Some friends and their two draughters joined us for a three day get away to Moreton Island.
They arrived nice and early and we set off down the river. About quarter of the way just as we were about to go past one of the ferry terminals everything went quiet. Now that’s how we like it when we are sailing, but we were motoring down the river. “Were” being the operative word.
We quickly dropped anchor and Sue called up on the VHF radio to let the ferries know we had problems. It didn’t taken long for me to work out that the fuel pump wasn’t pumping. Because of the way this boat is set up, I could switch over to the electric fuel pump. The electric fuel pump pumped fuel to a twenty litre header tank which could gravity feed the engine.
Back on the road again, well river. We headed down river with a now incoming tide, which meant we were down to quarter our normal slow speed.
Once out of the river the sails went up, motor went off and the quiet was wonderful, just the sound of the water lapping against the hull and the breeze in the sails.
Two days of fishing swimming and climbing the sand dunes, then it was back to Brisbane and fix the fuel pump.
Happy New Year everyone, hope this is a much better year for all of us!
We spent time at Christmas with Ben, Amie and our two grandsons, Lachlan and Robbie. It was great just to chill out and relax with them. Ben, Lachlan and Andrew set to making up one of Lachlan’s Christmas presents that Santa had brought him – a fantastic table tennis table and set. Unbelievably, they did even look at the instructions … once! After it had been set up all of us had turns with Lachlan until it got just a bit too hot to be outside and exerting ourselves after our lunch! Amie, Robbie and Sue were more sensible by staying inside in the cool (although they did come out to have some games with Lachlan).
Then we are back to doing maintenance on the boat. Sue is still looking for a job whilst Andrew has been trying to tick off some of the jobs on his ever expanding list (one gets taken off and two get put on!).
We discovered a leak in the salt water pipe for washing down the deck. When it had been installed there was a join in the pipe as the pipe went through the deck. That where the leak was. It had been leaking for a while but we hadn’t seen it as the deck is plywood coated in fibreglass. Water and plywood don’t like each other, so we ended up with a rotten patch in the deck. To make things worse the pipe was next to the anchor winch. Yes it has rotted the deck under the winch.
Now we are anchored in the Brisbane river. To fix the deck we have to remove the winch. This meant we had to tie the anchor chain securely to the bow. We then had to hope that there was no reason to have to haul anchor such as a Pylon catching the anchor or dragging anchor in a big storm.
Anyway, after four days of Sue constantly checking the weather and watching where we were in the river, I was able to repair the damage and remount the winch.
We now have new plywood and fibreglass deck at the bow. Also I have changed the piping so there isn’t a join as it goes through the deck.
There is always something to do or repair on the boat.
We had moved Imagine further out into the river just before the storm. This morning we decided to haul anchor and move back to give the ferries a bit more room. It should have only taken ten minutes, not three and a half hours.
After all the times we have rescued other boats, it was now our turn to be rescued!
As usual with Sue on the helm moving the boat forward against the tide, I started hauling the anchor up. With just over 20m to go the winch started straining and getting slower with each metre of chain.
Because of the storm and the river flooding a lot of debris had come down the river. What prey tell had caught around our chain?
Sue now had to hold the boat still facing into the river current while I raised the anchor inch by inch. There it was, an old pylon (3.5 to 4m long) nicely tied up with the chain. I could see that it was at the 10m mark on the chain. This meant that the anchor was now off the bottom as we were in 12m of water.
I first tried dropping the anchor fast, hoping the chain would come loose. But no. Okay, inch it back to the surface again.
Note: For the anchor winch to work under load the engine revs need to be high to keep the voltage up. So Sue had to keep taking it out of gear and rev the motor so I could winch. Then she had to put it back in gear to get the boat back under control and face into the current.
Luckily we had previously met the young couple on the Cat anchored behind us, so I jumped in the dinghy and headed across to get assistance.
After about an hour of Andy and I tying rope around the pylon and trying different things, I decided that it would be better to get to the public wharf down river and tie up against that. I phoned Ben to come and give us a hand as the pylon was too big for the two of us to handle.
So we slowly made our way down river against the incoming tide (at .07knots). As we went past another Cat, Andy called out for Wayne to give us a hand.
The pylon was at the 10m mark on our chain this meant take away the meter of chain around the pylon we had 9m of chain and an anchor below us. Most of the river was 12m deep but coming up to the wharf it dropped to 9.5m and to make it more interesting there is an underwater powerline crossing the river.
