MAY 2002 Wednesday May 1st  - Friday May 3rd, 2002 Latitude 26 degrees 41 minutes 18 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 07 minutes 06 seconds East Mooloolaba Yacht Club Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia Today is the day of the big haul out. Of course we awoke to the sound absolute pouring rain! I don’t think it could have rained harder than it was this morning. We drug out the rain gear and prepared the boat for the short journey through the channels to the laweries marina boat yard.  Our friends on blue banana were to haul an hour and half before us, but when we arrived they were still in the slings! We called the boat yard only to find out that it was actually raining too hard to power wash them. The drain under the haulout area was flooded with several feet of water from the yard draining into the only drain with a sump. So we took a slip at the other marina and waited several hours for the rain to let up until we could be pulled out. Once we were pulled there weren’t too many surprises except for the large coral garden attached to the keel. Guess we have been sitting too long. Once the bottom was power washed and coral garden removed they moved us into a hard stand where the work could commence. David started up with sander while I started on the propeller. By late afternoon I was taping the line and painting the first coat of bottom paint on.  I  painted well after dark by the aid of the half moon. Finally around 7:00 pm I had enough and we cleaned up and called a night. Thursday morning I began painting the second coat of bottom paint on while david started taking the propeller off. We have to replace the cuttless baring this year and the propeller has to come off first. David and a big muscle man banged and banged on this old cutless bearing bearing, but it wasn’t going to budge. So we had to take the entire shaft out, by releasing it from the engine and stuffing box. Nothing is ever easy on a boat. Finally all is out and the cutless bearing is sawed out. David fits in the new one while I finish up the painting. By late afternoon I was preparing to paint the white bootstripe by the waterline. By dark we decided to call it quits and find some dinner with our friends. Friday morning I gave the boot stripe the last coat of paint and david put the propeller back together. By noon we were ready to get back in the water. Thank god its sunny today. I don’t mind the haul out except for the climbing up and down the funny ladder to get in and out of the boat. By 2:00 in the afternoon we were back in our slip and cleaning up all the mess. Glad that yearly chore is OVER! Saturday May 4th   - Monday May 6th, 2002 Latitude 26 degrees 41 minutes 18 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 07 minutes 06 seconds East Mooloolaba Yacht Club Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia Saturday we finished cleaning things up and then went out shopping for david big birthday party on Monday. Our friends Karen and graham were coming up from Brisbane on Sunday to spend the holiday with us.  Monday may 6th is a national holiday in Australia known as labour day. Everything is closed and most people have the day off work.  Sunday afternoon our friends arrived and we rounded up carol and jay from gandalf and decided to try a new resteruant in honor of davids upcoming birthday. We all piled into one car and drove to the hinterland town of malaney where we found a place david had picked out called e’Africa. The chef was from south Africa and the food served was south African. It was cold, wet and dark by the time we arrived but they had a nice table prepared for us next to a roaring fire place in our own private  rustic octagonal cabin in the back of the bed and breakfast. We all wonderful treats from a country we weren’t that familiar with. After a wonderful night we decided we better head back, but it was very foggy and dark up in the mountains and before we knew it we were lost driving down a very slender one lane road. Somehow I don’t thnk this is the way home. We eventually back tracked our way out and eventually made it home by midnight. Monday morning we awoke to another pouring rainstorm. They had a very dry summer here and so it would appear that they are getting all their rain in this last two weeks. We had a nice birthday breakfast with our friends and david opened his birthday presents. Karen and graham gave david some traditional Australian cook books, one was cooking in the bush, with recipes for things such as camel, kangaroo tail, and damper. Along with the cook book was a field guide to bush tucker that shows how to find things to eat in the wild. A qick glance showed things like mangrove worms and turtle eggs, I’ll have to be pretty hungary to try those things. By late afternoon the rain had subsided except for a few sprinkles here and there. Karen and I decorated the boat with balloons and streamers for davids party. By late afternoon the guest began arriving for davids birthday party. Before long the boat was filled with people inside and out and fun was being had by all. The night finished up with all our new aussie friend sharing Australian jokes. Ours sides were splitting from all laughing. By 10:00 pm everyone was winding down and heading home. I think david had a great fun on his 45th birthday. Tuesday May 7th, 2002 Latitude 26 degrees 41 minutes 18 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 07 minutes 06 seconds East Mooloolaba Yacht Club Mooloolaba, Queensland, Australia Back to the chores today, david is once again fixing the refrigeration. This time he wants to get to the bottom of the problem so its  getting totally torn apart and taken to the electrician.  