Being in Eastbourne we have not had too many distractions from the long list of boat jobs we wanted to get done before heading to the Baltic. Here are some of the jobs we got done.
We secured some storage boxes in the cavernous unused spaces under the floor.
Installed an retractable clothes line in the tech room.
Modified the bimini cover so it can be put away without detaching the front frame which simplifies set up and put away.
After
Organised the sail locker with some boat hook holders, shelves for paddle boards, storage boxes, and electric outboard mount point.
Installed a gas strut under the bed so we can get to the storage without holding up 753kg with one hand whilst accessing storage with the other.
Crocheted an orchid hanger (first indoor plant…its a slippery slope)
Installed an offshore safe fruit bowl
Improved the bike storage (yes it was worse before)
Found a good spot for Bernie’s folded carriage
Fixed some issues and learnt lots about our distributed power system. You CAN read the stories here.
There are always more boat jobs to be done, but for now this represents for us a good start and it means we can head off. Its sometimes hard to break the inertia, especially when boat jobs are always there, but we are committed to continuing our journey. The last big job is to haul out and hose off the bottom of the boat from a winter of sitting still (its looking pretty green), plus check our anodes, however the Sovereign Harbour boat lift is fully booked for months, so we have to find another port in which to do this – so off we will go!
Addictive was to be our sailing practise boat for Sydney and surrounds. It was only later we came up with the bright idea of living aboard a very small boat. She was setup for weekend cruising and racing.
To turn her into a comfortable live aboard boat we had to upgrade some systems to improve safety and comfort. This is what we chose to do:
Improving Safety
Safety starts with coffee. Being left leaning, inner city, latte sipping people, we could hardly accept anything less than fresh espresso. Luckily Fi found this stove top espresso maker and a manual grinder to keep the standard of latte’s suitably high. We never leave port without a strong coffee in hand.
If the boat sinks, the idea of being in the water chatting to the sharks whilst awaiting rescue was enough motivation to find space for a life raft. The life-raft provides safety from marauding sharks using a thin layer of light weight plastic.
We bought the best anchor we could find (Australian Sarca Excel) to replace the existing large lump of rusting metal. There are few things worse than lying awake wondering if the anchor will hold. We have never regretted spending the money on the anchor and have at times (Double Island Point) been shocked how well it holds. At the time of writing it has set and not dragged 100% of the time.
We steer using a tiller but hand steering for hours at a time is tiring and even harder at night. We added an auto helm that will steer the boat in whatever direction its told. Its clever enough to understand the roll and pitch of the boat and steer appropriately. So far its managed to steer in all conditions even when we were surfing down waves coming into Bundaberg. The only thing it’s missing is a name…
Adding Power
Imagine you buy a litre of milk and there is only half a litre of milk in the container…’Well sir, the container has the potential to carry 1 litre but there is only half a litre of useable milk in it’…insane, yes, but this is how batteries are sold. A 100Ah lead acid battery only has 50Ah of useable energy (really). However, Lithium batteries are really good and you can use 85-90% of the advertised energy in them (did I really say that?). So the simple way to increase our power storage without rebuilding the battery compartment was to switch to Lithium batteries. They have performed really well and 200Ah (170Ah useable) gives us 2 days usage without any charging.
Our only option to charge the batteries was to run the engine which didn’t do much for the ambiance of beautiful quiet secluded bays. We added a large 300W solar panel that fully charges the battery by lunch in Queensland where its sunny every day.
The solar panel needs to be mounted where its not shaded which on our boat meant putting it on an arch over the stern. We got some quotes for stainless steel arches that would have required a second mortgage, and ended up building our own which has proved to be adequately robust.
Now we had some watts to play with, we added a small portable freezer (ice for the gin and tonics, and fish storage for all the fish we catch), an inverter (turns our 12V into 240V for laptops, coffee grinders, power tools, but not quite enough for the hair dryer…ooops), numerous 12V USB sockets to charge our social media devices, and some fans to blow dry Bernie after a swim.
Toilet Alternatives
The boat came with a basic marine toilet that could flush directly into the surrounding pristine anchorage. There was also a black water storage ‘bag’ under the main bed that wasn’t plumbed to the toilet as the previous owner had concerns over the potential pong.
