Journal Entries

December 2008

1 December - Christmas is just around the corner and I've turned into the Grinch! I think the combination of some unpleasant experiences these past few months, the storm and resultant environment and my extra stress from work has just pushed me over the edge. Maybe the heat is getting to me as well. I really just need to get away from everything for a while. I don't like Brisbane in summer since it's steaming hot and with the river full of debris it's like living on a stinking swamp. I awoke to thumping on my boat a few nights ago and found a big log bashing up against the hull. The ferries and city cats have also been unable to operate and have only just resumed daylight operations as it's still too dangerous to operate at night. Here is a photo of the swamp, er I mean the river. (can you spot the alligator)

On a brighter note I recently came across some more vintage magazines. This time they are from the 1930's and a very interesting read. This one is October 1934.

I like these old magazines as the articles are more relevant to me than contemporary yachting magazines which just seem to be full of articles about electronic gizmos and plastic crap which lasts a few seasons (see my tiller extension below).

Below is an article on Joshua Slocum and I had to re-read the first paragraph when it read that it was only 30 years ago that he made his famous voyage.

The magazines are full of beautiful old photos of classic yachts.

What was really interesting was the advertisement below for Camel cigarettes. The little box on the left reads:

"From a famous research laboratory in New York comes a basic discovery that throws new light on our past knowledge about cigarettes. It embodies an "energizing effect" ... a harmless restoration of the flow of natural body energy ... a delightful relief from fatigue and irritability."

Smoking must have been a strong trend back then since most photos of people in the magazine included people posing with cigarettes.

So back to having a whine again. This is all part of living on a boat so I'll include it in my journal. It's a nice Sunday afternoon and finally I get some time off to just sit on my boat and relax. I make a coffee and bring my book up on deck to read while listening to the water flow past the hull (and the occasional tree which bashes into it) and the birds chirping, but wait! What's that. My neighbour needs to recharge his batteries and the only way he can do that is to use a generator. So about 15metres away from me there is now the constant drone of a 2 stroke generator. What is even more annoying is that when they start their generator they leave the boat and come back hours later. I can't imagine why?

I'm starting to get a freakin headache!!! It's been 3 hours so far, will it ever stop?

That's how close the boat is.

and there is the culprit and cause of my headache. I'm almost ready to offer to buy him a solar panel. (update: the generator ran for 5 hours and was stopped as soon as the owner came back to his boat.)

Like anywhere in society, people vary. There are considerate and inconsiderate people. Apparently boating is no different. Someone asked me to borrow my dinghy the other day because they didn't have an outboard on theirs and had to go somewhere. I was too busy to give them a lift so I said ok, thinking they would be making a quick trip in it. I returned later to find my dinghy with about an ounce of fuel left (I had filled it the day before) and what's more now there is a clunking action in the gears. I asked about the clunking and was told that my painter rope had got caught in the propeller and stalled the engine....TWICE. Hey, at least I got an explanation for the damage. You've just got to love people. From now on I'm not talking to anybody. I think I'll walk around with some headphones on just so people don't try to talk to me or ask me for favours.

I know some people reading this are probably thinking why don't I just say "no" or say something about the fuel etc. It's not that simple. Living in a small community like this you can't afford to get people off side and if my boat was sinking I would like to think people would lend a hand. So I suppose it's a type of insurance.

Since I wasn't going to be able to relax I did a bit of maintenance. This is what I mean about the difference in quality to things back in 1930. This little tiller extension for an outboard is handy but look at the screws the manufacturer puts in it. Seriously, why wouldn't you use stainless steel knowing that it's going to be used in a marine environment. I bet if it was made in the 30's (maybe outboards weren't the thing back then) it would be a nice bronze fitting on a varnished timber handle.

Here is the screw removed. I replaced them with new stainless screws.

