It was certainly very hectic prior to our departure with
closing up the home and preparing our property for sale inspections. Storage of
vehicles, rehousing animals, checking fencing for the cattle, shutting down
fridges, packing. storing and securing personal items and all manner of tasks
that are involved in closing your home and property for an extended period.
We were both very tired getting the yacht prepared, provisioned,
and sorted before we embarked from our dock on the Gold Coast.
Agreeing, that that a gentle start to our passage making was
required to give us an “ exhale” moment to let this new sailing lifestyle
settle upon us.
Sens de La Vie is our new home as we travel the Australia
coast exploring its beauty and experiencing life upon the sea.
Covid 19 Restrictions prevented us from our usual “All
Welcomed” hospitality with family and friends, celebrating our departure. This
weighed heavily on the hearts for both of us, as we are very social people who
love the company of our family and friends who care and support us in
friendship and love.
A promise to all that I will continue to write of our
experience in Blogs as I have done over the past 6 years with our casual
cruising on the eastern Seaboard.
In my mind, I thought that the Blogs would be about once a
month to keep everyone updated but, alas, in true style of “The Smiths” -
calamity, chaos and mayhem reigns supreme in our eventful life.
We both giggled last night of our circumstances that lead us to be at the dock in the Port of Gladstone on an unscheduled port of call in our passage.
“Sens de la Vie” translated in English is “the Meaning of
Life”. Capt Terry and our adult
daughters, (bilge rats) have a left of centre dark humour, who love the quirky stories
of Douglas Adams (Life the Universe and Everything) and are fans of the comedy team
of “Monty Python”.
We thought perhaps our yacht needs a footnote inscribed at
its stern “Always look on the bright side of life……….. Da Dee Da………Dee Daaaa
Dee Da Dee Da”.
After leaving home port we made passage to Moreton Bay south
of Tangalooma, it was wet and cold and we both froze. Visioning warmer weather and waters the
thought of packing thermals was an oversight and I suffered dearly with RA
attacks over the next week.
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| Leesa and our dogs having a catch up |
We had a good run through to Mooloolaba catching up with
fellow Yachtie Mike Middleton on the yacht Isabella making passage to Brisbane
with both yachts coming to a stop in the middle of the ocean for a quick chat.
Docked and fuelled at Mooloolaba and a quick catch up with another friend and
then departed at 11pm to catch the tide at first light across Wide Bay
Bar.
The night sail was vision difficult
with no moon and freezing conditions capped it off. Capt Terry did a very long
shift so I could rest and keep warm. as both hands were crippled in hand braces
from an RA Attack.
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| I am Freezing |
After 4am I went on Helm for a short period, the new
communications and navigation equipment is working well and the auto pilot
keeps to course without dropping out which makes long passages easier, not
requiring to be on the helm all the time.
No difficulty crossing Wide Bay Bar and dropped anchor in Tin Can Bay,
to catch up with fellow sailors Pat and Marg MacDonnell who reside in this
township. Stayed 2 nights, launched the new PolyCraft tender and we exhaled.
The next morning we left to traverse the Sheridan Flats in
favourable tides. It was very cold and I
was nervous going through these sandbanks as we have been stuck before with our
keel. Heeling over, stuck on terra firma
with waters under the hull disappearing, freaks me out as yachts are not
designed to have a foot on earth.
My new strategy for difficult passages that makes me anxious
is “Nervous Baking”, which Capt Terry is most delighted as he gets to eat the
results.
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| Nervous Baking Apple Pie |
We anchored just South of Kingfisher Bay resort at South
White Cliffs and enjoyed just resting up and exploring the historic wrecks up
the creeks and caught fish. I finally got to stow away some of our gear in an
orderly manner and tidy up the cabins.
Floss our deckhand dog is settling in to her new life on board.
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| Fishing Off Fraser Island |
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| Capt Teza Relaxing |
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| Cocktails and Sunsets......................but its not always this pleasant |
We made our leap to Bundaburg under sail most of the way,
but sea conditions were lumpy, the cold wind chilling us to the bone. Blowing half a gale when we arrived into Port
of Bundaburg, weather forecasting is a little erratic and unreliable. We access all 4 global weather models through
our Weather Program, Predict Wind, but finding the accuracy not that great at
the moment. I heard commentary on this
issue with less atmospheric data coming from airliners to build weather modelling
forecasts is a reason.
