Tropic of Capricorn

While it is not quite like crossing the Equator, and went largely unnoticed by the kids, we crossed the Tropic of Capricorn yesterday. As we sailed out of The Narrows and into Keppel Bay, we crossed north of the Tropic (23.5 degrees S) on our way to our anchorage in a cove on the western side of Cape Capricorn (the NE corner of Curtis Island). As their science teacher, I think it will be the subject of a science lesson this week ...

Seasprint anchored at Cape Capricorn.

We have decided that Yellow Patch must be overrated, and this cove is a great place to spend a day or two. We got in reasonably late yesterday, so first went ashore this morning. We explored the beach and the sand dune, and then headed over to Yellow Patch to spend the night. It was not the easiest anchorage to get in and out of, was crowded, and also very exposed to the southerly wind, so we came back to the cove wondering if we knew something everyone else didn't. (By the time the sun set, there were seven other yachts anchored here as well, so probably not!) We went ashore again, played beach cricket, sat and read, and generally had a good day with glorious weather.

Tomorrow we plan to go ashore quickly in the morning and explore the path up to the lighthouse. We will then sail north to Hummocky Island and spend the night there, before continuing on to Great Keppel Island for a few days.

I tried our first roast in the oven tonight. While it took twice as long as it should and we had to steam the "roasted" vegies for a few minutes to finish cooking them through, we got dinner on the table. I need to play a bit more before we have the oven mastered!

Seventeen Seventy and Pancake Creek

We and seventeen other boats are currently anchored in Pancake Creek, an absolutely stunning waterway between Bustard Bay and Keppel Bay. We arrived here yesterday after a few days anchored in Round Hill Creek off Seventeen Seventy.

Crazy scooter-car-thing in 1770

We did the overtly tourist thing at Seventeen Seventy, hiring two crazy scooter-car-things that we used to explore Seventeen Seventy and Agnes Water. Daggy but a lot of fun. The trip to Pancake Creek was lovely, if a bit noisy because we didn't have enough wind to sail. After school, the boys went fishing, I baked and read and Haydee taste-tested our chocolate-caramel brownies and boogie-boarded her way around the boat (it was too cold to swim).  When the boys got back, we all went ashore and explored the beach and managed to find the well-hidden sign marking the track to the lighthouse.

We had pancakes (of course!) for breakfast/brunch this morning before hiking 4km or so to the Bustard Head Lighthouse. The squids should sleep well tonight! So should I, Shane just made me a vodka, lemon and lime...

Pancakes at Pancake Creek, of course

We're planning to move on to Gladstone and are lazily debating whether it will be tomorrow or Thursday. Shane is inclining towards Thursday because, I think, my jokes about dragging a lure up a fair chunk of Queensland's coast with a total fish tally of 0 are wearing thin. He muttered something about putting the 15hp on the dinghy and doing some serious fishing tomorrow...

A Room With A View

The view out Cameron's window this morning

Photos can't reproduce what we're seeing anywhere near well enough. They can't show you the colour of the water or the light, or what we can see off in the distance. Well, maybe David's photos can, but mine can't. I don't think Cameron appreciated it, but the view out his window at 6.30 this morning was amazing. Beach, blue water, pink sunrise and green hills in the distance. Wow.

A criminal stole my boat

A nice contrast to the criminal who stole my boat yesterday. What you can't see in the photos are the feral ugg boots he is wearing, and that he used to steer my pretty boat with at times. I can't work in these conditions.

Seriously though, the only real timings we work to nowadays are tides. We were both up early yesterday so we could get into Seventeen Seventy, 50nm or 90km from Burnett Heads, on the high tide. Conditions were fantastic up until lunchtime. No swell, negligible seas, 14-18 knot winds off our beam (Seasprint's favourite) and we almost set a new boat speed record. The wind dropped off after lunch and we motored then motor sailed for a while to make sure we would arrive on time, which we did. I haven't been to Seventeen Seventy before - it is so pretty and peaceful. We're staying for a few days - I apologise to the locals in advance for the Nicoll kids!

Extremes

We set off from Urangan Harbour on Tuesday morning (19th July) and had a great sail under spinnaker up the west coast of Fraser Island (Platypus Bay). It was fantastic weather - 10 or so knots of wind, seas at about half a metre, clear sunny skies, and deep blue water.




We were even lucky enough to snap this photo of a humpback whale breaching in Hervey Bay. Who would have known they could look so soft and cuddly?