After a short visit to the electrician it was discovered we were missing a reostat  in the connection, so now lets see how this works and hopefully this will put an end to our never ending saga with the refrigeration.  The weather is still pretty crappy so I have been busy working on swewing projects. I’m currently making slip covers for our new cushions to protect them from salt water and grime while we are sailing. Wednesday david went to Brisbane with the blue bananas to show them around all the great marine stores. While he was gone I was still sewing when allen came over for a look at our ridgid boom vang. While we were looking at the attachment to the boom I discovered a fairly large crack in the book where the vang attached. This cant be good! When david  returned I showed him the new crack. He called the place we had the book vang made at last year and made an appointment to have the boom looked at tommarrow. Thrusday morning we were up early disasmebling the sail from the mast and the boom. Then the boom was disconnected and carefully fitted into the car for the trip to Brisbane. While david was gone I kept on sewing for the weather still sucks!  When david returned later in the afternoon he informed me that the boom could not be fixed and we would have to get a new one, at the cost of 2000 ausiie dollars! Ouch! But its good that it was caught for if this boom had cracked all the way through while we were under sail, we could have lost the mainsail, the doger or one of us. So all in all its not a bad price for our safety. But inorder for them to make us a new boom we have to take the goose neck off the mast for them to make sure it fit right for our boat. So looks like another trip to Brisbane on Friday. Friday david took dewey into the vet  to  have a infected tooth looked at.  So with dewey in the care of the vet we headed off to the big smoke with our our friends ken and margret. First we went ot he boom manufacture to get that all straightened out, old slides are not going to fit in the new boom, another project for lisa.  and then we off to spend the after noon in the city. We had a enjoyable afternoon roaming around the city on a Sunny day. We returned at around 4:30 intoime ot pick up dewey. Later that night dewey wasn’t doing too good and had to go back to the vet. Saturday david retrieved the relived dewey and I went off to find new slides for the sail. The afternoon was spent varnishing, sanding, sewing and laundry.  Saturday night Camille and peter had us and carol and jay over for dinner. We ha d Indian 8 course meal. Sunday I went for a plesasent walk on the beach and then worked on the varnishing and tackled seweing on the slides to the sail. Went to the movies. Mothers day Thursday May 23rd, 2002 Latitude 25 degrees 48 minutes 8 seconds South Longitude: 153 degrees 02 minutes East Pelican Bay, Queensland, Australia 61.8 nautical miles traveled Hello, hello, hello, yes we are still here and have finally started moving again. I know many of you have not heard from us in a long time, this is due to several factors, many you may eventually hear about, but the main one being that our computer died once again and this time needed major heart surgery. When we finally got it back we were engrossed in about 30 different boat projects, in other words, no time to write, very sorry. So I will begin with today and hopefully catch you up on the last few months some other time. After many good-byes we pulled in the umbilical cord that attached us to D finger at the Mooloolaba Yacht Club for the last 7 months. By 5:30 am we were motoring out of the marina and into the ocean again. Just as we came out of the breakwater the sun began to shine over the horizon.  The zing of fishing tinnies buzzed all around us as we hoisted the main sail. Once the sails were set and the course set in, it became very obvious that one of our autopilots was not working again. How could this be after all the hard work? Good thing we have another one. Now that we are settled in I looked down to see how Dewey was doing, he looked up at me through the darkness with his glowing green eyes wondering why his home was moving again. So far though he seems to be adjusting just fine. It wasn’t long and there was enough wind to sail, so off went the motor and we were really sailing again after all these months. 8:00 am and it was time to check into the “Sheila Net” and let everyone know where we are.  