After a couple of attempts to improve the toilet we changed tack and installed a composting toilet. Basically a box of compost and wee bottle. Sounds a bit basic, but it doesn’t smell, doesn’t need to be emptied often and freed up a huge amount of storage space that was previously taken by plumbing.
Cooking options
We have a metho stove, but we rightly predicted that we would run short of fuel when a future global pandemic would result in hoarding of metho to make hand sanitiser. Our aussie solution was to add a a gas powered Webber Baby Q on the cockpit rail and enough gas to run it continuously through the next pandemic.
Where are we?
There was a basic chart plotter installed which we supplemented with a couple of iPads running iNavx and Navionics charts. This gave us redundancy and chart viewing in the cockpit. We added AIS which tells you when other boats with AIS (ie the big ones) are going to crash into you. So far it seems to work really well and we haven’t crashed into any major shipping.
AIS devices are also activated on our life jackets should we fall overboard. Being visible on the chart makes it much more likely we will be located and recovered, especially at night.
Other upgrades
We added a rod holder so we could look like those people that catch fish.
We used to wash the deck using a bucket to get sea water. Now a saltwater pump allows us to hose off the deck and clean mud off the anchor. Its filter ensures there are no unwanted jellies when we wash up in salt water (or give ourselves a cooling outdoor shower).
Hooks… we added about 1000 hooks and there is still never a spare one to hang stuff on.
An old Porta Bote (read foldable dinghy) is our tender. Its fast, tough (read croc proof) and stores easily on the deck. However it takes 20 minutes to assemble and we have sometimes not gone ashore to avoid the effort of constructing and de-constructing.
Some things we didn’t add:
Radar – we think the combination of AIS and gazing out into the night is adequate. Radar would add a level of safety but requires lots of power and expense.
Water maker – by the time you add the cost of the water maker, the power upgrade, power generation upgrade and the room it takes, we decided to buy a couple of jerry cans instead. Also strapping jerry cans to the deck makes us look like intrepid long distance travellers.
Electric anchor windlass. We (ok, mostly Fi) pull the anchor up by hand. Once we got used to it we decided we didn’t need an electric windlass. Its good exercise and hasn’t been as difficult as we thought it might be (easy for me to say).
Making it feel like home
In many boats of this age the foam mattresses have a compressed dip so you know where to lie, and slight damp musty aroma. For our comfort and sanity we installed a custom made sprung mattress which is engineered specifically for the marine environment, and is simple to take apart and clean.
We were gifted a 12v aromatic oil diffuser which we use regularly when at anchor or port. It helps to keep mozzies and sandflies away with some beautiful Australia scents of teatree and eucalyptus.
Carpet has protected the floor from sharp claws but also makes the boat quieter and more comfortable.
Fi has collected magnets from destinations she has visited which we attached to a ‘magnet board’ at home. We have replicated this in the boat with a magnet board for the trip.
A mini printer has allowed us to print a photo from each port we visit and create visual timeline of our trip. Its a great way to reminisce about the early part of the trip and a reminder of just how far we have come.
Combine all this with a few throw cushions and blankets and we have a homely space with everything we need to adventure comfortably.
We left Tin Can Bay on a sunny morning heading for Fraser Island and the Great Sandy Straights. First stop, Garry’s anchorage on the eastern side of Fraser Island, for a relaxing couple of evenings enjoying the serenity. We did some (unsuccessful) fishing, and a little run around in the dingy. With Bernie on the boat, we can’t go to National Parks, plus I wasn’t keen in any case as we spotted some of the local dingoes running on the beach so we didn’t go ashore this time. The dingoes are beautiful creatures, and from what I’ve read, the Fraser Island dingoes are the most “pure” form of the species in existence as they have had no opportunity to breed with any domestic dogs.
Alas, our looming boat repair was calling, and so we needed to head out of Garry’s anchorage before dawn to get up to the marina at Hervey Bay where we had a haul out booking. It was eerie leaving in the moonlight, slowly weaving our way through the sleeping boats in the anchorage towards the Great Sandy Straights. We navigated fine in the dark, but were happy to have the sunrise on our starboard side as we continued along the shallow straights. A little while later, we misstepped a little and ended up with our keel about 20cm in the muddy sand material on the bottom – it is not a fun feeling to experience a normally free floating boat suddenly stop and bounce a little on the hard bottom. Fortunately we had left on a rising tide, so it was a matter of waiting a little while to lift off, greatly helped by a small tinny who’s wake helped bump us off. We learned that while traversing the Sandy Straights in a keel boat, the Navionics (our electronic chart system) recommended route is pretty accurate – we’ll make sure we stick to that to the letter next time!
