Running the gauntlet

The last few weeks have involved to-ing and fro-ing between the Brisbane River and the islands in Moreton Bay. In the river, disembarking in under three hours can be a challenge as the temptation to chat en route can be too great for the Captain to resist …

Captain deprogrammed

A visit to Brisbane’s maritime museum seemed obligatory, so, sensibly, on the hottest day so far we walked to the museum and another ray of light was shone on the Captain’s complex soul. An old naval ship, HMAS Diamantina, in the dry dock is open for viewing. This ship was commissioned in 1945 and while Captain ain’t quite that old and his time spent on navy ships was slightly more recent, Matey got a sense of the trauma involved in living the life of a sailor in the confined spaces of a sweltering metal hulk. 

The higher Matey went in the ship the hotter it got, until she thought she might pass out in the boiler room, though the engine was dead. 
Matey was perplexed to observe that the person steering the ship was in effect blind, as this was done from an almost windowless enclave. Orders were barked down a pipe from above, apparently. As Captain likes to obey orders (particularly those issued by the Matey) she is surprised he lasted as long as he did in such an environment. His rebellious spirit was appeased, however, by the offering of a new hat …

Kathryn visited for a few days and we made our way into the bay. The weather wasn’t so great so we were all relieved to arrive at Mud Island and put our trusty friend the Rocna down. Soon after David and Cate – acquaintances from the moorings – visited for afternoon tea and dinner. We discovered over breakfast the next morning that their boat is gorgeous inside as well as outside. They are a refreshingly young and interesting couple with all the idealism Matey remembers – a fading glimmer from long ago. They then led us on a search for a whale skeleton in one of the ‘creeks’ of Mud Island accessible only at high tide. As always with whales – it was fascinating to see the scale of these awe-inspiring creatures, and as always in photos – the subject was diminished by the attempt to capture, and Matey managed to goof the process up entirely.

Given the slip

The scheduled day of the lift-out finally arrived today. After much shopping around, we decided on the Moreton Bay Trailer Boat Club as the venue for the scrubbing and repainting/anti-fouling of the hull because it uses slings (rather than trolleys). An unusually narrow catamaran has many advantages, but also some disadvantages, as TC can’t be hauled out using the standard catamaran (or monohull) trolleys. So, this limited options. This morning however, we received a call to tell us hauling out wouldn’t be possible due to the ‘strong wind warning’. Interestingly these have been absent many days in the last few weeks when we’ve ventured out into the bay to confront 30+ knot winds, but today, with just calm rain, a warning has been issued. Strange.

Even gait

At least though this meant a medical emergency could be attended to and poor old Captain now has three stitches in his toe. For those familiar with his recent medical history – it’s the other foot, so he’s now able to walk without a limp as both feet hurt! Balance is a good thing…

Blood on the deck

The medical emergency came about yesterday afternoon as we were making our way to anchor near Manly, so we’d be ready for the scheduled haul-out this morning. A nice man in a big monohull tried to run us down (no – really). Some people here don’t seem to pay much attention to quaint notions of boating safety (e.g. cross behind rather than directly in front of an on-coming vessel in a channel) so we are becoming accustomed to this. As we were under full sail (we had right of way) a large two-decked monohull bore down on us at an alarming speed on a direct collision course and we assumed he would change course later than we would like, just to make our day interesting. But as he got to within 100 metres Captain’s keen eyes noticed no-one was at the helm but the autopilot and he jumped up to gesticulate and shout things that can’t be repeated here. Mr Motorboat was then observed to scurry upstairs and the boat turned 180 degrees just moments before impact! Sadly though, in all the excitement, blood was spilled on the deck. Matey – expert stower and normally quite safety conscious – put down the nail scissors she was using as she jumped to her feet. Captain leapt up on the deck and managed to jump exactly where Matey had put the scissors! We assume this is how the Captain got the gash in his toe anyway, otherwise it's a mystery. Poor old Captain!