Of Manta Rays and mainsails.........

 Another jaunt, with the predicted weather looking good, turned out to be an excellent idea as we finally found and swam with the elusive Manta Rays.

My list of favourite marine life is expanding all the time. There are now only two species I haven’t swum with.Whales, but I’m happy watching their majesty from above and the other being  whale sharks.

One day I will swim with a whale shark, either in the west at Ningaloo or perhaps Raja Ampat beckons when eventually borders reopen. Perhaps the west is a better option as it saves the interaction with Border Force and AQIS on re-entry, but as we skipped Raja Ampat on the way home in 2017, it’s still lurking in my mind as a potential adventure for the future. St Helena is just out of the question!

 We chose, for tidal /daylight arrival reasons to do it in a couple of hops. The southern end on Platypus Bay the first evening, then across to the northern stop off for a couple of hours, en-route  we encountered a pod of whales with a grunter in it. It could be clearly heard for some distance- not sure if it was a display of Alpha whale-ism or  a sore throat from too much singing, certainly haven’t encountered it before.

 Relaxing for a couple of hours at anchor, we left just after 1900 to sail to “our” lagoon and for the first time ever we sailed in company with our marina neighbours, coincidentally headed the same way. A pleasant 10-12kts NE’ly was forecast for the night , perfect strength and direction. After that the forecast showed next to nothing wind wise for a couple of days, so off we set, reefed down as always at night. We cruised peacefully and trouble free during the night averaging a comfortable 5kts. Once daylight came I shook out the reefs and the then 7-8kts had us anchored up by 0900.

Perfect (for being at anchor) glassy weather in a surprisingly busy lagoon. In our visits to date I’m guessing the maximum number of other vessels has been about 20.This time (school holidays and perfect weather) there were at least 40. For the first time the motor boats out numbering the yachts. 34:6! Also now in position in the lagoon was the live aboard reef pontoon.

 Our marina neighbour, a keen spear fisherman invited us to accompany him the next day outside the lagoon as he intended using the perfect conditions to snorkel outside the lagoon for a change.

En-route to wherever he was heading we happened upon  the manta rays. We stopped, he kept going- I guess he noticed we weren’t behind him when he eventually stopped!

https://youtu.be/MWqqyqpk_iA

https://youtu.be/Zo_EQSt4lbM

Beautiful, graceful, elegant underwater gliders. Massive and entirely harmless and very inquisitive. To date my only other encounter had been in not particularly clear water off Keswick Island back in 2017, when one had scared me half to death when it glided past just on the periphery of my vision- or at least I keep telling myself it was a manta! Either way it didn’t count, as I’m still not really sure it was, that is how quick the ‘encounter’ had been.

 These were an entirely different experience , seven totally unconcerned mantas, in beautiful clear water, with brilliant sunshine to cap off it off.

We stayed, they stayed, they played, we watched. The next day we repeated the experience again.

Just the Jo and myself in the water watching them coming and going, feeding I guess, but I don’t know, my knowledge is limited indeed. Perhaps as it was spring it’s a courting ritual. There was  nobody else there, we had them entirely to ourselves.

https://youtu.be/RGIgLV5VjWI

https://youtu.be/FRbghI1hRIM

After a couple of perfect days the weather report indicated that a change was coming, a 30kt SE’ly was due. As we intended continuing north ,we decided to stay as it passed through and set off on the tail of it.

The lagoon began to empty- as if by magic! As the power boats departed we picked up a now free mooring. Yes, one of those Marine Park moorings that clearly states 24 hr occupancy- Guess you only need money to buy a boat these days, being literate isn’t a necessity, clearly, as we had been in the lagoon for 72hours before some of them moved!

 I had heard but had no experience of the lagoon being a safe enough  place in a blow, getting a little lumpy at high water, as the protection of the reef decreases. So as there was now a  vacant mooring we picked it up and rigged our three point bridle- just in case. Similarly an hour or so later so did our neighbour as another mooring became vacant.

 There were about a dozen  vessels left , 4 sailing cats, half a dozen monos of various lengths and towards sunset a couple of trawlers came in and anchored. All well spread out in the lagoon.