When it was my turn to talk it became obvious that all the things we tried to do to fix the auto pilot-radio problem did not work. For when I press down on the microphone the autopilot goes all haywire and the boat goes all over the place, so it looks like when ever we want to talk on the radio David will have to hand steer. What a pain, we moved all kinds of things trying to get this fixed, but looks like we will have to live it with it yet another season. We left with great anticipation of reaching Lady Musgrave atoll in the Great Barrier Reef. If all goes well this will be an overnight sail putting us there sometime in the afternoon. Our friends on Gandalf are there waiting for us and tell us its absolutely beautiful.  You can always tell when a good weather window appears, for everyone is on the move.   Today we are sailing in a group of 4 boats, Sedona  (out of California), Balmacar (out of Missoula, Montana) and Piquet of unknown origin. By 9:30 am the wind has died down to nothing and we have to turn the motor on again. Now we are motor sailing. By 1:00 pm in the afternoon we are off of Double Island point and there is still no wind. David says we may have a change in plans, for he doesn’t want to motor all the way to Lady Musgrave.  We could go in behind Frazier Island and wait for enough wind to go. We really don’t want to get stuck there because with tides and weather you can get stuck there for long periods of time, but well see what happens, at least we are out of the marina.  By 3:00pm we are making our way in the bar at the south end of Frazier Island and found a nice anchorage in Pelican Bay. We are the first boat here and so we have our pick of the place. Except for the lack of wind we had a great first day at sea, no one was seasick and Dewey did wonderful as well. Looks to be a nice peaceful evening with a beautiful sunset.  Tonight on the radio we heard that our old friends on Shiriri, who are now sailing their wooden schooner back to Canada, have only 90 miles to get to New Caledonia.  We will not see them again until we return home. We wish them lots of fair winds from the west. Friday May 24th, 2002 Latitude: 25 degrees 31 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 58 minutes 2 seconds East White Cliffs, Sandy Straights, Queensland, Australia 18.3 nautical miles traveled Well, last night wasn’t as nerve wracking as I thought it would be. Some how I managed to wake up at midnight when low tide was predicted, I turned on the depth sounder to see that we still had a couple of feet under the keel, now I can go back to sleep. We slept in until 7:00 am today and then had a leisurely breakfast in the cockpit. It seems very weird to get up and not have a boat project to attend to. I almost didn’t know what to do with myself. While I was sitting there eating my breakfast I saw dolphins swimming all around us. Now I remember why I worked so hard the last 6 months, it was so I could enjoy moments like this. It’s a beautiful day here in Pelican Bay just south of Frazier Island. This morning the giant ferries that carry traffic from the mainland to the giant Frazier Island were the only annoyances in the anchorage and once I saw the dolphins all was forgotten.  While we were asleep last night about 6 more boats came in and anchored around us, wow we must have been tired not to hear that. From the weather report today it still looks like no wind, so no point in going back out the bar. So now we must negotiate making our way up through the sandy straights. The tides are not with us today for low tide is 2:00 in the afternoon and it gets dark at around 5:00 pm, so this doesn’t give us much time to make it through the shallow spots of the straights. With all this time to kill David decides to set to work on the auto pilot problem.  I decide to relax in the cockpit and read. David quickly discovers that the problem was a loose wire to the compass, this can quickly be fixed and we will soon test it out. By 2:00 it appears that the tide is coming in so we lift the hook and slowly start the watery trail north. It appears we have 2 knots of current with us and so we are moving very quickly at 7.5 knots. I hope this doesn’t get us to the shallow spots too soon. But as long as we are going through on a rising tide if we get stuck all we have to do is wait for more water to lift us off.  The first half of the straights isn’t too bad as long as you follow the red and green markers, but I’m so fixated on finding the next mark that I cant seem to enjoy the beautiful surroundings. The wind is now coming from the north/northeast and so no sailing. The second half of the journey is far more nerve wracking. Not only is it very curvy, making distinguishing the marks very hard, but its also very shallow! If you remember from last year this is where we hit the bottom and had to wait for the tide to lift us. Our eyes are fixated on the chart, the marks and the depth finder. We finally make it through the rough shallow bits with only one little bottom touch and the sun is now setting.  I still can’t figure out why they call this the Sandy STRAIGHTS when it’s a bunch of curving, shifting sand bars to get through. Time to look for an anchorage. There are 3 choices dead ahead of us so we will choose to stay in the white cliffs area by Frazier Island.  