Australia 2018/2019

 

Up the creek in Bundaberg

After an expensive week in Port Bundaberg Marina Sadiqi motored up the Burnett river on the flood tide to Bundaberg. Anchored up the creek in Bundaberg I hauled myself up the mast to take down the Windex - wind indicator. Sailing from Vanuatu a large boobie/gannet managed to land on the top of the mast. The wind may have been 5 knots on the beam in flat seas at the time. The consequence was a broken Windex. At the time some vitriol may have been expressed toward the bird and probably it’s parentage. However, it turned out to be fortuitous. While up the mast I noticed a crack in a stainless steel tang on the starboard lower shrouds.

Cracked Tang

After phoning around, to find ways to remove the mast it was suggested I go to Mooloolaba. I found a boat yard that could remove the mast and where I could work on it at reasonable cost. There's a marina next door where I could live on the boat. With Sadiqi being on the small side I managed to book a marina berth. In the mean time I strapped the cracked tang with dyneema for the voyage further south.

The temporary fix

The transit of the Great Sandy Strait was interesting if not a little stressful. On approaching the first anchorage on the Hervey Bay side of the strait the black clouds, thunder and lightning were ominous. The small anchorage looked crowded, what I saw of it, before it disappeared in  torrential rain. Thoroughly drenched I managed to find a reasonably sheltered anchor just nearby without navigating by braille. The next day I worked the tides. Sadiqi has a dink, not a donk, all 18 aged horses of it. Around the middle of the Strait the tides ebb north and south. This bit can only be traversed, in a displacement boat, on a flood tide. What I had not accounted for was a strong 25 to 30 knot SW breeze. Sadiqi's dink tried pushing into it. I used the headsail where I could in the narrow channel. Once over the hump Sadiqi was flushed southwards with the ebbing tide. I anchored near other boats in Wide Bay Harbour. All the boats left to cross the bar the following morning. I chose to stay for another night and get a feel for the conditions on the bar. I don’t take crossing river bars lightly. The conditions crossing the Wide Bay bar at the southern end of Fraser Island was reasonably benign. The potentially nasty bar bouncers had that day off.

Twilight Wide Bay Harbour

I arrived in Mooloolaba after a deliberately slow over night sail - a distance of 50 miles. At the beginning of March I organised to to take the mast off Sadiqi. Laurie’s Boat yard has a travel lift with suitable crane to remove the mast. I stripped almost everything off the mast and had it repainted. The standing rigging was replaced by Quin Rig. After I replaced all the halyards, wiring, bits and pieces the shiny mast was re-stepped. I should have picked a cooler time of year as at times the tropical heat was intense.

Mast ready to be disassembled

Disassembled

Painted spinnaker poles

Painted Mast

Assembled mast

I had done what I came to the marina to do and was looking forward to going sailing again.

Shiny refurbished mast

Mid March Sadiqi departed Mooloolaba and headed south to Brisbane. Mooloolaba is a great location, however it takes a day to get anywhere by sailboat. I dropped anchor at Sandy Hills toward the southern end of Moreton Island. I enjoyed several days at anchor.

Sunset over Brisbane

I woke before sun up on the morning of departure and noticed flames on a yacht nearby. I turned on the VHF radio to listen of any distress calls. Someone was either having a very early breakfast BBQ of had seriously burnt the toast. After awhile I heard a call to the Coastguard about the fire. It wasn't the first call. By this time the back end of the sailboat was well alight. What surprised me was that there seemed to be very little attempt or effort to put the fire out. I could see 2 dinghies tied behind another boat with people watching. After a few hours 2 police boats and the coastguard turned up. By this time the boat had flames the length of the deck with dense black smoke. The mast eventually collapsed. A helicopter turned up I'm guessing with a news crew. That flew around for about half an hour. The police eventually extinguished the flames.

Yacht fire

After all that excitement I pulled up the anchor and headed to the marina. Sadiqi spent nearly a month in East Coast Marina while the skipper sorted out various stuff.