Brisbane to Townsville
Thursday, May 16th – Our return flight to Brisbane ended up becoming a trip to a very sad event. Cyndy Everett, who had been fighting cancer for a number of years with several rallies and hopeful turns, had finally succumbed to the disease. Her funeral is the next day.
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Cyndy was a passionate sailor. When she learned how inexperienced The First Mate was in this world of sailing and boat ownership, she took her under her wings. Emails flew back and forth with advice and answers to questions. The First Mate will forever be grateful to Cyndy for the guidance and support she gave her. Though we already had our flight arranged when we heard of Cyndy’s death, it was a comfort to learn that we were going to arrive in time to attend her funeral to show our caring for her and her family. To this day, The First Mate misses the wonderful woman to whom she could always address a sailing question.
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When we were with the Everetts in January, we had discussed sailing to the Louisiades this year with the two J/160’s. This trip had really been Cyndy’s dream, and with her death, we are not sure what Stephen’s plans are. We soon learn that Stephen is still keen to make the trip. Planning for this trip had kept Cyndy going these last few months. She had outfitted the boat, and it is ready for a lengthy blue-water trip. Crew is chosen and prepared. Departure plans were in the works. In memory of Cyndy, Stephen wants to complete the trip, and his crew, Ross and Dian Jones and Ron Pilgrim, are eager to do the same. We are at first surprised, but understanding the reasons behind the decision, we also commit to joining Salacia on this adventure. The trip to the Louisiades is on, and for ease of clearances in and out of Papua New Guinea, after some consideration, we decide that the best way to do this trip is to join the Louisiades Rally which will depart from Cairns in early September.
Thus, our sailing plan for 2013 is formed. We will take Avante north along the Australian coast and, by the end of June, will leave her in a marina in Townsville while we return to the States for two months. Upon our return to Australia in early September, we will sail north to Cairns and rendezvous with Salacia just before the rally is scheduled to depart.
Meanwhile, some maintenance work is being done on Avante. She has been in the small boatyard at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron where she is getting new bottom paint, the cutlass bearing replaced, a strong pad eye installed for an inner forestay, and two wooden blocks fabricated to reduce water coming in under the front of the dodger.
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Monday, May 2oth – We are at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron watching Avante being launched. She looks beautiful with her topsides waxed and new bottom paint.
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Here she is back in the water waiting to have the lift straps removed and her forestay reconnected.
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Our clean and shiny boat is soon back on Stephen’s dock in Raby Bay. He had insisted that we bring Avante back there and that we stay with him. We will be company, a diversion at this difficult time. “Stay,” he insists, and there is no resisting his gracious hospitality and inclusive friendship.
Though we still have some small maintenance tasks to do, there are several items upon which we are waiting. One is the delivery of our new sails which have been fabricated outside of Australia.
Another is the new dinghy that we have had to buy to replace the one which our crew damaged last year in Vanuatu. They managed to buckle the metal bottom of our dinghy and the fabric has been separating from the metal starting at that point. This separation has been spreading, and the leak has been getting worse. Tired of constantly bailing every time we went anywhere in the dinghy, we talked to several repair shops, but no one had any confidence that any repair would last. A dependable dinghy is vital to cruising. A new one has been ordered.
When the dinghy arrives, it is delivered to a ramp leading down into the canals of Raby Bay. The Captain borrow’s Stephen’s dinghy to motor to the ramp where he will pick up the dinghy and tow it back to Avante. What a surprise when he is stopped by the harbor police! He is not wearing a life jacket which is a no-no here, but that is nothing compared to the fact that he is out motoring around in a dinghy without a “Dinghy Operators License!” A what? A Dinghy Operators License. Since The Captain does not have a local address to send a ticket, the officer takes down his home address. Will we really receive a ticket? Puzzled by the whole encounter, he asks Stephen whether he has a Dinghy Operators License. Stephen is flummoxed. He had never heard of one! No, he does not have one and would not even know where to go or whom to ask for one. We do not expect to receive a ticket.
