Journal Entries

August 2006

10 August - It's been 10 days and my boat is finally back in the water. It's such a shame my camera was broken and I only got a replacement sorted a couple of days ago. All of the work has been done now and I have no photos of it in progress. Below is a photo taken today at Deagon slipway about 1 hour before she went back in the water.

I am so happy with the way everything turned out. Peter did such a great job and I'll be posting some more photos of the work in the coming days.

11 August - I was hoping to bring the boat home this morning but I've been caught at work all day and couldn't' get out to the slipway until 7pm. I had to catch the outgoing tide midway since the creek has some shallow spots. It's a pretty eerie place way up the creek amongst the mangroves at night. Here is a photo El Viajero sitting at the dock near the slipway, waiting to come home.

At about 8.30pm I headed down the creek in the dark. Fortunately it was a full moon which provided some light. There is one point along the creek where there are a couple of channel markers which avoid a submerged obstacle. I had assumed they would have a light at night, but very nearly found out the hard way that they didn't. I was actually beam on to the first marker (albeit on the wrong side) when I spotted it. I actually had to use a torch to see it. Fortunately I was able to back up and go around it.

It was such a beautiful night as I sailed out onto the bay. There was about 5 knots of breeze, a full moon and the bay was like a lake. I sailed for about 1/2 an hour and decided to just drop anchor in the middle of the bay. Below is a photo of the full moon and reflection on the water. It was just so beautiful out there and was one of those moments you savour.

I managed to have a good nights sleep knowing the weather was so calm and there was nothing close for me to drift into. I was anchored in 6 metres of water.

12 August - This is a photo of my anchorage taken this morning. You can see from the photo how calm the water was.

This was going to be a magical day. I decided to spend the morning cleaning the boat. I washed down everything I could using a bucket over the side. There was still plenty of dust on the boat from all the deck sanding.

But first things first, breakfast and a good strong coffee. If you are cruising and enjoy good espresso, then I can thoroughly recommend these stove top machines. They take a little practice to perfect but once mastered, they make great coffee. Here is a photo of my mine ready to go.

Below is the port side deck freshly plugged and caulked after I had given them a wash down.

Peter also made a new front hatch for me. I was never happy with the old one and it was long overdue to be replaced. It makes an enormous difference having clear glass instead of the old cracked perspex and it's nice looking up from my bed at the stars.

The new one is a perfect match to the existing saloon hatch which you can see in the foreground. I just need to give it a few coats of cetol to colour match it.

After I had cleaned the boat the wind started to pick up slightly. There was only about 5-8 knots but I was determined to get some sailing in today. I pulled anchor and headed across the bay. I had to be back at the marina by 5pm.

As I sailed toward the main channel of the river I passed a pod of dolphins. They seemed to be playing as several jumped from the water. I tried to get some photos of them, but each time they jumped I was too slow. This one came close to the boat but seemed to be a little shy and kept his distance. I felt he was just checking me out.

I began to call out to him (or her, I'm not sure how you tell) and he must have understood what I was saying (which was "hey, come over here").

He suddenly appeared right beside me and I think he might have been trying to blow water at me since it almost did.

He hung around for a minute diving under the keel of the boat. I think he was checking out Peter's fine antifoul job and then disappeared.

It doesn't get much better than this, sailing across calm blue water with a gentle breeze and having conversations with dolphins. It's tempting to just keep sailing.

I finally made it into the main channel. Here is one of the big starboard markers.

Coming up from behind was a big tanker. These things must have so much power as they send off an enormous bow wave. I hope not to encounter too many of these on the way to Tasmania. I wouldn't be the first sailor to be run down by a tanker while trying to get some sleep.

Below is the dockwise yacht transports ship. This ship actually partially submerges to allow yachts of all size to go aboard. Once in, they then re float and transport the yachts to all around the globe. Some of the yachts are transported from port to port and the owners just fly in and stay on the boat. To me it sort of defeats the point since the voyage is part of the adventure.

I made it back to the marina after 2.5 hours of pushing against the outgoing tide. Normally I would try to time my trip up river with the incoming tide but I was rushing to get back to work.

13 August - Well it's Sunday night and I have just uploaded the journal update above. I am sitting in my office again working to a deadline for tomorrow morning. This is going to be a busy week. I want to get a couple of coats of cetol on my new hatch this week. There is always next weekend I suppose.

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18 August - It is Friday and almost "next weekend" and I have managed to finish up work so I can get away sailing again. I prepared the boat after work tonight and headed off at about 10pm. There wasn't much wind and I decided to motor most of the way across the bay to Moreton Island. I had arranged to meet Colin from "Soya" over at the anchorage on Saturday morning. I arrived the anchorage at 3.30am and dropped anchor for the night just south of the wrecks. Colin had arrived a couple of hours earlier.

19 August - I awoke this morning to find that Soya was anchored just north of me. I hoisted the anchor and set the jib and slowly sailed over to Soya. As I approached I turned up wind and the tide took me backward as I laid out my anchor chain. This was motorless anchoring in true "Pardey" style. Colin jumped into his kayak and paddled over to say hello. There's Colin with Soya anchored in the background.