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I really want to get away at Christmas since I haven't had a day off from work this year. Each time I've tried to get a day off I've had an emergency arise at work and needed to be there. I will be running around like crazy for the next couple of weeks trying to get everything finished so I can get away. I need to get the following jobs sorted ASAP:

1. my Fleming wind vane mount needs to be re built as the angle is incorrect and it also needs to be extended to clear the post on the back of the boat. I really need to get this sorted since I have no autopilot and no way of steering the boat while working the sails. If only Cutty could steer the boat;

2. My wind generator post needs to have a backing plate secured underneath, but currently it interferes with the wind vane mount. This is a tricky job;

3. My bobstay clevis pin still hasn't been replaced and I've ordered one in from the chandlery. Hopefully it will arrive by next week;

4. I lost a part of my lifeline overboard whilst adjusting them a few weeks ago. I need to get some parts from the chandlery for that and also some additional lifelines swaged.

5. Fuel filters need to be replaced;

6. Fuel needs to be bought (I'm on my last 5 litres of diesel) although I'm hoping not to use my engine at all.

6, 7, 8, ..... the list goes on.

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6 December - This weekend I had planned to get an early start and knock over some jobs on my list. I didn't get much sleep last night due to the regular Friday & Saturday night happenings of the drunk people coming out of the pubs after midnight carrying on and smashing bottles. There was a lot of smashing bottles last night and once again some of the bicycles from the dock area were stolen and thrown into the river. My first job was fishing the bikes out of the water.

After that I took Cutty off to breakfast and a hydrobath then to the chandlery to get some bits and pieces. A priority job was to replace the clevis pin on the bobstay fitting. I had ordered in 4 new clevis pins to replace all the existing ones on the bobstay and have a spare on hand. Below is the quite unsatisfactory temporary solution.

and the lovely new Ronstan clevis pin. The pins are 16mm x 45mm and at a cost of $20.00 each I was making sure not to drop any in the water.

Here is the old one from the other fitting which is probably still ok, but I figure it's probably been there for 10 or more years and there's no time like the present to change it. I may have to replace the new ones yet since I think they are a bit too long. I'll check whether that is going to be an issue.

and the big old chrome plated bronze fitting. I checked this over carefully for any sign of cracks or corrosion but the good old bronze fittings just last and last.

and finally a job completed.

a close up of the new clevis pins and recently replaced bobstay fitting which led to the whole problem.

It was extremely hot and humid today and even though I had finished the job above by 9am I was dripping with sweat. Brisbane is not a pleasant place to be in the summer. Not for me anyway as I much prefer temperatures in the low 20's.

My next job was the masthead light. I have wanted to replace the bulb with a new LED for some time and have tried a couple of cheap ($30) LED replacements. They were rubbish and I would not have slept well at night on anchor knowing that I was not well lit and visible to other vessels. Finally I decided to go for one of these "Mastproducts" LED lights. It has 50 super bright LEDs and I had heard that they were very good. At $60 I was hoping it was, although what price do you put on having to go up the mast at sea to change a blown bulb? These LED's should last at least 100,000 hours.

I got to the top of my mast using the "mastmate" steps which I really like. Here is a view of the city from the masthead.

and while I am up here I figured I should show you around the moorings.

to the right are the botanical gardens where Cutty goes for a run each morning and night. At lunch time I take her to sit on the patch of grass near the water and we usually have a salmon sushi roll.

there goes someone in a dinghy heading to the dock.

In the photo above you can see the tip of the dutch flag. Below is a full photo of the boat which is currently my neighbour (on my starboard side). It is a beautiful Hans Christian 38 and is owned by a very nice Dutch couple and their very young son. They are great neighbours.

T

On the Port side is the big schooner with that noisy generator. I've seriously had it!!! All day today it's been running and they leave the boat. In fact it's 7pm as I write this and it's still whirring away. I'm surprised it runs that long on a tank of fuel. Fortunately I'm not here during the week, but I know it's going to be running tomorrow when all I want to do is have some peace and quiet on a Sunday morning. I think I'm going to have to say something to him, perhaps could he just not run it on a Sunday. It makes me wonder how inefficient his onboard systems must be as there are only 2 people on board and I can't imagine why he needs to run his generator every day for in excess of 5 hours.

and below is my old Westsail. Those 2 solar panels give me more than enough energy now that I have LED lighting. I don't run the fridge but when I get it sorted with a eutectic tank I think it will still be enough.

ok, so back to the LED masthead light. Here it is on. Looks really good so far. I'll be interested to see it tonight and also how much power it draws.