 We registered 41kts at 2238hrs and yes it was a tad bumpy at high water, but after that it settled it down again. I suspect one of the smaller monos found themselves dragging anchor at the height of it, as suddenly their nav lights came on and I watched as one minute I was seeing their red nav light ,followed some minutes later by their green and that continued for the best part of 30minutes. In daylight everybody seemed pretty much where they had been the previous evening so I guess they just steamed to maintain position for a bit. The wind maintained 25kts all the next day, so we stayed put and cleaned off the salt that had settled on every external surface. The bbq  and every bit of stainless steel was coated. It looked for all the world as though fine table salt had been sprinkled on everywhere.

Setting off north the following morning, my birthday as it happened, in very much less wind, we cleared the lagoon, set the sails, and headed off. The current  was taking us south and I had  to gybe to clear the near by island. We gybed in benign conditions and having cleared the island gybed back again.

I called out to Jo before the gybe just to warn her as always. She was down in the galley- preparing pancakes for brekky as a treat. I gybed, the mainsail flicked over with the usual shuddering sensation, which apparently wasn’t normal. Jo came flying up saying “what was that”. I said “just the gybe” but she said “no I heard something different”. I was still in hand steering as she stuck her head up to have a squizz.  “You probably don’t want to see this, but you need to” was what I heard next.  

Whoopsie- my 6.25y.o, 20000nm mainsail had somewhat shredded itself. The lower panels below the first reef point horizontally in a direction from the clew to half way along the boom had a gaping tear in it.

 Happy birthday to me! Bugga! So we didn’t go north , we returned from whence we came to await the forecast N’ly in a day or two.

 Our neighbour had set off towards Bundy an hour or so before we had departed as his wife needed to return home. Obviously watching us on AIS, and realising we were  returning to the lagoon for some reason, he called up to enquire if we had an issue. My initial thought  of quipping ‘no issue, just a mainsail resembling a soggy  tissue’ - I knew wouldn’t be understood over the VHF . Instead I replied  that a change of circumstances  would have us  heading south back to the marina in a day or two when wind changed and would be happy to take his wife with us if she would like to , thus alleviating the need for  trip back to Bundy for him. They too returned to the lagoon.

 We left once the wind changed with our extra crew on board - her first experience of sailing on a cat, or as we refer to it, coming over from the dark side!

 On the way home, which took a few days, -best breach to date! 

https://youtu.be/UbzJznInb0c

Belated birthday brekky after we returned to the lagoon.
note the icecream-I needed consoling!

meet the neighbours

In the manner of Lewis Carroll…… The time has come to talk of many things -of whales and holding tanks and blockages within …….

 The weather was looking good, so we meandered off to see if we could find some whales relaxing in Hervey Bay before their big trek south again.

 The sunset at our anchorage the first night out was so spectacular that I suggested to Jo that we send out a message to see if any of our friends were free and able to join us for a few days.

Yes , the cabin was snapped up tout suite, the arrangement being to pick up our new willing crew members the day after tomorrow.

Arrangements in place, we hung about the bottom of Platypus Bay the following day, an easy decision as there was absolutely no wind. We drifted about for several hours looking at /for whales before anchoring up again for the evening.

 Next morning we set off to cover the 12nm to Urangan boat harbour , the rendezvous point. Last year when out, Peter and I had done a ‘reccy’ of the boat harbour to see if picking up or dropping off people would be feasible and to decide about the difficulty factor. There is a public pontoon just near the boat ramp. The pontoon is aligned roughly N/S at a guess, which would generally have a beam on wind, perhaps its more designed for power boats or boats with thrusters. We had decided that the easiest method would probably be to enter the harbour and to do the pickup/drop off by dinghy whilst the other person held station on K’Gari over by the seawall, a hundred or so meters from the pontoon and potentially in far less traffic than just by the boat ramp.

I’m not sure that Jo thought it was going to be such a simple procedure, when she saw the location as I explained the plan!

It was! We came into the harbour, lowered the dinghy, she went ashore ,picked up our new crew and gear, returned , they disembarked from the tender, the gear was passed up, Jo reattached the falls, we hoisted up the tender, which she secured as I slowly departed the harbour.  Q.E.D!  So now we know!

 It was glassy calm- I mean flat as a mirror. Wherever we were going it was going to be motoring not sailing. An anathema to me, but a useful means to an end, motoring was the only way that day.

Our favourite spot for anchoring  in whale season is the northern end of the bay. Here at night you can hear the whales singing. The acoustics are just perfect here for some reason. It’s a 30 odd mile trip but as our friends only  had limited time and the forecast was for the wind to fill from the north the following day, it meant we could motor up and then sail back the following day.

