Log Entry 30th December 2008

Eager to sail again before the end of the Christmas break, and with Yolande and the girls committed to other activities, mates Steve and Phil volunteered to crew for a "Boy's Own Adventure" day.

Well stocked with the amber fluid and tucker; Phil, purist that he is, decided we would sail off the wharf and out of the harbour, which we did (after a couple of 360's - Steve at the helm) albeit with the help of the trusty outboard. Beating east across Waterloo Bay, between Green and King Islands, we continued on towards the northern side of Peel Island. With an almost high tide we cut across the coral banks off Cucumber Point (doesn't look like a cucumber at all). With Steve at the helm the entire leg, poor Phil was constantly called upon to "adjust the strings" to satisfy Steve's lust for speed; which just goes to prove, you can take the man out of his stink boat, but you can't get the stink boat out of the man (a bit of sailing trivia Steve, there are sheets, halyards, painters and warps on yachts - but no strings, twine or ropes!)

Gliding around The Bluff, past the wreck of the Platypus, we ghosted under full sail between a flotilla of boats into Horseshoe Bay, anchoring close to the beach in a metre or so of water. Wasting little time we cracked a couple of Cascades whilst enjoying a swim in the cool clear water. Frying sausages, rissoles and onions, we ate the usual Lara-Lunch sitting in the cockpit under the shade of the boom tent, before a second cooling dip in the water.

Had an interesting conversation with the owners of another shoal draft Hood 23 anchored adjacent to us. Hoodwink is an example of the rare factory designed and built cabin topped Hoods. 

The thoughtfully constructed coach house provides full standing room in the galley area, and I quite like the look of this variant, the cabin lines complimenting those of the hull without any hint of a "tacked on" look. Would be interesting to convert Lara, although as Phil commented, would probably be cheaper to sell Lara and purchase a cabin version.

Departing Peel mid afternoon westwards around South West Rocks, we beat north on a starboard tack towards some ominous looking weather. The forecast afternoon storm had eventuated and was tracking eastwards across the northern end of Moreton Bay. Adjacent to Cleveland Point Lara was greeted by by a northerly squall which had whipped up a metre plus swell. I'm not sure what the wind picked up to but it was whipping spray off crests as Lara tried to bury her bow in the swell, thoroughly soaking us. 

An exhilarating ride ensued with the boat heeling 30-45 degrees under full sail. Interestingly, it was the first time I have seen the mast flexing under the strain of the wind. Phil expressed a desire to reef the main, which would have been a prudent thing to do, however the consensus was that it mightn't be overly safe given the boom was thrashing around a fair bit as the mainsail flogged. Crawling forward Phil dropped the jib, which reduced the strain on the boat to a more manageable level, and using the outboard we motored gently onwards before turning west into the relative shelter of Waterloo Bay, where we raised the jib and headed towards the harbour channel markers. Tying up at the wharf we tidied Lara and left her for the marina boys to rack, absolutely buggered from the big day out.

Sure was fun, I really enjoyed the varied conditions we experienced, which only served to confirm my belief that Hoods are a sturdy, reliable family cruisers. Have to do that again sometime soon guys!

Log Entry 27th December 2008

With Christmas Day now behind us and our holidays in full swing, I was eager to spend at least a couple of days sailing. Impetus for a trip was generated by my cousin Peter, visiting from New Zealand.

A balmy summer’s day greeted us at the marina, with a 10-15 knot south-easterly wind and an overcast sky which provided relief from an otherwise scorching sun. As a late start scotched an extended trip to Peel, we meandered across Waterloo Bay to King Island,

where we anchored a couple of boat lengths off the sand spit. After an hour or two swimming, sun baking (Pete the expat Pom) and shell collecting (the girls), we enjoyed the usual Lara-lunch of snags on bread rolls, washed down with a bottle of sparkling white wine – a very nice Spanish import chosen by Peter. Hauling up the anchor, we headed north for a couple of hours, circumnavigating Green Island before turning west into the channel and the harbour.

