Where Buoy Meets Gull - Whitsunday Adventure - Day 7

Monday’s adventures

So even though I had had a horrible night (which seems pretty par for the course on this holiday) Chris had slept a bit .  He got up in time for the morning scheds at 8:00. (Being a rented yacht, you're supposed to check in twice a day - in the morning with your plans for the day and in the late afternoon with your nighttime location.)  It was still raining – a thick gray sheet covered the sky.  He complained that it was no fun snorkeling in the rain, because often the water is grey and cloudy, too.  The weather report on the radio was for rain for the next three days – not a very happy ending to a holiday, huh?  So Chris suggested that we head back a day early.  I said it wouldn’t be very nice sailing back in the rain.  He said, “Let’s look at the options here.  We can either sail back today in the rain.  Or we can sit here all day in a closed, stuffy cabin in the rain with nothing to do and then sail back tomorrow in the rain.”  Hmmm…when you put it that way, sailing in the rain doesn’t seem like such a bad choice!  I asked him if he wanted me to fix bacon and eggs for breakfast – our last day treat.  He said, “You can if you like – I’m having cereal!”  Haha.  That was the end of THAT idea!

So we decided the best thing to wear would be our swim suits and rain jackets and we got geared up.  MY suggestion was for me to wear my wet suit – which WOULD have been a clever plan if I only never had to go to the bathroom. He thought it was only going to take a couple of hours, but still, the thought of trying to take that slick tight wet thing OFF in a hurry was daunting.  It was a good decision to forgo that, as I had forgotten that Chris has a habit of underestimating sailing times.  (Hmmm…come to think of it, he has a habit of underestimating DRIVING times as well!  Maybe he’s just not good with time!)

We were barefoot, so had to be careful on deck, but we got off the mooring OK, and because of my logic and clear eyesight, we missed the reef Chris would have had us sail over. (We make a good team!)  It was raining, but it wasn’t raining hard, and it wasn’t really cold, so we did just fine for the first couple of hours. (Notice the time already and we’re not halfway yet!) We were planning on going around the outside of the islands, (the same way we came in) due to the visibility factor, but since it wasn’t too bad out there, Chris decided we would cut through the channel between Hook Island and Hayman Island to save us time.   That was fine with me – I’m all for LESS sailing!  

Then the rain picked up again, the wind picked up and it was quite miserable.  We were motor sailing at first, but while Chris was in the toilet, the wind shifted around like crazy and then died completely, so I had to furl the jib to keep it from just flapping around like an injured bird, while steering the boat at the same time.  There is no auto-pilot on this boat.  Can you IMAGINE the trouble novice sailors might get into with an auto-pilot?  So Chris was surprised  and impressed when he came up top and all the sails were down AND we were still on course!  Yay for me.

The wind picked up again, but it was right on the nose, so we just motored through it.  The rain picked up again, and let me tell you, it got QUITE unpleasant.  The wind was gusting up to 20 mph and the rain was pelting me so hard it stung!  Luckily I had my visor on under my rain jacket to protect my eyes a little.  They were glued to the compass, which was about the only thing I could see.  I had my heading and I was sticking to it.

 Then Chris decided to go through “Unsafe Passage” between North Mole and South Mole Islands, which was a very interesting decision since the visibility got down to zero and the whole island actually disappeared in the gray mist and pelting rain.  But – it was going to save us time, and I was all for doing LESS sailing – especially in these conditions!  He was working hard with the charts and the VERY rudimentary GPS to determine the current drift and the correct compass heading.   Don’t panic, folks, we had been told that Unsafe Passage was really very safe as long as you followed the leads and kept a watch out on the bow for coral.  Well, we weren’t going to be keeping a watch out, as Chris was below working out the plan, and I couldn’t leave the steering. 

The leads were quite clear and bright, so that was a good thing, and the rain let up a little.  The island came back into view – partially.   Even so, with the heading he had me on, we were aiming right onto the beach!  He CLAIMS that was the correct heading, because I wasn’t allowing for the strong current drift, but gradually, he succumbed to my nervousness and allowed me to ease away from the shoreline more towards the narrow passage.  Together we can do this! (We make a good team!)

Once we got through Unsafe Passage and past Daydream Island, we still had a ways to go and then we had to find the harbour.  By this time I was soaked through and shivering, and my fingers and toes were pruned up, but there was no way I was going to let Chris steer.  HE was doing the brainwork and running up and down to check things out.  Remember the GPS is JUST a basic model – no charts are installed in it, no depths, no hazards or markers.  In fact, it turned out later, our CAR GPS had more detail than the one on the boat! But the GPS DOES show true heading and compensates for current, so it was valuable.  In conjunction with the chart, Chris could plot a course, and then I could adjust my compass heading to accommodate it.  There was no point in BOTH of us getting wet and cold, and anyway, I couldn’t DO what he was doing!  TOGETHER we make a good team.  He’s got the brains, and I’ve got the perseverance and persistency!  So, even with the shivering and the shriveling, I soldiered on.