We anchored outside Lagoon Anchorage and enjoyed some nibblies as we watched the sun set over Hervey Bay. After dinner though, the wind blew up, and because of the tide we were side on to the seas. It looked like we were in for a rough night.



Rather than a sleepless night at anchor, we all agreed on a sleepless night under sail. I did a quick passage plan, we battened down and rugged up, and set off across Hervey Bay for Bundaberg. The wind clocked 32 knots and the seas were about 2 metres, so it was not the most comfortable ride. Even under greatly reduced sail, it was a stark contrast to the sailing earlier that day. I took the first watch and Heather took over for two and half hours from 11:30pm, then I did the final stretch into Bundy - although neither of us really slept when we were off watch. Haydee snoozed in the cockpit, and was a little champion helping me do two tacks at about 2:00am and 3:00am. Cameron was comfortably curled up in his cabin all night and got the best sleep of all of us.

We pulled into the marina just after dawn on Wednesday 20th July. The rest of yesterday was spent cleaning up the boat, and catching up on sleep. We have decided we will spend two more days in Bundy, with today being a maintenance day and tomorrow we will do some of the tourist type things (read visit the rum distillery). We will then continue up the coast on Saturday. We will visit offshore destinations such as Fitzroy Reef, Lady Musgrave Island/Lagoon and Lady Elliot Island on the way back south. That will time our visit to these turtle rookeries with the nesting period of Nov/Dec.

Getting Into A Routine

The kids reading in our bed yesterday morning

We arrived at Urangan Harbour at the southern end of Hervey Bay yesterday afternoon. We finally had enough wind blowing in the right direction to sail and, with the sun out too, had a lovely day. Unlike the owner of Boomerang 7 who unfortunately got himself stuck on a sand bar off Urangan as high tide was ebbing a little after lunch time yesterday. The local Volunteer Marine Rescue got a crew together amazingly quickly on a Sunday but blew an engine trying, unsuccessfully unfortunately, to help him get off. They did take 5 people back to shore, leaving the owner on board until high tide at 10 o'clock last night - a long wait on a steep angle.

We refuelled and did laundry yesterday and will re-stock fresh food, water and gas bottles today before we leave civilisation again for another week or so. We plan to head north-east to Playtpus Bay on the north-western side of Fraser Island then back to the mainland to Bundaberg. Whale-watching season apparently officially opened yesterday and we've heard there are some in the bay - fingers crossed!!

We're getting into something resembling a routine. If we're on a timeline due to tides or weather, Shane and I are generally up early-ish and the kids are up when we start the engine which sits in between their cabins. If we're not going anywhere, we bludge in the mornings - reading, blogging or just staring into space.

Seasprint State School

Whether we're moving or not, Monday to Friday is "Seasprint State School". The first hour each day is mental maths, language, spelling and times tables - all revision and consolidation. Then we do some new english, maths, science or art. Haydee is "Exploring Literary Texts by the Same Author" (I chose Roald Dahl) and Cameron is doing "Quest Novels" in English. Cameron and I are reading The Hobbit, although Haydee recently stole it from us and Cameron is currently reading The BFG. I haven't ruled out switching their units.

We generally take turns cooking, including the kids once a week or so, and if you don't cook you wash up. The weekly menu starts with fresh food, then we defrost and eat our freezer stock, then we're into the tins. Food is stowed in our 75L fridge, 23L freezer, two small cupboards and under 3 seats.

When we're at sea, we use as little power as possible although the solar panels are doing a great job charging our 1 crank and 3 house batteries for us, supplemented by the engine for 30 minutes morning and night if we haven't used it during the day. The hot water system heats off the engine and I have been very clear about my need for a hot shower in the evening, hence the 30 minutes at night. 1 minute is a long shower - we use the time it takes for hot water to come through to hose down the head, then get wet, turn the water off to soap up, and then rinse quickly.We've found we're making full use of marina showers when we're berthed and judge a marina by their hot water system. No one has let us down yet.

Update from Cameron

Yesterday we went from Garry's Anchorage up to South White Cliffs. We didn't sail much on the way up because we went over some really shallow bits and didn't want sails up in case we bumped the bottom. We ended up bumping twice, but it was soft sand both times.

Today, Haydee and I went to the beach and had a great time climbing the sand cliffs and taking shelter from the rain.