Anchoring just in time for sundowners and the afternoon ‘cruise by’ of the whales, it was a great day.

Next day we cruised slowly back along the 5m depth contour and were lucky enough to encounter a very co-operative mother and calf which we had the privilege of watching for some time.

https://youtu.be/y8qqDbbifoo

The only odd moment was when I thought I caught a slight waft of sewage as we rolled gently, whilst drifting, as the whales entertained us……..I had a very cursory check of the valves on the tank and all appeared as it should be , so it was back up topside to watch the calf learning new tricks……..

 We delivered our friends safely back to Urangan about midday on Friday , the whales having played the game. We decided that we would make our way slowly home to the marina as very little wind was forecast over the next few days.

Having been underway for about an hour in a bit of slop caused by wind versus tide, I again got a definite waft of sewage. This only happens when the tank is nearing capacity- which it shouldn’t have been. Another inspection, this time without the distraction of missing out on watching the whales revealed that indeed something was amiss. That valves were open, but the tank was nearly full!

 As luck would have it, Urangan boat harbour is one of the very few places in Queensland where you can actually get a pump out of your sewage holding tank done. I rang the Boat Club and yes if we could be there by 2pm a pump out could be done. Talk about lucky as it was Friday afternoon.

 Having never had this done before I had no idea how long it would take  or how efficient the pump out would be. It was relatively quick once the correct adaptor was found and about 80% efficient. Whether the 20% inefficiency is due to the particular equipment or the design of the tank I don’t know. However the boat club operator had his done best! By my calculation - I always knew maths was useful for something , especially working out volumes in this case- I reckon we had about 27-30lts  left in the tank. We also have two toilets and therefore two holding  tanks on K’Gari, so until I could figure out what the issue was ,this particular facility was no longer in use.

 All sorts of scenarios ran through my mind about how to solve this conundrum, from simply managing to poke a length of something handy (the question being, what exactly) through to a haulout being required.

 The holding tank is plastic so judicious backlighting with a torch is possible in places, to attempt to visualize the internal pipework.There is also a diagram in the owners manual which actually appears to be quite accurate. Strange as it may seem I hadn’t really preoccupied myself with the internal workings of the holding tank before now.

 What we needed was something relatively stiff yet flexible to get around the slight curves of the pipes and the lip of the through tank fittings. Searching around for what we had on board, revealed no handy sani snake- quelle surprise! Eventually we tried a section of old hosepipe, but realised it wasn’t going to even get into the tank via the outlet pipe.

So instead of going home I decided we needed to at least check the valves were in fact operational. The valves are plastic ballcocks and I had begun to ponder if the lower one had actually sheared off in the closed position. Certainly from where we could see the valve handle was opening and shutting as it should. The only way to do this would be from in the water, so it was back to the clearer water in Platypus Bay.

It was whilst sailing towards our favourite spot that we had the most awesome encounter with two juvenile whales. For 28 minutes we sat ,hove to, as these two magnificent mammals came to inspect us, circle around and under us, the footage is wobbly-we had to remember to keep breathing, the wind in the microphone is noisy, but it was a stunning interaction. Their grace and majesty combined with their millimetre accuracy in never touching us, is something that will stay with us forever. Talk about a “gotcha” experience-imprinted forever and it wouldn’t have happened without the holding tank blocking, very serendipitous indeed.

                                                  

https://youtu.be/JqZX3UxQIDw

or the shorter version- close encounters of the leviathan kind 

https://youtu.be/AOpRweUXCj0

Anchoring up again for the evening ,once more entertained by the whale parade during sundowners, I planned to test the outlet from the outboard side the following day through the simple technique of inserting something long enough to feel any movement of the ball valve. I would be in the water and Jo would open shut the valve from inboard.

https://youtu.be/Z1CA7COHfrE

The valve mechanism was indeed still in tact and could clearly be felt opening and shutting as I touched it gently with the tip of the longest screwdriver that I was inserting up the discharge pipe, as Jo opened and shut the valve. Next idea? Nope didn’t have one, I figured we need a sani snake so there was nothing else to be done, except relax and enjoy the anchorage.