Here is a shot taken at around 6pm. Despite the photo not looking that bright, it is in fact excellent. The light is actually brighter than the old 25 watt bulb.

The power usage is amazing. Just .2 of an amp as compared with 1.2 for the old bulb. That's quite a significant power saving considering it would generally be left on for 10 - 12 hours each day whilst on anchor. I just saved myself 10-12 amps per day! To consider it another way, it is the equivalent of me adding a 25watt solar panel which would produce about 10-12 amps per day.

I LOVE LED LIGHTING!

Tomorrow morning I'm meeting with the bloke who does my stainless steel jobs. I need to get my Fleming wind vane mount finished. I want to adjust the angle slightly and also extend it by 20cms. I'll get some photos and post them tomorrow.

It's so bloody hot here!!!

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7 December - I had a chance to look at the masthead light after dark last night. Wow! what a bright light. It is much brighter than the old 25watt globe and I can absolutely recommend this product.

This morning I went out to get my wind vane bracket sorted. I needed to extend it a bit further aft and added 20cms to it. The bloke who does the stainless work for me is fantastic. He wasn't really happy with the end result and wants to make something which looks nicer. He is a bit of a perfectionist and it's so good to know that there are people who take pride in their work. I told him I just wanted to get it mounted so I could test it and then I'll get something permanent next year. I may even replace the timber boomkin with a stainless one and incorporate the wind generator pole as well. I'm very conscious of trying to keep the boat looking like a yacht and not a caravan so I will try my best to find a balance of form and function.

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7 December:- As predicted the generator on the ferro schooner next to me started up today. It wasn't until 2pm but it's now 5pm and it's still running and probably will be until 7pm. I spoke to the owner about it earlier and he said, "yeah, I have a massive chest freezer, I don't muck around with the dinky stuff". It's just him and his son on the boat so I can't figure why they need a "massive chest freezer". Anyway, a few of the other yachts are getting annoyed with the daily drone of the generator and I now regret helping the guy out when he got stuck coming in since his attitude is to let everyone else suffer while he leaves his boat with the generator running. Hopefully he isn't going to be here too long as he needs to go back to Western Australia for work.

I'm back to the office tomorrow for another punishing week. I've started to develop a nervous tick and each day I'm getting a headache. I really need this break over Christmas.

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8 December - The planets must be doing something strange or is it the hot weather, or is it just me? These past few weeks have just been a nightmare. I'm actually at the point now where I am just sitting back and laughing about it all (it's not a funny laugh, but a strange crazy laugh). (have I finally cracked?)

I didn't mention that yesterday when I went out to get the wind vane bracket mount fixed I had to rent a car. So as I was leaving the steel place with the vane mount I placed my keys and wallet on the bonnet of the car just near the passenger windscreen. In my typical rush I sped off to get the car back on time. Of course I later found that I had no keys and wallet, which contains all my credit cards, licence, keys for everything (did I already say that?). Anyway, to keep the story short I finally recovered my keys & wallet which were sitting in the middle of the road somewhere but got the rental car back late.

Yesterday I also tried to get my lifelines sorted and had discussed swaging with the man at the chandlery. I asked him if they did swaging of terminals and he assured me that they did (or that was what I thought I heard). I actually described the big hydraulic press needed and said to him that I didn't think you did swaging here and he said, "yes we do". So I went back to the boat took the lifelines off, did my measurements and made a special trip back out to the chandlery. I placed the coiled lifelines on the desk and said happily, "I'd like to get some swaging done". The response from the same man was, we don't do swaging here. Apparently what he had said to me was that he can supply the fittings.