Then I went out in the dinghy with Dad to check crab pots. The tail of our crab bait was no longer a tail, it was a plain old fish bone. Somehow, something got in, ate the bait and simply just went out again. Dad and I also had a fishing competition, who can catch the most fish. None of us won (except the fish).

Right now it's not raining but it's still dark and cloudy.

I can't not share the kids modelling their thermals

Toilets, Dolphins and Engines

We're anchored at Garry's Anchorage on the west coast of Fraser Island tonight after a day dedicated to toilet repairs in Tin Can Bay yesterday. The evenings and mornings are chilly but not as cold as Brisbane.

We had dolphins swimming alongside us for a while in Wide Bay on the way to the bar. The bay was flat and the bar crossing was fine - we crossed a few hours after low tide and got a bit of left-right rolling as waves came through but the kids thought it was great.

Today's highlight was an oil-rag doing noisy laps of our (my!) engine in an engine belt. Lesson learned. Tomorrow we'll move onto White Cliffs about 1/3 of the way up the west coast of Fraser, visit the Ceratodus wreck and top up our water. And do our Friday tests, of course! The kids are doing well with their schooling so far.

We're underway!

Noosa from Seasprint

It took us 18 months, and one extra day, but we're finally away. We said goodbye to Brisbane early this morning and arrived in Noosa a few hours ago, a long and quite cold but sunny sail. Better than the rain we had last time we did this run.

The kids have checked their email and we're all looking forward to the minestrone that has been on the stove cooking since lunchtime - yum.

One day - maybe two - to go

Haydee in her cabin this morning

All the hard work is done and aside from some essentials - food, fuel and water - we're ready to head off tomorrow, or maybe Monday if farewell brunch with Shane's family tomorrow is a little too long and lazy. The house is empty and after two open homes and one false start we've found a tenant who's promised to look after it for us for 6 months, God bless him. It took us the best part of a week to sort the house into four piles - boat, storage, Salvos or bin. We brought removalists in to help move our ridiculous amounts of "stuff" to storage - they were great - and we outsourced cleaning as well - also fantastic, thanks Kiama. The kids have been great too; we've fed the poor things more take-away than anyone could reasonably bear in the last few days and they've not only put up with it but have also been amazingly helpful (Cameron was super-helpful in the garage and see Haydee's house-boat blog for an update on her special fridge-cleaning talent...)

We're working on stowing the boat now and in doing I have found all sorts of hiding places under floor boards, beds, seats and in cupboards that Shane always knew was there. I was worried all the stuff we packed to bring on board would sink the boat but so far we're staying afloat. Amusingly, we have too few sheets and way too many towels for some reason - we have about 7 towels each; I really don't know how that happened. One of the other marina occupants laughed at us and said we looked like a caravan as we each towed a small wagon full of boxes and bags from the car to the boat yesterday.

I've got through the last few days thinking about the peace, quiet and relaxation that would engulf me once we're underway but sadly the kids start school next Tuesday. The kids are looking forward to seeing marine animals and what-not; I'm looking forward to getting into a routine.

Finally, sincere thanks to everyone who has helped us out with our adventure - the Bushells, the whole Nicoll clan, Dave T (his name is Harold Holden, please look after him!) and our lovely neighbours in Brisbane. And a special mention to Bella Guthrie who will be a wonderful big sister when her little sister arrives in six weeks or so.

Clean Bum

Freshly anti-fouled

We got a phone call yesterday confirming that Seasprint's antifoul was complete. Cameron and I, assisted by Pete and Barry as crew, met at Manly this morning to sail her back to Scarborough. All that had to be done was paint the bottom of the keel and where the fore and aft stilts were, once she was back in the sling of the travelift. The blokes at East Coast Marina again took great care, and Seasprint was carefully put back in the water; good for another 12 months (or more ...).

Sailing with a parachute

One of the things we wanted to do on the sail back was test the parachute as a head sail. I have a 23ft parachute, thanks to Pete's brother, Steve. We were surprised how easy it was to launch and recover, but that may have had something to do with the wind only being 10-15 kts. The end result was, it pulled us along at about 4kts. While Seasprint could easily handle a parachute of 30ft diameter, I am happy to stick with this one. I will use the spinnaker (which is a much bigger surface area and can be used up to 60 degrees either side of downwind) in winds up to 20kts, and pull out the parachute when running in stronger winds. It was good fun, and the only tweak we deemed necessary is a 20ft line between the two shackles so the parachute maintains it's shape a bit better.

We move on to the boat next week, and still plan to depart on Sunday 10th July.