 
Another up close and personal encounter occurred later in the day. I was reading, listening to music and Jo was washing her hair when I heard her call out whale, whale. As she had rinsed the shampoo out of her hair and opened her eyes there was a whale right alongside eyeballing her through the window! She had heard it exhaling- which I hadn’t ,with the music playing. Thankfully she chose to remain in the shower watching it, instead of bursting Archimedes like from the shower!

https://youtu.be/Rd8WhlqFfcc

Returning home it occurred to me that I knew a couple of chaps who might have a solution. Stuart who I had met on the boat next to me last time I was out of the water certainly had some ideas, none of which I could implement at the time. Brett in Sydney, my go to fountain of knowledge about  things Seawind, suggested a couple of things: 1) was there a plunger on board, 2)how fast could I swim, 3) could I delegate the task?

In order the answers were: yes, relatively, probably not.

In the end the solution was easy. Over the side again, positioned up current of the discharge point, two plunges with the plunger and QED problem solved!

 And so to home we continued with a now completely functioning holding tank. Perhaps its time to change out the hoses, next time I’m out of the water. On the other hand….we could just see if it happens again…now I know a cure.

Lord Howe Island and return

Lord Howe Island a tiny speck in the Tasman Sea,  320nm east of Port Macquarie in NSW. It is about 10km long, a maximum of 2km wide and is the remnant crescent of a volcano. The east coast is exposed , the west coast has a shallow coral reef fringed  lagoon about 2nm long and 0.5nm wide. What a speck though. Pelagic life ,bird life , walks, spectacular scenery, diving ,snorkelling. The highest point is the towering Mt Gower at the southern end of the island, coming in at 875m. It is a UNESCO World Heritage site, with a permanent population of just less than 400 and tourist accommodation limited to 400 at any time. Access by air or boat.

 A group of about 6-7  Seawind catamarans were planning a sortie from Sydney, so great idea- I thought we would join them, it would be fun to meet some other owners.

You cannot anchor in the lagoon but a limited number of moorings have been provided and forward planning is required to ensure that you have successfully  booked a  mooring for your arrival. A maximum stay of 14 days is the allowance.

 From Sydney it would be about 420nm and from Mooloolaba it would be about 430nm.The tricky part for us , in deciding to rendezvous with the boats from Sydney  would be the weather window. We needed pretty well the exact opposite conditions to those that the Sydney contingent would require. Alternatively we could head to Sydney and then backtrack which was definitely not my preferred option. We just needed a conveniently timed high pressure system to pass off the coast and we  would be able to ride the back edge of it (the  East and Northerly components) all the way. Time would tell who would arrive first!

Lord Howe Wood Hen 

 Lord Howe Island being UNESCO listed due in part  to its unique flora and fauna has in place strict biosecuirity requirements for anyone arriving either by sea or air. Over the last few years a major effort had been made to eradicate rats from the island and save the diminishing numbers of the unique ground dwelling Lord Howe Wood Hens . At the time of our visit bait stations were still evident at various locations but the island had had no recorded sightings/captures of rats for almost a year. Unfortunately by the time of writing, two rats had been caught since our visit (absolutely nothing to do with us) so the rat free status has been revoked again.  

 For us as a visiting yacht this meant some preparatory work to meet the requirements. Rat guards were required to be in place at least 7 days prior to departure, rat traps and bait stations similarly to be distributed on each deck at prescribed  distance intervals. These were to be kept in position for the duration of the visit. A clean hull was required to prevent cross contamination of marine growth. This had also been a prerequisite for Port Davey in SW Tasmania (also world heritage listed)when we had sailed there.  

Rat guards -fashioned from plastic chopping boards

Rat guards and traps were set in place as required and I met the hull criteria as less than a month prior to our departure I had been out of the water and water blasted and re antifouled the hulls.

 I had decided to depart from Mooloolaba , where a friend (currently boatless) had a vacant pontoon which was just crying out to have a catamaran moored at it. This would preclude the issue of not only finding that handy high pressure system to ride but negate the issue of crossing the Wide Bay Bar “on demand” to head south.

 The rendezvous was supposed to be for approx  5 days from the 23^rd March. The application had been made in January and approved, obviously all weather dependent.  I’m in the fortunate position that my  crew both had  a very flexible time frame with no other critical time constraints.

 A weather window appeared ,a little earlier than planned, but a rapid amendment to the original application and we soon had approval to depart from Mooloolaba for an estimated arrival a week earlier than originally planned. Luckily I had installed the rat guards and rat traps when I moored at  Mooloolaba at the beginning of March-just in case!

