cast off at first light if we wanted to get to Lady Musgrave Island before dark but
this was overkill. In this part of the world it’s important to get the anchor down
while the sun is high enough to see the coral, some of which rises in high heads
called ‘bommies’. The tide range is also higher here so it pays to plan ahead with
a fair amount of caution and a plan B.
In fact the time was wrong on Sandy’s ipad, she’d set it for 5am but it was 2 hours
out. At 5 the phone alarm went off as planned and we got started with preparations
for putting to sea even though it was still pitch black. By 6am it was just light enough
to retrieve our lines and back out of the marina berth that had been our home for
over 2 weeks. Even though the space was tight, the breeze was light and we made a
perfect exit. She never writes about those ones!
It felt good to be on our way again at last. As we cleared the Burnet River channel
and headed north the breeze was light and the swell low and rolling. We got the sails
up but with 5-10 knots of wind we’re motor sailing, again.
Bundaberg has an excellent marina. The place looks freshly painted and the lawns
manicured. With a laundromat, take away food place that makes fantastic fish and
chips, and chandlery that has most things and can get special orders in very quickly.
There was even a restaurant that people come to from town to enjoy the view while
they dine. In fact Sandy had her %#@th birthday while we were there.
The evening was beautiful and the meal outstanding.
We met a number of other cruising couples and it’s always a good time when we get
together and talk boats and voyages and compare notes. We also take note of places
to call into with good anchorages as we head north.
One couple in particular stopped over on the berth next to ours and for many years
he was the delivery captain for Seawind Catamarans. He has travelled widely. They
were doing a delivery on a big cat, one they sail up and down the coast for the owner
quite frequently. They get to use it as their own much of the time.
Not a bad way to get a paid holiday.
One of their favourite areas is the Kimberley Coast from Darwin to Broome. It looks
rugged and beautiful but challenging with huge tides and huge salt water crocs. We’re
keen to see at least some of it.
I spent days taking apart each join and removing the connectors in the aluminium
sections that make up the headsail roller furler. In many cases the bolt holes had
worn and elongated. Some of the bolts were so tight they lost their alan key grip
and had to be drilled and extracted with an ‘easy out’, a left hand threaded tapered
tap that is anything but easy.
I bought bigger bolts and drilled and tapped and countersunk each one, all 24 of them.
As an added precaution I then drilled, countersunk and tapped and screwed in a backup
bolt for each one.
There is a large swiveling cuff that carries the sail up and down the forestay and I had
to grind then wet and dry each joint until it could slide the entire length smoothly.
It was a lot of work but saved us thousands compared to the alternative of buying a new
furler. The current furler, a Fin Furl, is unknown here and doesn’t show up on google either
so new spare parts wasn’t an option.
While I was working away late one afternoon Sandy was having a well earned nap below
after hours of painting. Out of the corner of my eye I noticed 2 women coming down the
dock and assumed they were going to meet a boat pulling in there for them, as sometimes happens. But there was no boat and they made straight for our boat.
It turned out to be an old friend and ex sister in law, Meg, and her daughter Catherine.
They live in Bundaberg now and came to say ‘Hi’, see the boat and offer any help they
could with running around, shopping etc. After about 25 years it was a total surprise and
good to catch up. Over the rest of our stay we got to know all their family, as well as a couple
who knew my father in South Africa and are now retired in Bundaberg too.
I think the kids would happily move on board permanently!
We had a mishap on the boat and Meg did in fact come to the rescue.
It turns out we have a laptop that doesn’t respond well to a glass of wine. It was dark and I
was feeling around for the hard drive to find a movie to watch for the evening. The light
switch seemed so far away! Well the wine went everywhere. You could just about hear it
gurgling as it disappeared between the keys. We mopped it as best we could but there was
no way this was going to work out well.
Now Sandy loves pulling things apart, and sometimes she even gets them back together. Sometimes they even work again. In no time she had googled a youtube demo with an
identical laptop being taken apart, and the surgery began. Eventually it all came apart.
I had the honour of holding the work light, apparently seldom where she needed it, and
all the inside got wiped with rubbing alcohol, blow dried and reassembled (3 times!).
The laptop sobered up and turned up for work right away. Sometimes the touch pad
doesn’t work properly and that worried us because we use this laptop for some of our
navigation, the AIS in particular. The two left over screws we found on the table the next
morning appear to have been totally unnecessary!
A quick call to Meg and she hauled us around Bundaberg looking for a good computer deal.
We eventually found one so we now have a back up. It seems the old one is taking this all
very seriously because it hasn’t missed a beat since its replacement arrived. We made sure
it saw the big, bright yellow JB Hi Fi packet come on board.
Lady Musgrave is just showing up on the horizon and it looks like the sun is high enough
so we’ll be able to pick our way through the coral reef and into the lagoon. Our trip up
the Great Barrier Reef has begun in earnest.
Until next time…