We made it over the power cable, but 20m from the wharf the anchor hit the bottom. All we could do was drag the anchor. Full throttle and we made it to the wharf.
The crowd thought it was quite interesting seeing a yacht with a pylon out the front.
With a lot of pushing and shoving we eventually got two ropes around the pylon and tied to the wharf. Then we could lower the chain enough to untangle it. Free of the pylon we were able to leave the wharf, haul anchor and return to our anchorage before the storm. We have contacted the authorities to remove the pylon we had left tied to the wharf.
With many thanks to Andy and Steph, Wayne and two people from the crowd. Ben got caught in traffic and as we had so many people helping we told him to return home. But thanks heaps for trying to get here.
The storm pasts a week ago now. The river is almost back to its normal height.
The past few days we have had Lachlan staying with us. We went to Southbank and swam. We went and played Mini Golf (Put Put) in the rain and played lots of Monopoly games. Lachlan is very lucky at this game creaming us both every time. Yesterday we took him back home.
Those of you in OZ or NZ would have seen the weather reports. Last week sunny with temperatures of 37 degrees and over. This week another storm cell has hit Brisbane. 100km winds 7m waves hitting the coast. We are in the river which is missing most of it, but still getting 75km wind gusts.
As we knew the storm was coming, we hauled anchor and re-anchored another 15m into the middle of the river. we couldn’t venture any further as we were encroaching on the ferries path.
The wind is now coming from the south and pushing us towards the rock wall. This is when we put faith in our anchor as the wind has pushed us to about 25m from shore.
Needless to say we didn’t get much sleep last night and Sue has me still sat in the cockpit on look out. I should have taken the photo at dawn when the water was over the river bank. Unfortunately it doesn’t show how much it was blowing. In the background is our friends ground floor apartment. I think they may have had a restless night as well.
Yes we are back in the Brisbane river. Oh how we missed the sounds of the sirens, loud motorbikes and ferries constantly passing us. Even the planes are back overhead.
We managed to anchor in the same spot we were in before going to the Whitsundays. We’ve been back almost two weeks and in those two weeks we have had dinner with our friends/neighbours who we have anchored outside their apartment. We caught up with the crew who sailed with us from Brisbane to Mackay. They introduced us to other friends of theirs who live in Brisbane. We will catch up with them again soon.
The rest of the time we have been doing laundry, cleaning and some boat maintenance. The dinghy outboard started playing up so we had to take it for a service. That was a mission in itself.
We had to row up river a bit then put the motor on a hand cart and drag it 2 or 3km to leave it to be serviced then go pick it up the next day. Then three days later take it back because it was still playing up.
There is still lots of maintenance to do on the boat and we have to catch up with Ben, Amie and Lachlan and others, so we will have plenty to do over the next few months.
We arrived and anchored at the river this morning successfully, but that is not the part of the story I want to tell you.
As the breeze pushed us on, passing behind Fraser Island, we heard on the radio that there was a “strong wind alert” for the zones that we were still to go through. Reading our own weather reports, we concluded – for the moment – that we could still have all our sails up, so we did.
By the early afternoon, the wind started to increase its speed, gusting violently. Sue turned the vessel into the mighty waves, while Andrew and Guido put down the main sail. We kept on course, motoring, as the flashes of distant thunder continued to get closer, quiet, but certain.
Now surrounded by clouds, we witnessed the sun hiding behind them, like a sea of white and orange cotton, and the night fell upon us.
The view, a breathtaking set of flashes and purple lightning, still in calm seas, nature’s way to advise us what lied ahead, magnificent and menacing all together.
The calm before the storm. I heard this before and thought of it as an expression, but I was proven wrong. It is as real as what happened next.
I truly couldn’t say how or when did it start, but the wind raised severely and with furious anger, struck the beam of the boat with a speed of about 50 knots. Minutes seemed like hours. Flashes everywhere. Wind howling and water squeezing through every possible opening.
Andrew and Sue tried to put the boat in the best possible position, while Nivi and I just wondered when would it all end.
The boat kept heeling over more and more.
And of course, as everything happens at the same time, we could smell smoke. The wind generator, which by the way was being hit and damaged by a halyard, was overcharging the batteries. One problem solved.
Then, we realized the anchor winch was enabled. Another cause for the smoke smell, also solved after we turned it off and Andrew went out to check where the anchor was.
When the front had passed and Andrew managed to put the boat into position, we were wet and honestly, quite frightened.
A true demonstration of power.
Being in the middle of a storm cell is an experience that makes you respect the wind and the sea like no other.