After tidying up the boat we drove up to Wynnum and enjoyed a fish and chip dinner at the “Fish n Chips”, a popular seafood café on the foreshore opposite the newly renovated tidal pool. A post dinner walk to the end of the jetty topped off a perfect day, where Peter, impressed by the nature and design of some of the local amenities, snapped pictures of them using his camera phone. (Pete works as a project officer for the Wellington City Council managing public works).

Image and video footage courtesy of Peter McEvoy (c) 2008

Log Entry 12th October 2008

Today’s voyage was deliberately planned to be “shortish”. Each of the girl’s having recently been given a fishing rod and reel, we thought it would be fun spend some time fishing. However as all our previous attempts using handlines had not been successful, I wasn’t overly confident this time would be any different.

 Leaving the harbour around 11:00am under an overcast sky and a 10-15 knot north-easterly, we tacked in a northerly direction toward St Helena. I intended to anchor in the bay on the western side of the island, which would shelter us from the prevailing weather while we fished. Beating into the wind on a starboard tack, we passed the island jetty when I misjudged our lateral drift and under full sail we glanced off the bow of a large trawler anchored just off our port side. The sound of our fibreglass hull striking steel was horribly loud; enough to literally wake the dead. I have no idea where the crew of the trawler were, no one came on deck to investigate, it was quieter than the Mary Celeste. I couldn’t see any damage to trawler hull, naturally enough, not even a scratch, and I was too disgusted with myself to see if we had scratched Lara.

At least the fishing was successful; Johanna and I each caught a small whiting, whilst Helena also caught a small whiting (probably the same one) and three small bream. All of the fish were tiddlers and after being given pet names by the girls and amidst frequent pleadings to take them home as pets, we released them hopefully to grow into pan-size “big-uns”. 

Try as I might I couldn’t entice a fish onto Freya’s hook so that she could share the excitement of reeling one in, hopefully next time.

 After lunch we set course for home on a long port reach until reaching the harbour channel where we ran before the wind into the harbour. Along the way Yolande tactfully pointed out that we were sailing awfully near to a channel beacon, which I acknowledged seeing, but denied we were too close, when the boom and sail, which extended well out on our starboard beam, struck the pile with a resounding clang. For one horrible moment I thought the mainsail was going to catch on the triangular plate and rip itself to bits, but thankfully nothing caught and we sailed on.

 I resigned myself to having a crap day on the water, I mean hitting one thing on a trip is bad enough but two? I have no idea what was going on but determined to regain some pride decided to sail as far into the harbour as my nerve would allow me. We were well up the channel between the marina pontoons to our starboard and pile moorings to our port, before Yolande politely expressed a complete lack of confidence in my ability and requested that we start the motor. Looking ahead, I could see a large yacht using the entire channel to manoeuvre into its berth and decided that if he muffed it and baulked, we’d plough straight into his stern. Common sense prevailing, I dropped the sails and we motored slowly up to our pontoon where we tied Lara up for the night for the guys to rack the next morning.

Log Entry 30th September 2008

With the September school holidays in full swing I arranged to to take two days recreation leave from work so that we could enjoy a couple of family days on the water. We had talked for a long time previously about an overnight trip in Lara and decided we would sail to Peel Island on the Sunday, anchor overnight in Horseshoe Bay, and return on the Monday. We left Wynnum Manly harbour a little after 1pm in a 20-25 knot NE wind. After passing between Green and King Islands we steered south west on a running reach. The wind had whipped up up a few white caps and with it a half metre to a metre swell, which occasionally had Lara surfing gently down the face of a wave. Overall though, we were quite comfortable, despite the motion of the hull due to the swell rolling in under our stern quarter.

Horseshoe Bay on the southern side of Peel offers a safe and sheltered anchorage under these conditions and arriving there around 5pm saw us anchoring amongst the usual large flotilla a yachts and cruisers. The girls tried their hand unsuccessfully at fishing while Yolande prepared and cooked a very nice stew for dinner. Settling in for the evening, I was anxious that we were secure and had allowed sufficient room to swing on the tide without hitting any of the boats around us. My vigilance proved warranted, as later in the evening it was clear that Lara was dragging seawards on her anchor. Motoring in and resetting it seemed to fix the problem, although I must admit to being somewhat puzzled, given the length of heavy chain and weight of the plough we use. (Retrieving the anchor the next morning, I could see that the shackle was installed the wrong way round, allowing it to twist and jam sideways, thus any tension on the warp was putting sideways tension on the anchor shaft.)