 We departed at  0700 LHI time , having put the clocks ahead one hour the previous evening. There was no sign of the forecast wind and it was drizzly as we set off. In fact so little wind we found ourselves motoring initially. It was a little lumpy crossing towards Cape Moreton -so much so that after some 18000nm across various seas and oceans, I decided it was time for a Kwells! Prior to leaving Nha Trang on the maiden voyage across the South China Sea I had deemed it prudent to take one ,as we had no idea what the motion in an open sea or ocean would actually be like. That was then and this was now, so half a Kwells was the order of the day. It did the trick ,and of course once we rounded Cape Moreton and came on to  the SE’ly course for Lord Howe the motion changed.

 Picking up the east coast current and with the wind finally kicking in, saw us cruising along at a really handy 10kts with full mainsail and jib.

Reducing sail just before dark as we always do, in this case down to two reefs and about a third of the jib as the forecast was 15-20kt N’ly, we maintained a healthy 7 kts in the still slightly sloppy conditions. That was it for the next 60 hours really in way of sail changes. At dusk on the night before we made landfall at Lord Howe we stowed the still reefed mainsail and pootled along under the jib alone, now increased to about two thirds as we needed only 4 knots for our planned 0700 ETA. The planned ETA took into account both daylight and the high water for our entrance to the lagoon.

Mt Eliza from anchorage

We stood off the island for an hour or so until we thought it was a polite time to call  the harbour master who is in fact the local police officer. Having made contact via VHF we were then given our entry instructions and once a visual contact had been made with the officer (sitting in his car on the headland), we were allowed to enter and pick up our designated mooring.

Biosecurity checks were carried out, when both the Biosecurity and Marine Parks officers arrived. Biosecurity came on board to check the rat traps etc and Marine Parks dived on the vessel to check out the underwater condition. Next we had to go ashore to the jetty to be Covid temperature checked but we delayed this for a few hours as it was drizzling and the same checks were being carried out for the incoming daily flight and the ambulance officer couldn’t be in two places ,so we delayed and just after lunch went ashore to be checked. All a ok!

The jetty houses facilities -toilets, showers, rubbish bins for food scrap disposal and a separate  laundry and dryers for US! Yachties are definitely welcome at Lord Howe!

 Over the next 11 days we ,explored, snorkelled, walked, socialised with very friendly natives, dived, and had an excellent time, despite the weather.

 Did I mention the weather? - No probably not, as it was not playing ball at all. Wind and more wind ,squalls of rain and some more wind. So much wind as front after front came across it became obvious by the end of the week that it was totally unlikely that the Sydney contingent - that is, everybody else- were  going to make it. The east coast of Australia was being similarly affected with both NSW and Qld  being clobbered. Northern NSW was flooding!

So they regrettably cancelled. We had the entire lagoon  to ourselves!

 We watched the forecast daily,  looking for a couple of things, one being the best day to book a dive and the other being the best window to return to the mainland.

A note here, there is limited access to wifi on Lord Howe, it is possible to buy time at the museum and use the wifi there and the staff both there and at the Met Office at the airport were most helpful enabling us to obtain daily forecasts. I don’t have a  satellite phone on board , I do have HF radio via which it is possible to obtain weather faxes and during our stay I actually managed to figure out the mysteries of HF radio and Predictwind. I’m a new convert to the paid service of Predictwind. Yes it would indeed be faster and simpler via a sat phone but HF does the trick once I figured out just how to use the two together via Sailmail.

 The day we picked for our dive in the end turned out to be overcast, but was the best of the weather on offer. We were never going to find the weather window which would enable us to dive Balls Pyramid, but there are many other dive sights. There is a dive provider based on the island (ProDive).  As we are both recreational qualified divers, but carry no bottles or BCDs ,only fins and masks (and our dive qualifications are always on board ), we were able to book a dive with them. As relayed previously I have not dived for some years and I have to say the pre dive briefing was excellent and because of the hiatus in my diving history, Jo and I had a specific session with a complete run through on the gear prior to boarding the boat. There is no help available should something go wrong , the nearest hyperbaric chamber being in NSW, some hundreds of kilometres away by aeroplane, so safety of divers is paramount.                                   

What we next saw coming on the weather front, was a low pressure system coming from the NW, which was going to pass just to the east of the island. Indeed right on cue it arrived . The wind slowly increasing from 0100 hrs and continued to do so throughout the day, which we spent the entirety of onboard. The lagoon develops a fairly good degree of chop in around about 18-20kts of wind, which ensures a dry trip ashore in the dinghy is not possible. 

