Southport to Tin Can Bay, 30 May 2009

Posted on by

We had quite a productive day in Southport, re-provisioning, re-fuelling and a rip-roaring party on the dock, hosted by Rooster and the marina staff. The crew took us on a tour of the super-yacht “Platinum” and we all “oohed and aahed” at all the opulence. In the end we all crowded into Sunny Spells, put some good vibes on the stereo and drank and chatted into the early hours. There was a competition to see who could fit into the upper pilot berth, always a tight fit!

A great day of sailing today, downwind most of the time with good breeze. Downwind between Cape Morton and Double Island Point. Not Sunny Spells’ most comfortable point of sail – she tends to roll a bit – but we made really good miles with 20 knots of south easterly breeze behind us.

As always, when sailing by the lee, the main was prevented out and the boom brake set tight to avoid any gybe dramas…

Crossing the Wide Bay Bar just before midnight was a bit scary, even though it was at the slack high tide. Got the latest coords for the leads from the Coast Guard and then motor-sailed through with the motor ticking over and the double reefed main keeping us powered up and stable. Had everyone on deck, with life-jackets and clipped on. Only took one swell over the port quarter that drenched us, but that was enough!

The bucket story

Posted on by

A story by Helen Dudley in which the Chief Protagonist is a Bucket as requested by Gerhard who has a Peculiar Bucket Fixation.

Once upon a time there was a very lonely bucket. The bucket had an almost constant companion in his partner, the spade and formerly they had been the best of friends. However, about a year before this story takes place, they had a serious disagreement over who was responsible for them regularly becoming covered with sand with each blaming the other and consequently they were no longer on speaking terms.

One day the children who owned the bucket and spade took the bucket out of its cupboard leaving the spade behind. The bucket was surprised but pleased by the prospect of a solo outing. It was taken to a small wooden jetty and filled with water. Shortly afterwards a strange creature was placed in the bucket.

“Hello” said the bucket, “what are you?”

“I’m a shrimp” the creature replied. “What are you? And why am I inside you?”

“I’m a bucket and I’m afraid I don’t know what you are doing here” the bucket said. “But I am glad that you came as I’m very lonely” and it related the story of its life with the spade.

While the bucket told its tale they were joined by lots more shrimps and soon they were all talking happily. The bucket couldn’t remember when it had last enjoyed itself so much.

All too soon the children had finished their shrimping and decided to return home. They lifted the bucket and started to tip the shrimps back into the sea.

“Goodbye!” they called to the bucket as they fell.

“No! Please don’t leave me” the bucket begged.

“We can’t help it” they replied, “Come with us! You can live with us on the seabed where you will always be surrounded by friends.”

“Yes!” the bucket cried and it suddenly twisted itself out of the hand of the child who held it and fell into the sea where it rapidly sank.

And now the bucket lives happily under the sea where its friends the shrimps play in and around it all day. The children bought a new bucket which soon became great friends with the spade who told it many tales of the strange and unreasonable behaviour of its predecessor.

Coffs Harbour to Southport (27 to 28 May 2009)

Posted on by

Thomas jumped ship at Coffs yesterday as it was beginning to look a bit doubtful that we’d be able to get him back to Sydney for his return flight to Germany if he stayed on. After refuelling and picking up coffees and bacon & egg rolls we headed out again around 9am.

There was still very little wind and we motor-sailed, staying close in-shore to try and dodge the (Austrailan East Coast) current. After an overnight sail that saw us just off Cape Byron at day break, we pulled into Southport this afternoon. We received a warm welcome from Rooster and the crew at Marina Mirage and they gave us a great berth, just off the boardwalk.

It felt like we motored a lot between Coffs Harbour and Southport, but I found this video clip which seems to indicate we had a bit of breeze early evening on Wednesday… We were fairly hard on the wind, but that’s what Sunny Spells was designed to do best!

Wet Exhaust Alarm: Cheap Insurance

Posted on by

Soon after I acquired Sunny Spells, I experienced the dreaded “exhaust muffler meltdown”. We were motoring out to a twilight race when the exhaust note suddeny changed and a lot of smoke was emitted from the engine room. We had the main up already so the engine was killed immediately and we continued the race. After the race we picked up a mooring under sail (lucky I was not on my own).

I established that a cooling hose had come off (a separate story could be told about the cause). The plastic water lift muffler had melted and a very simple fault had now resulted in a nasty repair job. Graham Friend, having decades of experience, had fortunately saved the engine by killing it instantly.

After a bit of “Googling” I found what appeared to be the perfect solution to avoid a repeat of the problem. Borel Mfg in the US makes an exhaust temperature alarm that claims to activate immediately should the exhaust temperature rise. It seemed to be reasonably priced at $89 and I ordered one straightaway – it arrived after about a week. Installation was simple enough – the most onerous task being the wiring. I chose to install the alarm below, but ran a repeater wire to the engine alarm in the cockpit.

Borel Wet Exhaust Alarm

Borel Wet Exhaust Alarm

I’ve often wondered whether it actually works – it’s just been sitting there for two years, making a quick beep whenever the engine is started… Recently, however, it finally paid for itself many times over, when a raw water impeller failed, and saved me a lot of hassle and expense. The engine and exhaust system was saved by the exhaust temperature alarm when a brand new raw water pump impeller failed. The story of that event is the subject of an earlier post…