The following morning after a bacon and egg breakfast the girls spent a couple of hours walking along the beach and bomb diving off the back of the boat, We left around 12:30 for the homeward trip as an afternoon change was forecast bringing with it 25-30knot winds, which I preferred to avoid. Arriving back at the marina around 4pm we tidied Lara and left her moored to the dock for the guys to rack.

The next morning, with 20-25 knot winds, this time from the south-east, we headed out for simple day trip, taking with us two of Helena’s school friends who were keen to go sailing. We decided to head to Peel Island again although the outward leg turned into a bit of a slog beating to windward the entire time. Horseshoe Bay in a breezy south-easterly isn’t really pleasant as the anchorage is open to the weather in these conditions.

After lunch and a swim we decided it would be fun to sail around the eastern end of the island and return on a long downwind run alongside the Amity Banks. We arrived back at the marina around 6:30pm enjoying a glorious sunset along the way and the delights of sailing in the evening dusk.

Log Entry 2nd August 2008

A Sunday forecast of falling seas and 10-15 knot winds promised a pleasant day's sailing, which we decided to take advantage of after a break due to an overseas holiday. Arriving at the harbour around 10:15am, it took the marina guys only minutes to launch Lara after which we loaded her with all the usual paraphernalia for a day on the water.

Today we also had the pleasure of the company of two of our nieces Lauren and Jacklyn, who were free for the day and keen to experience sailing. Motoring out of the harbour, surprise, surprise, the wind was no where near the anticipated strength as we raised the sails and bobbed almost motionless in the water. Restarting the outboard we set a course toward the greater part of the Bay passing between Green and King Islands, before heading north to St Helena for a roam around the island. Anchoring at our favourite spot just to the east of the St Helena jetty, the older girls went for a walk whilst the younger two splashed, paddled and generally messed about on the beach.

Knowing that we had anchored on a falling tide, I was a little anxious about Lara grounding, so every five minutes or so I waded out and pushed her another meter or two further from the beach. Unfortunately, I think at some stage the bottom plateaued and there was no further scope to push Lara into deeper water. Consequently within a very short space of time she became firmly stuck! Well, no amount of grunting, pushing or dragging would shift her, luckily however a group of jet skiers who saw our plight immediately rushed over to assist. After a solid ten minutes and with the combined effort of at least five others, we finally dragged and pushed Lara into deeper water. The relief I felt was absolutely palpable.

We collected Yolande and Lauren from the end of the jetty as they hadn't managed to scramble aboard as Lara slipped into deeper water. The jet skiers by now had taken off and were exploring the island, waving as they passed us. I was certainly very grateful for their unsolicited help and the mighty effort they provided, without any hint of humour or bagging at our predicament. I haven't generally had a lot of nice things to say about jet skis (or their riders) but after the unstinting help provided by these fellow mariners, I made a promise henceforth to change my poor opinion of them and refrain from any future disparaging comments.

Usual lunch of fried sausages on bread rolls followed, after which the wind picked up sufficiently for us to sail home to the harbour under Jacklyn's expert helmsmanship.

(Pity about the photographs, I mistakenly had the Leica set at 400 ISO which really makes for horribly noisy images.)

Log Entry 25th May 2008

A Sunday forecast of SE-SW 10-15 knot winds, tending to the NE in the afternoon, saw us out today for another leisurely Sunday sail. Took the opportunity to invite my father along as he has always had a keen interest in boats, although hasn't owned one himself. Dad was instrumental in fostering my interest in sailing when he purchased a Sabot for us kids in the early 70's. In fact our destination for the day, (another short voyage to King Island), is where I had sailed the Sabot as a fourteen or fifteen year old many, (many!) years ago.

Many yachts on the water today however most were almost stationary in the light breeze. I used the outboard to help push us along at 3-4 knots towards the spit between King Island and Wellington Point. Dad had the helm for the outward leg whilst I stood on the bow taking photographs. It was about this time that one of the plastic handles on the forepeak hatch decided to detach and fall overboard. I don't know exactly what sort of plastic it was made of but it sank like a stone!