We had hoped to go out to one of our favourite destinations
that we have visited for 20 plus years, Lady Musgrave, but decided that Pancake
Creek was a good place to hang out until the wind and sea conditions
settled. The Promise of Pancakes at
Pancake Creek and a walk up to the historic Bustard Head Light House would be
ideal.
The waters between 1770, Pancake Creek and Gladstone were
currently in Search and Rescue Activation by Water Police and Round Hill Marine
Rescue as a 54 year Old Skipper had gone missing overboard from his yacht.
Any vessel in a search area is asked to keep watch and
report via radio to Marine Rescue.
Sens De La Vie was sailing well making speed up to 8 knots but
challenging with a running large swell on our bum and gusting winds up to 20
knots. Reefing in our head sail and main sail was in order to depower us a
little for comfort and better control.
Then our story of a “series of unfortunate events” began.
As customary we start the engine before depowering under sail
for safety and control of the vessel particularly when in big sea swells. Capt Terry went to start the motor -
“Nothing”.
This required me to go on the helm whilst Terry did the
diagnostics of the problem. After a
period of 2 hrs, checking batteries, motor and all manner of mechanical
equipment he was satisfied that the problem was the starter motor. By this time Terry after being in the engine
compartment in very rolly seas was, a little green. The wind had picked up and we were now
sailing down the following swells up our stern.
Depowering the sails and reefing them in so we can decide what to do
next the sun is going down and we were close to our destination of Pancake
Creek but coming into this area in these conditions with only the sails for
power was a risk.
The 2nd thing that went wrong as we furled in our
big head sail (Genoa), the furler failed. We would have to bring down this
massive sail in big winds and swell manually. How Terry did this was amazing.
Indeed, whilst I was on the helm trying
to keep the boat listing and rolling and
as comfortable as possible for Terry to get this sail down, I lost sight of him several times under the
blanket of the sail cloth. More scar
tissue on my heart when from the corner of my eye I saw a big black object
splash in the water, “was that Terry?”
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| Terry doing the final lashing of the Genoa to deck |
Knowing Terry had a Life jacket on and was tethered to the
lifelines did not occur to me in those few moments of my heart pumping. Rational
thinking went out the door. We had been
keeping an eye out all day for another experienced Skipper who went overboard
so that thought was present in my mind.
Seconds later, (seemed like minutes) up jumps a large black
dolphin. Up pops the Capt trying to
strap down the sail on our bow.
It is a credit to both our years of sailing experience and
our working partnership, that as a team, in an emergency situation, we work
well together. I have every faith in
Capt Terry’s ability to assess the situation and make good judgements to keep
us safe.
We radio Round Hill Rescue(1770) and advised of our
situation and they contacted Gladstone Marine Rescue.
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| Rescue Crew docking us at Gladstone Marina |
So we tacked and gybed our way towards Gladstone in a very
busy shipping piloting area. Its now
dark, the seas were building and we were experiencing 25/30 knot winds. We had depowered the main sail to a tablecloth
and we were still doing 5 to 6 knots.
We had 2 choices stay
out to sea all night or make the call for Marine Rescue Gladstone to tow us to
safe harbor. Many conversations over the radio with the Marine rescue. The retired Rescue Chief also got involved as he was concerned that
the advice by the Rescue Duty Officer to anchor in a bay just outside of
Gladstone would have been very dangerous and put us on rocks particularly in
these big swells. Capt Terry made the call for a Rescue Tow into the port of
Gladstone. We were both very tired and
tacking around at night in a major shipping channel in difficult sea conditions
was a risk we were not willing to experience.
It took another 3 hours until Rescue Boat arrived to
us. Getting the tow Bridle on the yacht
was extremely dangerous with the sea swells tossing our boats on each
swell. Terry was on the bow, a dark silhouette
against the Rescue Boat Search light which beamed into my eyes making it so
difficult for me to judge the distance between the boats. Trying to keep the yacht on track and not
colliding into the rescue boat when a swell from the stern would push us forward
was no easy task. We were still doing 6knots under a Tablecloth size sail, it
was our only means of controlled steering.