So we sat tight. Yes the wind  increased and increased to the extent that we decided it would be prudent to maintain proper anchor watches during the night, just in case we parted company with our mooring. If that happened an instant  response would be required with both our anchor being deployed and the engines fired up. There was not a great deal of distance from our mooring to the surrounding reef astern(200m) and 60m to Dawson Point.     

 

https://youtu.be/hWWcS4TsnEU

           

https://youtu.be/7Zl8b87GD-0

 So how did we entertain ourselves - a competition of course, to see who could get the snap shot of the highest wind speed recorded and who could get the best video of the sheets of spray and rain that were roaring around us, as well as hourly recordings of the barometer which was dropping . Regular checks of the mooring arrangements looking for any signs of wear and tear in the bridling arrangement ( three mooring lines triangulated through the eye of the  provided tail) and the general state of the boat, the boom bag  to which we had added lashings during the day to ensure it remained zipped up, using the length of rope used usually for rigging the sun shadecloth over the boom in SE Asia. Each time there was a lull in the weather these checks were carried out. Before dark we  checked in with port control and advised that we were maintaining a listening VHF watch and anchor watch during the night. 

https://youtu.be/xPD2YBEbM7U

So what was the top wind speed that we recorded? 48.2kts at 1800. It howled through. And then an hour or so later  it was gone! Barometer rising ,wind decreasing and by 2200 we back to a much more pleasant 30kts and decreasing as the low pressure system  spun away to the SE.

The next day the dawn broke as it usually does after a low passes, absolutely gloriously. The day was glassy calm and clear blue skies. Lord Howe at its absolutely picture postcard stunning best.

Picture perfect -the morning after. View of  Mt Gower (at last)

 We spent it returning the hire bicycle, catching up with a few of the “friendly natives” we had met to say goodbye and then snorkel, snorkel, snorkel in the lagoon before finally dropping into let port control know we were departing  the following morning and checking whether  as with our arrival he needed to ‘guide’ us out. This was not necessary.   

Finally we saw the lagoon as it should be 

Ironically having had 'strongish' perpetual wind for 9 of our 11 days stay, the forecast was for next to nothing for the next 4 days, alas that would be followed by yet more wind in the 20kt plus range, so we decided to go and if it meant motor sailing then so be it.

 It had taken 72 hours from Mooloolaba and the next front was forecast to arrive on the mainland coast in the vicinity we hoped to be in ,in  90 hours time.

We sailed  and motor sailed back to the coast. Eventually making landfall at the closest point of entry, the Gold Coast Seaway 77.5 hours later. We had three different potential landfalls in mind , the Seaway, Cape Moreton or the Wide Bay Bar. We thought the Seaway would be the most likely in the conditions, as with little wind forecast, we would towards the end, be making our way against the east coast current.  So the choice was to motor in open seas against the east coast current or use the tides to our advantage and come up through the islands of the Seaway and Moreton Bay.

 Great idea in principle as the tide was due to be to our advantage when we entered. It may well have been, but what we had completely failed to take into account was the fresh water on top ( the result of the deluges from  same weather pattern we had been suffering from at Lord Howe) that was rushing south to exit at the Seaway. Never mind. We anchored that evening off Raby Bay in southern Moreton Bay, and  six hours later pressed on to Mooloolaba. We arrived at our home away from home just as the predicted Southerly change arrived, which would undoubtedly preclude a safe crossing of the Wide Bay Bar for a few days.

 Of note on the way home was that whilst we had wind( the first 24 hours) , we had as usual reefed at night , but we tried an experiment to prevent the chaffing that occurs on the luff of the sail from the single line reefing system we have.  By changing the angle fractionally of the reef line and endeavouring to hold it off the sail luff with an ingenious rigged device of a snap hook and a length of lashing, it wouldn’t chafe on the sail. It absolutely didn’t ! With physics not being one of my stronger points I had however completely failed to register that the slightly altered  lead of the reef line also changed at the point where it passed over a sheave in the boom. Suffice to say that in the morning upon inspection, it was not a good look! The long and short of it being I now know how to change out a  reef line and how relatively easy it actually is to feed a new line, attached to the old line through the length of the boom. A simple couple of stitches (and some precautionary electrical tape to bind them together) having first also applied heat to the two raw ends to ‘melt’ them together worked a treat. Think the chaffing and application of cuban patching is actually the better alternative!!!

