Boat Spa 2018

We are not particularly fond of the trip through the ‘swamps’ between Moreton Bay and The Gold Coast waterways. This is probably coloured by memories of high anxiety the first trip through 2 years ago, so finding ourselves around Southport a month before our scheduled Boatworks haul-out date gave the following options:- (1) hang around the Gold Coast waterways for a month, (2) return to Moreton Bay for a month, or (3) ask the Boatworks if they could haul us out early. Lucky, lucky, lucky us; they were able to bring forward our lift. Mentally though, we weren’t quite ready. No matter: needs must!


We had a couple of ‘big’ items on our ‘to do’ list and a couple of things that emerged. Luckily we’d opted for 1 week on the hard stand to be followed by 3 days in a wet berth. In the 2 previous years we’d taken a 5 day deal - get hauled out Wednesday, have Sat/Sun free with a splash back on Monday. A bit too manic!

Although our booking time was in the afternoon, the lifting crew were ready for us early. By the time I’d gathered the items we’d need over the next 2 hours e.g. paperwork etc... we were already in the sling and airborne. No time for nail biting. The Bloke must be getting accustomed to it.

We were up in a flash

Peering at your boat’s underside is quite interesting. How effective was the anti-fouling paint? What’s the prop and rudder looking like?Are those Through-hull openings (skin fittings) still viable?

  That green stuff on the gel coat will be a thing of the past once we extend the waterline

Land travel in the travel lift. 

We probably kept the tracker on .... ooops we're not really on the tiles.

We were actually surprised how good the bottom looked. Notable exceptions were the 4 square areas where the support pads had been during the previous hard stand visit. Zofia gets suspended for 30 minutes in the slings prior to being returned to the water (splashed) to allow for some anti-fouling paint to be applied where the support pads were. Always a rush and never a good cover. Worse still, it was pouring with rain last year making the last minute daubs less effective. What was very evident was that the prop-speed on the propeller had not done a good job and was the result of a poor job last year. We would ensure a better operator this year.

Two issues here.

Poor application of the Prop-speed anti-fouling paint plus the anode was Sikaflex'd reducing it's sacrificial properties and allowing some pitting in the metal. Grrrr!

A few other nicks and areas of flaky anti-fouling paint were quickly identified. The Bloke marched directly to find Levi (our go-to guy at Ocean Degree Boat Services 0411 722 542) to arrange expert attention and source the anti-fouling paint. We were part of a rally last year and didn't use him. We should have! Then we headed to The Galley cafe for coffee and to draw breath and plan the monster project ahead.

   

Dunwich Treats

One of the best aspects of being anchored off Myora (great in a SE'ly) or in Deanbilla Bay (when the wind swings N) is access to the township of Dunwich on North Stradbroke Island. It’s a sleepy little historic town with Goldilocks properties:- just enough amenities. Most visitors arrive on North Stradbroke Island by passenger ferry or the vehicle barge from Redland Bay and head out to Point Lookout or Amity Point and get absorbed into the various styles of accommodation and landscape to admire ocean views, roos, koalas, eagles, turtles, dugongs etc. On our first visit we anchored off Myora and took the dinghy in tying up at the public wharf with the idea of finding the bakery/general store. The first person we met to ask if they could direct us,  happened to be the local baker. He was meeting a couple of gas fitters off the ferry who were to repair his ovens. “Hop in the ute” he said “the boys will drive you up”.  SWEET, how's that for good luck!

 

View from the main drag

The Bloke was inspired once again to conduct a Sausage Roll tasting. Sadly, although the pasty was very flaky and pleasant, the filling lacked flavour. Ah well, at least he was giving it a go and the view lovely.

There’s a bottle shop, a newsagent, a fish and chip shop, dedicated post office, supermarket and butcher. We were not going to starve or go thirsty which was reassuring. In fact the butcher was a really good find and very ‘old school’ with a traditional cheerful butcher pulling on a cord from behind the counter to pull the door open for customers. With lots of lovely cuts, interesting small goods, marinated chicken etc, all cryo-vac packed, we were won over immediately.


The Island Fruit Barn/Coffee Shop became a favourite for its great coffee, sourdough bread and fruit bread available, in addition to quality fruit and veggies. Their sausage rolls were not too bad either. Although nowhere near top 10, it hasn't deterred the Bloke from successive sampling!



The ‘Incredible Shop’ is nearby the Fruit Barn and amply stocked camping/hardware store, and is only open a few days per week. If this were near Spearwood, south of Fremantle, there would be a queue of people outside wishing to upgrade their concrete swans and lions!