Then the generator issue (as described above) and finally after a long day of rushing around in 30 degree heat and extreme humidity I was finally going to call it a night. I was about to hook the dinghy into its harness to lift it up beside the boat when someone called out to me and asked if I could give them a lift to the dock. By that stage I was completely over doing people favours but I figured they must be going away and didn't want to leave their boat at the dock and since I have had my boat stolen at night from the dock I figured I should help out.

So I pick him up from his boat and as we are heading down to the dock the conversation goes something like this:-

Me: "are you heading out tonight?"

Him: "no I just took a bunch of pills and the ambulance is waiting for me."

Me: "well that's no good, how did you manage that?"

Him: "I'm suicidal."

Me: "err ok."

So we arrive at the dock and there are 4 ambulance officers waiting. An argument commences between him and the officers and I'm sitting in the dinghy thinking how the hell did I get into the middle of this. He's asking me to take him back to his boat, the ambulance officers are asking me to stay because they want to take him away.

Eventually he insists on me taking him back to his boat and I happily oblige since:-

a. he doesn't appear to be suffering any effects from the pills;

b. if he was serious about killing himself he wouldn't have called an ambulance;

c. he told the ambulance officers to get lost (the exact expression was not so polite); and

d. I support euthanasia.

In due course the water police arrive and there is a big commotion. By that time over an hour later, I'm back on my boat , tired, dazed and a little confused.

For the sake of completeness (and for those who think I'm completely insensitive), the bloke who was suicidal went willingly with the water police and probably had a more restful night than me.

It's an interesting place.

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13 December - Today is a scorcher. It's about 30 degrees but so incredibly humid. Just breathing makes me sweat.

I am trying to get everything finalised before Christmas so I can get away sailing for at least a few days. It's difficult to find the time to do all I have to but I'm doing my best. Today I started early so Cutty & I headed off across town to the chandlery to get bits & pieces for the boat. The chandlery wasn't open until 8.30am so the schedule was as follows:

7.00am - breakfast at the Brown Dog Cafe;

8.00 - Hydro Bath at the vets;

8.30 - Shopping at the Chandlery.

Below is a photo of us en-route to the chandlery. I took the photo as we were riding along the footpath at high speed. I thought it turned out quite artistic with the contrasting textures of the stone wall cane basket and shaggy dog. Cutty thoroughly enjoys riding around in the big basket but the heat really gets to both of us. She's thankful I didn't make her run.

and here is a photo of Cutty's Magnificent Chariot and her humble driver.

Finally afer all that was done I went back and bolted up the new wind vane mounting bracket and mounted the vane onto it. I'm very happy with the result. Previously the wind vane (the top air vane) was too close to the stainless pole at the back of the boat which the wind generator will sit on.

Having extended the vane mount by 20cms aft allows the vane to clear the post. You can see that the vane is at an angle in the photo above and has plenty of room to clear.

Below is a closer shot and you can see that the angle of the stainless bracket is now horizontal, whereas before it was tilted slightly upward which accentuated the clearance problem . I'm looking forward to giving the vane a test run over Christmas.

I've also decided to varnish the two main hatches instead of using Cetol. I figure that the 2 hatches really are a beautiful feature of the yacht and deserve to be treated with special attention. I will get some covers made for them to protect the varnish and the covers will also keep some sun light out during the summer.

Here is the main saloon hatch sanded and ready for a coat of varnish.

Below is the forward, slightly smaller hatch over my bed, also sanded and ready for varnishing.

They both should look a treat with 7 - 10 coats of varnish and I'll be sure to maintain them for fear of having to strip the varnish off.

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22 December - Even though the rains have stopped and the weather is fine (although bloody hot) there is still the occasional log floating down the river. The Hans Christian next to me caught a big branch on its mooring lines. As the owners were away for a couple of weeks I got in the dinghy and towed it over the the shore.

Last weekend I figured it was time to change the zinc anode on my outboard. I am a big fan of Yamaha outboards and my little 5hp has worked flawlessly and shows no sign of corrossion. Unlike some other brands the yamahas seem to be more resistant to corrossion.