Our outboard motor, which got a salt water soaking in the same incident as the ruining of the dinghy, was overhauled by a Brisbane mechanic. Though The Captain had finally managed to get it running last year, he wanted a professional to look at it. The mechanic tells us that he has replaced many of the components and now has it running smoothly, but to our dismay, he says that there will always be a problem with internal corrosion from the salt water. At least, hopes The First Mate, she may now be able to start the thing. Motor now is back on the aft rail of Avante waiting to be tested on the new dinghy when we finally head out to voyage.
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While waiting for our sails to arrive, we drive into Brisbane to tour Australia’s third largest city. Built along the Brisbane River, it is an interesting combination of tall sky scrapers and elegant old buildings from the early days of settlement.
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Every evening that we are all at home at Stephen’s, we share dinner together. Stephen is a very good chef, but The First Mate is delighted when he allows her to prepare some dinners. Wine flows liberally here in this country where one’s glass is never less than half full, and our evenings are relaxed and so companionable that our frustration at not being able to head off sailing is greatly lessened.
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Every Wednesday afternoon, the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron (RQ) holds races. Stephen invites us to join his crew. RQ is located across the bay from Raby Bay. We leave in the morning to motor the short distance to the Squadron where we tie up at one of their berths.
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There is no way we can race on empty stomachs! Stephen hosts a delightful luncheon for his crew before we head out to get Salacia positioned for the start of the race.
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This may sound impossible to believe, but this is The First Mate’s first race. Stephen knows she is not actual racing crew and positions her on an aft seat where she is quite comfortable holding on while viewing the race around her. So positioned, Stephen and crew head Salacia out to the starting line.
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We’re off! Everyone has a job to do.
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Rounding one turn. It is impossible to know how we are doing in relation to other boats, for every boat has a handicap.
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In The First Mate’s cruising world, this guy is too close for comfort, but that is not the case in a yacht race.
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The final leg of the race is downwind. Guess who volunteers to serve as ballast to keep the sail full? What a great race, and what an even greater day!
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Thursday, June 6th – Our new sails have finally arrived and are installed. We head out into Raby Bay for a test sail with our sailmaker. Unfortunately, there is almost no wind, so we cannot really test them thoroughly. Despite that, we discover that the new staysail needs some adjustments. Our sailmaker promises to have it back by Saturday morning.
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In addition to replacing our mainsail and jib, we now have a staysail which Cyndy, from her own experience, had insisted that we needed. The Everetts have used a staysail for some time and recently installed a furling inner forestay. Avante now has Salacia’s old dyneema inner forestay which can be stowed out of the way when we are not using it. Another new item is a sail bag to contain and store the mainsail when it is lowered. This will make taking down our mainsail much easier. We simply turn into the wind and drop the sail into the bag where it is secured. The Captain will no longer have to go forward with sail straps in his teeth to tie the sail to the boom after dropping it. He calls this sail bag a “geriatric” concession.
Saturday, June 8th – Adjustments are complete, and our staysail has been delivered. We are finally ready to go! By now, we have been in Australia for over 3 weeks and have less than 3 weeks remaining before we are scheduled to fly home. We want to take Avante 700nm north to Townsville in that time, so the pace will need to be turned up on our cruise up the coast. The First Mate wonders why this always seems to happen.
We say farewell to Stephen, motor out of the canals and head for the nearby fuel dock to fill up for the trip north. By early afternoon, we are anchored at Tangalooma on Moreton Island. We make it just before the rain starts, and it continues to rain for most of the afternoon and evening. Since we have not been living on the boat, we put the time to good use getting organized.
Sunday June 9th – We hope to cover a lot of distance today with an overnight passage outside of Frazier Island. We have decent wind and can sail northwest out of Moreton Bay on the main ship channel.
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The Captain is pleased to be off early and is delighted to be finally underway. The First Mate is delighted with our new cup holders installed by the wheel. She saw them on Salacia and thought they were a great idea.
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By early afternoon, we are clear of the Brisbane Ship Channel and flying up the coast with 20 – 25 knots of wind from SE. It does not seem that often anymore that we have good wind behind us. Even the overcast skies and the little bit of rain are not bothering us. Unfortunately, about the time we reach Noosa Heads, we notice that several of the new attachments which hold the mainsail to the mast have come loose. This is not good! We must take down the mainsail. As we turn into the wind on the bouncy seas, all the remaining sail attachments fail like a cheap zipper. The mainsail pulls away from the mast. Our mainsail is not only quite large; it is new and stiff. The Captain has all he can handle trying to get it under control and tied down in this wind. When finally accomplished, it is not a very pretty sight. We cannot continue north without a mainsail; we will have to get our brand new sail repaired as soon as possible. We consider going into Mooloolaba which is only 2 hours away, but it will be after dark and low tide when we get there. We decide the best thing to do is to return all the way to Raby Bay where our sailmaker can make the necessary repairs.
