Haul out time again

 So to Boat Works

 The usual suspects head the list of works to be done , antifoul , prop speed , cut n polish ,saildrive oil change , anode change. Then on the additional list a few items ,changing out the pipework on the port toilet discharge line after the teeny issue last year, getting a hull and rigging survey for insurance purposes. Investigating how difficult or easy it might be to change the tv which has developed an ever widening band of vertical lines, rather annoying as naturally its dead centre . New start battery to be purchased and installed as I keep seeing a message at start up about low voltage so after 7 years I think its done its time. Of course I’ve also added the investigation of the extinguished l.e.d. on the water maker. So that was what I had in mind before setting off.

 Tidal considerations had us crossing the Wide Bay Bar about 1400 so we planned to anchor inside Double Island Point for the night . The lagoon which has formed up over the last couple of years had 22 masts ( and obviously the attached yachts)visible and as it was flat calm we didn’t bother going in and just anchored in the bay.

 Set off the next day with two reefs in the main for the predicted weather. Rounded the point and headed south. Quickly decided to shake out the reefs as wind was way less than predicted , but one can’t be sure when in the protection of the bay. I was just stowing the halyard after we raised the main to full set, Peter had ducked inside to grab his camera as he had never seen the new swish mainsail, when an odd noise , a sort of shoosh, which actually made me look for a whale first,  drew my attention to the fact that the main was once again in the boom bag - self stowed!

The standing end of the halyard , the eye through which the pin passes, had failed. Hence the mainsail was no longer hoisted.

Inspection of the point of failure revealed the spectra core is completely in tact there was just no longer any semblance of an eye,  no evidence of  having ever had a  locking splice applied to it.   It appears that the end had been tucked in and whipped.

Hmmmmm! Really!  

 

The original halyard -with two whippings
but what exactly had they whipped -a tucked in end?

Outer ruptured cover revealing a perfectly in tact spectra core 
that appears to have been tucked into itself .No sign of a locking splice.

                                                                 

Spectra core looks fine , other than it should have an eye in it
but I'm not sure where the splice was/is. 

Apart from surprise ,the next  thought passing through both our minds is that could have been me up there not the mainsail. Casting my mind back to my basic grasp of physics I remember  formulas about mass ,gravity, time and distance. Would I have hit the deck faster than the sail???

 I knew I had suffered through  physics for a reason- however I still can't really see the point of it, as I would have hit the deck long before I had figured out the answer!

 So we continued south, sans mainsail, it wasn’t going to be worth the effort with the now updated forecast to muck around with the topping lift to substitute for the halyard.

 They say things come in threes, turns out that could be true.

 Later in the evening just as we were thinking about  stopping  we managed to in the dark to pick up a bloody crab pot around the port saildrive leg /prop. So that made the decision about when to stop quite easy! Next morning we waited until the change of tide so there would be no run and into the water I went . It took longer to wait for slack water, don my wetsuit,(hey it’s the middle of winter) set up the hooka etc than it did to clear the bloody entanglement. The clearance  side of it took less than 3 minutes ! Why on earth would anyone set a crab pot adjacent to (but outside ) the main shipping channel into Brisbane in 13m of water WITHOUT A LIGHT on it .Oddly enough an unlit buoy really isn’t very easy to see in the dark. Obviously my consumption of carrots needs to increase. If only FVCM (the only identifying mark) had put a phone number on the buoy I would have been able to phone the owner but alas it was actually illegally marked-no name or phone number -ah well the pot is where it was set  in 13m of water - minus the buoy, the stainless steel quick release pin -which in no way quickly released from my prop blade and as much mooring line as I could remove to ensure it didn’t foul anybody else's prop as it floated around. I certainly had no desire to heave the whole stinking pot aboard.

The offending debris 

All dressed up for what turns out
to be a  3 minute job. Mid winter dip in Moreton Bay 

 

What else could surprise us this voyage ……

 Didn’t have to wait too long to find out.

 The following morning as we prepared to set off , I started the engine as usual , in a disengaged state, checked the water from the exhaust and ducked inside to make sure I had noted down the engine hours when at the same instant we both realised we were moving ahead. Peter had been finishing up the washing up, which on here has a very scenic view, when he realised we were moving despite still being anchored. He called out, I looked up and we both  reacted. Shut the engine down and went to see why. It seemed the morse cable attachment - the cable that connects the deck control to the saildrive leg  had become loose ( a bolt had actually fallen out altogether and was located beneath the engine). In its slightly askew state it was clearly not disengaged. Replaced the bolt, tightened all four of them , and similarly checked the starboard engine and tweaked all the bolts there as well.  Could have been worse ,it might have happened in a confined space like berthing or departing in a  marina instead of just looking like twits careering around whilst still at anchor!

 So that was number three -done and dusted, so hopefully that was it for the voyage.