 

As the trip home from Lord Howe included a couple of windless days we managed to stave off  potential bouts of idleness by  being industrious. Jo created an anti swallow nesting device for the boom bag from a useful piece of shade cloth,using some handy pegs to hold the hem in place whilst sewing- I’m sure our dear mother would be sighing.

I got creative for dinner one evening!

 

All in all a great trip. The company on board was as always good and the natives friendly and very hospitable indeed, the scenery spectacular and the weather ho hum-but that’s sailing!   Oh and in the 973nm voyage  - one spotty mackerel, caught in the last 20miles! 

Sadly this picture which is on display in the museum 
is constructed from the plastic contents removed from the stomachs of  dead and injured sea life
 

At anchor just off Dawson Point.

https://youtu.be/cgQXfOXQG9k

                                           Cabin fever? I don't think so-just unleashed creativity

https://youtu.be/utTUywZ02Vk

Lock down, what lock down? ......oh, that lock down

Strange times indeed.

Our Prime Minister  exhorted us to self isolate because of you know what. So following his instructions we set off as we had already intended, for a spot of waterborne isolation, ending up once again at Lady Musgrave Island.

 Weather was perfect and when we arrived at the lagoon there was only one other vessel there. Great we thought ,we can pick up a mooring.

As we approached the moorings designated for our size of vessel it was somewhat annoying to find the only other yacht there was anchored in such close proximity to the moorings it precluded us from picking up two of the three available. Somewhat inconsiderate, but it takes all sorts!

When the moorings are occupied its easy to figure out the swing distance of any vessel using them. Vessels at anchor are completely different story. Nobody knows how much anchor chain you have out except you.

My own rule of thumb is an absolute minimum of 4-5 times the depth of water, so in 6-7m of water I would have at least 30-35m of chain out. Add to that my boat length and at full stretch I could be sitting 40-45m from where I actually dropped the anchor and with any wind or tide change may swing in an arc of that length. I always assume that other yachts should be using approximately the same idea, perhaps more,so finding a yacht anchored about 20m from the mooring buoys was a pain.

Ah well ,the lagoon wasn’t busy! We set about enjoying the environs.

 We did note the daily tourist vessel hadn’t turned up, nor did it turn up the next day-odd!

 Even odder was that we hadn’t actually seen anybody on the anchored yacht. After two days this was a bit strange. I know some yachts are sailed single handed and perhaps the sailor is very happy with their own company , but usually at some point they can be glimpsed at least  moving about on board.

 One of the things that I came to appreciate when I was on board in SE Asia was that my life goes on quite satisfactorily even if I don’t have news updates about the state of the planet. What ever happens, will occur whether I know about it or not and I have no influence on world events. So really when on board the only thing of relevance is the weather- another element I have no influence over but it does allow for contingency planning. So we get the weather reports when available.

At Lady Musgrave, courtesy of Bundaberg VMR (Volunteer Marine Rescue) we can get the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) updates twice a day on scheduled bulletins via the VHF .I can also get them via HF radio, and if the wind is blowing the right way we do very occasionally manage a connection to the internet! Local radio via AM band also available .

 All the inactivity, no other yachts and the lack of activity on the anchored yacht  was increasingly odd.

Turns out when we bothered to tune into the news that self isolation had morphed into a lock down across the country. Yes China had imposed it on the citizens of Wuhan, but who would have thought it would/could happen here in Australia. Suddenly no one was at work, everyone was supposed to be staying home.

Supermarkets were being bought out with panic buying - how bizarre!

 That then explained the total absence of the daily tourist boat.

Now I was concerned about the anchored yacht and the lack of activity, so I called it in to VMR Bundaberg. Before doing so we had gone over to the vessel, called out ,banged on the hull all to no response. Odd indeed! The cabin was unlocked , there was no sign of a dinghy ,no sign of life at all and quite noticably when we did a complete circuit of her there was also a substantial chunk of its bow around the anchor roller missing! Despite what you may  see in movies , boarding someone else’s vessel uninvited is a complete no -no, so we  returned to K’Gari and  relayed the details of the vessel to VMR  Bundaberg.

 Later that day , we were asked if we were prepared to board the vessel at the request of Qld Water Police. I asked for that request to be repeated, so that I was able to record it and our answer in the affirmative- just in case, proof that our actions were indeed sanctioned, if ever in the future it were needed.

 We boarded the mystery yacht -  with video on phone running to cover ourselves.

