Author Archives: Captain & First Mate

Smell of bread

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Saturday 04 June Saturday was another day in paradise. Blue sky, no wind and no swell. But not all was well in paradise! As everyone took their morning turn at emptying their bowels, the odour increased to fill Imagine. Jack and Toni kayaked to shore and Liz swam. They went for a walk and explored more of the island while Andrew tended to the smell coming from the toilet and holding tank.
By the time everyone returned Andrew had replaced the air breather filter which was causing the problem.
We thought it would be rude not to attend the sundowners with the other boaties, so off to shore with more wine, sausages and a freshly baked loaf of bread.
Once again we fired up the fire pit and the bbq for the sausages as other boaties arrived. This time as the wine and tales flowed and we made our sausage sandwiches we noticed the others started drooling over the smell of fresh bread. We thought it was prudent the we offer a slice to the others before we were attacked.
Being Saturday night we stayed up and partied and this time were the last to leave at the late hour of 8.30pm. We boaties really know how to party.

BBQ at Percy

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Friday 3rd June
After a relatively peaceful night, we set off early to continue our trek to Percy. We stopped at South Percy Thursday night before heading on to Middle Percy.
For once West bay was calm and no roll. First up were swims off the back of Imagine. Jack and Toni went ashore in the kayak and Sue and Andrew went in the dinghy while Liz stayed onboard for a while then swam ashore to join us.
Once ashore we checked out the A frame, checking that our sign was still there. We returned to Imagine to get ready for the obligatory sundowners back at the A frame.
We returned to shore along with most of the other boaties in the bay. Andrew and Jack lit the fire for the BBQ, then while Andrew cooked the steaks and potatoes Jack started the fire in the fire pit.
Throughout the evening the stories flowing as much as the wine and rum. We were the first group to leave the fire and head back to our boat ready for bed at the late hour of 7.30pm.

What a day

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Wednesday 1st June
We left Keppel early in the morning heading to Percy. The weather was forecast for 15knt to 20knt winds. After leaving the bay we did have 10knts for about ten minutes, before it dropped to 5knts. So we put up the Gennaker. That lasted three minutes when the wind got back up so we dropped that sail and went back to the headsail. After about 20 minutes it died again.
Ok, time to try again. This time it lasted most of the day. Eventually the wind went down to 2knts, so it was motor time.
Just then the steering went. Imagine did a 180 degree turn, the gennaker back filled and we needed to do something quick. Andrew raced downstairs into the back cabin and pulled the mattress off the bed and dropped the emergency tiller into position. To steer you need to stand on the bed boards, one foot on the tiller and poke up through the hatch like a meerkat so you can see where you’re going! Back on course Jack took over on the tiller while Andrew, Toni and Liz tried to pull the gennaker down. The gennaker jammed and Andrew had to go up the mast and free it.
Once that was sorted, it was time to look at what went wrong with the steering. Andrew and Liz started on ripping the floor up in the back cabin to get to the steering shaft. That part of the floor had been screwed, glued and fibreglassed. A couple of minutes with the angle grinder and the floor was up, revealing the shaft was a pipe that has rusted though.
Jack and Liz swapped jobs. Jack and Andrew found some hardwood and bolted it through the pipe to hold it together. An hour later we had steering. We have been lucky that the swell and wind were low and in the right direction that made fixing the problems a lot easier than it could have been.
Just to be on the safe side we headed to Pearl Bay for the night, and will recommence our sail to Percy in the morning.

Restock

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Tuesday 31st May
The last three days on Great Keppel the weather has been good. Sunday we went around to Monkey beach for a snorkel. Monday Liz caught the ferry from Keppel to Yepoon (the mainland) for more supplies. She returned in the afternoon with a backpack full of only the essentials (booze), oh and broccoli and capsicum.
Tuesday we moved around to Wreck Bay to get out of the swell.

Flying Lydia

2021 Winter getaway No Comments
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Today started out raining but cleared after lunch. Lydia had to get in the water. We had told her about how we swung off the halyard and into the water on our old boat. She was eager to be the first to do it on Imagine.

It wasn’t the most graceful thing. Ending in a belly flop. But it was amusing.

We have got Imagine ready for our sail to the next islands, South Percy and Middle Percy. We will set off about 6am to catch the wind and tide.