Buddah’s, Gnomes, Darth Vaders, mermaids, the 'Bundy Bear', plump ladies in bright bathers/swimmer/cozzies/togs - this yard had the lot!

We’ve come to love this part of Morton Bay even if the signs suggest some unexpected hazards.

When the Weather Gods Say NO!

Our vague plans to reconnect with Jim and Jeannie, the crew of SV Onora in the Pittwater after returning from our Perth Xmas proved to be unachievable. Daily south to south easterly wind forecasts in the 20-30kt range presented themselves week on week for coastal waters all along the SE Queensland coast. Tantalizingly, there were plenty of northerlies south of the border beyond Cape Byron - the problem being getting that far! Gentlemen sail downwind. Our poor friends in Mooloolaba a mere day-sail to our north, were unable to get out across the river bar for a month to go in any direction due to swell conditions. First Tropical Cyclone Linda was having an impact soon followed by TC Iris being a proper nuisance. Her influence dominated forecasts between March 23 and April 13! What to do? A: Get better acquainted with Moreton Bay.

Having spent well over 2 weeks in the Scarborough Marina reinstating the boat and fitting the new solar panels. We were really keen to get out and about and trial the new equipment which included a tri-cut radial genoa.

 

Leaving Scarborough and Redcliffe behind

 

The crew of SV Tauranga, Richard and Marianne, are Queenslanders and were virtually raised on the waters of Moreton Bay and consequently know all the bays and anchorages. Their suggestion for these strong SE conditions (up to 30kts) was Myora at North Stradbroke Island. So off we set. I’d like to say set sail but it was largely into a headwind. We did pull out the new sail though, mostly to have a look at it. We’ve realized it’s actually noticeably larger than our old genoa. By about 6sqm in fact!

 

There's an extra knot in this new sail for sure!

Moreton Bay.

The Blue dot is at Myora. Note all the sandy channels - Navigation alert!

Myora has proved to be a lovely anchorage with a very pleasant outlook. The lights from the Port of Brisbane and the higher tower buildings in the city itself, create interest on a night horizon. The shore beyond the fringing mangroves is steep and wooded. You don’t have the sense of being only a 5 minute dinghy ride from ‘civilization’ which is around in the next bay. We learned to anchor inside of a cardinal marker and another post as these identify the part of the anchorage unaffected by the current. We’ve discovered a small hump in the sea bed that creates this quieter basin. The boats that anchor further out swing to the current. Inside the basin, boats lay to the wind which is far more comfortable. You just need to know that the sudden shoaling is only for a few metres before the water is once again deeper.

 

The morning shot shows the kinds of clouds the island was holding at bay.

Myora is also known as Myora Springs and the natural freshwater spring near the shore (concealed by the mangroves) is no doubt responsible for the creation of this lovely little basin with excellent holding. Tide changes reveal sand islands used by some folks as a place to exercise their dogs or to wade about and even take chairs and drinks! There is plenty of interesting wildlife - a koala above the springs, dolphins, turtles, dugongs and eagles. It’s not Pittwater and the Bloke won’t be able to share birthday celebrations with Jim but this isn’t half bad at all!

Eagles have taken a liking to this port channel marker and their nest is almost obscuring the light.

It seems they are not in the least disturbed by the red strobe light at night.

Use It Or Loose It

“Ships were not built for the harbour ...” or so a poem begins. The same applies for boats and 10 weeks in Perth, plus a couple of incidental ones on either side getting prepared to leave, amounts to 3 months of inattention. There is nothing sadder than a neglected boat.

Putting Zofia to "bed"

We were glad of our preparations ahead of departure as it set us up for the least possible surprises when we returned. Everything was freshly laundered and bedding stored in vac bags. All surfaces were wiped down with a water and clove oil solution to minimize the possibility of any ‘food’ for mould and mildew to feast on. The fridge was emptied, defrosted, turned off and cleaned. Only the little Engles freezer was left running containing a few basics we could return to (some bread, butter, cheeses and sliced meats). Various below-water through-hull ball valves were closed off - in particular the toilet ‘intake’ hoses. The heads (toilets) were thoroughly flushed with fresh water and vinegar to ensure there would not be any calcification going on in the the ‘out’ hoses. Also to minimize the possibility of ‘smells’. Micro marine organisms and even teeny tiny shrimps and such leave a terrible pong when they die off in an unattended loo. For good measure, I also cling wrapped the bowls so that remaining water didn’t evaporate.


