Maunie stops traffic

The temptation to stop the traffic on the main east coast Pacific Highway was just too much for us.so yesterday we motored up the mighty Clarence River and through the Harwood lifting bridge.

Known as 'The Big River', the Clarence is navigable for about 40 km up to the city of Grafton for masted vessels and for quite a long way further for motorboats.

The river is very tidal so we had nearly two knots of flood tide helping us upstream and, surprisingly, dolphins alongside us

Organising the bridge to be lifted involved a phone call 24 hours in advance to the contractor who travels some 80km to perform the magic. 3 boats anchored just downstream and motored through in convoy whilst a satisfyingly large tail-back of traffic formed on the highway.

Taranui (whom we first met in Vanuatu) anchored whilst the traffic thunders over the bridge

The lift begins

The green light shows and we're off. The traffic is held back off the bridge

We anchored off the little town of Maclean; known as 'the Scottish Town', all the lamp-post bases are painted in tartan colours. 

Oh, readers of the last update will be interested to know that the severe thunderstorms forecast for Thursday night missed us, just. The Gold Coast that we left  took a bit of a battering, though, over the past few days - these photos from Facebook:

The other risk of severe storms in these parts - giant hailstones!

The forecast for the next few days looks ok for us, though a trifle warm!

In brief, the weather will be normal for the time of year

Back home, Britain is getting its first deep freeze of the winter (very early for temperatures to be reaching minus 9 degrees C in Wales, that's usually a post-Christmas thing) and here the coasts of Queensland and New South Wales are getting into their storm season. When they say 'storms' here, they mean thunderstorms - and big ones at that.

We got our first at-sea taste of these on the way down from the Gold Coast to the Clarence River last night and it was quite an experience! We left in bright sunshine and a lovely 15 knot NE wind, passing down the first few miles of coast dominated by the high-rise towers of Surfers Paradise. 

The forecast looked good - winds of up to 20 knots from the NE in the evening - but did mention the slight possibilities of thunder further south. Pretty soon, the sky started to look distinctly ominous and, as a tanker passed us heading south, the dark clouds were beginning to look very unfriendly:

The last patch of blue sky gets swallowed up in cloud

We had been told about a very good feature on the BOM (Bureau of Meteorology) website which gives real-time weather radar images all along the coast, with a loop of 5 pictures taken at 5 minute intervals helping you to see the direction of travel of any rain cells. The Telstra mobile phone signal is good for about ten miles off shore and so we were able to have a look at what was going on. Initially it just looked like a single rain squall heading from inland towards the coast: 

A few minutes later, however, and we could see two storm cells coming out to sea and we were right between the two of them!

The sky continued to darken around us and our own radar showed heavy rain (the pink splodges overlaid on the chart, below) just behind us.

Maunie with rain on her tail - the tanker is the blue triangle just to the SSW of us

Pretty soon the air was crackling with forked lightning and the thunder was pretty loud; we managed to stay ahead of it all, but only just.

After many attempts, we just caught the tail of a lightning strike in this photo

As darkness fell and we moved further down the coast, the cloud lifted and we thought we'd be spared any more weather action. Wrong! Yikes, ahead of us the radar showed another big storm cell heading across our path and the wind did a very quick 180 degree change to the SSW and started increasing in strength. Forewarned by the BOM radar images, Graham (who was on watch) lost no time in reefing down and adjusting course as best he could to avoid the weather then sat and watched the most impressive (and, considering our proximity to it, unnerving) lightning display he's ever seen. Thankfully, after about an hour it became clear that the storm had missed us and so the rest of the passage was a gentle motor-sail where Dianne's on-watch activities centred around dodging the many fishing boats.

So we're now anchored in Iluka but it seems that the storms haven't finished with us. The coastguard has just issued a warning for potentially destructive winds, large hailstones, lightning strikes and heavy rain for this evening. This is the full text of the warning:

The advice to move cars, avoid power lines, etc is all very well but it doesn't mention what we should do if we're anchored in a boat with a metal mast right in the middle (next to Yamba) of the forecast area! Pour a stiff drink is probably the answer, but we've lashed everything down, checked the anchor and will be refreshing the BOM radar screen at regular intervals. The laptop, phone and GPS will be going in the (cold) oven if anything threatens to come close - the theory is that it acts as a 'Faraday Cage' in the event of a lightning strike so that the energy dissipates around it, protecting its contents. The rest of the boat's electrics would probably be toast so we very much hope we don't have to test that theory.