This will probably be the last blog for a week or so as we will not have reception until we get to Goldsmith Island.

S & S Day

2021 Winter getaway No Comments
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Today was an S&S day. That meant swimming and snorkelling. After yesterday and the kayak we decided that we fit better in the dinghy.

We went across to the the reef and anchored the dinghy while we snorkelled around finding some turtles stingrays and a shark.

Tonight Lydia made a yummy stir-fry for dinner.

We have Water!

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Yesterday we moved to Monkey bay to get more shelter. Surprisingly we had the bay to ourselves. As the day went on the wind died down. That meant Lydia had to go check out the reef. Lydia took the dinghy to the edge of the reef where she was going to swim.

It was the first time she had taken the dinghy on her own. It took a few goes to point it in the right direction but eventually made it to the reef. A couple of big turtles were chilling right near the dinghy. No wetsuit, we thought she would be back in a few minutes as the water temperature was 18 degrees. But no, she was out there for about 1 and a 1/2 hours.

When she did get back she was frozen so she rugged up while having something to eat.

Today was a good day. Andrew spent all morning working on the watermaker and it’s now working! We can make 2ltrs a minute.

After lunch some silly person (Andrew) decided we should go kayaking across the bay. So we all fell / piled into the one 2.5 person kayak. We went around in a few circles while we seemed to drift in the general direction of the reef. Once at the reef Lydia had the bright idea that she would go for a swim.

Now we were all wet. Sue and Andrew still managed to stay in the kayak. Lydia swam the reef while Sue and Andrew were tempted to head back to Imagine and leave her behind. But we needed someone to call “stroke” so we could paddle in the same direction, so we waited for her. Getting Lydia back in the kayak was just as drenching as she very lady-like and gracefully struggled to get in the kayak.

As you can tell, we did manage to get back to Imagine somehow.

Sunken treasure

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It was barely light when Lydia had to go for a swim. As there were high winds and waves coming, we decided to make a run for it and head to Great Keppel Island for more shelter. We waited till 11am to exit Lady Muskgrave at low tide (less current in the channel).

So that meant more swim time. This time Lydia came back with treasure she had found. A reef anchor. Someone had lodged their anchor on a bommie and had cut it loose. Its not big enough for Imagine but we will keep it and gift it to someone on our travels.

We set off with the wind and waves off our rear quarter. It didn’t take long for the swell to turn to side on and make the rest of the journey uncomfortable. We battled the conditions through the night and arrived at Great Keppel at 8.30am. Within minutes of dropping the anchor everyone was in bed, as we hadn’t had a proper night’s sleep in 5 days and were exhausted.

New Crew

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We finally have a new crew member. Lydia is silly enough to join us this season sailing up the Coral Coast to the Whitsundays. We were supposed to head off up north 6 weeks ago, but the lady we had organised for crew was unable to make it due to personal reasons (she may join us later) and we also did some maintenance on the boat. The second crew we organised were a couple from Melbourne. Because of a Covid outbreak in Melbourne all of Victoria went into lock down and Queensland are still not letting Victorians into the State.

We have been watching the weather and the set off date has been put back a few more days. There is a weather window opening tomorrow so we are off!

We have been shopping almost every day for the last week provisioning the boat as we can’t carry a lot of groceries back to the boat at one time. We will not be close to the mainland or shops for at least 42 days.

What Rotten Luck

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While doing the repairs to Imagine after our two night time encounters, I noticed that one part of the deck flexed as I stood on it. YES I have put on weight. NO it wasn’t that! After seeing this problem on other boats I knew what had to be done.

So I proceeded to cut the deck open. Sure enough it was rotten. A year ago I had cut out part of the rub rail that was rotten right next to the piece of deck I’ve just found. My guess is that water had been tracking up the bolt holding the rub rail on and I hadn’t noticed it.

I cut the deck back as far as hard dry wood then back as far as a rib (for strength). Luckily the timber around the chain plates was still ok. I Inserted new plywood and coating with fibreglass. I then primed and painted it with the little bit of KiwiGrip we still had (courtesy of Alan Thrower).

That has now created a bigger problem. The new paint looks great, but it shows that the rest of the deck now needs painting.