All lockers that hold our provisions were wiped and vacuumed ensuring that all that remained was tinned, tubbed or in Tupperware. If any critters existed or arrived they’d be doomed to a death from starvation! We also set up a dehumidifier on the galley bench with it’s hose draining into a sink and programmed it to run for 1 hour twice daily. My war on mould and mildew was ON! All these internal preparations meant that when we extended our absence from 1 month to more than 2, we would not face chaos and mould-ageddon below decks.

Being allocated a pen next to 'Santa’s Boat' which left minimal space between our vessels, we immediately marched to the chandlery to buy 2 extra fenders plus a couple of new mooring lines. We hoped to avoid any accidental nudges with 44 tonnes of steel.

Zofia squeezed up next to the 'Santa Claus Boat'

When we returned from Perth, the decks and canvas were clean from 3 months of rainfall power-washes which was a miracle. Internally all was clean and sweet smelling. What was not immediately evident was all the things that had seized up or clogged up. Use it or loose it as they say!

  

The transducer or log paddle wheel was an obvious candidate for being clogged up. And it was. It was possibly the worst we'd ever seen it. We actually can't recall ever having it so badly choked up. This time there were even small barnacles that needed to be loosened with a knife. A 15 minute job was a 45 minute one. Yuk.

 

Most zippers needed to be eased open with some encouragement from some WD-40 or Innox.

 

The Bloke thought he'd tested and tried out  e v e r y t h i n g  ahead of our departure from the marina. Just as we were prepared to leave early in the morning before the breeze was forecast to pick up,  we discovered the bow thruster was inoperative. We hardly dared slide out into the marina canal without the very bit of kit that is designed for this operation. Getting to the bow thruster motor is a horrid job as it's under the bunk in the fore cabin and that is the cabin we affectionately call our forward lazerette. 3 plastic storage tubs plus the spinnaker, mattresses, bedding etc were dragged out and replaced not once but twice! I recalled a similar incident in Port Stephens 3 years ago which was caused by a connection coming loose. The battery connections were not loose this time but despite having been coated convincingly with lanolin, knocking them about a bit and breaking whatever corrosion or interference to connectivity that existed, seemed to do the trick. Phew. The prospect of yet another week in the marina was crushing. Zofia had been tied up in there for 3 months - the longest ever time!

  

 Contents of the forward cabin now in the Salon

The barometer was looking a bit sad and needed a polish up too.

As rusty was we were feeling about our own boat handling skills, we did manage to slip out of our pen without drama and in the end without the assistance of the bow thruster.  The next thing for us to discover to be jammed were the thumb screws that hold the outboard motor onto it's stand.  This was once we'd anchored off Stradbroke Island and wanted to get ashore. Yet more grumbling from The Bloke ....."Well you use it or you loose it!" and there's no arguing the point; it's true!

Outsmarting the Dolphin Smart Battery Charger

Servicing a bit of high tech electronic kit is not really a ‘thing’. Their integrated circuits and capacitors work or they don’t but faced with forking out a ‘boat unit’ for a replacement, the affectionate boat owner’s term for $1,000; well, you’ll give it a go won’t you?

So what’s it all about?

Zofia came equipped with a Dolphin  brand ‘smart battery charger’. This item basically controls the delivery of power to our battery storage bank. Our various batteries are essential and are a level of complexity beyond a car battery. We have an isolated battery to start the motor. Another that operates the power guzzling bow thruster and anchor winch. Both are self explanatory and although the engine starter battery is pretty critical we could manage without the powered anchor winch (with difficulty) and the bow thruster which is really only used for extra maneuverability in tight places like marinas. The house batteries are a whole other world and responsible for ongoing power delivery to the fridge, freezer, lights (navigational and domestic), VHF radio, navigation equipment, AIS, radar, auto-helm and other instruments, pumps, entertainment systems and such. We are merely 21st century sailors and only as good as our electrical system and electronics allow us to be.

The thing about storage batteries and smart chargers is this; different types of batteries require different charging regimes based on their chemical composition and ability to accept and store power. Our batteries are AGM’s and just slightly different to wet cell lead acid car batteries. In practical terms, a specific voltage needs to be delivered for a particular length of time to enable the batteries to accept and store the charge. Why is our charger ‘smart’? It’s because it has multiple settings allowing for a choice of a variety of conventional battery types plus sensors and timers to monitor progress and adjust delivered volts. When it’s done it’s job, the battery status will be at ‘float’ - and hooray for that because it’s what allows us to float too.