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We had been expecting to do an overnight passage but not one that is going in the wrong direction! Shortly after dawn, we motor back into Raby Bay. The tide is marginal, but we have been through these canals several times with Stephen and have acquired some of his local knowledge regarding the shallow spots. We squeak through.
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Our sailmaker arrives in several hours with some repair material, and he spends the day fabricating new and stronger attachments for our sails. The ones that came with our sails were a new style, and they are replaced with traditional attachments. Amazingly, everything is completed in one day and on a rainy public holiday at that.
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Tuesday, June 11th – Once again we are ready to leave Stephen’s dock and head north. We are now even further behind schedule and have only two weeks to cruise the 700nm north to Townsville. Our weather is acceptable, but we will not see the nice southeast winds that we had several days before. Winds are now from the east and will be shifting to northerly soon. We would like to leave two hours before low tide. That will allow us enough water to get out of the canals, and then we will have the greatest assist from the tide in getting out of Moreton Bay. Our alarm clock is set and goes off at 0330, but it is still raining hard when that alarm goes off. No way either one of us is enthusiastic about starting off in the rain as well as in the dark. We will wait until two hours after low tide.
Thursday, June 13th – It is early afternoon as we anchor at Great Keppel Island. This is our first stop since departing from Raby Bay two days before. We have traveled over 350nm north from Brisbane in wet conditions, and the motor has run the entire time. Needless to say, it was not a great trip! Yesterday was The Captain’s birthday, and he spent it drearily motoring along in the rain. It was a shame to pass great anchorages like Lady Musgrave and Pancake Creek, but the “forced march” we endured ate up half of the miles we have to cover. The reward is that, tomorrow, we can spend a whole day here and still have comfortable one-day trips cruising up the coast to Townsville.
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Friday, June 14th – A Savor Day! We finally get to take our new dinghy out on the water and test out the repaired engine. The First Mate is never going to like this dinghy. It’s grey coloring is all wrong for Avante whose palate features dark blue, white and tan. Grey is an eyesore. The Captain does not see it that way and besides, there are not a lot of choices when it comes to dinghies. This one was the best one for us irregardless of color. She still doesn’t like it, but if the motor doesn’t act up, it will be tolerable.
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Saturday, June 15th – We are on the move again today, and it’s a beautiful sunny day with wind from the south. In mid-afternoon, we pull into Pearl Bay and drop anchor with about a dozen other boats. While we are tidying up, Nick Stump comes over by dinghy to say hello. We had met Nick and his wife Allison at Stephen Everett’s home, and soon we are all together enjoying drinks on Avante. Tomorrow, Nick and Allison are heading to one of their favorite anchorages at Island Head Creek. We have not been to this anchorage before and decide to join them.
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Island Head Creek is not well charted and is a bit tricky with a shallow area right in the middle of the channel. The Stumps have been here a number of times and assure us that we will be fine. Just follow them which we do, and soon, we are anchored behind them in Island Head Creek on another beautiful day.
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We all head ashore for a walk on an enormous beach to our north that stretches for miles.
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The First Mate is fascinated by the patterns of round pellets small crabs make in the sand at low tide. Look at this butterfly this little crab’s haphazard arrangement of sand balls created! Such a massive endeavor only to be washed away in a few hours!
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The highlight of our trip is sighting a pair of emus. These flightless birds are almost 4 feet tall and can run quite fast. They appear to be as curious in us as we are in them. Camera ready, The First Mate walks toward the pair as they walk toward her.
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The dance goes on until Alison cautions The First Mate that they are not only quick, they can be vicious. Sho-o-o, we all say and off they go, though they continue to follow us along the beach for quite a while before finally losing interest.
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After our hike, we return to the Stump’s boat, Isis X, for lunch, and we end up spending a most enjoyable day with Nick and Alison.
