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Published: July 15th 2013
we're off!
Thanks for the pic DonWell the time has finally come and we have left Yeppoon after 4 weeks. Its been a great stay, thanks greatly to Naomi's parents' hospitality, could happily stay longer but time marches on and the cyclone season is only a few months away so its well overdue that we leave.
Did get lots of jobs done during our stay - resealed leaky toilet hatch, new brushes on anchor winch motor, stripper mounting welded, new spacer to correct welding, new raw water impeller, resealed impeller cover, had new front sail made, resealed impeller cover again, had new cockpit cover (bimini) made, cleaned fuel pre-filter, refilled gas tank, ordered new rope, made window supports, cleaned hull, sanded and repainted hull stripe on both side (biggest job by far), repaired sink cover, topped up battery water, ordered graphics for hull, repair to leak in cabin roof, and installed new VHF radio.
I will make another entry about our time in Yeppoon soon - mostly for the sake of my mum who says there's isn't enough of Alex in the blog!
Just as we finally got these jobs finished and were ready to go the weather turned foul and delayed us another
few days. By then we decided we might as well stay to the end of the weekend to make a convenient send off on the Sunday, head across to Keppel Islands and then north that same night. This would be our first overnight passage on Luna Ray. This would be our first overnight passage with a baby!.... and with it still being quite windy we were a little anxious about it.
Sunday morning Naomi admitted to butterflies mixed with sadness (moths maybe ??) as we drove to the marina, as we would be leaving behind her family and returning to the cramped confines of a boat again.
Took over 2 trolleys worth of final things to be stowed on the boat before we met friends and family at the marina cafe for morning tea.
Then to the boat for champagne, tours of the boat for those who hadn't seen our new home, a short toast and final farewells. To my relief the engine started no problems (could have really dampened the occasion if it didn't!), everyone piled off, I was a little overeager with letting the lines go so the back of the boat drifted
out before we were ready, but with plenty of hands free to help we straightened up again, collected the step, and then cast off properly. Put her into forward gear and headed out of the marina slowly so Naomi had time to tidy the deck as she wiped away her tears.
Thanks to all those that came to see us off.
Out of the marina we were soon bouncing through the swell, a bit slow getting ourselves together to start sailing as we were out of practice! With the wind blowing 17-23 knots on the beam we had the main up with half the gib and making a good pace toward North Keppel island with occasional spray reaching the cockpit. Having not sailed for a while I was uneasy, but Alex was quite comfortable and soon fell asleep.
After only an hour and half we dropped anchor at Considine Beach which had an occasional roll as the boat swung about on the anchor chain. Took the dingy to the beach which was nicely sheltered from the wind. When we came here two weeks earlier with Naomi's parents I forgot my thongs (flip-flops) on the beach - sadly
they were not to be found. The sand was wonderfully soft, like walking in flour, and littered with shells by the water.
Despite the slight roll, its a lovely spot so we decided to stay the night rather than travel on, and to give us time to get our sea-legs back. We were glad we did as there was a fair bit of rain overnight and it turned out Alex needed to acclimatise to the boat motion also - he kept waking every ten minutes, so ended up, most of the night, in our bed.
Luke
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Steve
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Good to hear from you and that the adventure continues. Looking forward to some good stories, safe travels.