We were unsure of where the harbour was. We used the charts and the map book as best we could to determine which direction to take to avoid “Low Rock”.  We argued about which islands were which.  It’s not easy when you have only one view of an island, and it’s not the same shape from the ocean as it shows in the map book!   But we resolved our differences and decided on a course.  I had to stand up on the seats to see over the dodger in order to avoid the danger markings.  (Remember the plastic is so old I can’t see through the “windshield?) Chris was VERY uncomfortable about this, as he didn’t want to lose me overboard, and the safety equipment was so poor on board, but there was really very little choice.  I HAD to see, and he couldn’t be up there to help guide me.  So I promised him that I was hanging on to the wheel very tightly, and that I would scream if I went overboard. Really – what was the alternative?  I must have made a funny sight – chunky skipper in an aqua swim skirt and soaking wet, bright yellow, hooded rain jacket, standing spread eagled on the seats and bent half over to reach the wheel.  (Besides,  I couldn’t stand up straight because of the bimini overhead.)  But the advantage to being up where I could see was that I saw two dugongs at the harbour entrance!  That was a cool thing. 

It has lightened up quite a bit by this time.  Enough so that Chris
could take the photo without getting the camera totally soaked.

Just as we got to the harbour, we became aware of a ferry barreling down behind us, so I chose to move AWAY from the leads and therefore slowed WAY down to let him by!  That was a good thing.  He was MUCH bigger than I was, so I fear we would have fared poorly in a showdown.  The pilot was actually grateful and gave me a wave.

Then the Rent-a-yacht agency guy came out in his dinghy to steer us to the dock.  Of course, they can’t be relying on folks with no experience to dock their boats safely, so he actually took over and I could go below for a badly needed hot shower!  Ahhh!  No more shivering!  Oh, and did I tell you that was FIVE HOURS of me steering in the rain?

We got all unloaded, and then had to meet with the guy for a “debriefing”.  We told him all our concerns – the dodger window wasn’t clear, the water leak, etc.  Chris complained about the safety equipment and he said, “Well, we just put on there what Queensland Safety says we have to have.”  I said, “But you don’t have a Dan Buoy!” 

He said, “Queensland Safety says we don’t have to have one.”

I said, “But the life-ring is unusable!”

He said,  “Well, we just attach it the way Queensland Safety tells us to.”

The guy is full of bullshit!  (Excuse my language!)  So Chris says to him, “So, if Kathy had gone over board, what would you advise I should have done?”

He says, “I would suggest that you get in the dinghy and go get her and just leave the boat.”

CAN YOU BELIEVE THAT?  What an idiot!  It’s obviously not HIS boat so why should he care?

We set out in the car, and we were REALLY lucky to make it out!  It had rained 8 inches in 12 hours, and we had to drive through 8 inches of water on the weir over the road for 200 meters in Proserpine!  Two hours after we got through, the road was closed, so if we hadn’t made it then, we would have been stuck in Proserpine for at least another two or three days!

Now driving in Australia is not like driving in the States, in that there is NOT a motel every 20 miles.  You have to plan your stops or you’ll be driving a LOOOONG while, or sleeping in the car!  After we passed the town of Mackay (pronounced Muh KAI – rhymes with sky), Chris wanted to make it all the way to Rockhampton.  But it was another 365 k, so I put my foot down as I was JUST a LITTLE bit worn out.  (Well, I WOULD have put my foot down if I had had enough energy to do that!)  But that left us very little choice.  We were lucky to run across ONE “Caravan Park and Motel” in Marlborough.  Chris was a little iffy about it, especially when the price was $90 for one night for a little podunk room, but beggars can’t be choosers, and I had had it!  As a matter of fact, the lady at the desk said to me, “You look absolutely buggered.”  I thought to myself, “You have NO idea!” 

It was pretty funny because the ancient air conditioner made quite a noise through the night.  It rattled and wheezed and clunked.  An example of how noisy it was is that while we were laying in bed, I said to Chris, “That air conditioner is like our own little storm at sea.”  And he said, “What?”  haha

So the air-con provided the wind noise, and my body provided the rocking motion – just as if I had never left the boat!  Guess I haven’t lost my sea legs yet!

Where Buoy Meets Gull - Whitsunday Adventure - Day 6

Sunday’s adventures

Sailing along we saw a boat named “Apollo” and Chris joked, “Why would they want to name their boat after a chicken?  We should give  them a call on the radio, and say, “Hey, a-poiyo, where’s your eggs?”