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Monday, June 17th – It is another sunny day as we pull anchor to continue north, but under light wind, we motor all the way to Hunter Island where we anchor for the night. We had a nice hike ashore here during our trip south last November, but this time there will be no hiking. The Captain needs to do a little work on the watermaker.
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Tuesday June 18th – It’s another sunny day, and the wind is a little stronger. We are not going far and can sail most of the way. By early afternoon, we are anchored off Middle Percy Island and going ashore to visit the Percy Island Yacht Club
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We were also here last November, but did not leave the beach area. This time we hike up the trails to the homestead on a hill in the middle of the island where the caretakers live. We follow a trail marked with curious signs, poetry boards and painted coconut heads. Someone has a sense of humor here.
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Mother Nature is also at work here with fields of the most brilliant blue butterflies we have even seen.
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We meet the caretakers who offer us tea and ask us to sign their guest registry. They live a fairly spartan existence out on this island outpost, but it is one that The First Mate would enjoy — for a while. They have their garden, bee hives, chickens and goats. That is enough to keep them busy and fed.
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Wednesday, June 19th, is also sunny, and we enjoy a good sail for 65nm north to Scawfell Island. We arrive in Refuge Bay at the end of the afternoon and then notice that our refrigerator is not working. The Captain troubleshoots and finds that the refrigerator water pump has failed. He temporarily jury rigs a different pump to get water flowing through the condenser which gets our refrigerator cooling again.
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Thursday June 20th – It’s only 33nm to our next anchorage at Goldsmaith Island, and we arrive by early afternoon. We are disappointed when we do not see Estralita, the boat of our friends, Tom and Kathryn Biggs, who have a house on this island. However, this gives The Captain time to fix the refrigerator water pump before we head ashore for a short hike.
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Friday, June 21st – The wind is pretty gentle as we head north into the Whitsundays. Several fires are burning on Thomas Island as we pass, and there is lots of smoke on Shaw Island. Having not heard anything about the fires on the radio and with this many different fires going, it appears to be some type of controlled burn.
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We anchor on the northwest side of Lindemann Island and head ashore in the dinghy to go hiking, but it is quite a while before we set off on this hike. First, when a sailboat sails into the bay without a working engine, we quickly head over to help it get anchored securely. When it is finally safely anchored, we continue toward shore. Next, it is low tide that stymies us. The dinghy starts to hit bottom well over 1/4 mile from the beach. We search for a deeper route but find none. Giving up, we drag the dinghy on its wheels all the way in to the beach. Look at our track through the sand. It feels like we have already had our hike!
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Our guidebook mentions easily accessible trails. We do find them and note that a lot of work went into building some of the trails, but it’s apparent that no one has used them recently. Some are passable, but many sections have us parting the brush as we walk along. Recalling all the nasty spiders, snakes and plants that hail from Australia and only Australia, The First Mate is none too easy.
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We hike across the island to an abandoned resort with a very nice airfield. The Captain is impressed.
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We later learn that this resort used to be a Club Med which was considerably damaged by a cyclone in 2011. It has been purchased by a development company which plans to construct a new large resort on the site. At some point, we will have to check to see if that has happened.
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Returning after a good hike, we are pleased to see that the tide is up a little when we get back to the dinghy. Not much, but even a little helps for, though we still have to lug the dinghy and motor back to water, the slightly shorter distance back to the water makes for an easier trip.
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Sunday, June 23rd – Yesterday, we continued sailing through the Whitsundays to Butterfly Bay on Hook Island. We now have 140nm left to Townsville and don’t see any real interesting anchorages on the way. The weather is good, and we decide to finish our trip with an overnight passage. With the wind behind us at around 15 knots for most of the way, it is an easy sail made even better with a full moon lighting up a lovely clear night. “All overnight passages should be like this,” states The First Mate.
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Monday, June 24th – By 1000, we are tied up in the Breakwater Marina in Townsville where Avante will spend the next two months.
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The next few days in Townsville are spent doing some boat maintenance and cleaning and updating our “Buy For Boat” list which identifies all the boat parts and other things that we want to bring back with us in September. We also have time for a little walking around in this fair city before leaving to fly home to Telluride for the summer. We will explore more when we return.