Back in the early '90's when I had more spare money but less sense than now, I bought a beautiful yacht out of Cairns called ENVY II for $85,000.
She was an alloy built, Doug Peterson designed, 42 ft IOR 2 tonner with a new 4 cyl Kubota 43 hp donk fitted and in survey and operating as a 2C and 1D (sail training) charter vessel.
A typical flat topper of the early '80's era, there were 13 winches on deck not including the anchor winch. Well used but used well and in fairly good nick, it was a fairly good deal even back then, so I lashed with the cash and owned her.
Being as how my home and very pregnant wife (about a month of giving birth) were both located in Bundaberg, a couple of great mates, myself and a couple of paying punters took her south visiting a few of the high light anchorages of the Qld coast on the way to Bundy.
Daughter was born and I made the wise (not) decision to do a full refit of the yacht, costing about $40k real and 18 months time and labour. Should have just fixed what needed fixing, bundled the wife and sprog on board and gone cruising.
Having "Rose Coloured Sunglasses" on, a Master Class 5 ticket in my pocket and an ultimate yacht, it was quite obvious that making a fortune while enjoying my desired lifestyle by chartering was the way to go. To all, take a word of advice, do not let anybody, including yourself, convince you that is a good idea. It is usually a sour and bittering experience that leads to impoverishment. That includes "Pirate Chartering" too.
Anyway, the refit done, the yacht ready, wife and daughter secure at home, I set off for the "Sh1t One Days" to make my fortune with 8 backpackers aboard to help pay for the passage north. That brilliant yacht could actually accommodate 12 people with 2 double berths, 2 single berths, 2 pipe berths and 1 triple berth in the foxhole f*ckatorium. Good ole ENVY II, stand up shower and head, big fridge, great galley and plenty of bunks.
First leg of the trip was Bundaberg to Great Keppel Island which was an overnighter during which we carried the smaller flat cut tri-radial all night past Facing Island, Curtis Island and Cape Capricorn arriving fairly early in the day at Great Keppel Island. Put the punters ashore and took the zoomer (ally bottom, inflatable sides and 6 hp Johnno, a one off built right) over to "Kindred Spirit" (real nice Adams 31) to congress with old mate John who had helped me bring ENVY II south 18 months earlier. We are still great mates today and I last congressed with him at his 75 th birthday party a month ago. He is still sailing his beloved "Kindred Spirit" and his current ride is a 1000 cc Moto Guzzi. If you happen to meet up with him and his "blonde bombshell" girlfriend Heather during your travels along the fabulous Queensland coast your humour will be better and your life richer. He is just that kind of guy and I love him for it.
So during the day at Keppel we noticed that the Gladstone "Boating and Fishing and Marine Parks" patrol vessel was also present in the anchorage and that there appeared to be supernumeraries aboard (ie family looking people). Hmmmm. Out of their territory and apparently taking advantage of the tax payer (you and me) funded toys. Sure enough, the pricks went to every boat in the anchorage and generally harassed to justify their being there. Sad to say folks but that is where your boat registration money is going.
Second leg was from Keppel to Delcomyn Bay which is a gorgeous LITTLE spot between Port Clinton and Blue Pearl Bay. Tight anchorage and rolly in the best of times but definitely worth a visit. Fresh water creek runs down the beach.
So as any cruising sailor worth his salt would know, if he/she was in that general area and heading north, he/she cannot not visit Middle Percy Island's A-Frame for a beach BBQ. We anchored there in the dark around 20:00 hours, ate and slept. The backpacker punters, being the lazy lot they usually are did not rise until the late morning or early afternoon, at which time I ferried them ashore, admonished them not to buggerise around with what they would find and that I would be coming ashore with the tuccka a bit before dark. Being the duteous and responsible person that I am, that is what I did.
I don't think any backpackers could have gotten a better sailing adventure in Australia than that. They will be in their 40's now and I will bet they are still dining out on that experience in the UK now.
So for those that are following the story you would realise that with the number of people aboard (9), the days at sea and the distance travelled, that, a visit to a resupply port had become an imperative. Therefore I determined the next anchorage would be Mackay Harbour. Due to light winds there had been a considerable amount of motoring and motor sailing done so far so an assessment of fuel range was taken by the very complicated equation of:-
Litres left divided by litres per hour consumed multiplied by miles per hour achieved equals motoring range possible. Subtract that figure from the miles to the next destination and one can know where he/she has to sail to before starting the engine. There are no secrets on a small vessel so all aboard were apprised of the situation and that we would have to sail the boat to the best of our abilities until we reached a certain point.
This is where the story gets quite interesting. Two places at least where detailed charts are needed for safe entry to port are Mackay and Bowen. I will leave Bowen for another tale about heading south. This one is about heading north into Mackay.
We have gotten to the point of dropping the dacron and hoisting the iron due to the lack of wind and as it has gone dark, reading the lights. Remember also this is early '90's, you got GPS?, yes, your'e up to date. You got chart plotter? What you talking 'bout rich boy? Heading to Mackay we pick up lights. Big ones on big ships. Eventually get past them and we are heading in on the lead lights to Mackay Harbour (before the new small boat harbour and marina) and think we are on track. Still miles to go but we are on the lead lights aligning.
Hello!!! What is that feint light to starboard flashing 3. Oh, that is an east cardinal marker that we should keep to our port. OK so we alter course to round it on our port side despite the fact that we were heading in on the lead lights. We keep the light to port and the lead lights disappear and the sounder reading goes from 20 metres to 3 metres and my ringhole starts palpitating. Engine revs back and ready for a reversal but keep going ahead. Water gets deeper and we pick up the lead lights again. Whew!! Line up on the leads and go into the harbour. Get crewman to steer yacht in circles in harbour while I have a big dump in head. After that we secured and had a sleep.
What went wrong??
1. I did not have a detailed chart for the entry and thereby not know exactly where I was.
2. I failed to trust the lead lights.
What actually happened??
I rounded the Slade Rock light which put me in the shadow of Slade Island (at which point I lost the lead lights) and then I drove the yacht over Slade Reef between the rock and the island. Big tides in that area and a week earlier I would have been on the rocks.
More exciting parts of this tale to come in the next episode coming soon.