Bums protecting their asset, then moving south

A few days in the Bums Bay anchorage allowed us to do a useful job. The latest asset on Maunie's inventory, the folding bicycle, has already been well used and we wanted to protect it from scratches and salty water when it's stored in the cockpit locker. So the Sailrite sewing machine came out and we used offcuts of material (from a project to make Graham's father a new boom cover for his boat a few years ago) and recycled an old but serviceable zip to make this waterproof bag.

The bag was lined with some of Maunie's original foresail to make it chafe-resistant.

Tidy, eh?

A very productive way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

We are now heading south along the coast and it feels like quite a novelty to be at sea rather than feeling our way along shallow inland channels. We have a 110nm overnight passage to the town of Iluka at the mouth of the mighty Clarence River in NSW. Great conditions so far- 15 knots from the NE so we hope that it'll be a good trip.

Becoming a Bum (for a few days only)

We're anchored in the Marine Stadium, just north of Southport on the Gold Coast. Mention that name to local boaters and they'll look confused for a moment and then say, "Yea, right, ya mean Bums' Bay?".

When the Gold Coast Seaway (at the top right of the photo above) was constructed in the 1980's to create a safer, all tide access from the Broadwater out to the sea, the excavated sand was used to make Wavebreak Island to the west of the opening and the Marine Stadium was built just to the south on The Spit. It wasn't designed to be an anchorage but soon became a haven for live-aboards on a variety of sometimes rather tatty vessels, hence the more popular name. Nowadays there's a 7-day maximum anchorage allowance, more or less enforced, and the boats are, mostly, seaworthy. Big houseboats built on catamaran hulls are pretty popular in these sheltered waters and there are a few of them here, in between the yachts and motorboats.

A Moreton Bay houseboat - this one seen a bit further north in the bay

To the south of us lies the town of Southport and the high-rise tourist resort of Surfers Paradise which, to our eyes, is pretty hideous.

Since we last updated this blog, we've had a very sociable time, first meeting up with sailing acquaintances Brian and Audrie who live near here. We first met Brian when he was crewing on Liberty VI, belonging to his friend Greg, on the passage from Panama across the Pacific. Two years ago they were on a week's holiday in Fiji and spotted us in Denarau anchorage and gave us their address so it was lovely to see them again; they took us on a great day trip for lunch at Tambourine Mountain where we got to pet the hotel dog at the St Bernard Inn:

We then took a tram and bus down across the NSW border to visit Di's aunt Brenda and her great pal Claire and had a lovely time with them in Kingscliff; this time we didn't arrive a surprise (last time we caught Brenda's reaction on video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEMmRsZ8jYo&feature=youtu.be.) 

Since then, the ‘small world’ nature of sailing was once again illustrated when we met the boats Ginelli and Calista (both last seen at Oyster Resort in Espiritu Santo) and Acrux, (whom we met only via the SSB radio last season), all anchored here. It’s a great sheltered anchorage though the incessant buzzing helicopters, obviously doing joy rides for the Asian tourists from a nearby resort, get pretty annoying in the daytime. We’re looking forward to heading somewhere a little less busy!

 

We’re hanging here a little longer than planned, however, (and whilst a perfect NE breeze blows), as we’re trying to get to the (ahem) bottom of G’s ongoing stomach cramps, originally diagnosed at giardia back in Feb. UK citizens get reciprocal Medicare rights here and the doctor has organised blood tests and, tomorrow, an ultrasound scan. G is pretty sure he isn’t pregnant, though. We’ve been really impressed with the level of care and support so hopefully this’ll all lead to a fix to an issue that leave G feeling distinctly below par at times. Apart from that, all’s good and we continue with boat jobs – the re-caulking of the teak deck is about 70% complete as we do a bit at a time whenever the sun isn't too hot.

We should have shares in Sika, the makers of Sikaflex sealant

Post-script:

You've probably gathered by now that the 'throw-away' society in which we live drives us nuts. We spend a lot of time maintaining and repairing things on the boat whilst mankind's relentless drive for cheaper and cheaper consumer goods is driving down quality so that items get thrown away and replaced when they break or stop working. It's refreshing, in contrast to this trend, to find companies making good quality stuff and standing by their products.

