SEGMENT 31: Magnetic Island Harbour (Nelly Bay Harbour) to Cape Upstart. Sunday 7 October 2012 ( the day of the great car race - BATHURST ), 70 NM

SEGMENT 31:   Magnetic Island Harbour (Nelly Bay Harbour) to Cape Upstart.

Sunday 7 October 2012 ( the day of the great car race -  BATHURST ), 70 NM

Capt Barry and Graeme were up early, at 1.30 am to see some of the qualifying for the Grand Prix, then up again at 4.45am to check the weather  (BOM 1.2  seas and 15 to 20 kt winds ) Buoyweather; 0.5 to 0.8 m seas at 8 secs and winds 7 to 10 kts from the ESE ----ALL GOOD ) and  cast off and get  underway at 5.20 am, whilst rear admiral Julie slept .

Capt Barry remembered to give an all ships alert that LAST WORD was leaving Magnetic Island harbour ( even though we were not expecting traffic at that time ) , but forgot to turn on the navigation lights, which was not such a NO NO as there was plenty of low light , and we could pick up the long leads to Townsville that go out about 6 NM from Townsville ( past Nelly Bay, and which LAST WORD  had to cross).

LAST WORD  sat on the usual passage making revs of 1050 or there abouts,  making 9+ kts  , and Capt Barry did several speed runs spaced approx. 90 mns apart, getting up to 23 kts.

23 kts

The sea was reasonable at about 0.5 m , and the wind about 10 kts at its strongest, but really not much until mid morning.

Rear admiral Julie stirred about 8.45 am (half the trip was over ) and came up to the pilothouse to discover Capt Barry and Graeme watching TV.

Graeme had jerry rigged the Digitech omni –directional antennae on the fly bridge antennae, and Capt Barry had ocky strapped the 20 inch TV to the right side of the pilothouse helm, and we were receiving a very clear picture, and just waiting for the Bathurst 1000 car race to start in 15 mins, 10.00am NSW time and 9.00 am QLD time.

Graeme watching the Bathurst 1000 as we make passage to Cape Upstart

We were just off Cape Bowling Green when the race started, having orange juice and toast with strawberry jam .....breakfast on the go.

Rear admiral Julie reported that the master suite toilet was playing up, ie no fresh water was being pumped into the bowl, but otherwise it worked fine. 

So Capt Barry made a note to add that to the leaking starboard water pump seal to be fixed when we arrived at Airlie Beach.

Capt Barry still had a blocked right ear ( three days now), and everyone was  getting used to Capt Barry saying .....WHATTT.

LAST WORD arrived at Cape Upstart ( Shark Bay ) at just after noon and we anchored in 5 + m of water.

The bad news was that we lost the TV signal about 30 mins before arriving at Upstart Bay, so after anchoring Graeme’s first priority was to try to restore the TV picture.

This task just illustrates why man is at the top of the food chain ( I think ). It also provided rear admiral Julie with no end of amusement and shaking of her head.

Graeme figured that the high land around Cape Upstart was interfering with the signal SO WE NEEDED HEIGHT.

Well Capt Barry assured him HEIGHT was no problem, and produced a 11 foot rope hook.

 This worked ....ALMOOOST.... and Graeme ordered MORE HEIGHT.

Capt Barry  produced a 12 foot extendible washing pole, and Capt Barry and Graeme lashed these two poles together using gaffer tape (with a decent over lap for strength ) and we then sat the extension contraption on top of the davit and lashed the pole to the stainless structure that held the radar dome and anchor light . In all we figured we had raised the antennae about  23 feet above the fly bridge deck,........where it swayed away in the 12 to 15 kt breeze.

we had taped two poles together as an extension and managed another 20 feet or so on top of the davit , so we had the antennae about 23 feet ( 7m ) above the fly bridge deck.

This was a great success.......UNTIL THE BOAT SWUNG ON ANCHOR.....WHICH IT DID WITH MONOTONOUS REGULARITY.

After twisting the antennae for better reception ( which needless to say ....DID NOTHING .... we settled down to watch the last half hour..... and managed to see about a third of every lap.... in between  the picture either half pixilating or the screen going black with the ominous blue box in the middle “NO SIGNAL”.

Any way we got the gist of what   was going on , and enjoyed the telecast.

We must have thought the picture was ok, as we then watched the Japanese grand prix ( in bits and pieces) straight after the Bathurst race.

After the car races Graeme and Capt Barry fiddled with the snubber, and agreed that a bridle needs to be made to take all the strain off the anchor cradle, as that s what is making the noise as LAST WORD moves around on anchor.

This will take some engineering, as one has to pass the snubber through the slot in the bow (where the anchor is housed) from the front of the boat and have the bridle outside the bow. Something to do, in the slower moments on board.... if we ever get any.

Whilst dicking with the snubber we witnessed a lot of fish activity around LAST WORD, including a racey looking 3 to 4 foot , dark, longtom  that was stirring up the smaller fish and dashing about and under LAST WORD.

We threw some lines in but,,,, no luck that evening.

We enjoyed BBQ dinner and a DVD and a relatively early night.

TRIP:  7 HOURS:  364 L/TOTAL:  av 10 KTS, av 52 L/HR total.