Below is the zinc anode removed from the bottom of the outboard. It is obviously doing its job well since its quite corroded.

and below is the new one installed. I took the photo below after the anode had been in the water for just one day. I was surprised to see that it had already started to corrode. At least I know it's doing its job properly. I will also check the zinc anodes in the onboard diesel engine since it's been almost a year since I replaced them last.

I recently purchased a new dinghy. It is a 2.6 metre hypalon inflatable with a rigid aluminium bottom. I plan to take it into the manufacturer next year to have a cover made and a few modifications. I'm not going to use this while I'm on the pile moorings since it would probably get damaged, slashed or stolen. I will keep it for use when I go away sailing and for the long term. I'm yet to test how it fits on deck and I'm a bit concerned it is too heavy at 40kg.

and a photo taken from the shore with the new dinghy hauled up alongside.

Cutty is well and sporting her new haircut. She seems much happier now since she is coping better with the heat. I'm looking forward to taking her away sailing over Christmas where she can swim every day and try to catch fish. Have I mentioned what a great dog Cutty is? Every morning when I wake up she is there looking up at me, wagging her tail with a big smile on her face. She has such a great temprament and is content to fit in with whatever I'm doing. I can't imagine not having her around.

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27 December - Having worked right up until Christmas, I spent Christmas Day readying the boat for sailing. I hadn't planned any particular destination but just knew that if I didn't get away from Brisbane I would end up getting really depressed when I started back at work in the new year. It's been a year since I took the boat out. Unbelievable!

Having spent Christmas day and boxing day sorting out minor issues on the boat I finally headed off this morning at about 11am. I had set up my mooring lines so that they would be hopefully easy to retrieve and handle when I returned. Single handing takes a little more thought and preparation, especially when trying to negotiate a strong tidal current in narrow quarters.

Below is a photo of the pile moorings as I set off. My mooring is the third pile back in the left of the photo.

and motoring down the rest of the pile mooring berths.

having turned around you can see the pile moorings in the background and I'm headed for clear waters.

As I was heading down the river I looked at some of the new waterfront houses and thought how curious it was that these types of things were once on my wish list. I used to aspire to owning a big house like this but now I look at them and realise that people spend a lifetime working to buy one, often never actually owning them and their lives and dreams pass them by.

I think Cutty has life worked out. She seems extremely comfortable on the boat and I got the impression she new we had a little adventure ahead of us.

On the way down the river I saw an old double ender which I recognised as "Spindrift". I saw this yacht listed on ebay a couple of years back. She appeared to be pretty neglected back then but she looks like someon has given her some tlc and brought her back to life. From memory the old boat had a very interesting history having sailed from Los Angeles.

and a little further down was Jill Knight's beautiful classic "Cooee". Jill is really well known in the cruising community having single handed around the world on this 100 odd year old timber classic. Jill keeps the yacht in bristol condition and is a really lovely lady.

and almost into the bay I passed the cranes on Brisbane Port dock. Each time I go past this port it gets bigger. They are actually extending it by creating land in the bay.

Unfortunately the wind was dead against me and straight down the channel. Being quite narrow it's difficult to sail in the main shipping channel and on either side the water is too shallow to deviate from it. So I was faced with lots of tacking and dodging the occassional tanker.

Once I got past the main channel I was able to tack away and pick up some speed. I have been looking forward to testing out my new Fleming Wind Vane. I hooked it up and observed what it did.

Having been sitting in the river for almost a year now I haven't been able to do much maintenance on the boat and I have really paid for it. The headsail was mildew and will need to be cleaned. It's just so difficult to clean the boat in the river since the water is filthy and fresh water difficult to get. So the result is that I have neglected normal maintenance.

The wind was picking up and so was the sea. Although these photos don't look like bad weather it was a bit uncomfortable since I was trying to beat into it. What is so frustrating is that it takes so long to get somewhere in weather like this since the waters on moreton bay become very steep and frequent. This combination makes it very slow going.