So, let’s roll back to Noumea, mid 2017 and a visit to the Port Moselle Marina. A pair of idiots in pursuit of an endless summer surfing surfari docked on our marina finger. They proceeded to dismantle the power bollard because they didn’t have an appropriate power plug. In case you are wondering, it's a european one. In doing so, they blew the power to the entire marina finger. Sadly this was just minutes from us disconnecting ahead of departure and we didn’t even realise we had a big problem until a couple of days after. We were leaving already fully recharged and believed it to be a shore power issue. A few days later we discovered that our ‘smart charger’ had saved our entire boat electronics when it’s sacrificial fuses were blown by the ‘event’ at the marina.

  

Clever, clever charger!

Luckily, the Bloke was able to clean the carbon charring and replace the mini spade fuses. It was terribly annoying at the time as it required a return trip to Noumea. We thought we’d dodged a bullet but not indefinitely. It was evident that there was some damage to the fuse area when the fuses continued from time to time, to blow/melt. There was no clear pattern to it but we sort of understood that we were living on borrowed time and buying and re-buying replacement fuses would only take us so far before an inevitable and dreaded replacement. This is called 'Doing an Egyptian' and living in de-Nile.

 

2 pairs in under 30 mins is too much! 

 

On the bright side, should we replace our smart charger with a New Generation one, it will have a cycle for lithium batteries and could be a more powerful one too. Ours only has a 40amp capacity. We could replace it with a 60amp one which would enable faster charging. A win. If we ever decided to change over to lithium batteries, the charger would be one of the several control systems that would require upgrading. Yay, we’d be Lithium Ready! Double win.

A ‘boat unit’ however, is not easily parted with. When the fuse replacement regime was looking to no longer be viable, the smart charger needed a more serious looking at. Replacing the fuses twice in 20 minutes? Absolutely not viable! It was time to dismantle our bunk, remove panels, not merely lift them, and remove the charger to inspect the back of the board. Time to bite the bullet. The electrical tool box was already out, why not the “F” box as well?!

 

Amazingly, the Bloke was as calm as could be. He called for labels to be printed and photos to be taken to simplify exact restoration after everything had been taken to bits. Dismounting and dismantling the charger was revelatory. No wonder the bloomin’ thing was fusing all the time! What little brushes and such did we have to remove this gunk he asked? Plenty as it turned out and the best yet was the ‘Air Duster’ or can of compressed air.

 

Organisation required to conquer chaos

The before and after photos are the basis for great optimism. Fingers are crossed that we get to keep our ‘boat unit’ a while longer and the ‘F’ Box can stay holstered. We might have just outsmarted the ‘Smart Charger’. Now that’s truly winning!

Nothing like a blast of fresh air to clear things up

More Power To Us

Our 5 month trip to New Caledonia and Vanuatu highlighted that it would be a good thing to upgrade our power generation capacity. Existing capacity of a maximum of 9 amps during a sunny day committed us to running our generator for longer and more frequently than we wanted. Our solar panels would only keep up with refrigeration in daylight hours. Throw in navigation equipment or even lights and entertainment and the battery bank figures rapidly headed south. In anticipation of a solar power upgrade in the offing, the Bloke started ordering parts as soon as we'd arrived in Bundaberg from Vanuatu. The kids in Brisbane knew for sure we not long away from visiting them once parts for the project began arriving.

 

The new controller

A new 40amp controller from the 12Volt Shop was conveniently the 'Big Brother' of our existing controller and was selected because it had the same footprint as our existing one. It could also feed to our Orora digital display. That would circumvent a lot of messing about. The Bloke chose conventional rigid panels (2 x 200W) ones over flexible ones and knowing that the old ones would be impossible to remove from the Signex panel on top of our targa, he decided to simply mount the new ones over the top of the old.

Targa with signex panel

Doing all the work whist still in a marina was beneficial due to access to a chandlery for all the fixing bolts, lengths of wire and incidentals. What had the Bloke stumped though was how exactly he'd be able to lift the panels into place and do the fixing. We were secured in our pen bow first and his work area was above the transom and over water! He couldn't see a solution at first but once I'd suggested undoing the back section of the bimini, a brilliant slot opened up.

Clear air and space to work

The panels have been in operation for well over 1 month now and we declare them as a win. We are going longer between big charge days having more than doubled capacity from 9 to about 25 amps. While we aren’t getting 25 amp often (blame the rainy weather) we seem to manage 9 amps even when it’s overcast. Definitely winning!

