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The past two days have been rainy and windy, so we have just hunkered down and reverted to indoor activities. Lydia with her painting. Sue with her crosswords and Andrew fixing things and making olive and rosemary bread for lunch. Today was showering on the back deck in the rain, then TV time watching the first series of Killing Eve. Then programming the website so you can see a map of where we have been and where we are.
Two more days of wind and rain are predicted, so more of Killing Eve.

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Today was rest day. That meant no sailing or snorkeling till after lunch. Then Andrew and Lydia went off in the dinghy to explore the next bay. Landing the dinghy on the beach Lydia headed off into the water while Andrew explored the rocks.
Lydia keeping true to form came out of the water with more treasure. A cricket wicket in one hand and a deflated pool toy in the other. After a couple of hours snorkeling they headed back to Imagine where Sue had made a lemon coconut slice.
Lydia wanted to watch a shipwreck movie so we watched The Life of Pi
Tomorrow the winds change and we will have to move to a more sheltered bay.

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Lydia was in the water just after daybreak to check out the reef at the other end of the bay. When she got back Sue had made brunch. Pancakes, bacon, blueberries and maple syrup.
To burn off such a breakfast Andrew and Lydia went on a 3 hour hike. As they reached the western bays the could see the bay was packed with boats. A vast contrast to the bay Imagine is in.
Late this afternoon we all headed to the beach to try out our new inflatable kayak. Sorry the video of the three of us getting in and trying to paddle, although hilarious, has been censored NFP (Not for Public Viewing).

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After a day of recovery at Great Keppel, we saw the wind was changing north which would blow into the bay we were in. So time to move to the southern side of the island.
Now anchored it was time to take the watermaker apart. We now know how it works. We checked the seals and they look good. We couldnt see anything wrong with the pump, so we got it back together (with no parts left over). After reconnecting all the piping we tried it again. Still no fresh water. Tomorrow we will try something else.
Swim time. Lydia found more treasure. A golf ball.
Now it’s nibbles time before making dinner.

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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.

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Sunday 20th
There was a slight breeze overnight (33kts) and a couple of bumps (2.5m dueling swells). As the wind was taking us too far off course, we turned on the motor and pounded through the waves. Dead of the night with no moon, we trusted Imagine to get us through. By daybreak the wind had died down, so we could head to Lady Muskgrave. The timing worked well to get though the 30m wide channel at low tide with Andrew up the mast, Sue on the helm and Lydia cheering them on.
Lady Muskgrave was a much needed reprieve. Fixed poor FRED the autopilot, we won’t be taking him for granted again. Lydia had a dive checking out the bommies in the amazingly clear 20°C water with 20m vis. Andrew had a quick dip but Sue decided to wait for the warmer water up north.

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Early this morning after running 2 days straight, the autopilot started making noises so we have had to manually steer. Of course the weather wanted to play the game too with high wind gusts and messy seas!
Not long after we spotted a cabin cruiser off our starboard side and heading straight for us. We carried on our course knowing they should give way to us under sail.
He will turn soon… He’s going to turn… OK everyone we are turning hard to port. Just as we did he must have woken up and turned his autopilot off. He swung hard to starboard and powered off. What a great start to the day.
We’re all pretty tired but enjoying being out in the big blue and sailing.

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Finally out of Moreton Bay. Nice sunny day with light winds. After several cycles of helming, Lydia was so confident that she able to read her book while on helm duty.
For a short time we were graced by the presence of dolphins coming right up to the boat. By evening the wind had got up so we reefed the sails and headed into the night.

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Thursday 17th June 6am we hauled anchor and headed down river, stopping at the fuel depot to fill the diesel tanks. Out into the bay and up went the sails. The watermaker went on as the water tanks were low. By 12:00 we were starting to head out of Moreton Bay when the Vang broke. Then we discovered the watermaker had not been making water.
We had a quick look at the watermaker and found it wasn’t going to be a quick fix. With heavy hearts we turned around and headed back to the Brisbane River where we could fill the water tanks at one of the docks.
First dock (which was the fuel dock and water dock) had someone parked up for the night, but us pulling up behind that boat and in front of a huge super yacht was just going to be too tight of a squeeze.
Dock 2 (1.0m of water below the keel), Sue was saying hurry up, but the water only trickled out. No good,
Dock 3, 0.1 (100mm of water below the keel!) but tide just turning to come in, success, we managed to get water. With air bubbles in the tank it still took more than an hour to fill 300L of water.
Silver lining, we got lots of practice mooring and Lydia’s lassoing deck cleats with the mooring lines improved tenfold.
Now 8:30pm and the tanks are full. Let’s try again.

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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.