 Nothing , nobody (literally no body)- thankfully !

This we relayed to VMR.

Much later in the day, we were advised that the owner had indeed been located by the police .Very much alive and ashore!

He had apparently managed to get ashore with the daily tourist vessel to obtain some requisite supplies to attempt to repair the damaged bow section- (it was a ferro cement yacht) then the shut down had commenced and he was now high and very dry ashore, with no means of returning to the lagoon.

 I doubt we will ever again be the only humans in the lagoon, no matter how often we return. It was a blissful experience having the entire place to ourselves.                                                   

                                                    https://youtu.be/BioEgF-V85E

 How the world had changed when we rejoined the rat race!  

Strange days indeed.

 

Introducing international family members to our recently discovered paradise.

Once again heading for Lady M. This time via Bundaberg  to pick up some time tight tourists.

Jo and I sailed to Bundaberg from Tin Can Bay , arriving an hour or so before the arranged late afternoon pickup. When  we left Bundaberg the following morning  we had on board an international contingent comprised of Dave ( he who has been mentioned previously as he dropped in for a visit in Kota Kinabalu), his nephew and his nephew’s mate who were  on a whistle stop ‘reccy’ tour downunder.

 

Lady Musgrave delivered in spades. Glorious weather and the night walk on the cay revealed nesting turtles as they laboured their way over the fringing reef , the smarter ones waiting for the rising  tide before clambering over the reef and up the sand , digging their nests, laying their eggs and staggering back to the water. What an amazing effort. Being able to observe this, first hand, not via a tv screen is a privilege indeed. What a turtle can do with its rear  flippers is amazing to watch under the muted light of a torch. The scientists tell us that red light is better as it isn’t so disturbing for the turtles.

 The noise from the nesting whitecapped Noddy terns or the shearwaters, I’m not sure which, at night would make a perfect background track  for a horror movie. It is eerie, shrill at times and then it sounds almost mournful and lonely, despite the fact  you know there are hundreds of them nesting.

We skirted around the sandy edge of the cay under moon and torch light, not wishing to venture through the ‘deep dark’ pisonia forest, where we might have unwittingly and accidentally trodden on  a shearwater (mutton bird) nesting beneath the ground.

 Some  of the memorable moments, apart from the excellent company we had on board, from this trip were  when the single hander on his fishing boat anchored nearest  to us, one evening finally lost the battle with what ever fish he had hooked and it broke him off by swimming around a bommie. For goodness knows what reason, he came over in his dinghy to ask if any of us were likely to be going for a swim as he had lost his lure-handily he knew where it was!  As it was well and truly sundowner time and probably only another ten minutes of daylight left, I was a little bemused  that he was surprised that, no actually we weren’t thinking of going for a swim to retrieve a lure with or without flapping possibly injured fish attached, at the time of day when the “grey /bronze/tiger suited “ fish with the big teeth, might also be on the prowl.

 Our next interaction was the following day when he came over mid afternoon in his dinghy when Jo and the boys were away snorkelling,  enquiring when we were leaving and where we were headed. I’m always cautious handing out information,  but it was a genuine request, as he had discovered on board an unwanted freeloader- a diamond head python. Unable to assist with our own imminent departure , the suggestion was put forward that perhaps the daily boat from Bundaberg might be able to assist as it hadn’t yet departed. Off he went.They obviously agreed to take the freeloader with them and we watched as he returned to his vessel ,scurried around and produced a garbage bag or sugar sack ,hard to tell really.He then went forward of his wheelhouse  just out of our direct line of sight,  bent over into something (which turned out to be a storage box of some description) and when he stood up, he had in hand a very healthy looking 5-6 foot python which he shoved unceremoniously into the bag he was clutching . Into the dinghy it went and he sped over to the almost ready to depart tourist vessel. When he returned he was all smiles! Obviously he couldn’t just take it ashore onto the cay to let it go  - it would have had a field day with the birds and it’s a National Park after all.  Goodness you couldn’t write a script about it as no one would believe you, but it was excellent value for us as entertainment.

The actual cay is indeed part of a designated national park as is the western edge of the fringing reef. The majority of the lagoon is not and spearfishing, fishing etc is permitted.

 

Fabulous time with excellent company, but way too short. We returned the travellers to Bundaberg. Dave was on a flight to winter in  the UK in a couple of days time and the boys were driving to Sydney down the coast road before returning to winter in the US. From 30 degrees and balmy seas to snow!