Frazier Island is the world’s largest sand island, there are large white cliffs of sandstone by the area we are anchoring in. Once we got the anchor down in 30 feet of water it was time to look around. Wow! The sun was just setting over the straights with a beautiful pink and orange glow. The white cliffs in front of us have now turned a beautiful buff pink and our beautifully reflected in the calm still waters with the almost full moon. Once the engine is turned off the sounds of the wild life are calling and called Dewey to the deck. He had a great time watching and listening to the call of the wild. Looks to be another beautiful night in the Sandy Straights, glad that shallow part is behind us! Saturday May 25th, 2002 Latitude: 25 degrees 31 minutes 4 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 58 minutes 2 seconds East White Cliffs, Sandy Straights, Queensland, Australia 0 nautical miles traveled We awoke to pouring rain this morning, so no point in moving on in weather like this. It remained cloudy, misty and rainy all day. Kind of reminded me of Seattle. We took advantage of this not moving and did something we haven’t done in months, absolutely nothing! We watched movies, read and slept, what a treat after the last few months of nonstop work. The weather looks a little better for tomorrow, well see what it brings. Sunday May 26th, 2002 Latitude: 25 degrees 17 minutes 9 seconds South Longitude: 152 degrees 54 minutes 6 seconds East Sandy Straights Marina, Urangan, Queensland, Australia 24.7 nautical miles traveled This morning looks to be a brighter day so we decide to try and move north and see what happens. While I navigate us north through the remainder of the Sandy Straights, David prepares my favorite breakfast; the famous “Chases” hash brown omelet! Yum yum. We were hoping that there would be enough wind to sail. But the gyb keeps flogging around in the unsettled breeze so we roll it in and keep motoring north through the channel. As the channel opens up into Harvey Bay it’s looking very ominous, the sky is clouded over and there is no wind, so we decide to go into the Sandy Straights Marina in the small country town of Urangan for the night. We have friends there on a boat called Summana that have been here for several days. Their names are Margaret and Ken and they have an unusual pet of a bird that likes to talk to a lot. This bird is most famous for his imitation of a mobile phone and if left alone too long he starts to ring off the hook. As we got close to the marina we called Margaret to let her know we were coming in. She was standing on the dock waiting to take our lines. That’s always nice when going into a strange place. It wasn’t long and we heard Morton (the bird) ringing off the hook so we let her get back to her bird. After we got settled in we headed down the dock for a nice warm shower. On the way there we passed and old man on the dock who said you guys must be sailors! How did he know that?  Must have been the tired, unwashed, unkept look we wore on our way to the shower that gave us away. Turns out that his marina is the main tourist destination for those wanting to go whale watching in Harvey Bay or stay at the King Fisher Resort on Fraser Island. So they get a lot of strange people walking around on the docks here. Later in the afternoon I gathered up Margeret and went for a walk on the beach. The beach here is covered with shells, so you can guess what I was up to for a few hours. We had a very nice walk on the beach at low tide and then headed back before it got too dark and cold! Monday May 27th  - Tuesday May 28th, 2002 Latitude: 23 degrees 09 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 57 minutes 1 seconds East Great Keppel Island, Queensland, Australia 187 nautical miles traveled This morning it wasn’t raining and they are predicting some wind (15 knots from the southeast) so we run a few errands and decide to get going north. At 11:00 am Margaret let loose our last line and off we go north out of the Sandy Straights and into the great Hervey Bay. Not sure where are we are going yet, but hopefully it will be Lady Musgrave, but we will have to wait and see what the wind and weather tell us to do. By 1:00 pm we were finally sailing without the aid of the engine. Nice to have that thing off and it wasn’t soon after that a pod of dolphins came along to swim in the bow of our boat. It’s always a delight to have them around; they swim so gracefully, taking turns swimming in front of the bow. Now that we are out of the protection of Fraser Island I have returned to my seasick diet of soda crackers, anything made out of potato’s and ginger snap cookies. By 8:30 pm the wind has died and it is raining. Back on with the engine for while. By 11:00 at night the wind picked up enough to turn off the engine again, but its still very cloudy and rainy. There is suppose to be a full moon tonight, which we were looking forward to, but even it can’t shine through the thick rain filled clouds that hang in front of us.  