Leg 66 - Manly to Mooloolaba and a Trio of Troubles

To say we were rusty would be an understatement. We'd essentially not been to sea for 6 weeks. The boat had just been fully serviced during the recent haul-out. The engine serviced; some ropes replaced/swapped; the hull anti-fouled and topsides polished; a battery replaced, so what could go wrong?

 

Gathering menace.

Clouds building over Moreton Bay

Wind down and swell off-shore and building.

Special racks for his surfboards on both sides made this yacht look like a bee with full pollen sacs.

Sheltering from a ferocious East Coast Low at the Royal Queensland Yacht Squadron proved to be a wise move. Our initial booking for Saturday and Sunday to facilitate family contact was rapidly brought forward to Friday once we'd seen the forecast. Stepping ashore to spend the weekend on land with the kids was a comfortable and great idea. Our good friend George loaned us his ute which made traveling up to Brisbane a trip of under 30 minutes and getting re-provisioned a snap on the way back.

 

One of 2 carts of shopping.

After the storms had passed, the sense that there might be substantial debris washed out to sea proved accurate with reports reaching us of a catamaran being holed in Moreton Bay on the Monday. It was Bossa Nova, a boat previously encountered in Lakes Entrance and again in Sydney. Rotten luck for them as they, like us, were straight out from the boat yard. Now they were headed directly for another to get the hull, a rudder and sail drive repaired! So we waited for conditions to calm a little more and the water to clear. The cost for 7 days at the marina was the same as 5, so we stayed the week -what the heck! The Brisbane River pile moorings were out of action for maintenance anyway, and we planned our next stopover for the following weekend, hoping to be again in range of the family.

Our week was up, the weather fine but our morning exit from the marina slightly delayed. In the first instance, the fridges unexpectedly turned off during the night. The Bloke has a 6th sense for noises and changes and woke in the night noticing the absence of compressor hum. Troubleshooting in the middle of the night included preparation to remove a panel in the cabin but this necessitated removing the kettle plug first. We actually use an electric kettle when we are on shore power (why use our gas when electricity is provided in the marina fee?). Miraculously, the fridge and freezer clicked back to life. Goody: a bit of a win. Possibly a loose connection in there but we can sort that out in an anchorage later.  TROUBLE #1

As we prepared to leave, the Bloke attempted to transfer some waypoints from the iPad to the cockpit chartplotter. Half an hour of threats to open the dreaded F@$k Box ensued. No matter what we tried, the iPad wouldn't pair with the multiplexer. Grrrrr. Time and tide waits for no man they say and we really did need to get going. We were only going across Moreton Bay with the idea of anchoring at Yellow Patch at the northern end of North Stradbroke Island. This plan would enable us to reach Mooloolaba on Saturday morning for the appropriate bar crossing time. This IT glitch cost us 30 minutes. TROUBLE #2

 

Our Brookhouse iMux multiplexer

Transferring the waypoints when everything IS working

We slid out of our pen without incident and the gelcoat intact. Reaching the end of the channel that leads out of the 3 huge Manly marinas, the Bloke turned Zofia into the wind. Yes, wind we could use at last: we were going to sail and commenced pulling out the mainsail. I managed to unfurl only 12 inches before it jammed. W H A T!!!! It's never happened before and required sheer brute force to winch out. The Bloke was happy to oblige and vent his frustration. The problem? I'd furled it in too far. The clew end is thicker due to the UV panel on the bit that normally sticks out and I'd unwisely furled as much as possible into the mast prior to our boat lift hoping to keep it clean. Doh, dumb is as dumb does! This glitch cost us a further 30 minutes. TROUBLE #3

 

Sail training on Moreton Bay

Surely, things could only get better. We were rattled and we'd barely left!  As it happened, we had a nice breeze and took off on a lovely reach in 15-18knots and were happy to avoid at least 3 logs and a far-off whale. Alas, we'd missed an hour of good wind and our progress slowed as the wind dropped out and the iron topsail was engaged once it was clear we would not otherwise make our night anchorage. Then the tide played it's evil game and slowed us some more, calling for an alternate night anchorage and Plan B. The winter solstice being only days away, had reduced available daylight travel hours.

   

Substantial channel markers and TRAFFIC confirm we were in a shipping lane

Although we did set the anchor in the Plan B anchorage it was on a lee shore and would, on the change of tide, additionally present the dreaded 'wind over tide' scenario. Severely frustrated, we threw caution to the nonexistent wind and with what light was still left, headed for the Northern end of Moreton Island to take a look at the anchorage there. Observing a few surfers enjoying a ride on the falling tide, we were assured that this was 'no place for us' so we turned our thoughts to the idea of 'Mooloolaba by morning'.

Luckily there was enough light and time left to navigate the sandy channels towards the Port of Brisbane northern shipping channel before nightfall. We commenced a run up the coast to Mooloolaba with the assistance of the ebbing tide which at one stage was sucking us out at 9 knots. Thankfully our AIS equipment kept us informed of the ship movements around us since the Port of Brisbane is quite busy. What to do once we got near Mooloolaba was bit of a poser but the conditions were very light. Swell under 1m.  TICK. Wind 5-10knots. TICK. In-flowing tide from 20:00. TICK. Well lit ocean bar entry. TICK. Why stand off? Let's go in!

 

The lights of Mooloolaba emerged from behind Point Cartwright