freshly baked chocolate chip cookies too, and they
always go down well!
I topped up the fluid and we headed for the quarantine dock at Scarborough.
Fortunately we hadn’t gone too far before I radioed Brisbane Port Control,
only to be told that things had changed and we now had to go up the Brisbane River to Rivergate Marina, considerably further than we’d expected.
I upped our speed and all went well for an hour, and then transmission started
slipping again. I found that up to 900 revs we were ok, so we limped in at 4
knots and tied up at 4:30pm.
To be continued…