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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.

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We had just finished dinner when there was a large bang and grinding noise. We rushed out on deck to find a tourist sight seeing boat across our bow. He had been anchored a short distance away and dragged without noticing. He then tried to back away from us but his anchor was around ours so all that did was bring him along side. After fighting off his boat, trying to save our solar panels. he managed to move forward enough to take the tension off the anchor chain and I was able to untangle it. Once free we were able to exchange details. We will inspect the damage in the morning.

Just a few minor scratches.

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We were woken in the middle of the night by the phone ringing. It was Theo, the owner of a boat anchored near by. “HELP the chain on my dinghy is caught under the jetty and the tide is coming in”. We dropped our dinghy into the water. I grabbed the hacksaw and headed off to Mowbray Park Jetty with my headlamp on. Reaching the jetty I could see the bow of Theo’s Aluminium Dinghy at water level and the stern and outboard motor in the air. I passed the hacksaw to Theo and he started cutting into the chain while I tied off our dinghy to the jetty.

PING. The sound of the hacksaw blade breaking was heard just before Theo muttered some words that must be French or German or something. Luckily some smart bugger had thought to grab a spare blade when picking up the hacksaw. I fitted the new blade and this time I started cutting from on the jetty. Although the floating pontoon jetty was rocking around I had a better angle than Theo.

PING. The sound of the blade breaking could be heard just before a BANG as the back of the dinghy hit the water. The bow flew up launching Theo in the air. Somehow he managed to end up in his dinghy. Upside down but in the dinghy.

With the dinghy now free from the jetty the strong tidal current of the river now had control of it. Theo just managed to right himself in time to grab the back of our dinghy as he went past. After composing himself he was able to start his outboard motor. I jumped in our dinghy started the outboard and we both motored back to our respective boats.

Just another night on the river!

Boat life is being prepared for whatever is going to happen next.

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Things going bump in the night scare us as children. When we grow up we condition ourselves that the scary stuff is all in your head. Maybe not …

A few nights ago a motor launch came and anchored quite close upstream of us. Early the next morning he floated past us dragging his anchor. The next night he anchored down stream of us. In the middle of the night the tide changed and at 5.30 in the morning there was a strange noise. I went on deck to find the launch hard up against the bow on one side of Imagine and his dinghy on the other. The launch being powered forward then backward to pull his dinghy free, dislodged our anchor. Now we were both drifting towards another anchored boat. Eventually the dinghy ripped its mounting off the back deck of the launch and we were free of them both.

Sue at the helm and Andrew controlling our anchor, we got Imagine under control metres away from the anchored boat and returned to our spot and re-anchored. The launch retrieved his dinghy and went back to his spot and anchored.

A little later after making sure we were secure I inspected the damage. A 1.5m scrape about 10mm deep along the side of us.

I went across to the launch to get some details and discuss what to do. During that time I asked him how much chain he had out the first time he dragged. 30m was his reply. So I asked him how much he had out last night. 30m he said. Curious I asked how much he has now put out. 30m he said.

If you do the same thing over and over again you get the same result over and over again. That is what we are all taught, well not all of us.

Anyway we came to a cash settlement for the repairs to Imagine. That night we we didn’t get much sleep. I went out on deck every hour. and guess what? He dragged anchor! He didn’t hit us this time but he did leave the area.

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We regularly check everything on the boat. During a recent inspection of the mizzen we discovered that a part had broken off the Gooseneck (the bit that holds the boom to the mast).  A quick phone around found a place that could make a new one. It was a 7 hour round trip to deliver the old part and three weeks later another day to pick it up.  Now its mounted on and looks good.

Another project finished is the Gypsy on the anchor winch. Lately when hauling anchor, the chain has slipped several times. The Gypsy has worn. Its only 40 years old!  So after spending days phoning Engineering and Fabrication places, I finally found one that could still braze brass. I got them to braze a bead across the leading edge of each tooth where it had worn. We will know how well it worked when we haul anchor in a few days.

The east coast of OZ has been hammered by bad weather for the past week. So what do we do when its raining. We find new leaks have appeared. They are new all marked, waiting for a few fine days for repairs.  We also do sewing repairs. Fix the sail cover and sew new covers for the life raft and other things.

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Another reason not to swim in the Brisbane River!

Today we spotted a croc in the Brisbane River. It must have been a male (blue) due to its larger size. About twenty minutes later we we saw another one a lot smaller size and obviously a female (red). Sorry we didn’t get a photo of the female.

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It was time to head back to Brisbane, but there was hardly a ripple on the water. We motored out of the bay and then hoisted the Gennaker. We had to hold on tight as we raced across the bay at less than 1 knot.

After a couple of hours and several hundred metres we decided to motor the rest of the way.

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We have gotten out of the river for a few days R&R across at Moreton Island. We had a storm the first night but generally had good weather and clear water. We have seen Dolphins and Turtles in the bay and relaxed.

It must be my animal magnetism. There are half a dozen boats in the bay with us. We have all anchored at least 300m away from each other., with plenty of room for more boats. So why does this *** come and anchor right next to us?? About 40m away. Why do weekend worriers find comfort in anchoring right next to other boats when there is an entire bay to anchor in? Is it because “they anchored there so it must be safe for me.” or is it because they would be lonely 100-200m away from others?

No. Lets face it they just want to be near me!

Its a good job we had planned to head back to Brisbane in the morning. We are going back to help Andy & Steph finish their repairs on their Catamaran and to go see Ben, Amie and the Grandkids over the weekend.

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On a boat the two most valuable things are power and water. We can only make power when the sun shines, so we are careful on what power we use. Our water tanks hold 320 litres of water, so we are also careful of how much water we use. We don’t have a washing machine as it uses too much power and water.

We are thrifty with water when washing and showering ourselves every day. No fifteen minute showers. When it comes to washing clothes, it’s hand wash in a bucket. We use salt water and detergent to wash the clothes then rinse off in fresh water and on the line for drying.

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The weather forecast showing easterly winds for the week, making it ideal for anchoring at Moreton Island. So we set off.

Heading down river with an outgoing tide we reached the bay in only 1.5 hours. Less than .5m swell and 15knot winds made it a great leisurely sail across the bay.

After dinner we sat on the back deck. The bay was very still, showing no signs of what was approaching. We could see in the distance natures light display lighting up Brisbane with one of its summer evening storms. The lights of Brisbane slowly turned to black as the storm headed west across the bay. We were in the direct path.

Within a minute the calm bay was hit by the westerly wind. We raced below to shut all the hatches, then returned to the cockpit to watch the torrent of water pouring from the sky. The sky lit up with both fork and sheet lightning, reminding us about a yacht that recently got hit by lightning. That strike blew several holes in the the yacht’s hull.

It was over an hour before the storm cell left us. Cup of tea time. We went below for a cuppa and discovered one of the hatches hadn’t been closed properly. Which one? Of course the one above our bed. Luckily we have other dry beds.