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Being cooped up onboard Imagine, not being able to go for a swim, exercise is 10 steps from the bow to the stern and back. We’ve had enough. We’re escaping. Making a run for it.

We lowered the dinghy over the side and into the water. Grabbed our backpacks and headed downstream. Passing the houses on the riverbank we made our way to the New Farm Jetty. Without raising any attention we chained the dinghy to the jetty (thieving buggers don’t know what self isolation is) and set off.

Not to raise suspicion we kept our social distancing as we made our way through the park. Reaching the other side of the park we made our way along the quiet streets as if we belonged there. Always wary that the police may come around the corner at any minute to question us about our travels.

Finally we were there! We had made it! We were at Coles supermarket. Bread, Milk, Toilet rolls and it was time to head back.

Yes … I’m bored !

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Yesterday whilst sitting in the cockpit having lunch and watching small birds try to get into the mizzen boom to make a nest, we were rudely interrupted. A few kids had been playing with a ball on the river bank and it had ended up in the river. The first we knew was when two women (kid’s mums) were yelling from the shore “excuse me, you on the boat. Can you get our ball”.

Seeing the soccer ball slowly float past Imagine, Andrew jumped into action (after putting some shorts on). He jumped into the dinghy and rowed after the ball. Just like Bondi Rescue he scooped up the ball and into the rib it went. He continued to shore where he passed the ball to the kids.

The mums thanked Andrew and explained how the ball had escaped and made a run for it. They also where curious as to why we were here and about boat life. Keeping social distancing, Andrew explained what we have been doing before returning to Imagine to his cold coffee and dried up sandwich.

Another successful rescue by the Imagine crew.

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Andrew’s been busy (he never stops!) .. he’s Inserted a piece of timber in the rub rail where there was rot and sanded all the rub rail inbetween the ferries going past that are creating wake and rocking the boat somewhat. He is now trying to varnish as Imagine swings around in the breeze. He’s already varnished 2 of the 4 storage boxes on the deck.

Yesterday we went ashore to fill our water containers as we can’t make water here in the river (river too dirty). Whilst ashore and to stretch our legs we went for a walk along the river bank for some exercise. It’s a lovely but very busy walkway through the park. It’s hard sometimes to see where the social distancing is happening!

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What have we been up to?
Not a great deal. We are still in the Brisbane river (easy access to shops). We have been doing bits and pieces to the boat. Touching up the paint, running new sheets on the sails. Nothing too exciting.

We hauled Imagine out of the water at Rivergate boatyard, to get the leaking propshaft seal replaced. While it was out we gave her a couple of coats of antifoul , removed portholes and resealed them, replaced the roller on the bow, painted 10m markings on the anchor chain and painted the hull above the waterline. All that in 6 days, while the seal was being done. We also got a rigger to replace the forestay and inner stay because I found 1 strand of the wire broken.

Back in the water and we discovered some rot in the rub rail while sanding it back to varnish. So we have now cut it out and have to go to the hardware shop to get some timber (this will be essential travel as we need to urgently fix this before it spreads).

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Well it’s stuffed our plans, along with everyone else’s. All the Pacific Islands have closed their borders and we don’t blame them. They would be very vulnerable. Just like you, we are in lock down. Only being able to go shopping or exercise. Yay we just found a shop that currently has plenty of toilet paper.

Australian’s are to stay at home with no non-essential travel, including no boating. If we self isolate and stay at home and our home moves up the coast are we breaking the law? Is it non-essential travel and boating? It’s a $1300 fine each for non-essential travel We have enough food to stay onboard for more than 14days and could make our own water up the coast. We now have to go ashore every few days to fill jerry-cans with water as the river is too dirty to make water. This increases our chances of catching COVID19.

For the moment we are staying put. A shop across the river has advertised for workers so Sue has applied. If she gets it we would then have some income. Like you we will just have to sit tight and see what happens next.

It’s good to hear that in New Zealand the number of cases are reducing due to their total lockdown. Still a ways to go but good to hear some positive news.

Stay safe and be healthy everyone

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Back in Brisbane after taking potential crew to Moreton Island for a few days.
Amelia and Tim, originally from Canada and now living in Brisbane, may look at meeting up with us later in the year. They have had their own boat and did coastal cruising. Esther is from Germany and has taken some time off to travel and would like to do some sailing. She has had no experience crewing but is keen to learn and wants to do a blue water crossing. She is now travelling to NZ – where she may be able to get some more experience and is possibly looking at joining us in Vanuatu.

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The bearing seemed to have collapsed making the steering wheel very loose. To get us back to Brisbane I cut up a nylon chopping board to make a couple of bushes which seemed to hold the steering in place better.

When we got back to Brisbane I started disassembling the helm. With several calls to a friend in Sydney (thanks Gordon) I discovered the only way to fix the problem was to remove the entire helm. With Ben and Greg’s help we disassembled and replaced the bearings.

I remounted the helm on the boat, connected the rudder up and it seems to work.

In removing the helm, had to cut out all of the fibreglass housing which meant now I had to build a new helm station. Instead of using fibreglass I built this one out of timber so the back could be removed if anything ever needed repairing again. All this has taken approx 3 weeks to do.

Everything on the boat takes longer to do in this heat and humidity – a trip to the hardware store for bolts takes all day. This week we hope to take it for a test sail.

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We spent Christmas in Bundaberg with Ben, Amie, Lachlan at Amie’s parents.

We’ve spent a bit of time with Lachlan, taking him to different playgrounds, to the movies, South Bank Beach (a man made sandy beach, series of large swimming pools and water features for kids to play around) and to the interactive reef at QUT where there were other interesting displays and some crafts sessions which included controlling a robot sphere around an obstacle course.

Fixing the steering wasn’t as easy as it could have been.

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We arrived in Bundaberg today after spending a couple of days at Fraser Island. On the way to Fraser Island the helm (steering wheel) started making a funny noise. When we got to Fraser Island, Andrew tried to oil it and discovered a bigger issue. We’ve now cut a “view door” in the helm pedestal so we can now see that the bearing needs replacing.

Being this close to Christmas, it may be an issue as many places have closed already. (There is an emergency tiller if it totally packs up but we don’t plan on going too far until we can get it sorted).

On the way up to Bundaberg we were meet by some dolphins jumping and frolicking across the bow.

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We moved to Moreton Island today, where we can swim and escape the party boats going up the river and cool off as the temperature today hit 41.5 degrees C.

We will head up to Fraser island in the next few days