Hooked up eventually and the long passage down the channel
about 20NM with passing freighters and large cargo ships took another 2 and
half hours.
Marine Rescue Gladstone did an amazing job, even they said
it was a difficult retrieval as seas and wind conditions were very difficult,
and the Marine rescue boat groaned and struggled under tow.
We were docked at the end of a berthing finger at the Port
of Gladstone Authority Marina.
Government owned facility.
Exhausted, we slept even through the noise of a nearby
dredge working overnight, the bells whistles and horns of all the ships working
and docking at night that surrounded us.
We were warmly welcomed the next morning and were the news
for the day in the Marina Precinct and everyone was so helpful.
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| Our New Motor Starter More bling for our Boat |
Marine diesel
mechanic came on board in the afternoon and confirmed that the starter motor
was indeed our problem and within hours sourced a new one and would fit the
next day.
After taking a long hot shower at the marina I felt much
better, but on return to the boat a horrible noise was reverberating inside and
outside our yacht, like a major water
pipe. After some time, I found an afterhours
number and spoke to the Manager of the marina saying I think a water main or
air lock has malfunctioned. He said they
would look into it in the morning.
The “Creature from the Deep” - like something out of
a movie around 8.30pm our yacht hull was hit very hard by something pushing us
hard and lurching us against the dock. “WTF” the noise was incredible coming
from below our hull, we got off the boat and on inspection the waters around us
were bubbling. Are we sinking? Has Poseidon sent forth the Kraken to claim
our vessel?
Frantic call to the Harbor Master, we can only assume that
the dredging pipeline was somehow under our boat, whipping around under the
force of a massive dredging pump like a sea serpent. This seemed not real to all, as anchor hazard
buoys marking where the pipeline was were some 50 metres away.
Thankfully, Terry happened to have contacts with the
dredging company and a senior project manager and within half an hour the
dredging crew arrived confirming that the pipe had exploded and come apart and
it was under our hull. We were then rafted up by the dredging crew to one of
the service boats and docked at the end of another finger away from the “serpent”
of a dredging pipeline. After checking the hull from any breaches, we settled in
for the night. Very noisy night with the dredging crew nearby fixing and moving
the huge pipeline that takes the spoils of mud and sand to the mainland for
disposal.
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| The seawater inlet Filter for Refrigeration Stuffed |
Once again in the morning we had many visitors and were the
talk of the Marina. As this is a Government
authority marina you can imagine the amount of paperwork and incident reports.
Our starter motor was fitted and we are all back working
with our motor, however the fridge
seawater pump to cool condensers was cactus, and the Dredging company agreed
that we needed to inspect the hull, rudder and prop for damage.
As we are sailing in remote areas over the next 12 months,
Capt Terry has stocked well all spares including a new Fridge Pump ($500) on
board so we swapped it out after cleaning all the intakes and the dredging
company has ordered a new one to be delivered to replace our spare.
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| A tractor and a trailer lifter pulling us out? |
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| Out on land is not where you want you boat to be Balancing on a trailer |
Thankfully, no major damage,
antifoul all still OK, rudder and prop no damage. We were ever so grateful and thankful that we
had not incurred major damage from this unfortunate event.
The furler is fixed, other small jobs done, and we are all
shipshape after once again - the boat was in disarray down below decks after
mechanical work was completed. Today we
await the new pump replacement and will take some time just to go explore this
amazing Industrial marine port.
I am left thinking of a Life quote a dear friend gave to me
"Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful, and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, awful, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful.”
―
I find the Port of Gladstone fascinating even though it’s a
bit noisy, with large ships coming and going loading our Australian resources
off over the world. There is a Seafarers
Mission nearby and the foreshore has been developed with parkways and gardens
for community to enjoy this busy port from many vantage points.
The marine facilities and Marina very well
appointed with cafes, little tourist shops, information centre and other
tourist operators taking guests to Heron island. Curtis Island Ferries, tug-boats, pilot boats
and all manner of different boats all having a purpose.
.
We remain positive and hope to get away in the next couple
of days sailing up the coast to our next destination being Great Keppel Island
as the weather window for Lady Musgrave at this stage is not favourable for the
next week. Today we get off the boat and will take a good look around the city.