I wasn't having much success and it was not a pleasant sail. The only option was to either motor into it, which is in my opinion a last resort (after all I have a sailing boat for a reason) or take a long tack south to get into the lee of the island where the weather would be better, then head north. This would turn the trip into about 12 hours.

I set the Fleming Wind Vane on a South/East course and it steered us for the next 4 hours. Cutty's and my little adventure was in motion.

After a pretty crappy afternoon and night of sailing into unpleasant conditions we arrived at around 10.30pm, dropped anchor and put the sail cover on. I was pretty tired from beating into the weather all day so headed straight to bed.

28 December 2008 - At about 1.30am a squall came through the anchorage blowing at about 35 - 40 knots. I'm so glad that I packed everything away properly despite being tired and not really wanting to. It's a good practice to get into and something I do each night when on anchor since a storm can come up without warning and catch me off guard. I never leave my shade awnings up or my outboard on the dinghy and if I need to get out of an anchorage I'm ready to go immediately.

This morning was looking better. It was nice that the boat got a bit of a fresh water wash down last night. What really struck me was the clarity of the water. It's been so long since I've seen clean, clear sea water. Living in the river really is dirty. I would love to be able to pull up a bucket of clear water and wash the decks down each morning, but the river water would just leave more dirt than it washes away.

I looked around the boat and was really disappointed with myself for letting it get into such a neglected state. It was filthy and I took this opportunity to get to work cleaning.

I hauled bucket of clean seawater after bucket and scrubbed the entire boat. It as only 5.30am but I was like a man posessed. I needed to get rid of the dirt!

I scrubbed all the corners and dirt just kept coming out.

After a little while, old El Viajero was looking semi respectable.

The teak decks were coming up like new and the dirt just kept coming out of them. I was ashamed of myself that I had let it come to this.

After scrubbing and cleaning I had worked up quite an appetite. I think it's important to eat very well while sailing. I actually eat better when away then I do when living in the city. I felt like a big breakfast and thought I should try my best to replicate my usual Saturday breakfast at the Brown Dog Cafe.

Having a good galley onboard makes an enormous difference. I love my gas cooker and stainless steel preparation bench (see left of photo).

I eventually settled for scrambled eggs with halved cherry tomatos, rye toast and avacodo. The cooker does an excellent job and I don't think an alcohol burner would provide sufficient heat for good cooking.

and my version of the dog's breakfast. Ok maybe I'll call this one the Sailor's breakfast.

of course Cutty wasn't going to miss out and she got some scrambled eggs, a lamb chop and some chicken necks. Not quite as appealing as my breakfast but she wasn't complaining.

After breakfast it was time to move anchorage and I carried out a quick inspection of the anchor chain. I am still using the old anchor chain which has been sitting in the anchor locker for almost a year, rusting away. I have 100 metres of new anchor chain sitting in the bilge ready to swap out with the old. I'll try to get around to doing that within the next 6 months.

The trip across had one casualty. A snatch block for the headsail sheet broke. It was quite old and probably broke due to age.

the retaining pin which sits in the hole below popped out.

Fortunately I carry a couple of spare snatch blocks and was able to replace it immediately. The new block in the photo below is a better quality item as it has a bronze roller instead of the nylon type in the old one.

We moved anchorage and since it was getting quite hot Cutty & I took a swim. The water was beautiful. Imagine water which is crystal clear and a temperature which is just cool enough to reduce your body temperature to an ideal. Cutty thought it was pretty terrific as well. We are in paradise!

So back to the boat and I wanted to take this opportunity to try to get as much maintenance done as I could. After all it was going to be a while before I would get an opportunity to see under the water.

I wanted to check the zinc anode on the prop shaft and it was good news. The anode should last at least a few more months before requiring a change.

Meanwhile as I'm working, the lady of the yacht was laying on deck sunning herself. I never understood the saying, "it's a dog's life".

We still had several days left of holidays and I was intent on making the most of it. I particularly wanted Cutty to experience the sailing life and get lots of swimming practice. As you will see from the next ship's journal entry, it turns out, we both did.