Anchoring by the stern we waded ashore and went for a wander. As usual the girls collected a truckload of dead coral and shells as we took all of ten minutes to circumnavigate the grass and mangrove hummock that comprises the island itself.

Despite its relatively small size it is an interesting place, just large enough to generate (in me anyway) what travel writer Thurston Clarke refers to as "islomania", idyllic fantasies of fiefdoms and laird-ships, dreams of self sufficiency, a sense of isolation and of being in control of one's destiny. The island was in fact inhabited from 1904 to 1906 by a banker, his wife and family of seven children, one of whom suffered from polio. It was thought that the sea air and regular bathing were helpful in moderating the effects of this terrible disease. Hard to imaging any formal structure existing even then on a place so small, but apparently it was somewhat larger in area until eroded by the destruction of protective mangrove banks. The family lived in tents and a marquee and according to surviving notes from a grandson, were very happy with their lot.

In 1943 the US Navy built a gunnery school on the tip of Wellington Point where they practised shooting what ever sort of guns they used at that time. King Island also proved useful to them as a "bombing" range where aircraft dropped silk drogue targets after gunnery practice. (These notes courtesy of Peter Lulow's "Moreton Bay People" and the Redland Shire Council's record of local history.)

We shared the spot with other families in tinnies and cabin cruisers, along with some sea kyakers and the obligatory jet ski. Had a yarn with a couple of gents who turned up in a beautiful little trailer-sailer that I mistook for a Cherry 16. The older chap, a designer and boat builder by trade, was responsible for building this very attractive boat called a Redfin 520. Apparently they are available in plan or kit form from his firm "Trailaway Boat Kits" in Loganholme. The thing fairly flew along in the light air.

After a lunch of coffee/tea and fried snags on bread rolls we retrieved the anchor for the trip home. The wind had swung around to the NE by this time, enabling us to reach at a reasonable rate of knots northwards to intersect the harbour channel. Joining the usual queue of returning boats we ran slowly towards the harbour, using the outboard for the last kilometre or so. Started the usual tidy-up dropping the sails and bagging them. As the marina staff had finished for the day, we Left Lara against the East Coast pontoon for them to retrieve in the morning

Log Entry 5th May 2008 (Labour Day Sail)

Arrived at the harbour around 10:30am this morning to find Lara bobbing alongside the landing as arranged. Yolande's Mum and Dad were with us as they had expressed a desire to see the boat. Whilst they did not wish to actually sail, we persuaded them to at least go for slow spin around Manly boat harbour which was a lot of fun in itself. The myriad of moored watercraft are very interesting and much more visibly accessible from the water.

Dropping them off back at the landing, we waved good-bye, and motored out into a a gentle 5-10 knot north-easterly beating towards St Helena Island for a shell collecting expedition that we had previously promised the girls, (but weren't able to undertake), on our trip to Peel Island.

We anchored on the southern side of the island near the jetty, as this area offered the least shallow water. Despite this we still had to moor Lara about 25 metres offshore to maintain half a metre of water under her, and due to a dropping tide, I constantly readjusted the anchor, pushing Lara out another couple of metres every quarter of an hour or so so that she wouldn't ground. The ladder proved to be a very worthwhile investment and there were no problems boarding or climbing down from Lara's transom.

Re-boarding and moving Lara into deeper water off the island, we consumed a late lunch consisting of sausages and onions on fresh bread rolls, coffee, and a very nice caramel swirl pull-apart bun, which I had bought from the bakery earlier in the morning.

Whilst eating, a Hobie Cat with brightly coloured sails breezed past our stern. Hoisting our own sails, we ran slowly back to Manly in a very gentle sea. The oldest and youngest girls snoozed on the vee-berth while daughter number two sat on the bow and wrote about the day's adventure in her journal. Johanna really enjoys writing as I do and loves to conjure up short stories.

Yolande did a very good job at the tiller to bring us up to the channel beacons where we turned to join the long queue of boats returning home. Tied up at the landing around 5:30pm after which we put on the sail covers, tidied up Lara and headed home.