About 12 years ago, Dianne bought me a Leatherman multi-tool which has been probably the most useful bit of kit I have on the boat. Thanks to a good rope lanyard I've managed to avoid dropping it overboard and it's the first tool I go to for quick fixes on board. The product spawned lots of cheap, made-in-China copies soon after it was launched but the genuine, made-in-the-USA Leatherman remains the best quality (but most expensive) example of the genre. 

Unfortunately, this year the spring-loaded safety lock (designed to prevent the sharp knife blade folding back onto your fingers) broke and I thought that I'd have to retire the tool before it injured me. I wasn't keen to stump up the $150 or so for a replacement so when we went into a camping shop that sells Leathermans, I was delighted to be told that that they have a 25 year warranty and they'd send it off for repair! Three weeks later a package arrived for us with a letter explaining that my Leatherman is no longer in production so they had sent me a brand new, latest model. Very happy!

Regeneration

The long saga of the non-starting generator is finally over! Harrah!

Maunie was fitted with 4kVA 240v AC generator when she was built 19 years ago and it's a very handy bit of kit when we're using too many instruments on an overnight passage, the sun isn't shining hard enough for the solar panels or when Di wants to use her hairdryer (she'll kill me for that comment!).  However its Farymann single-cylinder diesel engine was becoming increasingly hard to start and, in July, gave up on the task altogether.

Thanks to the wonders of those useful forums on the interweb, we found that there's a fairly-common problem of corrosion of the exhaust valve (caused by the salty-steam in the water-cooled exhaust system when you stop the engine) that prevents good compression. We also found that the main Australian agent for Farymann was next door to us in the Boat Works and were given the name of an excellent independent engineer, John Newton, to help us with the project.

First, we took the cylinder head off and could see the corrosion problem pretty easily:

Step 1: Take a brave pill and remove the cylinder head

Looking into the exhaust port we could see some corrosion

The valve was sticky and graunchy when we pushed it against its spring

 We handed the head over to John who stripped it down and confirmed that the problem was indeed the corrosion. He had a machine-shop put in 'stellite' valve seats (a much harder alloy than the original cast iron) and then rebuilt it with a new valve. He gave the cylinder barrel a good clean and check and, on Wednesday, came onto Maunie to put it all back together again.

Shot-blasted, painted and honed, the cylinder head and barrel ready to go back.

We're delighted to report that the engine now runs beautifully, so the £850 or so in parts and labour (ouch!) means that the generator has a new lease of life and Di can get the hairdryer out again! 

Di here: Actually,it's not quite so simple as we've also come up with a system to fresh water flush the generator after use so as to avoid future corrosion. So you're not telling me that Graham will allow the generator to be fired up just to dry my hair! Back to letting it dry in the sun!😎😉

Australia's Greatest Boatyard?

We've just completed a major pit-stop for Maunie - 5 days ashore to tackle routine maintenance and a few extra jobs. Ask any sailor and they'll tell you that working on the boat in a yard is probably their least favourite part of the sailing calendar - if they are like us, they try to do all the work in the minimum possible time so it's usually very hard work, and very much against the clock. At least we aren't doing it in a British winter, of course!

That said, our timing could have been better! We hauled out on Thursday just as the first major heatwave of the Queensland summer arrived - temperatures in the mid 30's and some spectacular thunderstorms made things particularly sweaty. However our choice of yard - The Boat Works on the Coomera River, Gold Coast - turned out to be a great one, thanks to advice from sailing friends who came here last year and from The Down Under Rally organiser, John Hembrow.  

The Boat Works calls itself 'Australia's Greatest Boatyard', which is some boast, but its owner, racing driver Tony Longhurst, has invested around $20M over the past three years to transform the 23 acre site into a very impressive facility.

The yard is close to new waterfront housing developments, each house having its own boat dock, so there are plenty of local customers!