What We Learned From Our Capsize on the Janet Anne

Doing a bit of a de-frag after our 000 rescue episode, we wanted to consider what we did wrong, and what in the circumstances we did right as well as what we could have done better.

Ready to Race 

 

We often joke about racers being shoppers. Competitive sailing involves pushing the margins and consequently stressing equipment and creating a well worn path to the chandlery, workshop and sail loft. As cruisers we follow very different and more conservative rules. We neither want to stress ourselves or our boat and our measure is “Will this spill our chardonnay?”.  Of course we don’t drink on passage but the principle is that we never want to be on such a heel that we’d be spilling wine. Racing creates another mindset altogether. Take risks. In land sports you’d call it “White line fever”. Oh yes, we were in the zone, white line fever for certain! WRONG for us. We didn’t know the Janet Anne well enough to be pushing her.

We learned several things. If a capsize happens quickly as it did for us in a small boat, the resources to which you have access to save you are the ones that are physically on your person. There will be scant time to collect stuff before you go over and little time to snatch at stuff as it floats away. Survival /safety gear needs to float but not necessarily away, hence a buoyant ‘Grab Bag’ of emergency stuff is helpful. On Zofia we have one. While the Janet Anne had all manditory safety stuff it was all attached to the boat and became unusable or inaccessible. The VHF radio was under water and no longer usable. We have a buoyant hand held VHF radio on Zofia as a back up to the fixed VHF radio. The EPIRB was clipped into a holder and was underwater. Although Zofia’s EPIRB is clipped to the hull in the cockpit too, we also have personal ones that we wear. Those were in Brisbane as we hadn’t traveled with any notion that we’d go sailing. Flares, despite being in a watertight container were also in an airtight compartment. Retrieval would compromise the integrity of our little floating pontoon. Zofia’s are in the Grab Bag.
Many people commented to us afterward, that it was lucky that we were wearing life jackets. Lucky? Hell NO! We pretty much always wear them! In that sense we created our own good luck. The age range of our crew was from 61-71. None of us are athletes, nor do we have gills, as the Bloke often points out, so staying afloat for any length of time without some form of floatation was not a proposition. Swimming 2nm to shore was not an option either.

"Wear a close fitting life jacket WITH a crotch strap!". That was the message Doug Abbott imparted after spending 3 hours in Bass Strait with the rest of his racing crew after their race yacht rapidly broke up and sank. Our own PFD's on Zofia do have crotch straps (we upgraded them for this very reason) but we were wearing borrowed life jackets. Luckily we had adjusted the fitting before we left the jetty by tightening the chest strap. Ladies probably have an advantage here as the strap sits below the breasts and the inflated jacket is less likely to ride up as much.

Thanks for sharing Doug Abbott!

Staying together and with the boat, which was not fully submerged, and a larger target than 3 small specks in the water, was helpful. In the end one of us was able to climb up and stand on it making us more visible above the waves. We were surprised that the rescue crew couldn’t see us as easily as we could see them.

Dress for your activity. Janet and I both wore a long sleeved synthetic sailing shirt against the skin and beneath our spray jackets. The Bloke was wearing a cotton one under his spray jacket and was less comfortable once immersed. We were acutely aware that we needed to keep warm giving us another reason to climb onto the hull and out of the water to delay the possibility of Hypothermia. Sharks were also front of mind !

You’ll be hard to spot. The brighter your clothing the better. We only had our more fashionable black ‘jetty walker’ spray jackets with us on our visit to Perth. All our serious red coloured sailing kit was aboard Zofia in Queensland. The bright yellow life jacket floatation tubes proved essential for the VMR crew to locate us. A mirror attached to a life jacket will be a low tech addition to our own life jackets. We’ll also be adding a small submersible torch with a flashing mode to our bum bags. We’d actually brought such a torch along but it was in a kit bag that floated away. Our own life jackets do have water activated lights attached (an opted for upgrade) but in daylight, they probably wouldn’t make much impact.

  

Selecting the PHONE function from the home screen 

does not deliver the user to the keypad!

A hand held waterproof floating VHF radio would have be an asset. Instead we had to rely on our phones. Smart phones are now so smart that the dialing function is a little buried. We’ll be adding ‘000’ to our favourites list to simplify making such a call in the future. All in all, our take home message is to take being on the water seriously - we were probably a bit too relaxed on this occasion.