The day was shaping up to be just beautiful. Here is El Viajero with her new front hatch.

I decided to give my new camera a test and jumped in the dinghy and motored over to the wrecks. Here is a photo taken from in the water of my dinghy.

The camera can take photos down to about 1.5m underwater. I took the following photos from just below the surface as I snorkeled. As you can see there is plenty of fish life around the wrecks.

After a bit of snorkeling I came back to the boat, had a nice long hot shower in the cockpit and felt like I was a million miles away from everywhere.

Here are two Westsails in the sunset. El Viajero is on the left and Soya on the right.

Colin invited me over for a fish bbq dinner on Soya which was delicious.

After comparing boats and sailing stories I came back to El Viajero at about 10pm and called it a night.

20 August - Colin was heading back to Mooloolaba this morning and I decided to leave the anchorage and sail over to St Helena Island.

Along the way I noticed something large in the water and went over to check it out. At first I thought it was a whale as it was covered in barnacles. It was actually a turtle. The photo below shows the turtle with its head out of the water giving me the evil eye.

It was difficult to get good photos of the turtle since I was sailing and didn't want to disturb it too much. This thing was enormous and was bigger than any turtle I had seen before. The shell was well over a metre long and it wasn't round like the turtles I had seen previously. You can see it underwater in the lower left side of the photo below

As I got closer it surfaced and I could see it's enormous fins.

I later found out that this was a leatherback turtle (see illustration below). Apparently they are quite rare and on the brink of extinction. I wish I had taken some more time to get some good photos. There is some footage in my video section. Here is a link with some information about these turtles and the survival problems they are facing.

http://wwf.org.au/articles/leatherback-turtles-close-to-the-brink/

The water was full of jelly fish today and apparently the leatherback turtles feed on them. That leatherback must have been having a feast today. Below is a photo taken from the bowsprit of one of the thousands of jelly fish in the water. Apparently one problem the leatherbacks face is mistaking plastic bags for jelly fish.

After my encounter with the leatherback I continued to sail over to St Helena Island. There was another boat in the anchorage and I wasn't that happy about anchoring near it since the wind was really picking up from the east. I had a look at my chart and saw that the next best anchorage was on the western side of Peel Island. It was at least a few hours sail away since it was due east and I would need to tack a couple of times. I had never been to peel island and would arrive at a strange anchorage in the dark. Below is a photo at dusk as I was heading back across the bay to peel island.

I arrived at peel island at about 7pm and anchored in about 8 metres of water. The anchorage gave plenty of shelter from the easterly wind and I slept well.

21 August - I was interested to see the anchorage in daylight and as I stepped up on deck this was the view.

I had left plenty of room from the shore and could have gone in a little further. It is difficult to judge distances at night and thought it was better to be safe than run aground.

There was only a knot of wind when I had finished breakfast and was ready to leave the anchorage. I lifted the anchor, it was a muddy bottom and the anchor chain was covered in mud. I washed the chain down as best I could with a bucket then jumped into the dinghy as the anchor sat at water level and gave it a good clean before bringing it up anywhere near my nice new decks.

I set sail back to the north in about 2 knots of breeze. It was actually pretty nice just ghosting along with some nice music playing. The breeze gradually picked up and within an hour from peel island I was cruising along at a leisurely 5 knots.

I spotted something floating in the water and headed toward it. I rounded up beside the object and brought the boat to a standstill. The object was a crab trap and inside was a turtle (not a leatherback). Unfortunately I had found him too late and he was dead. The reason the trap was floating was because the turtle had been dead for some time and was bloated. It was very sad to see this poor little guy like this. He would have gone in to get the bait and once trapped he would have drowned. This is probably a common occurrence and it's no wonder that the leatherback turtles are close to extinction.

After my encounter with the dead turtle I continued on. It was pretty difficult to stay sad on a beautiful day like today. I had a great breeze and plenty of sunshine. Below is a photo of my solar panel on the port side catching some charge for my batteries. At the right time this will charge at 4amps per hour per panel.

By midday the breeze had increased to over 15 knots and I was pointing just off the wind at 6.5 knots. This was sailing!

As I passed between Mud Island and St Helena I was clocking 7 knots on the GPS. I could sail like this all day. I finally rounded the markers in the main channel of the river and turned west to run down wind. I set the whisker pole out to starboard and let the main out to port and sailed bat winged down the main channel.

I had not needed to start the motor at all today and it wasn't until I was about 20minutes away from home that the wind was diffused by the surrounding city buildings. As I was heading up the river under sail, an old square rigger was heading down the river. This was a pretty sight.

What a fantastic 3 days I have had sailing out to the islands around Moreton Bay. There is such a diverse range of sea life. I didn't even know what a leather back turtle was before today. That was definitely the highlight of the weekend. Winter sailing here in Brisbane is beautiful and I will try to get out again next weekend.