The yard has expanded since this Google Earth photo was taken - the 50-berth marina is now full of boats and new hard-standing areas and buildings are taking shape towards the top of the photo

All this investment means two travel lifts (Sid the seventy-tonner and Harry the hundred-tonner) plus a hydraulic launch sled for powerboats and catamarans, excellent (and spotlessly-clean) showers and toilets and free washing machines and dryers (which we used extensively!).  Smooth, dust-free concrete gives a level and safe working surface and there are 30 huge sheds for those with a budget to do under-cover repairs; the shed roofs harvest rainwater for boat washing.

Good facilities can be let down by lousy customer service, of course, but our experience of the team was really positive. Our lift out started with an unforeseen problem but their response was a good example of great training and a genuine desire to get things right: We were lifted out of the water by 'Sid' but it became clear that our forestay was going to hit the lift's cross beam if we were to clear the ground with our keel. This came as a surprise to us as we've never had this problem but the guys explained that their travel lifts aren't quite as tall as standard ones (to allow them to carry boats into the sheds). They were really apologetic and, just as we were considering the hassle of having to remove the yankee and undo the forestay, they asked if we'd be ok to go back into the water and be lifted a couple of hours later by 'Harry', a longer machine. We were given vouchers for lunch at the very good on-site cafe (having already had a free coffee and muffin there) and after that all went very smoothly indeed; the guys regularly came over to check if we needed anything and Alanna and Amy in the office were really helpful and efficient. Throughout the five days, if we needed anything, our requests were met with a 'can-do' attitude and the team's attention to detail was amazing - even bringing out hats to wear when the sun got too hot!

Second-time lucky - Maunie is taken by 'Harry' to have her bottom washed

Pressure-washing the slime off

 The yard has dozens of service companies based here so we asked Sea Spray to come and give the topsides a professional clean and machine-polish (the first since the repaint in 2011). Sean did a brilliant job:

Shiny and protected

 Like a lot of boatyards, this one is fairly out-of-town; it's about a 10 minute drive to the nearest shops. They have 3 courtesy vehicles, one car and two utes (pick-ups) provided free of charge for up to 3 hours at a time - brilliant! Better still, since no one else had booked it, we got the car for the full weekend which was really useful for several runs to the supermarket, chandlers and DIY store.

Note the safe and secure steps rather than the usual rickety ladder, to get up to the boat

 We tackled a few non-routine jobs in the heat, first removing the crumbling foam sound-proofing from the generator lid and replacing it with some much better foil-lined product....:

Advanced cutting-out and sticking

 ... and then we had a bit of a frightening moment servicing the valves of the seacocks - one of them was stiff to operate and then failed completely! This could have been a really bad moment at sea but we were able to get a new valve at the on-site chandlery and fit it.

The propeller polished and coated with Propspeed Gold anti-fouling

By Monday lunchtime we'd done pretty much everything on the list and Maunie was looking mighty fine once more. Time for another lift with Harry:

Sean came to give a final polish to the area that had been behind the support arms of the cradle

Dane driving the biggest radio-controlled toy in the world

Ready to hit the water

 We were pretty tired at the end of all that, but delighted with the end result. Our final reward was the appearance of the 'supermoon' on Monday night.

So that was another expensive few days, though we benefited from an offer which gave us 2 free days on the hardstand (normally $75 per day) and a 10% discount on the haul-out thanks to our membership of the Down Under Rally so overall it was good value compared to other yards and just so much better than any other we've ever used.

We aren't quite finished with the spending, though - our generator re-build should be completed tomorrow (more on that little saga next time).

Wildlife magic

The media, both traditional and social, are full of the story of the US election so here, as a moment of quiet relief, are some photos from our visit to the excellent Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary in Brisbane. Apologies that one of the koalas bears a passing resemblance to the President-Elect (and they aren't koala bears, of course, they are marsupials).

Di feeding the wild Lorikeets

"What's that you're saying Skippy? You think Trump might win?!"

"To be honest, I'm bored with the election story now"

"Whaddya mean, I look like Donald Trump?"

Getting to cuddle Sprocket. The sanctuary does amazing work on education and research into the causes of decline in the wild population (now less than 75,000) so the income from the photo ops help fund this.

Surely one of the best jobs. A keeper selects a koala for its 30 minute rota - they are 'on camera' for 30 minutes a day (4 days on, 4 days off) but are returned to their trees if they are in any way unsettled by the publicity.