The fact that it is now winter in southeast Queensland has not escaped us both as I sit in the cockpit with my 2 heavy shirts, winter coat, wool tights and wool socks on! Burr!!! It’s like sailing in Seattle in the winter. Time to get north to warmer weather. Most of the night was spent gybing the sails, turning the engine on, turning the engine off and taking turns at naps. The weather report is not looking good for the next few days, more of what we have been experiencing all day and night. So we decide to give Lady Musgrave a skip. Is it foolish to think we will make it on the way back down?  Oh well, its not a good place to be in unsettled weather. Well, now where will we go? Cape Capricorn is looking good, so I put in a waypoint and looks like we can make it there by 2:00 this afternoon. And that would put us back into the tropics! While I was working on this I hear David yell out that there are dolphins on the bow again. I run out and spent the next half hour hanging out watching them show off in the rushing water of our bow. There was a pod of six and they would take turns in groups of 3 diving and twisting and turning in the water in front of the bow. They seem to like to swim upside down and sideways when they are right in front of us, I wonder what they are trying to show us. I was deeply hypnotized watching them swim and there I lay until they swam away. For all you budding marine biologist out there I have a question? What makes dolphins want to swim in front of the boat like this? It seems very strange behavior. If anyone knows, write me an email. It wasn’t long and the wind had died again, so we are now motor sailing again. This slowed down our progress and we don’t reach cape Capricorn until 3:00, we get behind the cape and its not looking too good back there. There is a large swell with breaking waves on the beach; this wouldn’t make for a comfortable place to be anchored so on we go, looking for yet another spot. There is and island a few miles ahead called Hummocky so we decide to head that way, but when we get there the swell is large in there as well, so now its on to Great Keppel Island. It’s still raining and its still cold and we are running out of daylight. The way point for Great Keppel Island is giving an ETA of 7:00 pm, well that’s a good hour after sun set. Guess we will have to give it a go. I’m starting to feel like Goldilocks trying to find a place to sleep, the first one is too lumpy, the second one is too swelly, the third one is going to have to do, because I’m tired and its dark!  In the sky ahead we can see a huge squall over the Keppel Islands, just what we need. Oh well, I’m so tired I’m ready to take on anything to get there. With the aid of our sea map computer program we will find our way there in the dark, for not all the little rocks sticking out have lights on them. As we hit the squall, we hear a large bang come from the deck, it appears that our block and tackle system on the boom vang has broken loose, nothing to panic over, just another to thing to fix.  We had a good laugh as we went around little Hannah rock; she wasn’t quite big enough to stick out of the water yet. But I heard her calling my name. Finally by 7:00 pm the squall had cleared away leaving a clear sky for us to anchor in Svendsens Bay of the Great Keppel Island. Finally we have stopped. From the looks of it, it’s going to be a lumpy, rolly night, but we are so tired I hope we won’t notice. Wednesday May 29th, 2002 Latitude: 23 degrees 09 minutes 7 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 57 minutes 1 seconds East Keppel Bay Marina, Queensland, Australia 7 nautical miles traveled Wow, the rolly keppels strick again, was it ever rolly in this anchorage last night. Most of the night I listened to the dishes and canned goods slide around in their space. Dewey was wedged between david and I so he wouldn’t bounce around, but by morning things had calmed down and it was very nice again. We we went out side we were very impressed with how we got here in the dark and anchored. We were in a good spot, a little closer to shore would have been nice. We relaxed for a few hours before heading to the Keppel Bay Marina to get some more diesel and see if the little chandlery had anything to fix the boom vang. We had a lovely 7-mile sail across the bay under blue and sunny skies; hard to believe this is the same place it was yesterday. After we got settled in I went for a walk up to the top of old volcanic neck that guards the entrance of the marina. I looked south for our friends on Salacia, who were to be on their way, but I saw no sailboat. I decided to head down to the beach and see what’s happening down there. Was I ever glad I brought my plastic sack, there were thousands of shells that sparkled their path down the beach for me to follow? I was so busy looking at the shells that I didn’t even see the dead bat ray until I tripped over it. I wonder what its fate was. I wandered my way down the beach to the next outcrop of volcanic rocks. It was hear I saw some strange little tracks going out to the water; it was a little hermit crab making his way