Coomera River. The Boatworks to Southport, Queensland

Excellent Boatworks' courtesy car

We had the hire car for a few days enabling us to drive to Bunnings (like B&Q) at Oxenford Shopping Centre and buy two essentials: a wet and dry vacuum cleaner and a 240v pedestal fan. The temperature soared to 30C.

Front cabin tool shed

To make more room inside Sal Darago, Jeremy put the mainsail back on. We collected the new prop shaft and gearbox coupling from Stella Marine. I drove to Woolworths, which is like M&S Food here, and bought provisions. The Boatworks provide an air conditioned liveaboards’ lounge, which has a microwave, kettle and fridge (plus a TV and comfortable seating). It was a godsend to us and our only escape from the heat until the sun went down.

Up the mast

Jeremy set about replacing the toilet seacock followed by sanding down the old antifoul paint using the vacuum cleaner to collect the dust. Our original B&D sander packed up necessitating another trip to Bunnings. We met Peter and Nicky from the World Arc and learned that they have a Westerly Pageant back in the UK.

Essential new fan

I’ll briefly list the main jobs carried out over the next 7 days: prepare stern prop shaft housing for new prop shaft; continue sanding down SD’s bottom; do 3 loads of laundry using the on-site facilities; hang curtains; check grab bag; fit new prop shaft; service cockpit drain seacocks. The best news of all was that Jeremy found a way to unseize the Blakes seacock on one of the cockpit drains by using the principle of leverage ie an aluminium pole from a broken boathook with a large adjustable spanner attached. With this he was able to reach under the stern berth, turn the handle on the seacock and remove the cone for servicing. Further jobs included finishing the antifouling; painting the decks and roof; shopping; stowing, labelling and logging all food products; checking the horseshoe lifebuoy lights; finding and stopping the ingress of water into one of the stern lockers. It was a cockpit seat drain pipe, which had become detached from the through-hull fitting.

New anti-foul

The list continues: check the blocks at the top of the mast; service anchor windlass and winches; check fairleads and cleats; check instruments. The depth sounder screen had gone black and was barely readable. Check and top up batteries; check Hydrovane mountings; put on jackstays; lift spinnaker poles on board; check dinghy and paddles; go shopping using one of The Boatworks’ courtesy cars; wash the topsides and enjoy the rain. There was thunder and lightning and a cooler temperature of 28C.

On the way to the water

Launch day was Wednesday 11^th December. Jeremy paid the boatyard bill and we spent a night on a pontoon berth. We filled our tanks and bottles with drinking water and did a last load of laundry. There were no leaks from the new seacock or prop shaft.

Impressing the neighbours

We left The Boatworks the next day and motored a few hundred yards to a fuel dock where we filled up with diesel. The next two nights were spent on anchor in the Coomera River as we made our way to Southport on the Gold Coast. Here we experienced a once in a 100 year storm. We were on anchor and I had just made lunch. I noted that the wind had risen to 17 knots. After a few bites of lunch all hell broke loose. A thunder storm began with fork lightning and wind gusts up to 30 knots. The anchor dragged. Jeremy started the engine and we avoided hitting a motor cruiser. I took the helm while Jeremy weighed our anchor but I had to quickly go out of gear as there was a length of rusty chain with a long line attached on our anchor and it was close to wrapping itself round our propeller. Once it was all on SD’s newly painted decks I could motor into deeper water.

Rusty chain and rope

Jeremy sent me below to eat my fairly cold lunch while he steered up the deep water channel. Then the rain started – BIG drops. The wind rose. Jeremy saw 50+, 60+ and 85 knots on the wind instrument! Visibility was almost nil. SD heeled and gravy spilled. Glasses were wedged in the sink to keep them upright. Jeremy was being stung by the rain and needed a jacket. The lightning was very close and Jeremy got an electric shock from SD’s wheel. He managed to drop the anchor just outside the channel as the wind abated and came below to eat his stone cold lunch. Oh the joys of sailing and we were still in the river!

Goodbye Southport

Later, Jeremy replaced the damaged depth sounder with our old Stowe depth sounder and we started to dry out the bedding in the stern cabin. The rain had been driven through old, cracked sealant round the stern hatch so Jeremy stripped this off and resealed. We learnt that the Conservative Party led by Boris Johnson had won the UK election with a big majority. It looks like the UK will leave Europe on 31^st January 2020.