Below is a google earth image of my trip this weekend. About 70 nautical miles. The two yellow dots are the places I anchored overnight.

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26 August - After last weekend I couldn't resist going sailing again this weekend. I finished work late on Friday and quickly did a shop to provision the boat then tried to get a couple of hours sleep. I had to get the boat out of the marina at midnight due to the tide and had originally planned to leave then. I was too tired to face the 5 hour trip across the bay so I decided to tie the boat up to the outside dock and get a few hours sleep. This would still allow me a couple of hours of outgoing tide.

27 August - I left the marina this morning at 4am, catching the last 2 hours of the outgoing tide. As I got to the mouth of the river it was just on sunrise and there was lots of activity in the main port. Below you can see a tug pushing a ship side on into a dock. It was the busiest I have seen the port with 3 or 4 ships coming into down the main channel.

It was a beautiful time of the day. A gentle breeze was blowing from the East, there was a slight chill in the wind, the sunrise cast its pink glow across the clouds while the sea birds were out diving for their breakfast.

I passed the final channel marker where some sea birds eyed me off nervously and headed straight across to Moreton Island.

About 3/4 of the way across and since there was no rush, I thought I would try heaving to. I dropped the headsail and with a full main headed up into the wind. I put the tiller all the way over to the leeward side and then it happened. I was hove to. Being a full keel boat the Westsails heave to easily. Below is a photo of the turbulence the full keel created as I ever so slowly slipped sideways through the water. To heave to properly, the boat must create this turbulence effect.

Below is a picture of the tiller lashed hard over to the leeward side.

I resumed my course, happy that if I need to I can heave to.

As I approached Moreton Island I passed several shallow parts of the bay. You can see the contrasting colours of the shallow water.

I made it to Moreton Island about 6 hours later and dropped anchor. That's El Viajero anchored in the background.

Below is a picture of my anchorage.

I was anchored in about 9 metres of water here.

A few weeks ago I was contacted by a man who was looking to buy a Westsail and had come across my site. His name is Paul and he paid me a visit while the boat was out at Peter's slipway getting the decks done. I showed him over the boat and I think he's convinced a Westsail is the boat for him.

Paul was very kind to bring me a book written by W.B. Crealock who was partially responsible for the Westsail design. Crealock borrowed the original design of the Colin Archer, Norwegian pilot boats to create the Westsail 32. In 1952 when Crealock was a younger man and only starting out in the world of sail he wrote a book titled "Vagabonding Under Sail". The story is about his adventure with several other crew members on a old timber sailing boat called "Content". I spent much of the day reading this book.

Being the only boat in an anchorage must create some curiosity for the local wildlife. This cute little fellow decided he would come and check me out. Perhaps he thought I looked a bit lonely all on my own. He spent about an hour excitedly jumping around the boat. I began to wonder if it was his intention to move aboard since he seemed quite at home.

As the afternoon came around it started getting cooler. I spent the afternoon with a cup of tea and making progress through Crealock's book. I was feeling 'content'. (pun intended)

What a perfect ending to the day.

and my attempt at a creative shot (since I have a new camera).

28 August - Last night the wind started to pick up from the South and I always get nervous about the anchorage here and being so close to the beach. If it turned westerly overnight I would be fighting a lee shore. Being on my own I have to consider these things, like getting the anchor up and having to run back and forth to the cock pit to adjust the engine/tiller etc.

I decided at about 6pm last night to move to deeper water and somewhere offering better protection from the South. It was fortunate that I did because last night became quite unpleasant. It rained briefly and the wind turned to a Southerly and then South/West. I had moved out to about 15 metres of water which gave me about a 200m off the beach. This morning I headed off back to Brisbane. The photo below is looking back to where I anchored last night.

There was a gentle breeze blowing from the South/East as I headed down toward my previous anchorage and toward the narrow channel leading out from Moreton Island.

As I got out onto the bay the breeze actually died and I was only sailing at about 3 knots. Not what I had hoped for since I needed to be at the mouth of the river by 11am so I could catch the last of the tide running in.

As I got close to the mouth of the river I figured that Brisbane must have had some heavy rainfall last night. There was lots of junk in the water and enormous schools of jelly fish. There must have been thousands of them.

The wind died even further and I was forced to motor. I hate motoring and it's only that I needed to catch that incoming tide, otherwise I would be content to sit around until the wind increased. Below is a photo of the calm and windless bay waters as I came down the main channel.

As I entered the river this enormous tanker was leaving. This was the biggest ship I have ever seen. It was monstrous and it's hard to tell from the photos but trust me, I would not want to come across this thing at night out on the ocean.

and below is a picture of the view I would rather see if I came across it out at sea.

Further up the river this destroyer was leaving. It looked like it meant serious business with its missiles clearly visible on deck.

And below is a view of the busy road and built up area as I got closer to the city. I started to feel stressed again just at the sight of it all.

and where those high rise buildings are is home for me right now. It will be a great day when I sail down this river with the knowledge that I will not be coming back.