back out to sea. He must have been washed in with the tide. I sat and watch this little crab make his way back out to the ocean. Wow, when was the last time you knew someone who had time to watch a crab crawl back to the ocean? I decided to photo document his crawl back into the ooze. The sun is starting to set so I head home. What a nice afternoon I had doing one of my favorite things, exploring the beach at my own slow pace. We had a relaxing evening and called it an early night in preparation of another long journey on the sea. Thursday May 30th, 2002 Latitude: 22 degrees 22 minutes 3 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 38 minutes 7 seconds East Island Head Point, Queensland, Australia 58 nautical miles traveled Out of the Keppel Bay Marina by 6:30 am and out into a terrible swell. What happened overnight? We weren’t quite awake enough to deal with this big of a swell. It was coming from the south east and hitting us in the beam (side). The wind was also from the southeast so we were able to sail, but not comfortably. Half of our day was going to be spent going in this direction, good thing I took seasick medication.  David kept going below to see the latest thing that had fallen off the shelf, off the ceiling or out of a cabinet. The swell eventually worked its way up to a good 6-7 feet; the boat would go up and over the swell with a big rocking motion. Dewey has gone into hiding for the day in secure nonmoving spot. The coastline was absolutely stunning along our route today. There are lots of high cliffs that were sculptured out from many years of weathering. All this rocking around caused a plug in the diesel tank to dislodge itself letting diesel slowly leak out into the bilge. David had to go below and fix this while I maintained our course. Good thing he doesn’t get seasick, I would be barfing like crazy if I were down there. Once that was fixed we were able to gybe the sails and make a turn so that the swell was now hitting us from behind. While we were making this change in the sails the boom moved a little to fast and hit David in the side of head, throwing him down into the cockpit. I first made sure he was ok and then continued the gybe. I went below and got him the ice pack for he was developing a pretty good lump on the side of his head. I think he will live, but I well keep and eye on him tonight. Well after all the commotion things calmed down, and became much better and lots more comfortable. It wasn’t long and we heard our friends on Gandalf giving us a call on the radio, they said they watched us go by them. They were already anchored in pearl bay. We were still heading a little bit further north. Soon I spied the Island Head Rock that leads to the entrance of Island Head Creek, our anchorage for the night. Once inside this mainland entrance the vista opened up to many little fjords like inlets with lots of sandy beaches and a plethora of bird life in the tidal flats. Looks like we found a wonderful spot to spend the night. We are anchored in 20 feet of water and it’s as flat as can be. Dewey has come out of hiding and taken his rightful spot on the top step. His purring is letting us know that he’s happy to be stopped as well. Friday May 31st, 2002 Latitude: 21 degrees 58 minutes 3 seconds South Longitude: 150 degrees 10 minutes 5 seconds East Marble Island of the Duke Islands Group, Queensland, Australia 39.4 nautical miles traveled What a gentle night we had after that bouncy day. This was a beautiful anchorage and was calm and flat, perfect for sleeping. David seemed to recover from his boom on the head ok, so we decided to get going. By 7:00 am we were making our way out of Island Head Creek and into the ocean again, but this time under much calmer conditions. There was barely a ripple on the ocean compared to the big swell we were fighting yesterday. Once we headed in the right direction it was gentle glide over the water with just enough wind to keep us going 7 knots. It felt like we were hardly moving, compared to yesterday. I guess you need to have those rough days to make you appreciate the good ones. We sailed west northwest into the Shoalwater bay and Broad Sound area towards the Duke Islands. This area is famous for its high tide fluctuations of up to 8.5 meters, the highest of anywhere else in Australia. We are hoping to make Curlew Island in the Beverly group our destination for the day. All morning we had great wind of 10 – 15 knots from the south, but just as we neared the Duke Islands the wind dropped to nothing and the engine had to be turned on again. Well we didn’t want to motor all the way to Curlew so we looked for a spot in the Duke Islands. We found a peaceful anchorage on Marble Island, the largest of the Duke islands. This island is a cattle station and not much is going on here. I didn’t even see any cows. When we arrived we had the pick of the anchorage for we were the only ones here at 1:30 in the afternoon. By 2:30 another boat had showed up and then at 3:00 our friends on Gandalf showed up, so now we have lots of company. It’s a beautiful little bay and the sunset here was stunning!