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.