March 2010 - Gold Coast to Brisbane enroute to Darwin

Yahoo!  Bluestone has left the Gold Coast on our way to Darwin and the Indonesian Rally.  Finally (fingers crossed) we have left our mechanical problems behind (oops, no we haven't, last 2 days spent chasing a problem with new generator, which was fixed before we left he Gold Coast, (not) though it appears to be running OK now having replaced half the wiring loom, but wait 5 minutes!) . However the majority of the boat work, car accidents and personal injuries are behind us and are ready for smooth sailing/cruising.  It will be nice to be just 'cruisers' again reminiscent of the trip up from Adelaide.  Looking forward to meeting new fellow cruisers.

We are in transit (via the Broadwater) to St Helena Island to meet up with Lupari II (Greg and Sue) for the weekend to say "bye" and then KEEP GOING.  St Helena Island is very close to the mouth of the Brisbane River and although not a tropical paradise it is another nice address for a few days.  Now we know that KEEP GOING depends upon the winds but for the last few weeks we have had some good southerlies and that's what we need to push up the coast - just don't need the constant rain we have had - wish we could send some down south.   We had a very successful five days on the 'hard stand' scraping and anti-fouling the hull and propeller with the folks up the Coomera river at Gold Coast Marine Centre (highly recommend them), then a nice dinner at the club prior to departure.  We don't have an itinerary at this stage, just push on 'til we are tired and then have a rest in the closest port.  We do have to keep tabs on the date as we are due for our second Hepatitis A&B injections around or after the 9th March and will need to find a medic to oblige. Yuk.  Oh but there's more, we also have to have Japanese Encephalitis and Polio at some stage en-route to Darwin.  We have already had Swine Flu, Typhoid and Hep A&B shots - PINCUSHIONS!

Bluestone on travel lift - always a heart stopper seeing 30 tons lifted and driven around by these things.

 

We left the travel lift at Coomera on the Gold Coast under overcast skies and over the next few days cruised through the Broadwater to meet up with ‘Lupari II’ behind St Helena Island.  However, the direction of the wind and waves changed those plans and we headed for Mud Island where we were joined by Greg and Sue.  Mud Island lies at the mouth of the Brisbane River.  The weather was not the best and after a night of rocking and rolling and jerking around it was unanimous at breakfast time that we head up the river for a calmer address.  Thus the weekend was spent just past the Gateway Bridge an hour up-river in a much calmer anchorage.  After saying our goodbyes and as we were tidying up an explosion broke the relative silence.  A small pleasure craft exploded in flames at the boat ramp near us.

 

Dial '000'

Neil dialled 000 and reported the incident explaining that they would need to send a water-borne unit to deal with the fire but did they listen, NO, a fire TRUCK arrived and the water police had to ferry a couple of firemen out armed with an extinguisher to douse the flames just as the craft sank.  Good for you Brisbane!  Hmmm.  Thankfully no-one was injured.