We sailed around the top of the islands today - in the largest, most unprotected part of the ocean thereabouts, and I forgot to take my seasick pill, and yet I was NOT sick!  Yay!  We were heading towards Butterfly Bay and planning to stay there until it was time to sail back to harbour.  It's a good thing that was our plan, because as we were trying to pick up the mooring, we actually BROKE the boat hook - the hook part went off!  (It was mostly my fault).  So we now have a pole, with no hook!  Chris clambored quickly into the dinghy, and I steered the boat around so he swooped by the mooring buoy, grabbed it, and handed me up the rope.  Hey!  Whatever works, right!  We make a good team!  Anyway, we weren't going to be moving anywhere because we had no means to pick up any more moorings. 


We went snorkeling soon after.  I saw a darling deep chocolate colored fish with bright turquoise and vivid orange highlights, but it's not the Fish of the Day because I can't find it in any fish book!  Perhaps I just imagined it....mmmm...CHOCOLATE!  tee hee.  So there IS no fish of the day, unless you want me to just choose one out of the book.  But the coral of the day I call "lace" coral.  Some of it was in lovely flat sheets, like a crocheted tablecloth, and some of it was sticking up like a lacy fan carved from ivory.  In fact, I found when I googled these photos, it's called "fan" coral!   It appears that it comes in many colors, but I saw it mostly in white.  


 

That night I couldn't sleep for the life of me, as there was NO AIR moving in the aft cabin.  So I finally got up and went to sleep on the settee in the salon.   There wasn't any more air MOVING in there, but it did seem like there was a little MORE air.  If was pretty funny (in a terrible way) because the noise of the buoy banging against the boat was even worse than the night before - maybe because I was actually CLOSER to it in the main cabin.  In addition, there was a terrible moaning noise from the boom overhead, and the wheel in the cockpit at the rear was screeching horribly whenever it rolled around and turned.  So I tell you what, with Death knocking on the the bow, depravity moaning overhead, and some hideous banshee screaming at me from the cockpit - needless to say - I didn't get much sleep!  We had gone to bed about 9:00, and I moved about 10:30.  I think I got to sleep around midnight.


Then, suddenly, at around 1:00 a.m. the lights come on, and Chris is banging around frantically because it is POURING rain and all the hatches are open!  So I jump up and help him close the hatches because it's raining on to all our clothes, the main cabin table, and three other places as well!  We mop up as best we can, and try again to sleep.  Chris obviously isn't having as much trouble as I am, as he is snoring away peacefully, AND sleeping diagonally on the bed, so I can't even get back in it if I WANT to!  At one point during this time, I think I was roused from sleep by the TOILET smell!  Let's not even get in to that, shall we?  The rain continued, along with the other noises, so now we had a real symphonic cacophony AND all the hatches were closed!  It was stifling!  I think I slept quite well from 4:30 to 7:00 by playing a very repetitive Enya song from my ipod into my earphones.  

Where Buoy Meets Gull - Whitsunday Adventure - Day 5

Saturday’s adventures.

On Saturday we sailed to Blue Pearl Bay – supposedly one of the best spots for snorkeling.  I finally decided that I should go in as well.  So I clawed myself into my rented stinger suit – MAN that thing was TIGHT!  I even had trouble getting the ankles over my heels.

Here I am getting ready to jump in.

After the initial chilling shock, things were fine underwater.  And so now, those of you who have followed my blogs forever know that you now get the FISH OF THE DAY! The one I chose is the biggest one I saw - not in deference to Chris and his need for bigness - but because it's one of my favorite fish because when I was on my first recreational scuba dive up in Cairns, the minute we went down this big Wally came over for attention and actually KISSED us!  (Well, we kissed HIM, but he LET us!)  It is the giant Maori Wrasse!  
These are not my photos but they give you a good idea.   Mine was at least four feet long, and greenish like this, with zig-zag puzzles all over his snout.  I've never been able to POST photos of the Fish of the Day before - do you like this better than just the verbal description?

The coral of the day looked like tasty romaine lettuce leaves, and when I googled it, up came these photos.  Mine was paler green than the first one, but shaped a lot like the second one.  I called it "lettuce coral" - and guess what the official name is?   The first photo is called "lettuce coral" and the second photo is called "cabbage coral"!

            

Now here's a strange thing.  I haven't been a bit seasick yet.  Well, to be fair, I've take a QUARTER of a motion sickness pill each day to make sure and prevent that - that's all I need.  Much more and I get sleepy with horrid dry mouth. Anyway, I was doing just fine in the water, enjoying the fish and the coral.  Then, I put my head up to check on Chris, and all of a sudden, I was quite nauseated with a horrid dizzy headache!  I had to stop and go back to the boat and lay down.  SO strange - that's never happened to me before.  Chris reckons perhaps the wet suit was SO tight it cut off my circulation, but I just can't believe that happened.  Anyway, after I rested for a few hours, I was fine again. 
It was quite lovely there, and very calm.  Almost TOO calm we found out.  (More on that later).  Chris did the cooking again - fish and potatoes tonight on the deck grill!  This is REALLY a vacation for me - yes?  We had some wine and watched the sunset.  