With no more dramas, we entered the marina at Hervey Bay ready for our lift out, and got ourselves a fabulous pet friendly townhouse to stop in for a few nights for some land time, relaxation, provisioning and exploring. In Hervey Bay we enjoyed walking north along the beaches, the markets and some local cafes. Bernie got to pick his own toy out at the pet shop and chose this little echidna. He adores it and we’ve been having a great time playing with him. He enjoys having some space to run around and was prancing around the townhouse when we arrived. It was so cute to see him so happy to have a break! As we all were!
Repairs were simple enough. You may remember from our previous posts that we managed to wrap the anchor rope around the keel in some bad conditions at Double Island Point, and actually seemed to have dug the rope right in to the join of the keel and the hull. This was confirmed as we hauled out the boat. A little encouragement from a hammer and chisel, then some fibre glassing and epoxy work and we were back in the water! We have plans to get a lot more chain from here on in to mitigate this risk in the future. We also took the opportunity to fix up the rudder leak that is spurting seawater into the engine bay when we are in rough seas, so that’s also a relief! The idea is the water stays OUT of the boat! We have other leaks, but they will have to be fixed later, such as our front hatch…
Feeling rested, and more confident now our repairs are done, we planned to begin the few more hops north. We started by travelling from Hervey Bay (pictured is the huge Urangan Pier at Hervey Bay) on the 9th of August up to Bundaberg. We’d left mid morning, and arrived in Bundaberg around 5PM and dropped the anchor near the mouth of the Burnett River with some other vessels. It was a quiet night and we got some good rest as it had been a big day of sailing and motoring up the coast and we knew there was more to come as we had plans to catch some good weather windows to head to the southern end of The Great Barrier Reef.
Early the next morning, we lifted anchor with no trouble, and got going north again. Our aim this time was to get to a small inlet called “Pancake Creek”, said to be one of the loveliest and protected places! We had some good sailing winds on and off throughout the day. There was a lot of sail trimming as the wind picked up, then dropped off a little and we did manage to sail most of the way which was nice although we were close hauled most of the time and heeled over. It is a lot faster and more comfortable when we can sail, rather than having the motor on which causes us to bash through waves and is hot and very loud.
As we were getting towards Pancake Creek, we realised we would be manoeuvring and anchoring in the dark, in a new anchorage, and decided to change our plans and pop into an ocean anchorage (!) just outside of a town called “1770”. We reviewed the weather thoroughly, and felt confident it would be a safe and reasonably comfortable night. It is possible to head through an inlet at this anchorage and head towards the township of 1770, however again we erred on the side of being conservative as we weren’t confident that our draft would be able to get through the shallow entrance at low tide. As it were, the evening was very comfortable, we slept well, and were ready the next day for our third big sail toward the Great Barrier Reef, and more specifically Lady Musgrave Island. More to come on that spectacular sail and the week or so we spent at the reef next time!
The rigging work is finished and we are back onboard. This was one of the bolts holding up the mast. It was an expensive exercise but the alternative of a rigging failure at sea would be quite distracting.
We replaced some stays, updated the furler and replaced all the chainplates. The furler was broken and could have damaged the sails. Also old enough that parts are difficult to come by.
New shiny chainplates. These are the anchors for the rigging. They are made from stainless steel and eventually suffer from metal fatigue.
It also looks like there was some water ingress around the chainplates at some stage (stain at base of chainplate). This was due to the original installation not allowing for any movement.
Anyhow, no need to install that mirror in the bathroom now…
We are almost ready to leave. There will always be more jobs, but none of them are major safety concerns. Only issue is that the world has closed. We are thinking to stay in a marina for a few days and then to self isolate in the sheltered nooks of Pittwater.
Join Fi, Adrian and Bernie as we adventure where the wind takes us.