The seagulls were a trip.  ONCE I threw a tiny piece of fat overboard (because I didn't want to eat it), and one gull came and swooped down to fetch it.  Then he flew back and told ALL his friends about it, so that we had the beggars and all their cousins squalling for more!  A couple of them even came and parked themselves on the dinghy in case something else might stray off the table, but NO, I had learned MY lesson, thank you!  

In contrast, the sea eagles were majestic, soaring in to roost each evening.  This is the best I could do with a photo - but you get the idea, they were large and glorious and not squabbling little rats!

We were hooked up to a mooring, which was quite large - about 3 feet in diameter, and of course, quite sturdy.  But we found, since there was no wind, we were at the mercy of the waves and the currents.  That meant that every once in a while, the mooring would loop us around and then bang into the side of the boat - BANG!  BANG!  BANG!  Quite startling, really, and though we racked our brain to figure out a way out of it, we couldn't stop it.  So throughout the night we were awakened by this horrendous banging.
So basically, so far, the days are just great, and the nights are horrid!  Does it get any better?  Stay tuned.

Where Buoy Meets Gull - Whitsunday Adventure - Day 4

Friday’s adventures

Ow, ow, ow!  I guess one find’s out how REALLY out of shape one is when just steering a boat makes one ache all over!  Sigh.  Well, to my credit, it’s not EASY when you’re steering into the wind.   My other owie was when I went up top to stop the main halyard from clanging.  As I walked along the side of the coach house, I stubbed my toe hard on the block, and when I put my hand out to brace myself, my hand went right through the open cockpit window and scraped me all up!  Oh sob.  But I’m a tough old bird, so I’m not limping badly. 

I tell you, one thing we are not used to are the CROWDS of boats about!  After sailing in Fiji, Vanuatu, etc., we’re used to only a couple of boats one place at the same time, unless you’re at a dock.  But even when we were in Apia Harbour in Samoa, there were maybe 20 boats, and THAT was in the middle of tourist season during a FESTIVAL!  So when we bopped into Sid’s Harbour and found 45 boats there, it was quite unusual for us.  We did our best to not “park” too close to the others, but there’s only so much ocean, ya know.

Chris at the helm

So on Friday, we sailed down wind to Shoalhaven Bay, and two more whales on the way (or maybe they were the same ones.)  I’ve actually never been as close to a wild whale as I was today.   They didn’t do anything spectacular, though, so they didn’t take very nice photos.  Steering downwind is MUCH easier, so it wasn’t so hard on my weak muscles.  (Perhaps I should say my non-existent muscles).  We hit a patch of weird wind coming around the point.  Of course, Chris tells me over and over again that points are always the most dangerous.  This boat is not as stiff as Two By Sea, so she heels a lot more, and at one point we almost had our rails in the water, so we quickly dropped the mainsail and furled the jib.  The gusts were up to 25 knots, so that part was just a little bit hairy.  Once we dropped the sails, however, we were just using the motor, so the gusts didn’t bother us as much.  We had a funky little seagull hitch a ride on our dinghy for a mile or two.  He just let us do the work while he sat and watched us pull him along behind.  We’ve picked up a mooring here.  I don’t think we’re supposed to be here overnight, but we’re not moving, so hah!  Chris went in to do some snorkeling, but it was just a tad too cool for me.  The sun is lovely and warm, but the wind has quite a chill to it.  He said the coral was quite nice, and he saw some big coral trout.  For him, big means good!  He doesn’t care if the fish are colorful if they are tiny – they have to be big to make it a “good” spot! 

The gusts that we had while sailing continued through the night.  They are called “bullets” of wind and they were quite disturbing to our sleep – roaring through the coffin with noise and wind.  I had the strangest dreams – I guess because the bullets kept waking me up and interrupting my fantasies.  Once I dreamed that Whitsunday Rent-a-yacht was actually testing our vigilance by stealing stuff on deck and waiting to see if we noticed!  I woke up.  When I went back to sleep, I dreamed that same kind of thing AGAIN, and so the next time I woke up, I actually got out of bed and went up on deck to check.  But…it was all a dream. (haha)  Then I dreamed that I was playing poker and there were four jacks showing on the board, and I had one in my hand!   I woke up.   When I went back to sleep, I dreamed that we were looking for the famous treasure of an Irish hunchback dwarf.  I woke up.  When I went back to sleep, I dreamed that I WAS the Irish hunchback dwarf!  I woke up.  I finally built myself a little head tent out of pillows so the bullets wouldn’t wake me anymore. Chris was surprised when he woke up that he was using just one pillow and I had FOUR!